Shinkansen
I was wrong about the Shinkansen (bullet trains) in Japan. I said they were maglev, but they aren't, not yet. The first maglev is coming in 2027 with a top speed of 375 MPH, which seems like complete science fiction, doesn't it? Right now, they just travel at a piddly top speed of 200 MPH.Barely faster than a bicycle, really.
Bullet trains are an incredible experience because everything is so streamlined. The experience, not the trains, although the trains are streamlined, too. There's no showing up two hours early. No baggage checks, at least not in Japan. We showed up 15 minutes before the train departed, bought our tickets, and were good to go. Not having to get to the airport early makes the trains faster, overall, and they're so much more comfortable than sitting in a plane. I feel like an accordion in a plane, but on the bullet train, there was plenty of room to stretch out. Plus, you can get up and walk around, which is a huge bonus.
I never felt tired after being on a bullet train, even on three-hour journeys. Eli 22.2 didn't, either. It's just not fatiguing.
Japan wasn't fatiguing to me in general, except for the outlandish distances we were walking each day, and the endless stairs we climbed. America exhausts me now, and I guess it has for a while now. We've become such a performative culture. Everyone is always performing in some way, and it's worn me out.
[I understand the irony of someone who's been writing a blog for over twenty years talking about being performative, but it's not out in public, and it's not in person.] In just the last two weeks, three different clerks have felt the need to share their hard-right political views with me. Clerks!
It wasn't like that in Japan. Almost no one is performing, and people don't think they're the main character. They don't need gigantic trucks, or ear-shattering leaf blowers, or mountains of guns. They just seem to get on with it, really, in a generally orderly way.
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