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The JR loop line, Tokyo, Japan

In Tokyo I was fascinated with the subway and train system. All over Japan I was fascinated by the interconnectedness of Japan's rail network, but nowhere did it seem as integrated as in Tokyo. It was as if Tokyo was the nexxus from which the entire system eminated.

I had purchased a JR pass before arriving in Japan and took as much advantage of the pass as I could. I took the shinkansen everywhere I could. Towards the end, I used the shinkansen to take a day trip from Tokyo to Matsushima, to see one of the three great views of Japan (I had seen another, the Otori gate at Miyajima at the beginning of my trip, but I didn't make time in my schedule to see the third. Perhaps I'll go on my next visit.).

One night I found myself riding the loop line from one corner of the city back to the corner in which I lived. I watched the stations pass; I watched the Nintendo Wii fit advertisements that played on video screens mounted in the subway cars. I watched people wait for the train, fall asleep on the benches, shuffle off and on. I listened to the announcements as we approached each station and listened to the announcements repeated as we arrived. I could have ridden the train all night.

And I almost did. I almost made a promise to ride the train in loops all night the next night so I could watch as other trains approached and ran alongside the loop line before falling back into the night. Sometimes I would stand at the windows just so I could see the trains run in parallel and marvel at the efficiency of Japanese transport.

I ended up being too tired the nights I was in Tokyo to ride the train in circles. It was a romantic notion one night, but the romance didn't quite carry to the second. And I had been riding the shinkansen north and then back again. I was to leave the next day, but not before getting up early to visit the Tsukiji fish market and breakfast on tuna sashimi laid over a bed of rice (though the best sushi I had in Japan proved to be in Kanazawa, but that's a story for another day).

See my reecent series of photos from Japan here: Late autumn early winter.