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Windy Day

The day we’ve all been waiting for finally came.


The suitcase was packed, the boys’ backpacks were full of stuffed animals and toy trains, mama and papa were somewhat emotionally stable, and we hopped on the 8:06 bus down to Izumi Chuo. Then the subway to Sendai Station where we had a little hiccup with the tickets because I wanted to get Kenzo an IC card so 1) we could go paperless on the Shinkansen, 2) so we could move around Tokyo a little more efficiently, and 3) he’s gonna be in third grade and he can handle the responsibility of an electronic public transport card.

Well apparently we need physical proof of his age even though he was standing right there flashing his eight-and-a-half-year-old grin but the rules are the rules due to certain jackasses who buy children’s cards so they can pay half price, so we got old fashioned paper tickets and headed up to the train platform.


There was an announcement about strong winds causing delays and our train pulled in a few minutes late but no worries.


These pictures were taken right as the Yamabiko 132 bound for Tokyo was closing its doors and preparing to depart. At 9:45 a.m.

Our scheduled arrival at Tokyo Station was 11:48 a.m.

So that wind was serious as it turned out.

We were on that train for nearly eleven hours.

There were huge backups all over northern Japan on dozens of train lines. I observed multiple salarymen stand in the aisle for hours on end as we stopped at every station between Sendai and Tokyo and often just stay there for long periods of time.

Well actually we didn’t even get to Tokyo. I checked Google maps while it was clear there was no telling when our train was gonna be allowed into a slot so as we approached Ueno Station I told Eri and the boys to grab yer stuff because we can’t stay on this thing another minute. Plus a taxi to our Airbnb was half a kilometer closer to Ueno so let’s move.

The boys are now sleeping all comfy in their futons. Eri was practicing her zen, though it’s hard for her when I laugh and make jokes through it all and say things like “that’s the joy of traveling just as with the joy of living… sometimes things don’t go as planned.” She did so well at controlling her rage today. But even if she did happen to stab me in the face with a chopstick as I was pontificating about how the journey is more important than the destination I couldn’t blame her and I probably wouldn’t even press charges.

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