7 September 08

The journey home began with a drive to Morioka - about 2 hours back west through the winding highway along the valley. I opted to do this, subject to Emily remaining in good spirits. She did grizzle a bit at first then slept for most of the way, after Pam sang lullabies to her. It soon came on to rain quite heavily, making the 50km/ph speed limit seem sensible. The automatic lights function is very useful when going in and out of tunnels.


In Morioka we stopped for petrol; as at most Japanese service stations we just popped the cap and let the attendant do the rest. No wonder the unemployment rate here is low. He even went out into the road afterwards and held up the traffic so we could exit.

Having dropped the car off, we went over to the station and set up camp in Doutor coffee shop, as we had more than two hours to kill before our train. A rather odd woman came over and wanted to hold Emily, trying to pull her out of my arms. Emily kept looking at me for reassurance. Another old lady sat opposite was playing peekaboo behind her hat, and eventually came over, but she seemed harmless enough.

As always, the bullet train was bang on time. We settled into our comfortable seats and sat back for the three hour shinkansen ride to Tokyo. The tracks are mainly elevated, making for good views of the passing countryside. We were on a flat plain but over to the west was a lot of high stuff.

We all feasted on lovely fresh fruit, after feeling deprived of vegetable matter for a week. Emily really liked the fat black grapes that Kate had bought. Of course, she soiled herself, and we had to change her on the floor of the carriage. Hope it didn't put anyone off their bentos! A man a couple of seats forward was not impressed by her repeated banging of anything she could lay her hands on, and sat there jamming his hat down over his ears.



Nick escorted the others to their final hotel in Shinagawa. It was my turn to join them for dinner, and we decided to eat at the nearby TGI Friday! We had a cocktail each and a very un-Japanese meal (though Graham still opted for fish).