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My Japan - Outside
1996
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"So
Far So Good..."
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Friday 7th June - Up early this morning for our train journey to Nagoya by Shinkansen, or bullet train as it is more commonly known. We got our train passes validated and booked our seats for the journey to Nagoya. The passes we bought were valid for seven days so we left it until today to ensure we had enough time to make all the journeys we needed. The Japanese train service is amazing, it certainly puts British Rail in the shade. The platforms of Japanese railway stations have pairs of white lines about two feet apart every ten feet or so along the edge. These indicate where the doors of the train will be when the train stops. The Japanese passengers were standing within these lines waiting for the arrival of the train. Surprisingly, the train stops with the doors exactly in line with these markings, and it's on time. Pretty impressive. The Shinkansen itself is a great way to travel. The seats are in groups of two on one side and three on the other and they swivel round so you can face the other way. There is a sign above each door which delivers messages in Japanese and English detailing the next station and as you approach it, gives the exact time down to the second before the train comes to a stop. Very high tech. An excellent and comfortable service.
Again, we dumped our bags and made our way to the Century Hall. It was in a large complex housing the Nagoya Congress Centre. The venue itself was very small in comparison to the Tokyo Budokan with a capacity of 3012. There was a huge statue of a horse in the grounds which was said to be the largest statue in the world. We joined the queue for tickets and had been there about half an hour when a Japanese girl arrived with three spares. Several other Japanese fans spoke to her but nobody bought the tickets so we asked her if she was selling. She said she was and when we realised they were for the ninth row we thrust our money into her hands. She seemed very pleased and thanked us to which we replied "no, thank you!" The show tonight was brilliant, I think being near the front helped. No 'Oxford Town' or 'Teenage Wildlife' again but we got another new song called 'Telling Lies' as the first encore. This was a brand new song which we had not heard before and David said they had only recently done it and it was due for release soon. It was to be very limited, initially being released via the internet only. No sign of 'Baby Universal' again, we wondered if it had been performed at Tokyo for Reeves' birthday. Another two hour blinder. This tour was certainly proving to be a fantastic experience. |
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