Superman

The only thing I can compare it too was flying. Not that i've ever sprouted feathers or fists and taken off myself. I've never even had a true flying dream, though I once had a 'learning to fly' dream. Much smoother than flying though. We curved and glided through the stratosphere rather than roaring and bumping into, around and through the air currents. In a curious contradiction, it was one of the most natural forms of transportation I've ever experienced, in a waking dreamlike sense; transitions were blurred and non-logical but fully acceptable. My own somniacal headspace most likely enhanced this non-real state of mind.

Looking off into the distance, we didn't appear to be going very fast, however when I pulled my focus closer to the window and imagined being in a car doing this speed, the experience was exhilarating. I felt as if we were forging a path into the future, keen adventurers all; not in a tacky new technology way - on this sleek machine I could feel the coexistential relationship of time and space as we sliced through the air with our fists; our snake like nose pushing aside the grasses of japanese suburbia as we vanish before a passerby has even registered that they have seen us.


Coming through customs just after 12pm I was informed that the next bus to Marugame wasn't leaving until 2:30pm. A gruelling 4 and a half hour trip meant I wouldn't be home until after 7pm. Instead I would be walking through my front door within an hour of when the bus would have left.

This was my first time on Japan's famous bullet train, the Shinkansen. Capable of speeds up to 300km/h the experience is not cheap, but after blowing so much cash in going to Africa, another $50 on top of the bus fare seemed well worth it. The equivalent of A$100 or US$76 got me smoothly from Kansai airport to my home town. I don't see myself catching the bus again!