Tono to Tokyo

It was kind of hard leaving the open spaces, fresh air and good friends of Tono, but today we got back on the train and blasted back down to big, bad old Tokyo. A few observations along the way...

Leh getting on the Iron Horse in Tono. He's sitting astride kind of a homemade hobby horse, made from a 'kua' (a Japanese mattock) that I bought in the area. Japanese farm and garden tools are substantially different than their western counterparts, and in many ways better. I purchased another kind of kua in Tono when we were there six or seven years ago, and it has become a favourite tool in my garden.

Japan has been making substantial progress in accessibility for the disabled since we left a decade ago. This is a braille information panel next to a train ticket machine, and I've seen these at a lot of stations in the country. They are also installing elevators and ramps in a lot of stations to improve wheelchair accessability.

Another shot of an elevated track for the Shinkansen.

A couple of shots of the nose of the 'Hayate' Shinkansen that we rode from Morioka to Tokyo. There are a bunch of new Shinkansens in use, and several more are apparently on the way. At the Expo in Aichi this summer a linear motor train will take visitors from Aichi station out to the Expo site.