Gunma & Nagano

Arrived after a night flight with Qantas actually not too bad our cocoons where much bigger than AIr Canada and the film selection better . We didn't have much time for movies since we took off at 2130hrs and then we had supper so ended up with about 5 hours sleep. Tokyo is only an hour difference so jet lag is not a problem

Our hotel was at Shinagawa a big interchange suburb about 30min train trip away from Tokyo. We were there for four nights which was good. It is a big hotel about 13min walk from the station.

We managed to find the Museum of Emerging Technologies which was like a super version of our Power House a lot about physics, satellite technology hi-tech in the medical field. It was very crowded on the day we went since it was a schools day, hence the 2pm demonstration of the Honda robot Ashimo was very crowded. It is quite small but it walks hops and moves its arms and fingers very realistically.
To get to the Museum we went on our favourite train which goes around the harbour, great views of various modern office blocks.

Next day we choose (while the others went around Tokyo) to spend 6 hours in the Shinkansen to go half the length of Japan to Amori in 3 hours . we did this primarily to travel in 'Gran Class' which was set up like business class. We went up in the normal green car (free with our JR pass) then back GC paying a surcharge or Y17,000 each (~AU$180) There were 18 seats and all were occupied so not just tourists traval in style. Very comfortable seats, with Japanese neswspapers and free food and drink (sake, beer and wine). A very nice experience.

Next was a lovely day trip to Poppo a train museum at Granmo about an hour and half by train north of Tokyo. It was a lovely day sunny and about 25d. A lot to do, a steam train to get there, then another short ride around the area and finally a miniature one (see pictures). while basically a kids place it did mark the place where the trains changed to rack and pinion (ABT) to go up the mountains. This was superceded by the shinkansen a some years ago. There a number of engines (diesel) which had simulators built in, which we did not try since all the instructions are in Japanese.

Finally we left Tokyo for two days at Nagoya, It was this day 50 years ago that the first Shinkansen commenced operation Tokyo to Nagoya. We had a special guide to tell us about the restoration of Tokyo station which 100 years old and we saw a queue of Japanes waiting for special celebratory platform tickets. They could not recreate the original trip because the line is so busy that the timetable would be disrupted by the origianl train, however we spent an hour at Odawara which 4 Shinkansen lines, the first and fourth by platforms and the middle for the thru trains . It is quite a thing to see the trains go through at around 250km/hr. Naturallyn Owen had organised some champagne and nibbles so that we could toast the occassion in style.

A two night stay in Nagoya first a trip out to the JR Central Train and Maglev Museum. This was beautifully set up with many engines (ranging from steam to Shinkansen) and carriages in immaculate condtion. As we only had limited time we spent most of it at the Maglev section.
Research has been going on since the '70s and there is now a 45 km test track, they get up to top speed of 500km/hr for about 7 secs.
There were some excellent models showing how Maglevs work the levitation and propulsion, what was not made clear was how the superconducting magnets on board the train were powered. The trains runs on rubber tyres till about 30km/hr which retract when it levitates to about 15cm as it speeds up. The propulsion magnets are built into the side walls of the track

Next day was a trip to the Mikamoto Pearl Island where we saw a demonstration of the Ama women diving to harvest the shell fish. An interesting museum showing how pearls are cultivated as well as a shop. We are of course fans of Paspaly.
We hen went on a bus down the Ama hut where some Ama women cooked shellfish for us and told us about their work. Now they use wet suits rather than the white uniform we saw early and their numbers are dropping. They can dive down to 10m but only for a limited time