We had our travel day today, from Tokyo to Fukui directly. After some discombobulation on my part in the Tokyo Subway, we arrived at the always-very-busy Tokyo Station, purchased box lunches, and got on the Hakutaka Limited Express of the Hokiriku Shinkansen, which meant we stopped at about 15 stations before reaching Fukui. As usual and as expected, everything went smoothly and comfortably, although the train was pretty crowded. Lovely snow-flocked mountains flanked us for most of the journey as we traveled to thee western extremity of the Kantō Plain and crossed into the western side of Japan.
Once we reached Kanazawa and started traveling southward, I really began to get a sense of the technical challenges of the Digital Sojourns project. The distance Bashõ walked on this side of the coast from Kanazawa to Fukui was quite long, and creating a digital twin of the whole linear space might take some doing. I imagined myself plodding along the country lanes Bashō did (below) and the immensity comes into scale. And it’s only a fifth of the journey!
We did pass one interesting feature. About 30 minutes before Fukui, we stopped at Kaga. Looming over us was an enormous statue of the Buddhist goddess Kannon. What I can find on line about it varies, whether it is 60 feet or 73 meters tall (the latter seems more likely), but apparently it was part of a Buddhist-themed amusement park of the “Bubble Era” (1986-1991) economic peak that has since fallen into disrepair. But she still guards us serenely.
Once in Fukui, we headed swiftly to the Hotel Fukui Manten Ekimae, which is right next to the station. Good, straightforward accommodations, mainly a business-person’s hotel (with many gruff businessmen!) and an awesome breakfast! Also, the 20V connector cables we needed had arrived, but more about that later.
Everyone was really quite tired, so hit the hay early. I had a great dinner with Sarah and Scott at the Amazen Tonkatsu Restaurant (apparently, Tonkatsu was invented here in Fukui) right next to the hotel, which was in fact pretty amazing for just $12. After that, deep sleep for everyone.
