I remember worrying about overcrowding on Japanese trains before we got here and until today there was no overcrowding. We had an early checkout time so we decided to go to the train station and get breakfast there rather than at one of our regular small cafes. But for some reason today the trains were a reduced service. There were delays, trains not going to the usual station and packed carriages. We had never experienced a delay or a train not going to the end of the route..

So when our train stopped two stations short of the station where we’d get the bullet train we had to get out and wait for another one. We had all our gear on our backs, that’s a good sized rucksack and a day bag each. We waited with everyone else who had to leave the train early. And then the next train came in and it was chock full. I had always thought if this happened I’d just wait for the next one… but in all likelihood the next one would be just as full. What to do?

Denis walked onto the train and I followed. There wasn’t room for me to hold onto the hand rails and I couldn’t reach the swinging rings so I held onto Denis. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and it was only two stops. When we got off we took the first chance to sit down and grab a coffee at Tullys Coffee. It’s a Japanese (even if the name sounds Irish and they serve a pretend Irish coffee!) chain of cafes and there’s no need to drink up and move on, so we’re here for a while reading and watching other people drink coffee. Or drink cups full of whipped cream – don’t know what else is in it but that’s a drink you see a lot of here.

There’s a very stylish older man sitting in one of the green light seats nearby reading his phone. Earlier I saw a lady on the train reading a book. Did you know in Japanese you read books from the back (I mean, what we would think of as the back) and the characters are read in columns from top to bottom, right to left? But magazines are read front to back because they are compiled (like ours) in rows (not columns) from top to bottom?

I would love to pick up a second hand book to use in collage projects. And I did see a second hand book shop near our hotel but the guy also sold magazines with scantily clad women on the cover so I was a little concerned the books could possibly be pornographic and how would I know? And there I’d be putting them into a collage as innocent as you like. Would Shiori tell me? Or would she think I was being artistic? There’s so much potential for misunderstanding, maybe I should look for a children’s book…?

Anyway the stylish man is reading as he scrolls up on his phone. I wonder does it feel different reading a book from reading a magazine?