Day 2...but i will be writing about yesterday instead.

I set off early in the morning at 8am towards Tokyo station from my hotel. It was a good 20 minutes walk and with decent, cooling weather as well. I found out that opposite my building is a Konami building (although, later in the day when i return i would find that the building houses their Esports studio and school.

I managed to get a Welcome Suica card at the Information Cafe of Tokyo station after a good 10 minutes of looking at the directory. The process of getting the card was simple as the staff was able to communicate in English. After i have gotten the pass, i started to look for Shinkansen ticketing machines. Because i was leaving in a short while, all of the reserved seats are already occupied and there was not much of a choice here. The plus of a non-reserved Shinkansen ticket is that you are free to board the non-reserved cabins anytime, as the ticket lasts for 4 days.

I arrived at the platform to mad crowding. The Shinkansen trains operate at a frequency of about 4 trains per track an hour. As Tokyo is a starting station, it did make sense that the place would be most crowded with people wanting to get onboard. It was easy to walk into people and that's when i find that the Japanese have somewhat of a standardized walking speed - the elderly seems to be very slow, teens are more rushy and pushy and working folks tend to slow down when about to collide with someone. Nonetheless, they formed lines to enter train in an orderly fashion regardless.

I was lucky and found a window seat at the non-reserved cabin. The trip to Shin-Osaka is 2 hours and 20 minutes long approximately. In a non-reserved seat, i kind of had no room to be busting out my steam deck and be playing. In fact, i found myself sleeping on the train, most of the time.

I reached Shin-Osaka a bit past 12 noon. From there, i made a few transfers to Kyobashi, which is where my navigation application highlighted for a visit to Osaka Castle. Between the transfers, it was easy to notice that:

1) The train system in Japan looked very confusing at the start but once you figure out the routes and Alphabets of the train routes, it became much more manageable in terms of finding the track platform and boarding and exiting at the correct direction.

2) The crowd density differs greatly from a big station like Osaka to a smaller one like Morinomiya, for example.

3) The same tracks at the smaller stations can be used by multiple routing trains. Think of it as the EWL, NSL and Downtown line trains all being able to reach one station.

I alighted at Kyobashi and with the help of the navigation application, made it to Osaka Castle at about 1pm. I took a walk around the area before my legs were killing me at about 2.20pm. I felt that i took enough pictures so i exited the castle compound and boarded a train at Morinomiya for my return trip.

By the time i reached Tokyo from the Shinkansen, the skies were already dark yet the time was only 615pm. It felt like i did very little and yet i was so fatigued with the walking i was ok to just call it at the hotel. The Shinkansen traveling was also very time-consuming, which from a positive perspective, i guess the ride itself was still an experience.

It is Day 3 today. I'm making a mental coin toss between just lazing in the hotel (because i was still a bit sore from the walking yesterday), going to Senso-ji Temple or to Ueno Park.

Be back again.