Tokyo with a bullet

Bullet trains are a lot like airplanes. Except for without the excessive waiting in terminals, baggage check, baggage claim, or cramped seats, and with little power outlets at your feet, vending machines, wide walkways and... well.. okay, I guess it's not like an airplane... the similarities are there though, it's really fast and I did pop my ears a few times when climbing and decending through the hills and mountains. Accelleration, also, gives a similar impression to takeoff, but it's smoother, and just when the plane would be taking off, the train just keeps speeding up.

The trip to Tokyo itself was rather rocky. But all of it comes down to how I entered Japan. There are a number of things the normal traveller will have set up already that I did not, or at least did not know of. I didn't notify my bank that I was out of the country, I didn't have an address/hotel set up, I didn't have any friends over there, just some friends of friends. I was flying by the seat of my pants in about as much of the meaning of that idiom as can be done. Travelling with Jeff, I'd, by design, left the first 'little while' unplanned completely. I was going there to meet a friend of his, see some stuff and then go to Tokyo at some time in the future.
This friend of his (and friend of mine now) had a lot on her shoulders I found out. Our 'no plan' adventure was anything but like a typical vacation. None of this is to say that it was not a good one. Just anything but typical. It's in this set that I arrive in Fukuoka from Kumamoto after a smooth bus ride. I go to the counter to buy my ticket... and my card is declined... easy enough, I'm carrying traveller's checks, so I search out a bank for some currency exchange, this takes less than 10 minutes, banks are everywhere, unlike garbage bins. But I do need an address to do currency exchange. This is not a problem, I can call Hiromi and get hers! If she weren't in drive mode and unreachable... Hmm.... How to proceed. I lumber my way through underground passageways and streets in Fukuoka in search of an internet cafe I might use to skype Wells Fargo and I find one. A couple hundred yen can get me half an hour. And I can hook up my own pc to their Ethernet. Seems like a deal so I hook in. And call... call drops at 40 seconds... and call.. call drops at 50 seconds.. and call.. call drops at 40 seconds.. and call.. call drops at 43 seconds... You get the picture. I got so frustrated with their *wired internet* connection that is offered so people can come and play games on it I start surfing for wireless connections. It takes about 5 minutes to find a 2 bar wireless connection that's more reliable than this wired one. I check out and pay my bill. Still not having made the call I need, I try a pay phone to get ahold of Hiromi, no luck. Down on street level the wireless signals have dried up so I try the station and a few other places.
I've long since missed the connection I wanted to make.
Finally I sit down in front of a cafe on a piece of infrastructure. Holding aloft my netbook there's a free network broadcasting close enough that I can send a call. So for 20 minutes I hold my little computer aloft and call into a late night Wells Fargo line.
About 3 hours after I started attempting to buy my ticket to Tokyo, I finally got one. I think I'll forever have a sour aftertaste in my mouth at the mention of internet cafe's and Fukuoka, though the city itself is not to blame.
From there it's been a nice time. There's been lots of walking, the trains are really convenient. I'll have to write more later. It's very late now.