Thu, 28 Aug '08 - Shinkansen to Hiroshima

Impressive as Tokyo looks it will have to wait, we're aboard the Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima via Osaka. We rip through the rest of Tokyo periodically being pressed into our chairs as the Bullet Train moves up through whatever sci-fi gearing it runs on. 

Soon we're fully reclining and the train is moving at a ludicrous speed. 

Outside it becomes impossible to focus on anything near the foreground its detail becoming a rippling smudge. Meanwhile the undulating middle and far distance begin to circle each other in a parallax waltz. 

Further away from the city we strobe through one mountain tunnel after another the bullet train living up to it's name by literally punching a hole through the landscape. Each valley brings dramatically different weather and soon the window looks like a travel show on fast forward. 

Despite feeling like future of train travel the interior is firmly retro. 

There's brown velvets and suedes alongside textured velours. They’ve been living in the future for over 20 years and yet it's pristine. An untouched stage set from Buck Rogers - moving at 300mph.

We eventually make a slightly beleaguered change of trains at Shin Osaka. Confusion, courtesy of sleep depravation, starts to kick in after almost 21 hours of non-stop travelling. 

Feeling hungry we order a surprisingly tasty dinner from the trolley service (using some seriously broken Japanese and plenty of picture pointing). It is a kind of disposable bentō box affair; although even the polystyrene and cardboard is cleverly coloured and crafted to look traditional and authentic at first glance.

Exhaustion finally swings a knockout punch at the 24 hour mark, Paul is asleep while I look like a bad actor from Mission Impossible, desperately struggling against the effects of some mystery purple gas.

Things blur and fade to black.

I wake up about 45 minutes later and swear at the half set alarm in my hand. We stopped at Hiroshima about five minutes ago.

Luckily for us this was one of the rare instances when the bullet train was running slightly late. 

Fifteen minutes after waking up we are back in the offensive heat and queuing for a taxi outside Hiroshima station. If there is a point where your body says  "I've had enough of this now and if you don't stop, I will" we'd reached it about two hours ago. 

Thankfully after nearly 26 hours the travelling is almost done.

Thought

The world looks and behaves differently at high speed, details reduce, focus shifts even mass changes. Is this also true for people within a flow state? How would they be changed or affected?