Vehicular Destruction/Vehicular Construction

Vehicles; they transport us, they kill us.

Last week, I noticed that my train was late twice. When that happens, and normally it isn't a common occurrence at all, the conductor announces his apologies and gives some official excuse. Both times last week (two different lines), the cause was a 'jinshin jiko'. Translated literally, the term denotes an 'accident involving a human body'. What it suggests is suicide. When people here think of trains and suicides, they immediately think of the Chuo-line, the 'suicide train', apparently because its express trains rush right up against the platform at a sufficient speed to make things quick.

But vehicles here are also a source of fanciful expression. The 'new' way to get to Odaiba is aboard the 'suijo basu' (water bus) Himiko. I took two photos of it: one two. Himiko (named after the mythical female ruler of the ancient 'Wa' kingdom, apparently one of the early civilizations in the Japanese archipelago) was designed by none other than Matsumoto Reiji, famed animator of Galaxy Express 999, and more recently, Interstella5555. By the way, you can buy figurines of the Interstella crew for a mere 55.55 euros. Anyway, suijo basu Himiko runs from Asakusa to Odaiba for double the normal price of a ferry, around 1,700 yen.

In other news, I went all the way to the top of Mori Tower, in Roppongi Hills. That thing casts a loooong shadow.

Someone asked me to post some pictures of fruit, and well, I don't have much, but this should show you what an Okayama pear is like. The large wrapped thing on the right is the pear, while on the left is a largish Okayama apple.