A load of nonsense about railway timetables...

Posted on 2006/08/07 05:54:12 (August 2006).

[Saturday 5th August]
I'm reminded of a Monty Python sketch here:

Many people see Shunt's work as a load of nonsense about railway timetables, but clever people like me who talk loudly in restaurants see this as a deliberate ambiguity - a plea for understanding in a mechanised ethos.

I spent a significant part of today going back and forwards on Tokyo's Metropolitan rail network. So for a bit of a change I am going to use my train movements as the main narrative underpinning for this post. To make this a tad more colourful, I've got all these places added into my travel pages so you can see them on Google Maps, etc. I'm not promising this is going to be in anyway interesting, but at least it's a bit of variety.

So, I started off at about 4:45 in the morning, getting a train from Ikebukuro via Shinjuku to Sasazuka, in order to go home and get a few hours sleep.

After I finally woke up around midday, I had a spot of breakfast/lunch, then headed out to get my haircut. I had to pop into the office for a bit, so this meant at around 4ish getting a train from Sasazuka to Chofu (actually this involved two trains). After an hour or two there, it was time to go and meet Chie who was returning from her trip to the North East of Japan. So at 6 o' clock I went from Chofu to Shinjuku, and then from there to Tokyo station where I met up with Chie.

The two of us then got a train from Tokyo to Kinshicho where we had dinner at the always excellent It's Vegetable. Finally from there we headed back home, so Kinshicho to Shinjuku, and then Shinjuku to Sasazuka.

Given that all those pins are in the map (although currently you've got to do a fair bit of zooming to find them), with a little bit of work I could probably get that complicated route plotted on the map somehow...

Although that of course would beg the question: why?

Well, I think the answer is: "Because it's there!"

A lot of the convoluted things we humans do have no real necessity as far as survival goes. There are two phrases which kind of embody that for me: "Out of interest..." and "I couldn't be arsed." Opposites where, usually, neither is anything but a waste of time in the greater scheme of things!

(Sorry, it's a bit early and my brain hasn't kicked-in yet...)

Posted by Nigel at 2006/08/08 07:25:01.

Presumably you have the equivalent of a travel pass of some sort. If not I suggest you buy shares in the train company ;)

Posted by Kev at 2006/08/08 08:26:25.

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