Far from the madding crowd.

I am far, far away from the madding crowd that Tokyo is. I am at Tono, a quaint little town
in the extreme north of Japan, which takes a 2.5 hour ride by the Shinkansen. If it was not
for the white landscape all around (thanks to the snow), the biting cold and the mountains nearby, I would have thought I am at one of the towns back home in Kerala.

Like in any Kerala town, a little after sunset, there is almost no human presence outdoors
here. Ofcourse, in the case of Tono, the weather plays a big role in keeping people indoors.
I was told that it was like -9 degC today morning and when I went out of the customer's
office for a very brief coffee break in the evening, it was like -6 deg C. Unless you are out
of your mind, you would not want to venture out in such weather. More so, if you are from
a place which rarely sees even temperatures below 25 deg C.

Our train (which resembled the TGV of Europe) left on the dot (like anything else in Japan)
at 9:16AM from Tokyo and after some 6-7 stations, we found ourselves at the railhead
closest to Tono (Shin hanamaki station), at exactly 11:47AM. Now, that is punctuality.

The train ride was fast and smooth, though with the closed windows and all, you could not
really feel the speed. The view from the windows was to die for - mostly white & more white
and ofcourse the mountain ranges. Clicking photos was not easy, though no one can blame
me for not trying.

We get off the train and leaving the bags there, I run to the front of the train to get a snap.
I make it just in time, before the Hayate shinkansen could resume its journey to the final
destination (Morioka), which is a famous skiing spot. Will post the snap later as I have not
yet got around to installing the s/w for the new camera to download snaps to the laptop.

We go down the escalator to the ground level and then we hear thunder above us. It was
another Shinkansen that zoomed past at amazing speed and before we could even say
"What the hell", it was gone. I mentioned to my friend that we could wait and try to get a
video of one of these trains from the moment it approaches the station, till it literally flies
past.

He said that it was not easy because these hi-speed trains don't give much of an indication
of their arrival and before you could hit 'Record' on your handycam, they are gone. Still, I
would like to give it a try one time.

Anyway, we rent a car and drive some 45kms to the customer's place. All around us it is
just white snow. While the roads have been cleared of the snow, at some places, there still
remains traces and you can feel the tyres sort of slip over without gripping. I am not even
thinking of how it would be to go out of control in a car over snowed roads at even not too
high speeds.

We decide to wind up for the day at around 7:30 PM, which is kinda early for us. But then shops/restaurants close very early here and if you dont make it before they do, you might
end up sleeping on an empty stomach.

We pick up some sandwiches at the local Lawson store and hit the warm comfort of the hotel
room, where inspite of the thermostat set at 26 deg C, it feels cold. And as soon as I am done
with this blog-post and checked upon on emails, I am looking forward to a nice sleep.

Back home, it is the feast of St.Sebastian, the patron of our parish and today is the penultimate
day, when the whole parish goes out in a huge procession and all homes are decked up. I had
planned some two months in advance to be there for this feast, which I did not have a chance
to attend for many years. But then, that was not to be. Maybe next year.