We'd done the Nagoya > Tokyo leg last time around, admittedly in two legs, one as far as Odawara en route to Hakone and the second the rest of the way a day later, so it wasn't new territory. That was just as well since the sunshine on that side had the occupants of 9A and 10A sliding down the shades, and directing the sightseeing side of things to the left hand side, which was of course, the quarter where you'd expect to be sighting Mount Fuji.
Predictably, between the camber and the weather conditions, the Fuji-viewing prospects weren't looking too flash, but heading out of Hamamatsu, when the camber permitted the sight of mountains away on the left (partially obscured by haze, but definitely mountains) made me much more hopeful.
By the time we pulled up in Mishima, however, it was obvious that the Curse of the Frockster that had prevented us catching sight of Fujisan had kicked in again.
For several years, well before our 2008 journey, the Frockster had babbled on about trips to Japan and the possibilities of planting a Bowen Mango on top of Mount Fuji, a prospect so sacrilegious that the deities guarding the mountain kept it shrouded in cloud and drizzle while we were there. It was an obvious case of ensuring we couldn't locate the sacred peak just on the off chance we might return with plans to fulfill Eylesy's suggestion, and it seems to have kicked in again.
10A was vacated at Mishima, which lies on the edge of the Yokohama-Tokyo conurbation, with a subsequent increase in the frequency of tunnels and apart from the improvement in the sightseeing aspect there was a handy electrical outlet that allowed a slight recharge of the iPad as we thundered towards Tokyo. It would only be a tad over half an hour, but every little bit helps.
Everything needed to be packed away the stop before Tokyo itself, and once we were off the train it was a case of seeking out The Translator, which turned out to be remarkably easy, given the number of people who were in and around Tokyo Station.
Once the rendezvous had been made, we wandered off to check out the restoration work that had just been completed, restoring the ground level entrance to the facade built just under a century before. A couple of photos of the impressive dome at the actual entrance and we were off across the station square for lunch.
We had around two hours to spend over lunch, and a glance around the immediate vicinity revealed queues just about everywhere. Fortunately we spotted a vacant table in the corner of an Italian place that seemed to belong to the eat at the counter persuasion, and grabbed it tout suite, I can tell you.
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