Photo from Shinjuku

A Tuesday morning coffee break by a fountain halfway underground. This my last day in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The rushing waters are loud enough to block out Tokyo, which is already an oddly quiet metropolis. Everything, outside of a Pachinko parlor perhaps, is soft-pedaled and reserved. I heard an impatient series of car honks yesterday and it seemed an outrage. I can hear people sneeze halfway down the block while we all wait to cross with the light on an empty side street.

Japan is always a curious place. Even Nature receives an orderly rearrangement, from the processed foods to the precise parks and calculated green space. And this fountain, emerging from the subterranean walkway under Shinjuku, is a mental relief station in the midst of strict steel and concrete. The sound of the cascade takes me to somewhere else, back to last summer Wisconsin and the rushing of the rivers we paddled. Working as intended, I suppose.

This afternoon I use my Jr Rail Pass to move on to Okayama.

More Mad Traveler posts about Japan