Shinkansen

Shinkansen (Tokyo) - Japan  2014

Workers, Building, Reflections (Tokyo) - Japan  2014

We left Tokyo via shinkansen (bullet train) and traveled to Karuizawa, west of Tokyo and up in the mountains. I set the shutter speed on an Olympus E-PL5 to 1/2000th second in order to take photos from the speeding train.

Note the reflection of our train in the lower photograph.

Also note the banner hanging off the building, which looks to be a "JR" (Japan Railways) building. I looked up some of the katakana on the sign: "de su tei ne-shon kyan pe-n" and found it totally unintelligible. I asked Maz for help and it turns out that the message is meant to say "destination campaign," which if you reread the katakana makes sense. Apparently the banner is meant to promote tourism during the Spring.

Update: The banner is specifically promoting Niigata, according to a recent email from Maz who apparently has a secret translation source.