Taking a unicycle (or a bike if that’s what floats your boat) on the shinkansen was highly uneventful. The main requirement is that you make sure that it is contained in some sort of bag/box/etc. Once that’s out of the way, it’s generally smooth sailing. I carried my unicycle through the ticket gates, up to the shinkansen platform, and then on to the train once it arrived. I got there early so I had enough time to walk the length of a couple of cars, looking in the windows to try and find a rear seat that was empty. There’s a space between the back seat of a car and the wall that’s ideal for placing cumbersome items.

Once I found an empty back seat, I just put my unicycle and backpack behind the seat and forgot about it for the rest of the ride. I was happy that I got on in Fukushima, as once we got closer and closer to Tokyo the train filled up more and more, and eventually all the seats filled up and people resorted to just standing. I really wouldn’t enjoy paying the premium price of a shinkansen ticket only to not have any empty seats and be required to stand, but hey, it happens.

Anyway, while taking it on the shinkansen held the most of my worries, it ended up being the least eventful part of the trip. Far, far more difficult was maneuvering it in and out of local trains during Tokyo rush hour for my transfers. The stuff you read about Tokyo trains during rush hour is true (well, the crowded part).

On one particularly memorable train this trip, I had been shoved further and further back away from the doors as more and more and more people got on at every stop. When my stop finally came I was only about six feet away from the doors, but I counted at least twenty people that I’d have to shove past with my giant wheel to get off at my stop. Due to the not-too-happy looks I was receiving from people, it was pretty obvious that they didn’t quite approve with the foreigner with the big wheel taking up room on the train then trying to shove past them with it.

After a few more transfers I arrived at Tsukuba and met up with Beth, where outside of the station I could finally take the tarp off my unicycle, assemble it, then actually ride it away. Riding it is much more fun than carrying it on trains.

Following all of the “Hello”s and “How do ya do?”s and “I’m fine, thank you, how are you?”s we went to sleep to get rested for our trip to Chiba the next day to see the brilliant green.

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