Japan is a land of cherry blossoms and sushi. It also has train rides as smooth as well-oiled samurai blades. As I began my try on a train in Osaka,I couldn't help but marvel at the seamless efficiency that greeted me when I stepped on the platform at Narita Station.

The distance from Narita to Namba is approximately 460.7 kilometers. It will take you 6 hours and 47 minutes if you take the Second Tokai Express. Seven hours and a half, if you decide to drive through the Shin-Tomei Express, and almost eight hours if you choose to take the detour route.  

But by train, it'll only take you less than a couple of hours. 

Yes, 568.7 kilometers. That's a trip from London to Paris,and back; Berlin to Vienna, or from The Rizal Monument to Cabanatuan in the South, or Pagudpud in the North. 

The train took us from the busy Narita airport to a landscape seems like a patchwork of Japanese quilt. The view out the window is a charming mixture of industrial plants manufacturing God-knows-what. There were also verdant parks, where Zen gardens whispered secret prayers, and neat subdivisions plucked out from postcards.

But it was the architecture which really stole the show for me. Oh, these modern Japanese houses. Like avant-garde art, they were sleek and modern but never losing that sense of Japanese charm. Every corner is infused with minimalistic details, as if seing a master calligrapher brushing a ready canvas with just the right stroke. And the houses seem to convey this sentiment - boasting modernity while paying respect to their heritage.

Oh, and don't forget about the streets. The roads are perfect. They had the right angles, curves, and intersections. Even the back roads that run through residential areas, parks, and along residential streets, look like a symphony of lines and circles. Every curve and every line appeared to be placed perfectly with the correct perspective. It was like a team of mathematicians joined forces with a group of Japanese artisans to create a scene that would make Pythagoras shed tears of geometric joy.

And we're just on Day One!

As I got off the train at Namba Station, I was dazzled by a mixture of fatigue and awe; a medley of distances traversed and daydreams realized. That first train ride was a window into a world of allure and efficiency, where modernity dances with tradition, and even the most mundane aspects of daily life can be a delight for a weary and unsentimental traveler. If this was only the beginning, then I could not wait to explore the rest of Japan's promised tapestry.