It was a quite fine day from the early morning. I did a five kilometer morning walk as usual.

I took a Super Express Train "Nozomi"leaving Tokyo station on 9:00 for Nagoya. Both of Tokyo(left picture) and Nagoya(right) stations were crowded with commuters and holiday tourists. The train was full of passengers.

I saw the first time a new big station building complex (open in the next spring) of Nagoya. It has been under construction for several years. It is a magnificent one. But as this is only one skyscraper in Nagoya, it seems to stand in a reserved manner rather than in a dignified manner.

The tenants of this big complex consisted of Takashimaya Department Store and many branch offices of big, middle and smaller enterprises, of which head offices are located in Tokyo and other urban areas. All floors have already been reserved. I could understand why companies in Tokyo or other urban area want to have branch offices in the complex.

After I attended a lunch-on party held at a building at the front of Nagoya station, I met a friend of mine who just came back from his sightseeing tour in New York. Although the heat wave hit New York when he was in the city, he went around not only in Manhattan but even in Connecticut. He told me one of the reasons why he could do such an activity was that he could take without any trouble any subway train or bus, or commuter train from suburban areas with a help of good maps. He gave me two sheets of map, one for subway and for commuter train issued in May this year by New York City Transit, and the other one for city bus issued in June by the same authority. He told me in details how to use them with the results I could get a confidence in taking these transportations.

I stayed in Manhattan repeatedly as a tourist. I could get at a book store a city map convenient for walking (a friend of mine who stayed in Manhattan for long time recommended it to me.) But I could never have good maps for subway and buses. So I could not use these transportations to the extent as I should do. The maps he gave me today will help me to move around easily in New York from my next trip.

Now I can take subway trains without any help from friends in four big cities, New York, London. Paris and Tokyo.

On my way back I took a Nozomi leaving Nagoya at 15:45. As this train arrives at Tokyo station at a little earlier than 17:30, the train is usually crowded with full of passengers. But there were many empty seats as shown in the right picture.

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