"You begin to touch heaven the moment you touch perfect speed. Not 1,000 mph, or a million, or light speed. Perfect speed is being there."
It's not instantaneous--you feel the passage of time and see your motion through the building...
-
-
...nor is it open-ended; you can't take the elevator anywhere you want, only within the building in question.
-
But the basic experience is kind of similar--you walk into this special room, and when you walk out, you're somewhere else.
-
It's like having a room on one floor of a building that's simultaneously on every floor of that building...
-
...walk in on your floor, walk out on any other--walk in on any other, and walk back out on yours again.
-
Flip this on its side and you have trains.
-
Instead of a special room on the floor of a building, you have a special building in a neighborhood of a city.
-
Lateral movement is much easier than vertical--you can move more people, and at higher speeds, and over far, far greater distances...
-
...but the sensation is the same. You'll be "in teleportation" for longer than you would on an elevator, so have a seat, no need to stand...
-
...there's more to see, too--glass elevators are uncommon, but passenger trains always have windows.
-
"Perfect speed is being there" The train doesn't have perfect speed--but by the time you get to your local station you're already halfway.
-
Just like when you take an elevator--by the time you get to where the elevator is on *your* floor, you're pretty much done.
-
Compare this to driving somewhere--nobody feels like half their trip is behind them just because they get to their car...
-
...they don't get to relax yet, they still have to navigate and pay attention to *getting there* for however long the journey is.
-
With the train, with the elevator, with the transporter room...you just have to get to the nearest station, and the rest is taken care of.
-
It's this enchanting feeling; this compression of space and time which fascinates me more than anything else about trains.
-
The feeling, as a child, of being able to walk into Tsurukawa Station and walk out anywhere on the Odakyu Line.
-
The knowledge that with just one transfer, I could be anywhere in Tokyo. Two transfers; anywhere in Japan. Three; the world (via Narita).
-
Standing on the platform at Tsurukawa, with the sensation that I already was anywhere that I could want to go--that is my Perfect Speedpic.twitter.com/fow5fPUs6Z
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.