...and we're off

Today we take a series of high-speed trains to get to Tokyo (roughly 7 hours total travel time).

The second photo is a shot of a very localized rain squall I drove through on my way to class (taken after I got there, since you're not allowed to use your cellphone while driving...)

In fact, you`re not allowed to drive while tired or after even one alcoholic drink as well, but Yamaguchi makes this relatively painless by having many places to pull over on the road, plus cell phones have a "drive mode" button which notifies callers that you are temporarily unavailable.