24/04/2026
Last night’s Shinkansen journey from Sendai turned into quite an experience. I boarded a train—standing room only—that was supposed to have departed four hours earlier. In the end, the train stopped at every station from Sendai, effectively becoming a “local” Shinkansen.
After nearly three hours, just before arriving at Omiya Station, an onboard announcement informed us that around ten trains were stalled between Tokyo and Omiya. I decided to get off at Omiya, quickly switched plans, and caught the final Shonan-Shinjuku Line about 10 minutes later. From Ikebukuro Station, I transferred to the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line and finally made it home—just barely avoiding getting back after midnight.
It seems quite a few passengers ended up staying overnight on the train. This really brought home the reality that, in the event of an earthquake, long-distance high-speed rail infrastructure is among the first to stop.
Despite all that, today happened to be a scheduled joint research day with Mitsubishi Corporation Life Sciences, starting at 8:30 AM. We conducted a new experimental study combining NMN and laser irradiation, with many volunteers participating from early morning. For privacy, I used AI to anonymize the subjects.
The results of this research are planned to be presented at a luncheon seminar during the annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Anti-Aging Medicine, which will be held in Yokohama this June.
