Author: openjargon

• Prince Harry received the Pat Tillman Award at the 2024 ESPYs for his work on the Invictus Games.
• Some — including Pat Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman — didn't approve of Harry receiving the award.
• Harry honored Mary in his speech at the ESPYs, but a PR expert said he should have declined the award.

A triumphant moment for Prince Harry was shrouded in controversy.

On Thursday, athletes and celebrities gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 2024 ESPY Awards, honoring top athletes and people who give back to their community.

One of the special honoree awards is the Pat Tillman Award for Service, which recognizes "a person with a strong connection to sports who has served others in a way that echoes the legacy" of Pat Tillman.

Pat Tillman was a safety for the Arizona Cardinals who gave up his NFL career and a $3.6 million contract after September 11, 2001, to serve as an Army Ranger. He was killed by friendly fire on April 22, 2004, in Afghanistan, though the Army did not reveal how Pat died for over a month after his death, NPR reported.

ESPN and the Pat Tillman Foundation selected Prince Harry to win the award for 2024 because of his work with the Invictus Games. However, the announcement was quickly met with criticism.

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Some thought Prince Harry didn't deserve the Pat Tillman Award

The Invictus Games are a worldwide sporting competition for injured veterans. Following his two tours in Afghanistan as a pilot for the British Armed Forces, Harry became a founding patron of the Invictus Games.

The Games celebrated their 10th anniversary in May, and 23 nations are now represented at them each year.

On June 27, ESPN announced Harry would receive the Pat Tillman Award "in honor of his tireless work in making a positive impact for the veteran community through the power of sport."

Pat's mother, Mary Tillman, told the Daily Mail shortly after the announcement that she was "shocked" ESPN planned to give the award to the royal.

"I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award," she told the outlet. "There are recipients that are far more fitting. There are individuals working in the veteran community that are doing tremendous things to assist veterans."

"These individuals do not have the money, resources, connections, or privilege that Prince Harry has," Mary added. "I feel that those types of individuals should be recognized."

Mary does not work for the Pat Tillman Foundation or play a role in deciding who wins the annual award. A Change.org petition urging ESPN to reconsider giving Harry the award also gained traction online, amassing over 76,000 signatures as of Friday.

Harry received similar criticism when he was awarded the Living Legend of Aviation Award in January.

Despite the controversy, ESPN and the Pat Tillman Foundation stood by their decision, as the organizations shared in a statement with Business Insider ahead of the ESPYs.

"ESPN, with the support of the Tillman Foundation, is honoring Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, specifically for the work of the Invictus Games Foundation as it celebrates its 10th year promoting healing through the power of sport for military service members and veterans around the world," ESPN said in its statement.

"While we understand not everyone will agree with all honorees selected for any award, the Invictus Games Foundation does incredible work, and ESPN believes this is a cause worth celebrating," the statement continued.

Prince Harry honored Mary Tillman in his acceptance speech

Harry accepted the Pat Tillman Award on Thursday at the ESPYs, attending the event with his wife, Meghan Markle.

Harry focused his acceptance speech on the Invictus Games, opening by thanking Pat's family, including his widow, Marie Tillman Shenton, the chair and cofounder of the Pat Tillman Foundation.

He also spoke about Mary Tillman directly, seeming to nod to his bond with Princess Diana.

"Her advocacy for Pat's legacy is deeply personal and one that I respect," Harry said. "The bond between a mother and son is eternal and transcends even the greatest losses."

Harry said he accepted the award as "a voice on behalf of the Invictus Games Foundation and the thousands of veterans and service personnel from over 20 nations who have made the games a reality."

Evan Nierman, the CEO and founder of the global PR firm Red Banyan, told BI that although Harry's work with the Invictus Games is "commendable," and he attempted to change the narrative around the award with his speech, it would have been savvier of Harry to decline the award altogether.

"Harry deserves recognition for the work of the foundation and his advocacy on behalf of servicemen," Nierman said. "If he wanted to have really maximized the PR opportunity for himself, it would have been declining the award and saying that he was not going to accept it and then flipping it to recognize others who were deserving recipients."

"I think that would have been a very bold and smart PR move that would have perhaps won him more points with the public than accepting the award," he added.

Harry and Meghan's PR strategy might be growing stale

Nierman said that the Sussexes' attendance at the ESPYs "put Meghan and Harry right back in the hot seat as opposed to shining a light on others who could have received the award."

Harry and Meghan have frequently been accused of overshadowing others simply by existing in the public eye. Serena Williams, the host of the 2024 ESPYs and a close friend of the couple, pushed back against that line of thinking during her opening monologue for the show with a joke.

"It's well, actually only pretty often that I get to be in a room with actual royalty, and tonight is no exception," Williams said. "Prince Harry and Meghan are here. Let's give it up for them."

"But please, Harry and Meghan, try not to breathe too much tonight," she added. "Because this is my night, and I don't want to be overshadowed by the accusations that you guys are taking up too much oxygen, OK?"

Nierman told BI that he thinks the latest backlash against Harry makes sense given how much about their royal lives they have already revealed in their 2022 Netflix docuseries, "Harry & Meghan," and Harry's 2023 memoir, "Spare."

"I do believe that they were completely outmaneuvering the royal family in terms of their PR strategy because they were willing to go big and to be bold and to write a tell-all book and do the Netflix documentary," Neirman said.

"I don't think the public finds it that interesting anymore," he added.

A year and a half after "Spare" was published, Harry and Meghan still seem to be finding their footing in their post-royal lives.

For example, their Spotify and Netflix ventures have not gone as well as the couple might have expected. While "Harry & Meghan" was Netflix's most-watched documentary debut, the couple has yet to provide the streamer with another success. They also ended their partnership with Spotify in 2023 and reportedly did not get the full $20 million payout from the deal because they didn't make enough content.

Meghan, a former blogger, will soon return to her lifestyle roots. She recently shared a sneak peek at her new venture, American Riviera Orchard.

Meanwhile, sporting and military service continue to be touchstones for Harry through things like the Invictus Games and charity polo events, making the recent backlash all the more difficult for the prince in terms of his public persona.

Harry can get back on track

Although Harry's ESPY was criticized, he and Meghan have received positive attention for much of 2024.

After hiring two new members of their press team in April, Harry and Meghan went on a successful quasi-royal tour of Nigeria in May, which is interested in hosting the Invictus Games.

And in March, Misan Harriman, a photographer who worked with Meghan and Harry, defended them when UK tabloids accused him of manipulating photos of the couple. This positioning of Harry and Meghan as reliable came at a time when Kensington Palace was being widely questioned for releasing an altered photo of Kate Middleton and her children.

Now, Harry might want to take a cue from Prince William, who has had a string of positive press moments in recent weeks, to get back on track.

From sharing a carefree photo with his kids for his birthday to attending Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, the future king has recently come off as approachable and relatable.

"William has done things that humanize him a bit in the eyes of the public," Nierman said, pointing to the Prince of Wales cheering on England in the European Championship and dancing at Swift's concert.

"It just creates or publicizes a side of William that people haven't seen much of — the softer, sillier, more approachable side," he added.

It's a notable shift, considering approachability has long been Harry's secret weapon, as royal experts previously told BI. By staying true to his old playbook, Harry might be able to turn the tides of public sentiment once again.

• Katy Perry's released "Woman's World" on Thursday as the lead single for her new album, "143."
• The song is a vapid attempt at female empowerment that was cowritten and coproduced by Dr. Luke.
• Dr. Luke has been accused of sexual abuse, making "Woman's World" ironic in all the wrong ways.

This week, Katy Perry teased the announcement of her new album, "143," with an ominous promise: "Sleep tight, for tomorrow, the portal opens."

Listening to the album's lead single, "Woman's World," I have to assume it's a portal to the past.

"Woman's World," released on Thursday, can only be read as a desperate attempt to recapture the magic of Perry's pop domination in the 2010s — those bygone days when girlboss mentality reigned, and it was considered radical to say women could do everything men could do, and we do it in heels!

In the music video for "Woman's World," Perry's visuals are clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek. She casts herself as a hyper-sexualized version of Rosie the Riveter, traipsing around in a star-spangled bikini before an anvil crushes her.

Later, she's revived as a sexy half-cyborg, brandishing an influencer's ring light as a Venus symbol and driving a monster truck with a bedazzled uterus hanging from its bumper.

Perry's indiscreet attempts at satire clash with the song's actual lyrics. Satire only works when it has something to say, and there isn't a shred of complexity, self-awareness, or cultural analysis in lyrics like, "She's a flower, she's a thorn / Superhuman, No. 1 / She's a sister, she's a mother."

The Venus symbol and the bedazzled uterus don't read as subversive in this context; they align perfectly with Perry's gender-essentialist imagery. The entire song exists in this way: platitudinal and pandering with no material goal, even more vapid than the initial teasers foreshadowed.

It's been four years since Perry closed her previous album, "Smile," with a near-identical sentiment: "Is it the way we keep / The whole world turning / In a pair of heels? / Yeah, that's what makes a woman."

So much has evolved since then, but apparently, not for Perry. Somehow, she still thinks that reciting a list of random adjectives and haphazardly conflating stilettos with strength is the epitome of feminism.

Perry chose Dr. Luke and his team to craft this supposed feminist anthem

Actually, one thing is different. Five people are credited as songwriters for "What Makes a Woman," but none overlap with the six writers credited for "Woman's World." It took six people to come up with rhyming "feminine divine" with "born to shine" — and as you may have heard, one of them is Dr. Luke.

Perry has worked with Dr. Luke many times before. He was instrumental in the chart-topping success of Perry's "Teenage Dream" and "Prism" eras. However, until now, Perry hadn't worked with Dr. Luke since 2014, when he was sued by Kesha for emotional and sexual abuse.

Kesha's civil complaint details a decade of life-threatening eating disorders and psychological torture at the hands of Dr. Luke, the man who discovered her as a teenager. It includes the allegation that he drugged and raped her. Dr. Luke has denied everything.

Dr. Luke was never convicted in a court of law. His lawyers fought Kesha's civil suit on technical grounds, and it was dismissed in 2018 because the statute of limitations had expired, not because her claims were deemed meritless.

Similarly, when Dr. Luke countersued Kesha for defamation, the case never reached a jury. Instead, the parties reached an undisclosed settlement last year.

Just one year after Dr. Luke's legal battle ended, he's already been welcomed back into Perry's orbit.

To be sure, Perry is not the only artist who's worked with the disgraced pop producer since Kesha's allegations shook the industry. His name (and his various pseudonyms, including Tyson Trax and Loctor Duke) can be found scattered across the credits on Doja Cat's Grammy-nominated album "Planet Her," Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday 2," and Kim Petras' entire catalog.

Indeed, Dr. Luke has quietly mounted a comeback in recent years, earning Grammy nominations for his work on quintessential Doja tracks like "Say So" and "Best Friend," as well as a win for "Kiss Me More." Although Doja distanced herself from Dr. Luke in 2021 (his name is absent from her latest album, "Scarlet"), others are still keen to work with an established hitmaker, whatever his reputation.

So no, Perry isn't alone, but the hypocrisy at work here is stunning. To enlist an accused abuser for a song about female empowerment — a song that's literally called "Woman's World" — is ironic in a way that's almost too glaring to fathom. It might be funny if it weren't so gross.

Wouldn't it make more sense for Perry to work with female songwriters and producers to bring her feminine vision to life? Or, at the very least, a man with a track record for making women feel comfortable in the studio? There are plenty to choose from: Jack Antonoff and SG Lewis come to mind, or perhaps Zedd, who produced "Never Really Over," Perry's greatest triumph of the past decade.

Perry made a different, very deliberate choice. She wanted Dr. Luke and all the baggage he brings; all four other songwriters on "Woman's World" are Dr. Luke collaborators or signees.

"Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen," a Capitol Records source told Rolling Stone.

Perry's 'Woman's World' proves she's stuck in a sound of the past

Surely Perry knew she'd face backlash — and for what? "Woman's World" is not a good song, not by any measure. It has all the warmth and charisma of an AI chatbot, all the bomb-like subtlety of a "Saturday Night Live" parody. In fact, the heavy-handed self-ridicule in "This Is Not a Feminist Song" is more inclusive and nuanced than Perry's latest work — and that skit aired in 2016, back when Hillary Clinton thought she would be the first female president.

Eight years later, Perry is cosplaying a version of herself on that very campaign trail, a dewy-eyed heroine who no longer exists.

Slinking back to Dr. Luke to produce a song like this, so insipid and uninspired, is the mark of an artist who's not only stuck in the past but unable to see the challenges beyond her narrow periphery.

Perhaps in Perry's white, cisgender, mega-wealthy household, it really does feel like a woman's world. For the rest of us living in reality, it is very much not — and the shallow idealism of the 2010s, the very fuel of Perry's once-beloved empowerment porn ("Firework," "California Gurls," "Roar") plays as tone-deaf and patronizing today.

Whatever kind of delusional utopia Perry is trying to sell, I'm not buying it. But on the bright side, she could make good money licensing this song for a Tampax commercial.

Calls for Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race are mounting. But can Biden be forced off the campaign trail? Here are three ways this could unfold.

• A former Air Force engineer was arrested in connection to a deadly KC-130 Hercules crash in 2017.
• Court docs say James Fisher skipped a key inspection to detect C-130 propeller blade defects.
• One Navy sailor and 15 Marines were killed after a worn propeller came loose, leading to the crash.

A former Air Force civilian engineer who led maintenance at Robins Air Force Base removed a crucial inspection procedure that could have identified a worn propeller blade before it caused a KC-130 Hercules crash in 2017 that killed 16 troops, federal prosecutors allege in newly released court documents.

James Michael Fisher, 67, the former lead engineer responsible for C-130 propeller maintenance at the Georgia base, was arrested July 2 by federal authorities as part of the investigation into the crash in Mississippi. He faces two charges relating to false statements and two charges relating to obstruction of justice.

Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment that Fisher allowed technicians to stop conducting a key inspection procedure on propeller bores, causing a defective propeller blade to be placed back into service even though "intergranular cracking was not detected and remediated at Robins."

"Fisher was also one of the key decision-makers who removed the critical inspection procedure in August 2011," prosecutors allege.

Federal prosecutors say the propeller blade was placed back onto the Marine Corps KC-130, call sign "Yanky 72," which was carrying 15 Marines and one Navy sailor when it suddenly crashed in a soybean field in Leflore County, Mississippi, on July 10, 2017.

The cause of the crash was determined to be a propeller blade that came loose. That "initiated the catastrophic sequence of events resulting in the midair breakup of the aircraft and its uncontrollable descent and ultimate destruction," a Marine Corps crash investigation found.

The revelation of Fisher's connection to the "Yanky 72 incident" comes on the 7th anniversary of the July 10 crash.

The crash investigation revealed "gross negligence" in the maintenance culture at Robins Air Force Base, but "Fisher and the System Program Office avoided scrutiny," federal prosecutors said. A criminal investigation was opened in 2020.

During that criminal investigation, "federal agents learned that the earlier Marine Corps investigators were misled about what maintenance procedures were in place in the late summer of 2011," adding that "in August 2011, engineers at Robins authorized the removal of a critical inspection procedure for detecting C-130 propeller blade defects," the indictment states.

Investigators began zeroing in on Air Force Materiel Command Form 202, a document that must be filed when maintenance personnel need to request permission to deviate from technical manuals when making repairs. Fisher had allegedly signed off on such a request to remove a certain inspection designed to examine propeller cracking in August 2011 and denied doing so.

"Fisher's statement that he would have never removed the penetrant inspections was false," the indictment claims.

"Federal agents later uncovered the Aug. 19, 2011, email in which Fisher stated that he had 'no problem' removing the penetrant inspections and also discovered the other Blanket Form 202s in 2012 and 2013 in which Fisher, as the assigned engineer, had recommended removal of penetrant inspections."

Fisher is accused of making false statements to investigators and hiding information regarding those forms from officials looking into the crash.

"Fisher attempted to obstruct the criminal investigation by intentionally withholding documents showing that he played a crucial role in removing the critical inspection procedure and providing false statements to federal agents in order to cover up his role in removing the critical inspection procedure," the indictment alleges.

Fisher did not return a phone call and text messages Wednesday seeking comment on the latest information in the indictment.

Court records do not say what the next step for the case will be or when Fisher is next expected in court. However, records from the time of his arrest in Florida note that the 67-year-old is currently free on a $10,000 bond and had to surrender three US passports. Fisher was living in Portugal leading up to the arrest, a Justice Department press release said.

Documents filed with the case say that Fisher faces up to 20 years in prison for concealing records, eight years for a charge of tampering with a witness, and five years for a charge of lying to investigators. All four of the charges also carry a potential fine of up to $250,000, though courts rarely impose the maximum penalty on defendants.

• A 36-year-old was charged with 17 counts of vandalism on Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco.
• It's not the first time Waymo's self-driving cars have been vandalized.
• The incidents indicate tensions persist between some in the city and the futuristic vehicles.

Over a dozen of Waymo's self-driving cars were vandalized in San Francisco.

A string of tire slashings and charges brought against the woman who police believe is responsible highlight that tensions remain within some in the city and the futuristic driving technology.

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced Thursday that 36-year-old Ronaile Joshua Burton has been charged with 17 counts of vandalism on Waymo self-driving vehicles. Waymo, which was formerly Google's self-driving car project, is now a subsidiary of the tech giant's parent company, Alphabet.

The incidents, which each allotted damages exceeding $400, took place in the city's Tenderloin between June 24 and 26, according to the DA's office. Each instance was caught on cameras installed in the vehicles, the authorities said.

Prosecutors also alleged that Burton slashed the tires of a three-car Waymo caravan. Court records indicate Burton has been assigned a public defender. Burton's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Adam Birka-White, said in a statement that she chosen to plead not guilty.

"Ms. Burton is someone in need of help and not jail, which is why our social workers are actively working to identify and secure appropriate services," Birka-White said. "The District Attorney continues to prioritize punishing poor people at the behest of corporations."

Waymo said in a statement that it is "taking steps to recover the damages sustained, and mitigate the potential for future events."

"Waymo exists to make roads safer, and with that in mind we will always prioritize the safety of our riders and community," it added.

The arrest follows other reported incidents of vandalism against Waymo's self-driving cars in the last year. In February, a Waymo robotaxi was set on fire while driving through the city's Chinatown during Lunar New Year celebrations.

Although Mayor London Breed at the time had described the vandalism as "an isolated incident," Reuters reported that a passenger in a Waymo the day after the incident had fireworks shot at him.

San Francisco is one of the main test beds for self-driving tech, and incidents involving the vehicles — as well as traditional human-driven cars — are bound to come up. In addition to Waymo, Tesla tested its Full Self-Driving feature in the city earlier this year, and Amazon-owned Zoox took to the winding streets for the first time back in 2018.

Cruise, which is owned by General Motors, began operating driverless vehicles in the city in 2022 before suspending testing operations the following year following a collision with a pedestrian who was dragged beneath the vehicle. The company has begun operating again with human drivers behind the wheel, though it said its goal is to eventually resume driverless rides.

Some riders have marveled at Waymo's robotaxis — Business Insider's Lloyd Lee recently took a ride in one and wrote that the self-driving vehicle felt like a better driver than some human drivers in San Francisco.

However, the vandalism incidents and high level of scrutiny around the cars' safety over the last year demonstrate the challenges the companies behind the futuristic vehicles face — even in a techie city like San Francisco.

• Ukraine set out to produce more than 1 million small, attack drones by the end of the year.
• A top Ukrainian official said Kyiv will make "significantly" more than the original target.
• The country's defense-industrial base has taken off, as homemade weaponry skyrockets. 

A top Ukrainian official said that his country is on track to churn out "significantly" more small attack drones by the end of the year than it originally set out to make as it continues to expand its weapons production capacity.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, who serves as Ukraine's minister of strategic industries, shared in December that Kyiv planned to produce one million first-person-view, or FPV, drones by 2025. He said the country is also able to make over 10,000 mid-range attack drones capable of traveling hundreds of miles and more than 1,000 drones that can specifically reach targets more than 600 miles away throughout the year.

"This year we will produce significantly more than 1 million" of the FPV drones, Kamyshin told Business Insider this week, providing an update on the production efforts but declining to provide specific figures. "Mid-range strikers, long-range strikers — the goals will be outperformed as well," he said.

Throughout much of Russia's brutal war in Ukraine, FPV drones have been heavily featured in combat. Both sides have effectively managed to turn these systems — which are cheap and in abundance — into precision munitions by strapping explosives to them and using them to strike everything from armored vehicles to the soldiers in the trenches.

Kamyshin said during an interview with BI on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington, DC, that the FPV drones are a "significant share of the war in these days." He referred to FPV drones as "mortar drones" and "artillery drones" in a nod to their explosive potential that's similar to the ranged weapons.

Ukraine has other unmanned systems as well and regularly uses its medium- and long-range attack drones — which are larger than the cheap, hobby-style FPV ones — to carry out strikes deep inside Russian territory and target high-profile military and energy facilities.

These homemade weapon systems have given Kyiv the capability to greatly extend its reach beyond the border, especially as it continues to face restrictions on using Western-provided weapons for such purposes.

"We proved that there are no red lines," Kamyshin said.

"Now, we can reach Russia by deep inside, like 1500 kilometers easily, and we showed that dozens and dozens — if not hundreds — of times," he said, noting that "that's the impact our industry is making in this war."

The increased drone output comes amid broader efforts to scale-up Ukraine's defense-industrial base. The country has gone from almost nonexistent production before Russia's full-scale war to now cranking out weapons at a breakneck pace, which is helping to grow the domestic economy.

Kyiv is also taking greater steps to integrate its growing defense industry with that of NATO and the West and just opened an office in Washington to achieve that goal.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is taking its homemade weapons and modifying them for other missions. For instance, the country has outfitted its naval drones with missile and rocket launchers, and it has turned one of its anti-ship cruise missiles into a land-attack weapon. These innovations have helped Kyiv to inflict losses upon Russia.

Kamyshin attributed this to Ukrainian "resilience — the capability to withstand under the pressure, under the fire."

Ukraine, however, is not the only side boosting its defense output in this war. Russia has placed its economy onto what experts say is a "Soviet-style" war footing and is rapidly producing its own weaponry, triggering alarm bells among some NATO allies.

• I paid $12 to take a luxurious sightseeing train in Japan from Nara to Kyoto.
• Because I was traveling solo, I had to purchase two twin seats, sold as a pair.
• The train had comfortable plush chairs, a café, a reading nook, and a bidet in the bathroom.

Japan may be known for its network of high-speed bullet trains, but one of the country's trendiest train trips takes around 35 minutes and screams luxury.

The Kintetsu Railway's Sightseeing Limited Express "Aoniyoshi" train connects Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto and makes train travel stylish and convenient.

While solo traveling in Kyoto this winter, I planned a day trip to Nara: a city known for its wild deer, Buddhist temples, and historic sake breweries.

Although I decided to take a basic train there, I decided to treat myself to a trip on the Sightseeing Limited Express Aoniyoshi train on the way back.

That decision came at a negligible cost — both in money and in time — and the ensuing ride encapsulated some of the best parts of Japan.

Here's what my trip on Japan's Aoniyoshi train was like.

The train required multiple tickets, which was a little confusing.

The Limited Express train requires all passengers to pre-book their tickets, so I bought mine online two nights before my trip.

Seating options ranged from salon chairs, which could fit up to four people, to twin seats that either faced the window or each other.

Because I was traveling solo, I had to purchase both twin seats, sold as a pair. I purchased an adult and child fare, which cost me 1,100 yen, or about $7 in total.

At the end of the day, though, I only would've saved a few dollars if I had split the cost of two adult tickets with a friend.

Kintetsu's website succinctly outlined how to buy an Aoniyoshi ticket, but the multi-step process still confused me.

Eventually, I realized that I also needed a basic-fare ticket to use my reservation, so I bought one at Kintetsu-Nara station for 760 yen (about $5) before my train left.

The boarding process was quick and easy.

Despite minor hiccups in securing a ticket, the trip itself proved seamless. After the train — in its purple, floral glory — clattered into the station, I boarded quickly, grateful for my pre-booked seat.

Once on board, I was delighted by the train’s interior and scenery.

With long windows, ample space, and a purple-and-green theme, each car's aesthetic evoked a combination of Wes Anderson and Willy Wonka — in the best way.

Archways bordered the salon seats in one of the cars, while rugs and ceilings throughout the train varied in patterns, surrounding me with details.

The external views proved equally breathtaking. As we wound between Japanese cities, the sightseeing windows offered glimpses of temples and towns alike.

The journey passed too quickly to enjoy all the amenities.

When we first boarded the train, I noticed lots of passengers flocking to Car Two, where a tiny café sold desserts that matched the train's purple interior. The café also sold beer in specialty bottles depicting the train's likeness.

Given the trip's length, however, I didn't have time for a snack. The couple seated across from me spent nearly the entire journey in the café line and had to chug their beers upon reaching the station in Kyoto.

Even so, the café car was a nice touch, and I appreciated the railway's focus on the passenger experience.

In the United States, the closest comparison is perhaps Florida's Brightline train, which offers great scenery, clean cars, and food and drink services. However, I found the Aoniyoshi train distilled even more amenities into a whirlwind of a ride.

For example, I noticed one car had both seating and a library nook with an adjacent sofa. The bathrooms were also spacious and clean, with — yes — bidets.

The train capped off an ideal day of sightseeing.

By the time I arrived back in Kyoto, I didn't care that I'd spent a few extra dollars and minutes securing my ticket. I only wished that the Aoniyoshi train ran more frequently — I left Nara with more artisan shops to visit, deer to feed, and mochi to taste, and would've liked to extend my afternoon there.

Yet even with limited operations, the ride captured Japan's attention to detail, hospitable nature, and love of whimsy — all in under an hour.