Monthly Archives: January 2011

Road to Nagasaki

After having a not-so-good night’s sleep due to excessive coldness during the night, I woke up a bit late in order to eat breakfast or catch a morning shower.

At Hiroshima Shinkansen station I wondered whether something major had happened as the train I was supposed to board at a bit after nine o’clock in the morning was roughly 10 minutes late. The same applied to other Shinkansen trains as well. I doubt that VR would even count that as being late.

From Hakata station there is a limited express line called Kamome straight to Nagasaki with few stops on the way. Exchanging trains worked like a charm – it took me less than five minutes to walk get off the Shinkansen, pass through ticket checking and find my way to the correct platform.

The railroad becomes a lot smaller on the way. There is just one pair of tracks for the most part of the journey. The ride on the Kamome is nice however. With wooden floors and leather seats along with tinted windows there is a certain notion of quality involved. The landscape is worth seeing as well. With the iron bars hugging close to the coastline, it is possible to see the Inland Sea on the left most of the time. On the right, mountains rise to a few hundred meters.

Saru ga iru aka Monkey Park


Yes, suddenly bananas and I accidentally the whole.


Near Nagano, these Japanese snow monkeys bathe in hot springs. They could not care less about the American tourists swarming around them taking pictures from every possible angle. No, I do not have the “hey it’s fellow monkeys” mugshot of myself.