12 November 2018
Greyasaki
Taking the train from Fukuoka to Nagasaki
Now I am in Nagasaki. It is very grey. It did not rain much, it just stayed grey, hence Greyasaki.
They appear to have built this city precariously on the side of steep hills, ready to slide into the harbour any minute now. I will climb these hills, there are not really any accessible mountains nearby that I know of, so multiple hills per day it shall be.
Now for SNOTAGEDDON!
I boarded my limited express train in Fukuoka, and at first I thought it was going to be great. Plush leather seats and a wooden parquetry floor (made of plastic). We set off right on time of course.
The train started swaying side to side violently, and continued to do so for the entire trip! Too much to stand up without hanging on. I would suspect it to be the tracks if it were just a small section, but it was the entire journey. Was the train faulty? Was it that battered train I saw yesterday?
Anyway, thats not the worst part. After 1 stop, 10 minutes into my journey, a salaryman got on. This is my only snot story of this trip (so far), there have been others but I have shown restraint. He set up his fold down tray with a mirror and a wash cloth and started extracting snot from his nose and creating a small snot pyramid on his wash cloth. Eventually his finger was no longer doing the job, so he produced a plastic toothpick thing with a tiny spoon on the end of it and really got to work. After each drilling operation he peered deeper into his nose with his magnifying mirror. It looked to me like he had gone in far enough to be hitting brain.
Crap pictures today!
Before heading to my train there was plenty of time for a damp lap of Fukuoka to take in the site of damp colorful leaves with the damp grey backdrop of a damp Fukuoka.
I headed down to the docks. This blue thing is the floating protective barrier of a mini speedboat racing stadium! The stadium seating section appears to be huge. This requires more investigation. Think of it as an oval shaped speedway track, but for speedboats. I never saw such a thing before.
The harbour points to Busan in South Korea. Its not too far. You have to pay attention or a few Koreans will sneak in.
The dock area was filthy, with rubbish everywhere and long grass in the park. They still have a shrine though.
There is a small mall with duty free shops for Koreans being deported. They have a giant aquarium in there.
Korea watchtower.
These guys are responsible for fishing out anyone who got drunk and fell in the previous evening.
I did not pre purchase a train ticket, so when I got to the station I just bought the next available. An hour wait. Time enough to wander around and take photos of the station, thrilling stuff!
Bizarrely, Japan Mcdonalds has decided to team up with the Freddie Mercury movie. With a cardboard piano and poster promotion. I wouldnt have thought Freddies life was compatible with the Mcdonalds image. Also, those are my bags!
Ahh, the inside of the luxury swaying to the point of derailing snot express.
Here she is after arriving in Nagasaki. The JR station is a bit away from the main part of town, which was fine as I was too early to check in. Time for a stroll in the drizzle.
My hotel is everyones favourite business motel chain, Dormy Inn.
It is right across from Chinatown. I see Chinese food in my future. It looks like they will have this lit up very well. In Japan the nicest parts of cities are the Chinatowns.
The other side of my motel is the start of the large covered shopping street. This one is still quite vibrant, although that could just be because like me, everyone was avoiding the rain.
The view from my motel window is great. I shall go up to the top of each hill that surrounds the city.
And for the sake of completeness, my room. It is small just like all the others. Its basically the same as all the others. If you have seen one you have seen them all. If I dont post this I am sure I will get requests to post it.