Taking the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano
Yes, I am now in Nagano.
You may remember this as the city which hosted the 1998 winter olympics. Except no one remembers the winter olympics. Who even hosted the last one? Who is hosting the next one? No one knows, do they even still have it?
Nagano is in the middle of Japan, in the alps, but its 30 degrees celsius today, super hot in the sun, I dont understand why the sun is so hot, I was looking for shade when I got here.
Getting here was a bit more of an ordeal than it had to be so I could save a few dollars. Instead of bullet training it the whole way I took a local train to a station in Saitama where I changed to the bullet train. This took an hour. The bullet train then only took another hour from the outskirts of Tokyo to Nagano.
There is no view, the whole way you are either in a tunnel or staring at a noise blocking fence. People will tell you to take the bullet train for the view, if you arent staring at darkness or a fence 1 inch from your face flashing by, then an old grandma will come along and pull your blind down to prevent the sun from entering the train.
My hotel in Nagano is literally attached to the station by a walkway thing. It is of an older vintage than my last hotel, and my legs do not fit under the desk when sitting on the chair. There is also no way to adjust the air conditioning, which is currently set to full on heating, but the window does open.
I am directly above a pedestrian crossing which plays a lovely tune for 30 seconds out of every minute.
This is also a hotel with a key policy, you must leave the key when you leave. Then you come back and ask for a different key from a different girl on reception and she smiles and hands it to you. Then you go into someone elses room and steal all their stuff.
When I arrived at reception the first time they did not even ask me my name when I registered, they just pulled out the piece of paper with my name on it. How do they know my name isnt Hirohito Michiba? Perhaps that photo they take of you at the airport is sent around Japan.
Before leaving Shinjuku I toured the back streets to see some tired looking girls finishing work for the evening from various places looking like fun parlours for children.
Then I went through some tunnels. No one seems to start work early in Japan, its 9am on the dot.
The forest area is reserved for filthy smokers.
Shinjuku has its own version of the gherkin in London, Gherkin-no-des.
I was just killing time now before my train rides. I had already had my daily coffee quota, so boring cityscape photos it is.
Finally, I'm home
Omiya in Saitama is a huge station with a huge number of shops attached. Tokyo is massive.
It even has a Sogo with revolving restaurant.
This unappealling Tokyo banana has the same effect on the cat as a cucumber would.
The one glimpse out the train window for the whole journey to Nagano - nice mountain.
My small, dated room. Everything works.
And it is very close to the station. Nagano seems quite small, most of the shops are part of the station complex. Now I have to work out what to do whilst I am here for 3 nights.
The winter olympics signs are being taken down due to shame over the costing blowout for the upcoming Tokyo summer olympics.
Nice view out the other side of the station, more mountains.
I have decided to eat all my fruit in sandwich form from now on.
Exploring the covered shopping streets of Nagano
Nagano is very quiet.
I think everything is concentrated around the station, I walked a few loops away from it but always ended up coming back.
There was one covered shopping street, but that seemed to be in serious decline, lots of empty shops.
Most of the places that were open were actually closed to someone like me, there are literally hundreds of bars with seats for the same 6 people to sit at every night.
It was almost impossible to even find a restaurant away from the station, I did eventually. Of course the station itself has lots of department stores, food courts etc. So its not like you will go hungry.
What I did notice on my walk was public toilets. Everywhere. I dont think theres plumbing into houses in Nagano, it was like a Chinese tier 3 city where theres a public toilet on every corner.
So there you go, if you own a house in Nagano, you dont have to worry about keeping your bathroom in working order, just use the one at the end of the street. Very convenient.
The covered shopping street. Quite long, quite empty. The strange green color made it seem even more dated.
The worlds biggest seven eleven.
I am willing to bet this is a love hotel.
Just one of the many many public toilet buildings. Yes, I am now photographing toilets.
I suspect this is an old Sake factory. The town maps suggest this is a big attraction. I guess it is if you like Sake. I will stick to Pepsi as usual.
Halloween runs all month in Japan. This entire shops window is halloween themed. I have absolutely no idea what they sell here. Insurance maybe. Or perhaps fertility treatments.
After much walking, I found a ramen place that wasnt just a bar. It was all smoking! No non smoking section. Oh well, I was here now, and breathing smoke.
I selected the spicy sesame option. Not sure what makes it that as it had no sesame seeds and was not spicy. The pork was good though.
Final picture for the evening, my convenience store favourite of red bean and mochi with fake cream. So rice and beans, like Mexican food.