Just a travel day really, so there’s not much to report, though there was a lot of hectic transferring as we had to take three trains, and transfer between them with only a couple of minutes to spare. The first train was a fairly long one to Shin-tosu, but when we got there we only had seven minutes to get out from the bullet train, through the Shinkansen gates, into the local station gates, up the lift, over to platform two, back down the lift, and find the carriage we had a reservation on.
We made the train with a couple of minutes to spare, but like everybody else who was doing the same thing, we all piled in to the closest door and spent the next 10 minutes or so as the train took off walking up and down the passage to find our correct carriage and seat.
The next leg was only half an hour, so by the time we found our seat and settled in we were ready to pack up and transfer again. The next transfer was a guaranteed connection with the train waiting on the opposite platform for us to arrive, so that one was pretty straightforward , but in theory, we only had two minutes to do it.
Arrived in Nagasaki right on time, of course. Comparatively few tourists come this far south. Only the adventurous ones. And of course they were the ones madly changing platforms with us at every stop. As we sat at Hiroshima station this morning waiting for our train, hordes of tour groups, mainly American, came off the arriving bullet trains with no luggage, sheepishly following a tour guide waving a pokemon flag, so they were obviously doing single day tours from Osaka. Would be a shame, as there was definitely more than one days worth of sites to see.
Pulled our bags through the hilly streets of Nagasaki to our Airbnb, which turned out to be lovely. Although we had to lug our bags up four flights of narrow stairs, the room is amazing with tatami mats, though with all the mod cons, and we are very close to the rooftop terrace with a great view of the nearby hills and temples, so we are very fortunate.
After sorting ourselves out, we walked down the nearby ‘shopping street’ to explore and grab some things to cook for dinner in our well-appointed kitchen for a change.
Our tatami Airbnb
Rooftop view
Famous Stone Bridges
Our bullet train to Nagasaki
Nagasaki Airbnb