Disaster strikes! Things had been going so well and we'd been so lucky with our hotels and the people we'd met, that perhaps we were only putting off the inevitable chaotic interaction. Things didn't start amazingly well given the fact that we nearly missed our train to Hakata and it was a last-minute dash along the Nagasaki station platform that got us on it. Puffed out, we collapsed into our seats in anticipation of the eight hours of train time before we got to Tokyo...
All was well when we reached the station in the north of Kyushu called Hakata (which is in Fukuoka) where we had to change trains - right until we tried to find out what platform our shinkansen left from. With a combination of pidgin english, Japanese and sign language we ascertained that, for some unexplained reason or, more likely an explanation I didn't understand, the bullet train wasn't working between Hakata and Hiroshima and that yes, we could take another train but it would mean changes at nearly every station on the way and also an arrival time in Hiroshima of six in the evening (Hiroshima to Tokyo on the fastest train would be another five hours or so on top of that...). We nearly caught a plane to Tokyo on the grounds that we had a hotel booked for that night, but it would have cost 300 quid. The old mental cogs started grinding and we decided to stay in Fukuoka for the night in the hope that the shinkansen would be running again in the morning.
As I write this, we're in an expensive and personality-free business hotel near Fukoaka station. Our room is tiny, has a pre-fab, single unit bathroom about the size of my little fingernail that smells of piss and for a laugh we decided to try out the pay-per-wan..., sorry, -view porn channel and even that was crap. All the rude bits had been mosaiced!
Anyway, it wasn't a great day, but Fiona always helps to keep my spirits high and we're bound for Mt. Fuji and Tokyo tomorrow...
All was well when we reached the station in the north of Kyushu called Hakata (which is in Fukuoka) where we had to change trains - right until we tried to find out what platform our shinkansen left from. With a combination of pidgin english, Japanese and sign language we ascertained that, for some unexplained reason or, more likely an explanation I didn't understand, the bullet train wasn't working between Hakata and Hiroshima and that yes, we could take another train but it would mean changes at nearly every station on the way and also an arrival time in Hiroshima of six in the evening (Hiroshima to Tokyo on the fastest train would be another five hours or so on top of that...). We nearly caught a plane to Tokyo on the grounds that we had a hotel booked for that night, but it would have cost 300 quid. The old mental cogs started grinding and we decided to stay in Fukuoka for the night in the hope that the shinkansen would be running again in the morning.
As I write this, we're in an expensive and personality-free business hotel near Fukoaka station. Our room is tiny, has a pre-fab, single unit bathroom about the size of my little fingernail that smells of piss and for a laugh we decided to try out the pay-per-wan..., sorry, -view porn channel and even that was crap. All the rude bits had been mosaiced!
Anyway, it wasn't a great day, but Fiona always helps to keep my spirits high and we're bound for Mt. Fuji and Tokyo tomorrow...
Onto: 991010 - Tokyo-bound
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