Japan Day 24: From Pudding to Hot Baths.

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"I used to pack up a whole camp in three hours!" wailed Roger. "Now I'm getting stressed about packing up a hotel room!" He wouldn't want to leave any free toothbrushes and cute little tubes of toothpaste behind now, would he?

We went off to the 25th floor for our last high altitude breakfast instead.

Getting my veggies for the day. That's pumpkin soup in the little glass, in case you were wondering.
 
We had spent ages on Google maps and Japan Travel, working out how best to get to Nagasaki whilst avoiding the ultra fast Nozomi service with its associated extra charges, and getting ourselves hopelessly confused and muddled. Yesterday we went down to the station and cast ourselves apon the mercies of the ticket vending machine which promptly spat out three tickets, two train changes of a comfortable 20 minutes each, and got us to Nagasaki an hour before we thought possible. Trust the machines people, especially in Japan.

The machines even have panels in the wall out of which a Japanese person will pop to help you if you are stuck.

Underneath Japan's seemingly seamless rail line network lay a conglomeration of private rail companies, and our three trips were all on the Kyushu railroad.





The shinkansen was all very flash and fast but, due to aisle seats and spending a lot of time in tunnels, the view wasn't much to get excited about. The interior of the train provided us with cheap entertainment however, and the further south we went the less crowded it was, so we had time and space to take photos.




Nagasaki was much smaller than Hiroshima, and Google maps got all confused as to where we were. We had an American Salad in a Japanese diner and made our way to our hotel, which we entered via a Chinatown alleyway and two impressive doors.


In the absence of drinkies on high floors we made do with a wander around Chinatown and a dabble in Nagasaki's Dutch/Portuguese history before we returned to the hotel to plan our Nagasaki explorations for the coming days.

A few photos to finish...



Nagasaki has robot policemen, but they don't look like the daleks in Tokyo.

Oh, how could I forget?  The lack of 25th floor drinkies was more than offset by the 12th floor roof top hot bath. The hotel provided pyjamas and slippers and encouraged guests to wear them to the baths and to breakfast. I could soak forever if not for the risk of melting due to overheating. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to turn myself into a prune.


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