Shinkansen

After coming back to Tokyo on Friday night and having a lovely dinner at Steve & Chiho's we finally leave the Tokyo area today & get the shinkansen (bullet train) to Nagano in Central Honshu. Sometimes the train goes so fast that our ears pop. We get some great views from the train. The residential areas of Japan seems so flat compared to the huge mountains that surround them. As we enter the Japanese Alps there is more and more snow umtil we see a ski resort that looks right onto the railway tracks. Thankfully we've brought along our newly purchased thermals.