The day starts early before the hotel serves breakfast. I purchased a salad at the store the night before for breakfast today.
After eating it, I head to the train station but the sun has not fully risen across Shinagawa. A few people stir about trying to get to the office I suppose.
The McDonald's branch has not even open. I dont know about the other franchises but this one seems to open fairly late. They offer breakfast but it may not be a big seller so theres no reason to open at the crack of dawn??? So I picked up some baked goods inside the station
To my surprise, the trains are not packed to the rafters at this time of the commute. I was expecting real estate to be at a premium as people are rushing to get to work. As you can see, there is plenty of standing room.
I meet up with my fellow tourists in Shinjuku and board a bus that will take us into Niigara via Gunma. the tour gets primarily foreigners and the make up of this gathering is primarily Chinese, a little Thai, and me.
Its a nice day out as we departed at 7:30am. Before long, we can see Mr Fuji in the distance. And just as quickly, it disappears behind the range of mountains that I cant identify. The landscape becomes very rural very quickly as well. Gone are the skyscrapers, the steel and glass and replaced by frams, plants, and small villages.
I have noticed that along a great portion of the highway, walls have been erected as, Im assuming, for noise abatement. This limits alot of what I cann see from my vantage point on the bus.so Im lucky when I can catch a glimpse of the scenery before it gets impaired
As time passes, I tire slightly of the ride and begin to take pictures of truck drivers that we pass. They probably dont notice if they are paying attention to the road.
At this point there is still no sign of snow although the peaks of the far mountains can be seen wearing a dusting of white along their summits
After 90 minutes on the road, a brief pit stop is made at a service area. The stop is for disposal of human liquid and solid waste as there are not facilities that can handle that on the bus
There is not enough time to buy or eat anything as its a very quick drive by. Seems hot dogs/corn dogs.sausages are a staple of roadside eateries
I think the rest stops in America are kind of weak because all they offer are chain fast food places. The kind of places you kind in any big city. Maybe its because I like japanese food that the service areas seem so appealing.
This is Takasaki. Tommorrow I will be here, praying and wishing that I would get here so badly and so quickly. I will be passing through here on my way back from Kusatsu via the train system rather than the expressway.
So I got bored again. It will be another 90 minutes from when we left the service area until we get to the next stop.
Kusatsu is an onsen resort area with the one of its draws being Yubatake. We will take a closer look the following day.
We reach the more mountainous zones and the climate begins to change as more snow is evident. There is a light covering which evolves into a nice blanketed covering.
The sun begins to take cover behind the low clouds.and the weather turns a bit.
There has not been much snow fall lately and some of it has already melted away from the tops of trees and bushes.but there is enough ground cover.
The guide informs us that we will be passing through the longest tunnel constructed in Japan. When we emerge, we will be in Niigata and the weather will go from good to really really bad. She wasnt kidding
