Bullet train to Nagano, by way of Koriyama
Leaving Matsushima and Sendai, we traveled by train to Koriyama, for the fine lunch seen here, before taking another train south and west to Nagano.
I love a good bullet train and Japan’s are really nice. The trains themselves compare to those I’ve ridden elsewhere — mostly in China and Spain — but the stations are much tighter, busier and crowded (at least they were in those pre-pandemic times). Nevertheless, there were well-marked sections of the platform where you would line up for each car and the result was very fast and efficient. What was lacking in terminal space was made up for in planning and organization.
I was up early my first morning in Nagano so I took a walk up Chuo-dori street toward a temple I could see on my phone’s mapping system. It turned out to be Zenkō-ji Temple, which we would visit again as a group the next day, but it was well worth seeing twice — plus it was nice having it largely to myself early this first morning.
I’ve blended photos from both mornings below.
As we were leaving the temple on our group visit, we ran across a photographer shooting a wedding portrait. It’s amazing how often this happens and I’ve stumbled upon wedding shoots all over the world. This time our small group of mostly photographers could easily have been overwhelming to both the wedding photographer and his subjects, but they were all very welcoming and accommodating and didn’t seem to mind us grabbing a few images of our own. Still, I tried to be quick and let the pro get back to his work.
