I left Kagoshima around 9 this morning; I needed to get some money and wanted to do that in Hakata. So when I got to the ticket office, I asked the girl behind the counter to get me to Hakata with the first available train (arriving at Hataka at 11:52), and take the train after the next to Shin-Osaka, so I pointed at the 12:28 Shinkansen, wich would arrive at Shin Osaka around 15:00. Since I arranged with Atomsk to get together around 16:00 to grab something to eat before we would head off to Osaka-Jo Hall, that sounded perfect; it takes me about 20~30 minutes to get to Taniyon from Shin Osaka station, so I would have all the time in the world to get from A to B.
The girl obliged, printed the tickets and I was off for the Tsubame.
The Tsubame still amazes me in terms of luxury; JR West went all out in creating a stunning piece of transportation. Here is a shot of the chairs you're in when you have a reserved seat:
This is the kind of chair you get with a Regular Rail Pass. Not too shabby, and they are very comfortable.
Anyway, when I arrived in Hakata, I went to the post office, only to find my weekly withdraw limit to be in full effect. -_- As a result, I missed my connection, which happened to be a Nozomi! You see, the Nozomi trains (and Green Cars in regular Shinkansen) are off-limits for people with a Regular Rail Pass, and the girl at the ticket office accidentially booked me a seat on the Nozomi. I really wanted to ride one of those once in my life, and now I had the chance!
But alas, I blew it because of the mucking about with the ATM.
Here's hoping for another chance. :)
In the end, I had to take an unreserved seat in the Hikari Rail Star, which means rather crampt chairs and the risk of noisy kids (reserved seats are slightly more expensive, therefore I can imagine people want to take the risk of missing a connections due to full unreserved cars.
Luckily, the kids I encountered weren't that noisy, but very
genki in any way; I feel rather sorry for their mom. ;)
I also met an American guy named Ronny, who happed to be on his way to Hiroshima and Miyajima. We had a nice talk, and he invited me to grab dinner in Osaka at some point.
Unfortunately, due to my schedule and you leaving for home on January 1, I have to pass on that offer after all, and since I mistyped his phone number, I'm unable to contact him, so if you happen to stumble upon this little blog, Ronny; my apologies. I hope your flight back home was a pleasant one, and that the staff at LAX didn't really bother you.
I arrived at the apartment at 16:30, just in time to meet with Alexander and Atomsk for our stroll towards Osaka-Jo Hall, where we would attend a concert of
The ALFEE. This rock band has been around since I was born, and they play folk, symphonic rock and regular rock and pop.
I must say, they are really something.
The concert lasted through more than 3,5 hours of various songs, with a spectacular light show and effects. All in all very enjoyable, albeit a bit loud.
They gave thee encores, and after the third encore, I feared they would go for one last one, but no. I enjoyed the concert very much (thanks to Atomsk for arranging the tickets), so I'll probably check at Book Off for a few of their albums while I'm at it.
I felt kind of pummeled afterwards because of the loud PA, so I decided to walk to the apartment instead of taking the subway. Good thing too, as I returned well ahead of my companions, which got stuck waiting for the rush of people to go away first before they managed to get onto a train.
A very tiring but cool day. Tomorrow, I'll head for the WTC at Cosmosquare here in Osaka, and whatever happening will cross my path.
I'm on a holiday, you know.
Cheers, K.