Ate a regular breakfast today (toast with jam, coffee, etc.). Watching Japanese TV in the morning can be a “heavy” for breakfast entertainment. The news program on TV was showing a report on wife-abuse, with some rather realistic video clips – not exactly the kind of “early morning fluff” you see here. Got to Nagasaki station at 9:15 (Train leaves at 10am for Hakata). Updated my list of “things to buy” (souvenirs):

  • Macross Plus Movie
  • City Hunter OAV – Secret Service
  • MiniDisc Player/recorder
  • Cassette Tape Deck
  • MD Media (10 Discs)

After around 8 hours of train travel (2 hours to Hakata, then 6 hours to Yokohama), I arrived, and booked into the Yokohama hostel. I’m really watching my money carefully now, I have around 22,000 yen left, but why take chances? While I was waiting for the Shinkansen, I noticed a young girl selling bento to travelers. She looked rather cold (it was cool, and a strong wind was blowing past the station), so I waited until just before my train left, and ran down and bought her some hot tea from one of the vending machines. She looked a little puzzled when I handed it to her, but she accepted it. Perhaps this sort of generosity just isn’t that common in Japan? I was also getting another “long stare” from another girl on the Shinkansen (I’ve heard that Japanese women like foreigners – this seems to be at least partly true).

At Kyoto, two very drunk old businessmen got on the train, and sat right behind me. I listened to their conversation (it was hard not to), and got a grin as one guy started explaining to the other that the young man that his daughter was dating was a complete idiot. Funny, this guy reminded me exactly of a character from Maison Ikkoku. No problem finding the hostel, or checking in.