Trip to alps, Nagano

There was no real snow on the ground yet, but you could tell as you pass through the beautiful countryside in the valley, it was snow country. The roofs all had snow breakers and lots of snow shovels and equipment.

It was also hydroelectric country.

Towards the end of this train trip we started to come down from the higher altitudes to arrive at Nagano for a smaller train to our final destination.

Beginning of trip to the alps

Sorry for the delays, been VERY busy travelling in some interesting countryside. Making 3 minute connections! Dom is getting sick of my regimentation. We left Kyoto by train heading towards Nagano. Nagano was the site of a previous Winter Olympics.

The trip was in a 'Limited wideview express', never been on one of those.
It turns out to a train has wrap around glass at the front with no apparent pillars and the passenger cabin is separated by a full height and width glass wall. Wonderful viewing in the first carriage!

Also saw an interesting thing, the 'Fat controller' was full sized and lurking on the platform, constantly looking at his watch, on his radio and looking at his large paper flow chart of train movements at this station in Kyoto.