Shinkansen to Nagano

We caught the Shinkansen from Tokyo Station to Nagano. To get to Tokyo Station we caught the subway from Shinjuku-Gyonmmae which is a private line (so we couldn't use or rail pass). Once at Tokyo Station, we struggled somewhat to find the actual track the Shinkansen would depart from (to access the Shinkansen tracks you have to go through another set of gates once you are in the station). Once we got through the gates we managed to find our track with a few minutes to spare.

It was late afternoon by the time we left and we enjoyed a nice sunset as we left Tokyo. We again saw Mt Fuji which is just to the left of the sun in the photo.

It was about half an hour into the journey before we actually broke free of the urban area and saw some clear, unpopulated land. The extents of Tokyo itself can actually be defined in many different ways and it can be quite confusing, particularly to a foreigner. Administratively, Tokyo Metropolis forms one of 47 prefectures in Japan and measures approximately 90km (east to west) and 25km (north to south) (it also extends to islands as far as 1,850km south of Tokyo). Tokyo Metropolis has a population of over 13 million people and is divided into 23 'special wards' which form what is traditionally referred to as 'Tokyo City' as well as a number of cities and towns and villages located west of Tokyo. Each 'special ward', city, town and village has its own local government consisting of their own elected officials.

More broadly the Greater Tokyo Area (or National Capital Region), which is actually defined by Japanese legislation, includes areas outside of the Tokyo Metropolis including cities such as Yokohama, Kawasaki and Chiba. The Greater Tokyo Area has a population of approximately 38 million people making it the most populous metropolitan area in the world.

Once outside of the Tokyo urban area, there were still many urban communities interspersed along the way, though Japan's urban form does largely follow their rail network (smart aye). We also got our first sighting of snow at Karuizawa which is a small Snow Park which obviously includes night skiing. Sally got very excited at seeing snow.

The rest of the trip was largely within tunnels beneath mountains and we arrived at Nagano early in the evening - around 6:30pm.Read more