Spring comes later in the mountains. So while cherry blossoms were all but disappeared, it was just beginning to appear in the mountains. I took a shinkansen or a bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya, changed trains and went up to the 'alps of Japan.' I missed the train I was actually booked on because of a case of lost translation. My ticket said '8.20am' and I keep asking where I would be leaving from? The ticket clerk said, 'Shibuya' where I bought my ticket. But the truth was my train will leave Tokyo station at 8.20am and I am to get there anytime before then. I left Shibuya at 8.20am and got to Tokyo station 20 minutes later to find the 8.20 train has left. There are lots of trains and I jumped on the next train and off I went. The trains in Japan are incredible. You can get a reserved seat but if not, each train has a few carriages that are for non reserved seats. Just ask the station people or the carriages have signs that say 'reserved' or 'non reserved'.
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