Photo tour

Last weekend I took a trip down to Takasaki, Gunma, to visit another English teacher from California (Ian) whom I met before I left on my big adventure. I took all local trains to save money and to make things challenging for myself. I definitely succeeded in the latter by missing my first connection (actually, it didn't exist, I swear), so the train schedule I had written down from the internet was useless. The whole trip took about 6 hours.

Here are some photos from along the way at Muikamachi station.

Ian (yellow shirt) and I went bowling with a bunch of JET's that he didn't know either.

After that we found a small Izakaya and chatted with a few drunk old guys over some beer. It was at that establishment I discovered the world's smallest bathroom.

 

The next day I just hung out with Ian and then took the long train ride home. This trip also took 6 hours because I missed my first connection again (my fault this time). But in my defense, I only had 4 minutes to change trains and it was the biggest station of my journey (10 platforms). 

Monday was a holiday so I got to explore Joetsu a little more. I found a neat statue on my way to the aquarium, and from the aquarium roof I was able to take more pictures of Joetsu.