3.9.2018 - Day 19

Today was to be another traveling day. In the morning I said good bye to Zelma and went for my flight to Fukuoka. After getting my next JR pass ready to be activated tomorrow I set out to travel across Japan towards Niigata. The ride was comfortable as always and I even got some for for Literary Universe done. Sadly I had to wait till the hotel to upload the new version as majority of the Shinkansens don’t have wi-fi (and even if they had, I couldn’t upload this over a public Wi-Fi), that seems to be a privilege of some JR East Shinkansens.

At Tokyo I switched to the Niigata Shinkansen unique double deck Max Toki. I always felt that they looked like a muscle men or a beast from the front. Riding this Shinkansen was one of the main goals of my trip to see this train before they are retired. As with all Shinkansens their interior shows age (as does exterior to certain degree – with the exception of Series 500 which I think is timeless, or at least to me it has survived the test of time). Though lacking electric plugs and wi-fi it has a neat feature on the seat that allows to extend the seating cushion forward for a bit more comfort. Though I think that the seats are also not as wide, or at least the aisle/window seats has slated outer arms rest.

It is kind of sad that the interior of the Shinkansens don’t get significant upgrades to keep with the times and makes me wonder why. Maybe it isn’t worth the expenses given that there seems to be a new development going on all the time and then it is easier to just replace the model with a new one. I’m curious what the real reason is, but still it would be nice to see some upgrades on these trains given how long they tend to operate.

My hotel was in Tsubamesanjo, one stop before the final stop. Tsubamesanjo station is between two towns Tsubame and Sanjo. The area is well known for its metal industry. Reluctantly I got off. My goal to reach the final destination had to wait one day longer. At least the hotel had a public bath.