Illumination

Last Saturday night Hunty and I travelled to Nabana no Sato, a resort village famous for its Winter lights displays. The disadvantage of going to see a lights display is that you have to be there at night, and this one was not exactly close. We left home at about 12:30, and got there with just enough time to have some dinner before it got properly dark. It should have taken us about three hours, but it took more like four as we missed some connecting trains. It turns out that when you cross between JR West and JR East, the rechargeable card that we use to avoid purchasing train tickets ceases to work. You can use it either in the West or East, just not to cross the border. We used it to cross the border, which cost us a connecting train. Also, the information I had managed to find on the Internet about the village wasn't accurate. The site is way off the tourist map, so finding English language info on the net was difficult. It turned out we needed to catch an further train rather than being able to catch a bus where I thought we would.

Anyway, we got there eventually, and had a lovely time walking through the extensive gardens and enjoying the lights. It was incredibly beautiful, the only problem was the number of other people also out enjoying the lights.

The most magical part of the evening was a tunnel of lights, probably 100m long. Unfortunately, it was packed with people, but it was still a great experience.

Another light tunnel

For the trip home, Hunty persuaded me to pay double and take the Shinkansen (bullet train) home. This made it a very expensive night out, but I'm glad at least Hunty had some sense, because by then it was late, and I was starting to feel pretty sick. The trip home took less than two hours.