Well after two pretty comfortable flights where I actually was able to sleep for once, we finally made it to Kansai Airport. The next challenge was to get all of our bags to Nagaokakyo, not quiet as easy as it looked, we could have tried the baggage delivery service, but at 1800yen per item, it starts to add up. The next option was a shared taxi (mini bus), but they wanted 2000yen per person plus 1000yen per item! Finally we opted for the Limousine bus, which charged 1800yen per person and carried the baggage in the lower hold for free, but that only got us to Hankyu Ibaraki station where we had to wait an hour for our friend to come and pick up our five largest bags and we squeezed them into her small car, then we carried 3 bags on the train to Nagaoka-Tenjin. It was raining all the time up until we arrived at Nagaoka-Tenjin station then it stopped almost as soon as we walked out of the station so we did have to walk in the rain, another little miracle.

BTW we had a $500+ excess baggage charge!

P.S. Sorry to all my Pbase friends I still don't have internet access to my house in Japan (long story) so I haven't been able to comment on your work for a good while. Once my Internet access is up, I'll get back to commenting on your photos.

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