Too many trains

Thursday was the day of trains. The total was 8, though one time we switched lines without switching trains, so you might count that as two....and it seemed like so many more....

The good thing was that they were broken up into two parts with a day stop in the town of Tenri.

The bad thing was that they were mostly short rides (no time to relax) with tight connections (we had all our baggage with us)

1) Cable car from Koyasan to Gokurakubashi

We were sad to leave Koyasan, especially since it had finally stopped raining!

867m up!

Foggy day

2) Gokurakubashi to Hashimoto

3) Hashimoto to Tenri

We hung out in Tenri for the day then continued on.

4) Tenri to Nara

5) Nara to Tennoji

6) Tennoji to Shin-Osaka

Tennoji was where we ran into problems. We somehow missed our train, and while the next one was supposed depart 20 minutes later, we waited for at least an hour. The train kept being displayed on the departure board, but would then be superceded by a different train.

Where is the train?

It's hard to tell, but the top line is our train, departing at 1704. Except the clock reads 1833. What's going on?

Yay, a train!

7) Shin-Osaka to Okayama

8) Okayama to Takamatsu

This train was called the Marine Liner since it crosses over the water. Sadly, by this point it was too dark to see anything.

By the time we arrived in Takamatsu and walked to our hotel, it was after 10pm and all of us had been on the go since our 7am temple breakfast. We were all eager to settle in for the night and get some rest. Especially since we were meeting at 9am the next day for....guess what...another train ride!