Today was the last day of the trip and we would spend most of it travelling back to Tokyo. I had a couple of options in mind. One option was to take a break at Himeji and see Himeji castle. The second was to take a break at Shin-Fuji and go and see Mt. Fuji. Getting to see Mt. Fuji trumped visiting the Himeji Castle. But based on the reading of travel blogs and websites, it seemed that being able to get a good view of Mt. Fuji was subject to local weather conditions and/or the time of day. The last thing we wanted was to get there and not be able to see Mt. Fuji. The third option was to break the journey in Okayama and do a side trip to Takamatsu in Shikoku, effectively visiting all the four main islands of the Japanese archipelago. We choose this one and used our Japan Rail Pass 🔗 for seat reservations for the trains till Tokyo.

Looking back we could have also left Kagoshima-Chūō the previous evening/night and stayed over at Hakata and visited Fukuoka today before heading back to Tokyo.

We got up very early, checked-out of the Toyoko Inn and walked the Kagoshima-Chūō Station to catch the 6:00 AM Sakura 580 to Okayama. It was operated by the N700-8000 series trainset and ran on the Kyūshū Shinkansen line till Hakata and then on the San’yō Shinkansen line till Okayama. Again, the standard-class reserved car had a seating configuration of 2-2 so the seats were as spacious as the green car seats and probably almost as comfortable as well. There was free Wi-Fi on the train but it was sketchy. We covered a distance of 730.9 kms in 3 hour 33 minutes with average speed of 205.89 kmph.

We reached Okayama a little before 9:30 AM and switched to the Seto-Ōhashi Line to take the Marine-Liner 19 for Takamatsu at 9:54 AM. It would take a little less than an hour and we were scheduled to reach Takamatsu at 10:51 AM. Our journey would take us across the Seto Inland Sea on the Great Seto Bridge, the world’s longest two-tiered bridge system. Crossing the bridge took about 20 minutes with the highway traffic on the upper deck and the railway tracks on the lower deck.


We saw the Daitemmai at Takamatsu Station which is work of art symbolizing people facing / hugging each other. Outside in the Takamatsu Station Square we saw the Flower Clock and the Kaisui Pond which had seawater and was connected to the sea. The Takamatsu Symbol Tower, the tallest building in Shikoku was dominating the skyline and the Maritime Plaza shopping mall was next to it. We also saw the uniquely shaped JR Hotel Clement.

Another reason to take the detour to Takamatsu and Shikoku was to try the famous udon noodles here. We at asked the Kagawa Takamatsu Tourist Information Center at the Takamatsu Station for options and the staff there recommended Goyashiki in the Maritime Plaza shopping mall. It was great to have a relaxed sit-down lunch at a nice restaurant after a week of quick meals. To round it off, we stopped by at the 7-Eleven in Maritime Plaza Takamatsu and picked up green tea ice-cream which was, for the lack of a better word, different.

After lunch we took the Marine-Liner 34 at 1:10 PM reaching Okayama just after 2:00 PM. We then connected to Hikari 474 at 14:23 PM bound for Tokyo. It was operated by the N700 series trainset and ran on the San’yō Shinkansen line till Shin-Osaka and then on the Tōkaidō Shinkansen line till Tokyo. We were hoping to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji as we passed the Shin-Fuji. But it was already dark outside so unfortunately we couldn’t see anything. We had seemingly missed the opportunity to see Mt. Fuji in our trip to Japan. We reached Tokyo around 6:40 PM covering a distance of 732.9 kms in 4 hour 16 minutes with average speed of 171.77 kmph.



We met my friend at Tokyo Station and she suggested that we go to Yakitori Ichi-Dori for dinner. We were, of course, more than happy to follow her recommendation and really liked the place and the food. We ordered the grilled chicken on skewers, also similarly prepared shiitake mushrooms, asparagus, spring onion and shishito (peppers) and some sake to go with that.

After dinner she took us to Taiyaki Tetsuji to have the Taiyaki, a Japanese fish-shaped cake with sweetened red bean paste filling. It was nice to catch up with her and we updated her on our week long adventure in Japan.

It was past the time for the last scheduled Narita Express and soon it was time for us to leave. We bid my friend goodbye and took the JR Sobu Line Rapid Service to Chiba where the same train continued as the JR Sobu/Narita Line Rapid Service to Narita Airport. The train was almost empty and it looked like we were the only people headed to the airport this late. It was our last night in Japan and we were going to try something we hadn’t done on this trip so far, staying in a capsule hotel.

We had booked the Nine Hours Narita Airport for tonight. We always wanted to try a capsule hotel in Japan and instead of staying in Tokyo and getting up early to get to the airport, we thought it would be better to stay at the airport even if we get there late to have a relaxed morning. With these two criteria in mind, we chose this place for our last night in Japan.

We were able to check-in individually at the front desk. There were separate facilities for men and women. And we completed the formalities and went right and left to our respective sleeping quarters. The first section on entry was a locker room. The lockers were big enough for large size suitcases and there were also hangers for your clothes. I changed into the loungewear provided.

Behind that there were the common washbasins and toilets and showers, all extremely clean and well kept.

The main sleeping hall was separated by light blocking curtains and the capsules in stacked in two level along the wall. I got a capsule on the upper level. the capsule was larger than I anticipated and I could comfortably sit up in it. There was a screen which could be pulled down to block out light and sound from outside. It did not feel small and confined. The bed and beddings were comfortable. I can imagine how convenient this must be for solo travelers who just want a safe and warm place to sleep for the night. Definitely worth trying just for the experience of it, if not for anything else.

🍽️ Goyashiki Sunport Store
🍽️ Yakitori Ichi Dori
🛏️ Nine Hours Narita Airport