November 10, 2025 – Toyama and Takayama Somehow, despite having more than enough time, we arrived at Ueno Station in Tokyo less than one minute after the scheduled departure time of the Shinkansen to our next destination, Takayama. Frantic, we looked for a station agent; he reassured us that we could use our ticket on the next Shinkansen. That was the good news. The bad news was that we would miss our connecting train in Toyama, which threw off our scheduled arrival time in Takayama. This, however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Tip: The Shinkansen bullet trains wait for no man. They arrive and depart from train stations, unloading and loading passengers in 60 to 120 seconds, depending on the size of the station, so get to the track and find your carriage location well ahead of departure time. Toyama Toyama is about two hours by bullet train from Tokyo and sits on Toyama Bay northwest of the capital. Being a port,...