Niigata

 I finished teaching my last class of the year and waited in the snow with the students in order to get the bus to the subway station. Unless something extremely unexpected happens, this is the end of my university teaching career.

 The next day, Saturday, my wife came with me to Sendai Station to say goodbye. I am going to teach in a special program at the International University of Japan. I had reserved a seat on the 9:41 Shinkansen to Tokyo, however, I would get over at an earlier stop, Omiya. The waiting room was crowded because at this time of day there are many trains that go to Tokyo with very few intermediate stops.

 This is Sendai city soon after we left the station. This is the south side of the city. I do not go there very much since I live beyond the last stop on the north end of the subway line.

 At Omiya I waited for about half an hour and then rode the Joetsu Shinkansen (There are now a number of Shinkansen lines going to various places in Japan.)

 At first we rode through a flat plain, but we soon entered a tunnel in which we remained for the rest of the trip, except for brief periods and around a couple of stations

 The tunnel was so dark that I was able to use the window as a mirror and take my own picture. You may recall that my camera was returned for repairs, so I am using my cell phone camera.

 When we came out of the tunnel and entered a station, I was surprised by the snow. Everything was covered and it was snowing hard. At Omiya it had been a beautiful day. I guess the mountains through which we tunneled kept the storm on the west side of Japan.

At the first stop after exiting the tunnel, almost everyone got off the train. I was surprised until I realize that this was a hot spring. My stop was less than 10 minutes further west, down in a valley.