At Nagano Station

I’m at JR Nagano eki making a transfer to the Asama 546 that will spirit me back to the fleshpots of Tokyo.

I had half an hour to kill and there was the small matter of the JR East Pass.
Seems that I miscalculated its validity. It’s 5 days from the day of activation. My original plan was to brave the Tokyo crush on Monday AM, getting out to NRT by 0900. Problem was that since I activated my pass on Wednesday evening, it expires Sunday evening!
I considered my options. Coughing up Y1050 for the Keisei Tokkyu and sleeping two hours on the train. Or…
I could blow out of Tokyo on Sunday night, spend the night in Narita (the town, not the airport lah!) and use my JR East Pass to the very end!
Which of course I’m going to do! And since all of JR is networked and computerised, I simply went into the ticket office and asked for a N’EX ticket (in nihongo, I might add!) for Sunday night. And the ticket was issued. And still had 25 minutes to spare. Depending on how things go on Sunday, I may head out there eariler. Narita is one of those “places I’ve not been yet” and would fit in nicely with the theme of this trip…
Amazing how good customer service and an excellent rail system can make me, Joe Cranky traveller, uncranky! Emphasis on the “good customer service”. Ain’t finding either with Amtrak or UAL lah!