From Aomori my next stop was to visit my friend Steve in Niigata. I checked on hyperdia.com and found that I could take a limited express train from Aomori to Akita, change, then get another limited express train from Akita to Niigata. I would leave Aomori at 13.45, get the 16.34 from Akita and arrive in Niigata at 20.07. The cost for the ticket was ¥12,290.

Things were going great, I spent the entire ride to Akita chatting to  Max a Japanese filmmaker  who now works in New York. At Akita station however, I was told that the train from Akita to Niigata was cancelled due to high winds.  The ticket office said that I would have to take an alternative route…

Akita to Niigata - routes A & B

Rather than travel the 250km straight down the coast in three and a half hours (the green route), I would have to travel 900km from Akita all the way to Omiya near Tokyo and then up to Niigata (the red route). It would all be on bullet trains so if I got the 17.09 train from Akita I could get to Niigata just before eleven. They apologized that I would arrive nearly 3 hours later than I had expected and then….

charged me and extra ¥8430 because I would now be completing the journey by  bullet train,

I rolled my eyes, and then handed over my credit card. 

Shinkansen - perfect when you need to travel an extra 650km