Shinkansen bullet trains depart Kyoto for Nagoya every few minutes. We used a ticket machine to buy two tickets at Kyoto Station. We chose unreserved seats, and opted for the 2:58pm train since it had 5 cars with unreserved seats (whereas the 2:55pm train had only 3 cars).
The Japan bullet trains are so awesome – both in terms of technology and comfort, as well as in that there is enough demand to support their frequency. Our ride from Kyoto to Nagoya took just 34 minutes with no stops! Once in Nagoya, we took the Meitetsu limited express train to Centair Airport (NGO).
NGO claims to be the world’s best regional airport. From our experience, this claim seems reasonable. There are many restaurants before security – multiple of which looked good and affordable. There is also a very cool Sky Deck that provides views of all of the gates. In terms of cool planes we saw a Thai A380, an Etihad 787, and a DreamLifter. We also saw a Delta plane, plenty of Japan budget airlines, and of course JAL and ANA planes.
We were flying ANA on a short 90 minute flight from NGO to Nagasaki. We checked our bags and then went to explore the Sky Deck.
We passed through security with no issues before heading to gate 10. Boarding was scheduled to begin just 15 minutes prior to departure. Boarding started on time and the cabin door closed just 5 minutes later! The plane was about 40% full but also boarded very efficiently.
Our flight on ANA Wings was on a 737-800. The seats were comfortable enough, and there was a drink service of a limited set of drinks (cold/hot coffee, cold/hot green tea, beef broth, apple juice or water). Turbulence was rough before landing and we seemed to circle around the airport before landing.
The flight arrived about 15 minutes late, but the Nagasaki airport is so small that we still easily had enough time to pick up snacks/dinner at 7/11 before catching the 8:20pm 56 minutes bus to the Huis Ten Bosch amusement park.
There were only two other passengers on our airport bus. It was a quiet ride with plenty of legroom.
