5:30am - Wake up. Drink orange juice. Decide that bringing a two liter bottle of Pocari Sweat(Japanese style Gatorade) will be too heavy. Walk to station.
5:55am - Arrive at station. Take goofy picture.
6:13am - Board nice warm bullet train. Embark on ridiculous 17 hour journey to Osaka.
6:55am - Arrive in Shin-Yatshushiro. Say goodbye to nice warm bullet train.
6:57am - Realize that there is nobody working the local train gate as it is a holiday. Go to platform for free. It is still to early to realize the significance of this, but we do find a stuffed bear.
6:58am - Look inside stuffed bear. Find a railpass. Frank is very excited. He wonders who would leave their bear on a bench. I wonder who would hide a railpass inside a stuffed bear.
7:05am - The 7:00 train is late. Trains in Japan are never late. Frank asks a group of three Jr. High schoolgirls why the train is late. We are informed that today is a holiday and there are special holiday times. There is no 7:00 train, we must wait until 7:20. We are not pleased.
7:10am - Frank tries to talk to the schoolgirls. They are very shy. He asks them if they lost a bear. They look at him like he is crazy. He then runs over and gets the bear. The girls giggle. He then shows them the railpass. One girl gets very excited, apparently she knows the owner of the railpass. They all agree that this must be the funniest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world. Frank and I are now their new best friends.
7:20am - Board the first of seven local trains.
8:23am - Arrive in Kumamoto. Change trains too quickly to be able to buy a drink. I wish I had packed my two-liter bottle of Pocari Sweat.
8:24am to 9:55pm - Change trains many more times. Play countless games of Kenyan Uno. Talk to some Jr. High boys, one of which tells us he has 5 girlfriends. He is my hero. Get stared at by every single person on every train. Try to get some sleep on these tiny chairs. Nobody checks our tickets.
9:57pm - Leave Himeji station. We are very excited that nobody has checked our tickets. This trip was supposed to cost 11,900 yen for the two of us (about $120), and we are dreaming of paying less than $5.
10:20pm - There are many people on this train. At least 15 people are standing. There are also two open seats next to Frank and I. Nobody is brave enough to sit next to us. We continue playing Kenyan Uno on the empty seats.
10:32pm - Two people finally build up the courage to sit next to us. It just so happens to be a lady and her very hot daughter. They speak good English. They are very interested in everything we have to say. The daughter tells us about college. Frank is in love.
10:58pm - We arrive in Osaka. Frank is trying to come up with a plan to get the daughter's phone number with her mother sitting next to him. Frank fails to think of such a plan. Frank is disappointed with himself.
11:01pm - We have come over 450 miles. This is like taking the AmTrack from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and then busing to Riverside. Thus far we have paid $0.00 for local trains. We need to switch lines to get to our friends house in Nara, which is just outside of Osaka. We buy tickets for the new line.
11:03pm - We must get past the gates with no exit ticket. We try to explain we came on the train from Himeji but have no ticket. The workers get tired of trying to talk to stupid foreigners. We are allowed through! Total cost of all local trains: 390 yen.
We are the masters of the universe.
11:55pm - Arrive in Nara. Get picked up by Hana, who is the boyfriend of one of our friends in Kagoshima. He drives fast. He does not wear a seat-belt.
11:58pm - Hana makes a U-Turn going 50 KPH, then veers onto a tiny side street which is bordered by a swampy rice field. He then points to the light up ahead and says "Light-o red-o" which I guess means he almost killed us to avoid a red light.
12:02am - We arrive at Hana's house. We are alive. It was a good day.
No comments:
Post a Comment