Trains, Typhoons, and Some Very Quick Thinking
Today it is looking like classes will be cancelled for the whole day. Good for me because I literally hopped off 3 trains and 2 buses, changed my shirt and tried to look work-presentable. Also good for me because I get to plan some lessons that I should have planned over the weekend. But slightly frustrating because I again have that feeling that I have not been productive and haven't contributed to the school environment.
And so I will blog.
Just about the travel part of my trip this weekend, because I really want to add my pictures to the post I will write about the places I have visited. This blog is supposed to be about my "wandering travels" and so here is the story of my travels back to Kobe.
I left Yokote (here's another translation bit for you, yoko=horizontal, te=hand; so for some reason the town where my boyfriend lives is called "Horizontal Hand") around 3:20pm to take the JR Ou line to Omigari, one of the hubs for train transportation in Akita (aki=autumn, ta=rice fields?). And from there I took the 4:47pm Shinkansen/Komachi "super express" train to Tokyo. The Shinkansen was super smooth, rather spacious, and looks really sleek...but I couldn't really sleep because the lights were on, and there were too many ppl around lol.
At first the train kept stopping every 10-15 min or so, and I was really starting to wonder how would this train get to Tokyo by the predicted time of 8:37pm. After about 6 stops, the train just went straight down from Morioka to Sendai without stopping, and from there it went from Sendai to Ueno? (I forget the city) pretty much without stopping. And sure enough, we arrived at Tokyo station at 8:37pm. Japanese travel is crazy expensive, but at least it is reliable.
By this time I had taken out my map of Tokyo station, and was desperately trying to figure out which bus station would I need to go to. The man next to me, an older man in about his early 60s, decked out in "just gone fishing" attire, complete with a fishing hat, long sleeved shirt and khaki vest, with black rubbery boots, noticed that I was confused. He knew that I was from California because his friend had asked me a couple hours earlier, and literally communicated to me in more sign language than anything else that he would take me to my bus terminal.
So you would think an older man would be easy to keep up with while walking, but this guy was super spry, and I was basically running every couple of steps to catch up with him. After going up and down some escalators, he found my bus terminal! What a nice man...thank you, I love Japan.
By this time it was 9:02pm, and even though I had found the terminal, I still wasn't sure if I was leaving from Gate 1 or Gate 2. And my bus wasn't until 10:30pm so it wasn't listed anywhere yet. And so I did what I seem to be doing much more often in Japan than anywhere else...I looked for the least threatening person around to ask them. And just my luck, a group of European-looking tourists were sitting on the floor in front of Gates 1 and 2! So it turned out they were going to Osaka, and that I would be leaving from Gate 1 (the one girl of the group actually took my ticket from my hand and asked the bus directors lol...I could have done that...haha) and so I just sat and chilled with them and found out about their trip.
They were from Germany, here in Japan 3 weeks, just ending their trip, bought JR rail passes that were pretty sweet except they miscalculated the 3 weeks and turned out they couldn't use them that day to get back to Osaka. Talk about bad luck, since today was a bank holiday they had no way of getting money, so the hostel conceirge helped them get some part of their rail pass reimbursed so that they would have money to buy night bus tickets to get back to Osaka and fly back to Germany. Phew, that must have been stressful. And so they were waiting until 11:30pm for their bus to Osaka.
Anyway, I keep rambling on and I am still in the Tokyo part! 10:30pm get on the bus, it was a double decker, with 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other. I get my own little 1 seat area, spread out the green fuzzy blanket they provided, and fell asleep...for the most part.
So I did what they tell you not to do at orientation, I made my travel plans without first consulting my supervisors. I had assumed that I would be able to find a bus that gave me enough time to get back and go straight to school. But I wasn't quite thinking when I bought my ticket to arrive in Sannomiya at 8:35am when clearly I should have been at school at that time. Oh well, I thought, I can just hop off the bus at Osaka at 7:00am, take a rapid JR train to Maiko station, and get on the bus to school in about...an hour? I estimated.
But lo and behold, my bus was not stopping in Osaka, it was stopping in Kyoto, throwing a big wrench into my plans. Where did I get the idea that my bus was going to Osaka at 7am? Who knows, maybe I was just telling myself that so that I wouldn't think about the awkward conversation resulting in me taking nenkyuu and feeling dumb. But no, I was going to Kyoto instead...now what??
Well, I just went to sleep. And the next thing I knew, it was 6:35am and we were just about to arrive in Kyoto. After a quick Hyperdia check, I realized I could just make a 6:41am JR Rapid to Maiko station, and hopefully get to school before 8:45am.
And that's exactly what I did.
And what did I find out?
TYPHOON WARNING...after all that, making it back before I would be considered late. And no classes. No students. No real work today...lol...
But like I said, I'm glad for the chance to chill. But a part of me definitely wishes I was still on vacation...
And so I will blog.
Just about the travel part of my trip this weekend, because I really want to add my pictures to the post I will write about the places I have visited. This blog is supposed to be about my "wandering travels" and so here is the story of my travels back to Kobe.
I left Yokote (here's another translation bit for you, yoko=horizontal, te=hand; so for some reason the town where my boyfriend lives is called "Horizontal Hand") around 3:20pm to take the JR Ou line to Omigari, one of the hubs for train transportation in Akita (aki=autumn, ta=rice fields?). And from there I took the 4:47pm Shinkansen/Komachi "super express" train to Tokyo. The Shinkansen was super smooth, rather spacious, and looks really sleek...but I couldn't really sleep because the lights were on, and there were too many ppl around lol.
At first the train kept stopping every 10-15 min or so, and I was really starting to wonder how would this train get to Tokyo by the predicted time of 8:37pm. After about 6 stops, the train just went straight down from Morioka to Sendai without stopping, and from there it went from Sendai to Ueno? (I forget the city) pretty much without stopping. And sure enough, we arrived at Tokyo station at 8:37pm. Japanese travel is crazy expensive, but at least it is reliable.
By this time I had taken out my map of Tokyo station, and was desperately trying to figure out which bus station would I need to go to. The man next to me, an older man in about his early 60s, decked out in "just gone fishing" attire, complete with a fishing hat, long sleeved shirt and khaki vest, with black rubbery boots, noticed that I was confused. He knew that I was from California because his friend had asked me a couple hours earlier, and literally communicated to me in more sign language than anything else that he would take me to my bus terminal.
So you would think an older man would be easy to keep up with while walking, but this guy was super spry, and I was basically running every couple of steps to catch up with him. After going up and down some escalators, he found my bus terminal! What a nice man...thank you, I love Japan.
By this time it was 9:02pm, and even though I had found the terminal, I still wasn't sure if I was leaving from Gate 1 or Gate 2. And my bus wasn't until 10:30pm so it wasn't listed anywhere yet. And so I did what I seem to be doing much more often in Japan than anywhere else...I looked for the least threatening person around to ask them. And just my luck, a group of European-looking tourists were sitting on the floor in front of Gates 1 and 2! So it turned out they were going to Osaka, and that I would be leaving from Gate 1 (the one girl of the group actually took my ticket from my hand and asked the bus directors lol...I could have done that...haha) and so I just sat and chilled with them and found out about their trip.
They were from Germany, here in Japan 3 weeks, just ending their trip, bought JR rail passes that were pretty sweet except they miscalculated the 3 weeks and turned out they couldn't use them that day to get back to Osaka. Talk about bad luck, since today was a bank holiday they had no way of getting money, so the hostel conceirge helped them get some part of their rail pass reimbursed so that they would have money to buy night bus tickets to get back to Osaka and fly back to Germany. Phew, that must have been stressful. And so they were waiting until 11:30pm for their bus to Osaka.
Anyway, I keep rambling on and I am still in the Tokyo part! 10:30pm get on the bus, it was a double decker, with 2 seats on one side and 1 on the other. I get my own little 1 seat area, spread out the green fuzzy blanket they provided, and fell asleep...for the most part.
So I did what they tell you not to do at orientation, I made my travel plans without first consulting my supervisors. I had assumed that I would be able to find a bus that gave me enough time to get back and go straight to school. But I wasn't quite thinking when I bought my ticket to arrive in Sannomiya at 8:35am when clearly I should have been at school at that time. Oh well, I thought, I can just hop off the bus at Osaka at 7:00am, take a rapid JR train to Maiko station, and get on the bus to school in about...an hour? I estimated.
But lo and behold, my bus was not stopping in Osaka, it was stopping in Kyoto, throwing a big wrench into my plans. Where did I get the idea that my bus was going to Osaka at 7am? Who knows, maybe I was just telling myself that so that I wouldn't think about the awkward conversation resulting in me taking nenkyuu and feeling dumb. But no, I was going to Kyoto instead...now what??
Well, I just went to sleep. And the next thing I knew, it was 6:35am and we were just about to arrive in Kyoto. After a quick Hyperdia check, I realized I could just make a 6:41am JR Rapid to Maiko station, and hopefully get to school before 8:45am.
And that's exactly what I did.
And what did I find out?
TYPHOON WARNING...after all that, making it back before I would be considered late. And no classes. No students. No real work today...lol...
But like I said, I'm glad for the chance to chill. But a part of me definitely wishes I was still on vacation...
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