It's about 400 miles. Approximately the distance from Gilbert to Los Angeles...
The helpful man at the ITT on base printed out this train schedule with all my transfers. He even wrote a note to the ticket man on what I wanted to buy. Holly and Maddie took me to the train station. I'm gonna miss that darling family :(
As I went in the train station I was a little nervous, but I took my nicely prepared itinerary and note to the man in the booth and bought all my tickets. When I pointed to where I thought I should go, he kindly took back my tickets and separated them into two piles. He basically motioned that I should put one stack through the ticket machine together and keep the rest. When a train came to my track a bit earlier than I expected, I was able to say "sumimasen" to a worker and show her my ticket and point to the train. She said "hai hai" several times and so I got on the first leg of my journey! I went to my assigned aisle seat much to the dismay of the established looking Japanese man in the window seat. I don't think he was happy about sharing the short row with the poorly dressed American tourist. Maybe today wasn't the best day to wear an ill fitting tee shirt with my jean shorts, albeit my new very cute jean shorts. Everyone on the trains are in classy business suits. Okay, that's a lie, I've seen two different young people in trendy jeans and label high fashion jackets. Anyway back to my seatmate. Lucky for him I was only on that train for 15 minutes. I got off and made my way slightly less confidently to my next track.
Here's my first train station. Japan is so gorgeous and green! I think every time I travel I'm struck by the green-ness of the location; but perhaps that's just a commentary on the brown-ness of my hometown...
On one of my transfers I was supposed to be in car 15 of the Shinkansen. I, of course, entered the door with the longest line. Then when I finally got on (last, due to these people's innate need to get on and off trains first at all costs; and my innate desire not to get in anybody's way) I, of course, realized that my seat was on the complete opposite end of the car, front row, right next to the other door... Everyone only had briefcases, as they were probably commuting home from work, and were already seated as I entered the car on the wrong end and had to make my way to the front row with ALL my luggage. As I blushed and tried to lift my suitcase over my seat-partner's head into the luggage compartment without squashing his little Japanese self, I was reminded of why we grew up getting to church on time or early; and have always had an aversion to sitting in the front row.
Okay so I'm on this two hour train ride. When we're in tunnels and under mountains I keep reading Anna Karenina. When we're not underground we're barreling towards Tokyo and it's pretty amazing to see some of the countryside as we travel. It's a foggy day so I can't see too far, but that adds to the mystique of this beautiful country. Every once in awhile I get to see an old style building; that's what really gets me. Outside the cities there's quite a bit of flooded fields.
From my extensive agricultural experience I was once taught that rice paddies are rice fields and that they have to flood them to grow and cultivate the rice. I learned this week that lotus root is also grown in flooded fields. (I also learned that people actually eat lotus root, it's not just famous for the flower, and that its kind of like potato but looks more like a giant white carrot with swiss cheese type holes. So I have no idea what's actually growing.
I feel a bit conspicuous, my head can be seen above the top of my chair, which seems uncommon, and if I cross the wrong leg, the automatic door in front of me slides open. I find it rather amusing but alas, must contain myself...
Okay, as I changed trains I experienced what Scotty and Holly had warned me of. I had a quick change, it was supposed to be a 7 minute change, but by my watch we got in 4 minutes late so I had 3 minutes. I got to my track no problem, but then the train wasn't there, and it wasn't there, and it wasn't there. I was getting nervous but I suppose it pulled up right on time. I jumped on and quickly found my seat (I learned my lesson about the location of seats on these trains). Then it quickly took off again. There's no way it was at the station more than 90 seconds. Seriously.
Have I mentioned that I only know 4 words in Japanese? "Hai" means "yes." "Sumimasen" means "excuse me," "Arigato" means "thank you" and if you add "gozaimasu" it tacks on "very much." Oh, and "good afternoon" is that one we all know but I can't ever remember. "Konnichiwa." That's it. Anyway I walked around japan saying "excuse me" and "thank you;" not a bad way to live. I think I've used "yes" a grand total of twice so I literally am just saying those two words over and over. It's pretty awesome.
I walked in and can't express how grateful I was to see Tiffani standing right outside the platform. Thank goodness. Then I promptly stuck the wrong ticket into the exit stile, which resulted in a worker guy having to come fix it. Awful... Tiff said she did the same thing on her way in, so I felt a little less silly...
We were starving so she took me to this amazing noodle place. We picked what we wanted and put our money into this vending machine type thing and then sat down with our ticket and they brought our food. Fun new way to order :)
Then Tiffani guided me to her darling apartment. I just kept thinking-- "I'm hanging out with Tiffani again! But; we're in Japan!!!!!"
1. you're darling.
ReplyDelete2. lotus root is delicious. especially in sushi.
3. have you been to hurry 4 curry? they have automated "vending" machines where you order and pay, and then they bring you your food. it's pretty sweet.