March 28-The Journey
I knew today was going to be a long day, but it turned out to be much longer and less pleasant than I thought it would be. Why was today going to be a long day, you say? Because today I went from Tokyo to Nanao. I woke up at around 9am and I was really tired because I’d gone to sleep late the previous night. But, of course I had to get up and get my stuff together because I had to check out of the hotel by 10am. So I took a shower and did my little things that I do to get ready etc etc and I made it downstairs at exactly 10. I checked out and was headed off. It was another nice day and I stopped by the Citibank to get some more money and that worked fine. Then I got to Shinjuku station and hopped on the Yamanote line (a line that runs in a circular route around major stops in Tokyo). This was the part of the trip that I was dreading the most because I knew the train would be really crowded and I knew that my massive backpack would probably kill a few people and I felt bad for them. I took off the backpack and put it on the floor and stood over it pulling it between my legs trying to minimize the amount of space that it look up. I think my camera bag almost decapitated some guy that was sitting in the seat behind me, so I moved it in front of me. After the first few stops, the train began to empty out. Eventually there was plenty of room, but by that point I’d been standing in an uncomfortable position for about 20 minutes. The whole ride from Shinjuku to Tokyo station was about 30 or so minutes. Then came phase 2, the task of buying my tickets for the day. I had extensively looked at the Hyperdia website trying to figure out how I could get from Tokyo to Nanao….well…I knew how I could do it already, but I wanted to take the Nozomi Shinkansen (the fastest bullet train in the JR(Japan Railways) fleet). I had really wanted to take the Nozomi the last time I was in Japan (last summer) but when I had the chance, I wanted to use my credit card to pay for it since I didn’t have that much cash and I called my mother and father and asked them if I could use the card to pay for the train (it was definitely not cheap……maybe about $100), but they said I couldn’t ride it because I had already bought a rail pass that let me ride on the bullet train one step down from the best. Then when I got off the phone with them, my father realized that this was the train that I’d been talking about for months and months and months. So he would have let me do it but there was no way he could call me back as I was calling from a payphone in the train station.
So here was my chance to ride the fastest…I think it goes….about 300km (188mph)……at any rate(no pun intended), it goes REALLY fast. So I went up to the ticket office and told the guy where I was going (Nanao) and that I wanted to ride on the Nozomi. So after a long time of standing there he figured out a way I could do it. I would take the Nozomi to Kyoto then transfer to an express train (kind of like the NJ Transit trains, but nicer…the seats are bigger, they go faster, and they have food service on the train as well as lavatories). Anyway, I was on the Nozomi (which means “dream”, “hope” or “wish” by the way…) for a little over 2 hours flying across the Japanese countryside at lightning speed. The thing really looks like a bullet and travels almost as fast hehehehe. Then I transferred at Kyoto and was on the train for…gosh…too too too too long…like 3.5 hours. It was bad…really bad. I know it’s getting bad (my boredom) when I start rolling my head around, scratching my scalp a lot, and start swinging my legs back and forth…oh…and tearing at my hair. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s basically what it’s like when I take SAT tests. I guess it’s unfortunate that I got bored during SATs….oh well!!! …not like I care about those anymore…I AM in college after all…so…too bad for the college board! So far I’ve gotten into Skidmore College and Colorado College. Of course we’re still waiting on 4 more. Alright, so back to the trains. At one point I went to the back of the train car where I’d left my big backpack to check something in it. In the seat next to my bag was a young woman…I guess..in her late 20s who looked pleasant enough. She was watching my bag intently as I looked through it. I was so bored for something to do that I just say down there to see if I could make some conversation…anything to pass the time. After a while it occurred to me that there might be something….how should I say this….ummm…funny with her head. Her behavior was very strange. First of all, she was leaning completely forward in her seat with her head craned forward to see….nothing, every time someone walked by her to leave the car, she would turn around completely in her seat to see where they were going, when the woman doing the food service walked by, she would slap the arm of her chair make a motion like she was zipping her lips. So, I just turned the other way and pretended like I wasn’t there. Maybe she was dangerous….I wasn’t going to take my chances. Thankfully, we arrived at Kanazawa and I ran away. At Kanazawa I transferred to a local train that would take my to Nanao. At first the train was crowded and there wasn’t room for me to sit down. But by the time the train had emptied enough, I was too tired to drag by bag over to an empty seat. I was so tired…I just wanted to fall asleep on the train, but it was cold in there and I was way too scared that I’d fall asleep and miss the stop. If I missed it, I think I would have cried. It was already late…well…almost 7pm and that was 2 hours after I wanted to get to Nanao. I’d also tried to call the Mitsuhara’s house (family that I was going to to visit…my previous host family) but there was no answer. Ishikawa is still much more like winter than Tokyo was. Tokyo was warm and it’s actually cold here L It should be nice in Osaka though and definitely will be nice once I get to Miyazaki. I hope it’s not too hot there. Well…if it’s not hot, it will be soon. I’m sure there won’t be any air-conditioning in the school and I’m going to sit there and sweat my brains out. Hehehehe…should feel good. Anyway, after I got to Nanao station, I called again from the waiting area and Yuki answered the phone. I told them that I was on my way and that I’d walk from the station (it’s about a 5 to 10 minute walk). Although it was dark, and chilly, it was nice to be back there since I recognized everything and the place was familiar to me. When I got to the house, dad wasn’t home yet, but mom, Saki, Yuki, and Hiroki were there of course. They hadn’t eaten yet so we all had dinner together and made conversation. I got really tired, well, more tired, and after a little while I took my shower and went to bed (dad still hadn’t gotten home by 10:30pm….he must be working too hard).
I guess it’s nice to be back here. I wanted to come, and I’m certainly saving money by being here rather than in Tokyo where I’d be spending money by the bag-full. I think that they might be a little embarrassed or unhappy because there really isn’t much to do. I didn’t have to come, but I wanted to, so now I’m here. It’s actually Saturday (29th) now so if you want to see what I’m actually doing now, you should just read tomorrow’s journal entry.
-Maikeru