Buses & Trains

I sleep in until 9am, then leave for what turns out to be an immensely complex system of transport.
You see, I was now in a small town near Osaka, some hundreds of kilometres away from my intended destination, Nagoya. But it should be pretty simple to get there before dark, right?

First bus goes from the hotel to Osaka city, which is still about an hour away.
From Osaka, there is no direct train to Nagoya, so I must catch a train to Kyoto, followed by a bus to Nagoya.
At 2pm I arrive in Kyoto, so I stop for lunch. It turns out that it`s still spring here, and the weather is well...springy! Flowers everywhere, and lush green plants growing out of just about everything. The sun shines through the warm air as I wander to and from a 600 year old temple while I wait for the bus. Yep, that`s Japan for you!

The bus leaves at 3pm, but there is a problem. We might be a little late,　it seems. Approximately 1-2 hours late, as a matter of fact. I couldn`t figure out whether the driver was serious or just had an inferiority complex about his driving skills, as the first 2 hours of the trip we positively speed past signs saying things like `Nagoya, 30km away). But those last 30km turn out to be the problem, and we spend an hour and a half waiting in a huge traffic jam on a bridge. I couldn`t have been happier though, the view from the bridge was magnificent! We had passed mountains, country rice fields, ancient temples and beautiful forest, and had now stopped looking over a massive river (about 3-4 times the width of the murray) as the sun set behind us. Who needs the bullet train when you can sit and half a view like that! They didn`t even charge me extra for the nice view...

However, my problem of getting enough of the neccesities of life remained. This time, it was water. I promptly forgot to bring a bottle on the 4 hour bus trip, and assumed I would simply amuse myself with dehydrated hallucinations until we arrived there. I spied a solution however...the toilet at the back of the bus! Not the actual toilet of course, but rather the sink. The sink didn`t agree with my plan of attack however, and was nowhere near big enough to let my head in. It let out only the tiniest dribble of water, no doubt designed to make the person who wants to wash their hands frustrated enough that they foam at the mouth, which they can then use to wash their hands. So here I was, slowly filling my cupped hands up with water, then trying to get that water to my mouth to drink. On the rickety bus, most of the water never made it of course, and I ended up licking my wet hands while my pants and shirt became positively soaked. Eventually we stopped at a rest stop, and I was able to buy a can of Pocari Sweat instead. This charming drink mimics the substance of human body fluids (such as sweat, hence the name), which aparently allows you to absorb it quicker.

So the bus got into Nagoya at about 7pm, and I promptly got lost on the local trains trying to find my way to the station I was meant to meet my friends at. It wasn`t until 8 30pm that I finally arrived at the end of my 10 hour journey,　but it was well worth it.

The people I am staying with are amazing even by the standards of Japanese hospitality.
Most people offer you the bath first, but instead a special bath is run just for my own use so I don`t have to feel guilty about sitting in it for half an hour.
Most people offer you some sort of snack when you get there, but I am positively plied with cakes, tea, biscuits and the like until I can eat no more.
Most people would probably be a bit ticked off if you got there at 9pm, but I can`t even finish an apology or explanation without being cut off and fed something delicious, no matter how many times I try.

When I go to sleep, my room is absolutely stunning. All paper walls and tatami mats, with a futon in the middle and a tray with a bottle of chilled water next to it. It is a veritable japanese castle, with shrines all around it and a wood carving of Mt Fuji cut into the wall.

Beautiful house, beautiful people. This is why I returned to Japan! For those who were wondering whether I had some sort of plan up my sleeve as to what I was doing in Japan, I invented one on the train. After spending all of today walking around the shrines and temples in Nagoya, with towering shrines and flowering bonsais, I have decided to go to Kyoto from here, the Shrine and Temple mecca of Japan.

I thoughjt I`d throw in that I am writing this in the greatest internet cafe in the world. When they told me $5 an hour, I wondered what the Japanese equivalent of `hell no` would be (I have limited funds), but when I go inside I find a paradise... In a private booth on a big leather couch, with an unlimited supply of soft drinks and slushies! Truly heaven...but now I need to go to the toilet!

I can only go on the internet from time to time, so my entries will continue to be published all in one go. I write them in my journal first, and then type them up when I can. Pictures will come next time, I lost the batteries for my camera!