File this under “only in Japan.”
This would never fly on the Yonge-University-Spadina line. 
Tag Archive: trains
Train cramming
Day 7: Hiroshima and Kobe
I didn’t sleep all that well on the futon because I was just uncomfortable under all those layers. I think it was also pretty warm than night. We turned the air conditioner unit on, but I think it had a timer so it shut off in the middle of the night. Man, I missed my own bed that night. We woke up early and headed up to the breakfast buffet. The buffet wasn’t all that bad, but it definitely catered more to the Japanese palate. I was able to find enough items to eat, for sure. Maybe I can say that I felt like something was missing. Maybe I was just missing having something like a greasy North American type meal, full of protein and fat. Hard to put my finger on what it was.
Anyway, that day it was only the two of us travelling together. We lugged our heavy bags back up the road to the Beppu train station. As I was waiting for the train I noticed that the announcement for Beppu station was really tonal. The second syllable was high and emphasized like the lady was singing. So, it was like: “be-PPU! be-PPU!” I don’t know why I found that amusing.
Since we were late making reservations the train from Beppu to Kokura was already fully booked. We were hoping the non-reserved cars wouldn’t be packed, but we had no such luck. So for an hour or so we had to stand on the rocking car. We were able to get seats from Kokura to Hiroshima though which was fortunate.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect at all heading into the city. I mean, I knew there was a living, breathing city there. People would be going about their business and it’d be no different than any other place. Except, would there be a sense of unease? Would there just be this weird aura surrounding the people? Well, for the most part, I didn’t feel any of that.
The streetcar stop at Hiroshima station was packed. There were tons of school kids and a good sized bunch of American tourists. There’s a stop specifically for the Atomic Bomb Dome. On the way there I fell into contemplative silence. My father was still a really young child in the Philippines when all of this was happening so I was wondering if any of what happened filtered back to him when he was a child. So much to think about. When I stepped off the streetcar and walked over to the park, all I could feel was a big “whoa…” There it was. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial. There are no words. There really aren’t. People were taking pictures all over the place, but they too were silent.
My friend had already seen the museum, so I went off on my own to soak it all in. I passed by the Memorial Cenotaph and observed a couple of people offering prayers in front of it for the deceased.
The museum was very interesting and informative. It was also very sombre. It’s not meant to be a happy place, right? The first part was interesting in that it showed some of Hiroshima’s history as a military base of sorts. I mean, there are reasons why Hiroshima was chosen as a site for the bomb. Further into the museum there were exhibits showing various artifacts–clothing from those that died, warped tiles, hair that fell off from those who fell sick afterwards…it all made my mind race with so many thoughts–so many conflicting thoughts. The content was heavy. It all made me feel heavy.
Well, after all of that, I met up with my friend at the train station. We were soon off for Kobe. I told him how the content of what I’d seen was all so very heavy. He just told me that I could lighten my mood once more with some steak. Indeed! We got off at Shin-Kobe station, dropped off our bags and started searching for a specific restaurant. It was recommended to us by the other two that travelled with us earlier. After a short walk, we made it to the subway station that it was near. From there we started our hunt. Man, it seems like too many of my restaurant stories involve at least an hour of walking. Ugh! We had a few clues. It was supposed to be near the station, near a shrine and near a Starbucks. Even with all that info we didn’t spot it for so long. I managed to spot the Starbucks after what seemed like forever, and from there, we found the place pretty easily: Mouriya/МОРЯ/モーリヤ.
Sure, there’s a lot of fuss over Kobe beef. Oh, of course, you wonder what all the fuss is about. Is it really worth all the hype? My friends, yes, it is. Holy crap. That was an amazing meal. We ordered 230g sirloin steaks. We lucked out and got seats right at the grill, so we saw the chefs prepare everything. They offered suggestions on how to enjoy the meat. The meat itself is so ridiculously tender. It almost feels like it just falls apart in your mouth. It’s just so damn good! It’s no wonder it’s all so expensive. In the end we spent about $130 each, but we didn’t mind. We called this our splurge meal for the week. Well worth it.
God, what a way to end the week long tour. Awesome, awesome, awesome. We walked back up to the station. We went to the ticket counter and spotted a train leaving in 12 minutes for Tokyo. We requested seats for that train. The ticket guy took our passed and stamped the insides, pretty much signalling that the power of the pass was now null and void. It was a sad moment. Once out tickets were issued, we started running through the station just to fetch our bags and scrambled for the train. All was well. We landed back in Tokyo a bit past 10:30 pm or so.
Thus ended out whirlwind tour. I’ve still got about three days in Tokyo that I’d like to talk about though, so…more to come, I guess!
Traffic signal: Trouble
Today, as we were travelling around before and after dinner we experienced a lot of delays all along several of the train lines. The trains had layovers of several minutes at each stop and each time we waited the trains became more and more packed. When we looked up at the screens on the train, it gave a list of delays. There were four delays on four different lines. Each one listed “信号トラブル Accident.” That seems innocuous enough. However, “accident” is sort of a euphemism. It’s well known that “accident” generally means that someone jumped in front of a train. So, people committed suicide in front of four trains slowing down the systems, delaying thousands of commuters.
It’s kind of odd when I think about it. I don’t think anyone really pays attention to the individual in the sense that anyone really feels sorry for them. More of the focus is on how that person was rather inconsiderate in delaying others from getting home. Is that a bad thing? I dunno, it’s just what’s done around here, I guess. It’s kind of sad to know that these events are sort of regular occurrences. With 8 million people here, I guess it can’t be helped. Just part of life in the big city.
The end of the rail pass
We’ve landed back in Tokyo after our week long adventure. God, I’m exhausted. We made almost all of our planned stops. There were some things that we decided not to do for various reasons and some things that we added in last minute which provided extra value. For example, we added Kobe to our list of destinations. I will elaborate later on what we did there, but hey–it’s pretty obvious. :p
All things considered, if we didn’t have the Japan Rail Pass and actually paid for each individual train ticket the cost would have gone way past $1000. Tonight, when we got our last Shinkansen tickets from Shin-Kobe to Tokyo station, the clerk stamped our pass to say that the period has ended. As soon as he did I let out a big sigh. I was so sad to see it go.
Well, I still have to write about Osaka, Beppu, Hiroshima and Kobe. And there’s the matter of how I’m going to spend my last three days in Tokyo. I really want to just take a break, but I feel like I need to fit more value in. Oh man! Need to push harder!
Sweat of my brow
When I got off the plane, I was wearing a brown blazer on top of a good shirt and jeans. It served me well on the plan, what with all of the blowing cold air coming out of the vents and all. When I stepped off though, due to me having to lug everything around I started sweating profusely. I mean, I was dragging everything through customs, through the terminal to find a place to rent a cell phone, over to buy a train ticket to the city, etc etc. I had a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat, but it was a little disconcerting to have to draw attention to myself–even more than I normally would as the weird foreigner.
On the train I found a spot, but gave myself something of a wide berth. The row of seats normally sits 8 Japanese-sized people. So…with me it could only hold 7. Ha! That makes me sound like a bloody giant. No…I just wanted space. That and who would want to sit next to the sweaty foreigner? Exactly.
Well, my friend told me to call him after an hour on the train (the ride is about 75 mins or so). Thing is, no respectful Japanese person would ever use their phone on the train. Sure, they might text message or play games on it, but no one ever has conversations. I guess it’s a matter of manners, right? Knowing all this, I was perfectly content to just call my friend as soon as I got to my station. That was fine and all, but somewhere along the way I was hit by a wave of fatigue and sleepiness. I wasn’t really in the mood to have to wait another 10 minutes or so when I got to the station. At that point, I decided to just be the rude foreigner. I mean, as much as they think it’s rude, I was banking on the fact that they’d be a little bit more lenient on someone like me. So, I waited for the crowd on the train to thin out a little bit, I pulled out the cell, ducked my head and made the call. When I was done, I took a peek around and saw a few people staring. When the next station came and people filed out, the guy sitting next to me grumbled and moved over the other side of the 8-wide bench. Ha.
Umm, you could say my friend’s place is…cozy. Cozy–meaning small. Small–meaning Japanese. He kindly made room for me–I’m using a futon on the floor, but man there isn’t much room to swing a cat. Well, I suppose you could, but the cat would be banging the walls. Though if you’re swinging a cat, are you really interested in its welfare? Hooooonestly. Anyway, with my luggage lying around, there isn’t much room to step around. So, I’m really grateful to him for allowing me to stay.
After dropping my stuff off, we went out to exchange our vouchers for our Japan Rail Pass. We headed to Tokyo station and wandered around for a good few minutes. The first few exchange points we went to were closed because it was late, but we eventually found one. My friend did all that talking with the clerk. I’m impressed with his language skills, let me tell you. After getting our passes we started booking seats on the bullet trains. Because we planned out our itinerary, we were able to tell the clerk straight out which
trains we wanted and what our departure times are. We made it dead simple for him, which I found kind of funny. Take that, bureaucracy!
For dinner, my friend wanted us to meet up with a colleague of his and his colleague’s friend. We decided on eating at an izakaya around Shinbashi–but just didn’t know which one. Shinbashi seems to be where all of the salarymen gather after work to drink their sorrows away. We wanted that kind of experience, apparently. Prior to actually meeting with them, we were walking over to them and passed by these cobble stone pedestrian roads lined with restaurants and people enjoying themselves. It all looked pretty awesome. I was kind of pissed with myself that I forgot my camera. I mean, there was some stuff out there that was picture worthy. In particular, we were passing by this dive bar called Budweiser Carnival that looked sort of like Hooters. Inside, someone was belting out Dancing Queen by ABBA. The waitresses were dancing around in their tight shirts, and the patrons were waving their hands enjoying the spectacle. God, that was so random.
We met up with the others at about 9 pm and started wandering around looking for a good izakaya. We scoped out two places. When we finally decided on one place, we noticed that it was fully crowded, so we cancelled that plan. We went to the other, but before we could go in someone came out and said “closed!” and formed an X with her arms emphasizing the fact. Bad timing, we thought. We wandered around some more and stopped by this grilling place. It looked pretty intriguing, so we gathered in front to see what we could find out. We wonder out loud if they were open, but as soon as we did the place shut off the lanterns in front. God, how unwelcoming. We walked off, guessing that they’d probably turn on the lanterns again when we were out of sight. I suppose I can brush it off. I mean, it’s certainly not a personal thing–some places just don’t want to serve foreigners. Fact of life here. I’m sure there are lots of underlying reasons but it’s not my place to change anything.
Well, we eventually did find a place, and really the food and service there was just awesome. This place did a good job of making us feel a bit welcome. We ordered a big load of dishes (small plates, reminding me of dim-sum). The final bill came to just under $80 for 4 people, which is really a good deal.
Anyway, that was my first night in Tokyo. None of this experience so far has made me feel any less shy about trying to use the language. I’m trying to accustom myself to the fact that I’ll never really blend in. So, I’m going to try to enjoy the place, fully knowing that I’m going to get the curious looks and the blatant point-and-stare type reactions.
Well, today is Sunday morning. I have plans to visit the RC church in Roppongi. After that…not sure what I’m going to do except wander around a little bit and possibly get lost on my own. My friend will give me a call when he’s up and we’ll be able to meet up for food and other things. As much as I don’t want to rely on him for everything, since I know the resource is available, why shouldn’t I use it, right? The rail tour starts tomorrow. It’s going to be crazy.
Belly of the Big Buddha
Big day yesterday. My friend insisted I go to Kamakura to take in the culture, so yesterday I took a train out of the city and headed for that place. The town itself is pretty small–then again, most places compared to Tokyo are small. The place is rich in temples and shrines. They dot the map all over the place. I got off the train in North Kamakura and proceeded to follow the crowds. It was easy enough to find the close temples because of the processions of people going from one stop to the next. The temples were absolutely beautiful. I’ll be honest though, if you’ve seen one, it’s almost too easy to say that you’ve seen ‘em all. Of course, it’s not all that true, I mean, each one has its own personality, right?
Upon leaving the second temple I visited, I was passing under some trees from which there were some loud animal noises. I looked up to see what the commotion was, but didn’t find anything. Moments later though, a nut or some sort of hard fruit was dropped on my head. I think some patrons at a nearby restaurant had a nearby giggle.
Anyway, after following the crowds for the second temple, I decided to try finding stuff on my own. I started hiking down this winding road, passing crowds of male junior high students. I crossed over and found myself on a large steep hill. I think that may have been the hill where of which there’s a legend about someone making it so steep that even turtle will fall over. It’s a bloody wonder that I didn’t fall over. After that long trek, I ended up in some residential area. I had no clue where I was going so I continued to follow the paths. There was no one following behind me so I started worrying that I was going nowhere. Ah, but I was wrong. I eventually ended up at Kaizō-ji. It was a small-ish temple with beautiful gardens. When I arrived, there was an old man taking photos of the blossoms. The peace was a total contrast to the noise of the crowds in the other places. I ended up sitting down for a little while, taking in the sights. Actually, I sat because I was bloody exhausted, but whatever. This place was great, but it was no giant Buddha. So, I set off again in the hopes that I’d find some sign that I was on the right track.
I ended up beside the railroad tracks at some point, so I followed them down for a very long period. Out of sheer luck, I ended up finding the Kamakura shopping area. All the walking around made me hungry, so I stopped by a Ma & Pa type place for a cheap place of curry rice. Well…it was crap, but it was cheap. I somehow didn’t feel all too welcome in that place. I hate that feeling. I ended up still being hungry. After more walking, I somehow ended up at Kamakura station. That was far! Before moving on though, I spotted a Baskin Robbins and stopped by for two scoops. They gave me a third one for free. Score!
Well, I searched the station and came across a tourist info booth which had English maps of the area. Chee, that would have been useful from the beginning, you know? I learned from the map that there was a train that headed for the road leading to the temple with the big Buddha. I was too tired to walk another long distance, so I bought a ticket. The train wasn’t worth the price I paid. It only cosisted of two cars and was packed.
Anyway, yeah, I made it to the Buddha. For ¥20, I was allowed to go inside that thing. When I did, all I could think of was “I paid 20 for this?” Not exciting at all, but at least I can say that I was in the belly of a big Buddha. The big drawback of exploring on my own is that I can’t take pictures of myself readily. I think I tried to position myself somehow to get a shot of me and the Buddha but I failed. An older Japanese man saw my problem and asked if I wanted a picture. How nice! The picture he took was kind of crappy, but I didn’t want to bother him so I said “ii desu! arigatou gozaimasu!” Well, what else can you do?
Anyway, that was Kamakura. At this point, this is my last entry that will come from Tokyo. My flight back is tonight. However, I’ve still got some stories to tell, so that’s coming soon. I’ll be back in Toronto by the evening of the 5th.
Hope to see some of you soon!
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