I guess it is not entirely true that I've been doing nothing. I was in Hiroshima, and then I went to Kyoto. I am going to Kyoto again this weekend. And work got quite busy and seems to be staying that way. Oh, and I started reading a new manga online and drawing and things. So, I haven't been completely lazy, just mostly lazy.
I guess though, I should go all the way back to Hiroshima. Which was a month ago now! I'm going to break this trip down into days because we did a lot. First off, how did I get there? I was going to take the Shinkansen, the bullet train, but it is quite expensive. After talking to a fellow teacher and mentioning my concerns about the price of a Shink ticket, he mentions that I should look into taking a highway bus. I went home and did some searching and found only one website with any English and saw that a round trip bus ticket was cheaper than a one-way Shink ticket. By quite a bit, so booked my ticket. Japan is wonderful for online shoppers because for many of the sites you don't need a credit card to buy online. How do they do this you ask? Well, Japan still has COD's! Can you believe it? But even better than that, you can pay for things at the combini! They have these machines at which you can purchase tickets for events, or pay for online purchases from Amazon, or plane tickets or bus tickets! They are great, but are only in Japanese. It took two trips for me because it turns out I copied the wrong info from my conformation letter. Plus, the first time I thought that I could remember the steps, but you need to copy down the kanji because not every machine is exactly the same.
Anyhoo, I get my ticket and have to catch the bus at 8AM on Friday morning. I leave at 7am because even though it ususally takes only 25 mins to get to Osaka, that is not during morning rush hour. You may have to wait a couple of trains before you can get on one, even if you don't mind being packed in like sardines. To my surprise I get on the first train with no problem and it's not even that crowded. At least not at Kawanishi, the same cannot be said by the time we reach Ishibashi. I grab some snacks because I am not sure how often the bus will stop and where and food is essential for my survival. The website said the bus will be at the Umeda Sky building, which is this cool looking building. It gave directions on where to meet the representative, which I thought meant a ticket counter as in a shop or at least a hole in the wall with a register and some sort of signage of the bus company. But after wandering around and ending up in the basement of the building, I gave up and went up to the first employee that I could find and asked for help. I am still really shy about using my horribly broken, badly mispronounced Japanese. But I arrived half an hour early and now only had 8 mins to find this stupid ticket counter. The janitor had no idea what I was asking so took me to security, which was conveniently also located in the basement. After much miss-communication and frantic gesturing, the lovely security guards finally understood what I was asking and one of them lead me to my destination. As it turns out the ticket counter/representative was a lady standing outside in a red apron (which still didn't have the name of the bus company on it) and a clipboard. I guess that's how they save money, and can offer such cheap tickets. So, if you book with a discount bus company it may be good to arrive at your pickup area really early and look for a random person with a clipboard because they may be your ticket to getting on the right bus!I do get on the right bus and notice that it is small and importantly, there is no toilet. This is going to be a 5 1/2 hour bus ride and there is no toilet! I sure hope we have some stops planned along the way. I settle into my seat and prepare for a bit of a sleep as I was up late online and up early to get here on time. The bus pulls away at exactly 8:30 and I curl up for a rest. Everything is okay, until we get to Kobe. At this point the woman in front of me turns to ask?/inform me that she is going to put her chair back so she can sleep (all in Japanese, but I catch her drift). Now, it is just my luck to have come across the single MOST inconsiderate Japanese person, likely ever. I don't know how many of you are frequent bus riders, but being a somewhat seasoned Greyhound rider I am quite familiar with bus etiquette. However, this woman clearly isn't. She doesn't lean her chair back a bit, so as to be at a more comfortable angle yet not intrude too greatly on my personal space. No, she leans it back ALL THE WAY! Which in this small bus, where even my knees are already brushing the seat in front of me, is a surprisingly far. I can almost see her face in my lap! I sort of shake it off, because I plan on sleeping anyway and it's not as if I'm getting up to go anywhere. However, once we reach the rest stop area, she just gets up and leaves! She doesn't move her chair back up to it's upright position. I even call out to her, but she ignores me and gets off the bus. To give you an idea of how small and cramped this bus is, I literally could not get out of my seat until the woman next to me gets up and I can slide over to her seat and stand up. I am irritated, but think maybe she was so preoccupied with going to the loo, that she momentarily lost her senses.
I disembark and take advantage of the western washrooms and grab more food. I am back on the bus before said lady and contemplate rising her seat for her, but being the polite Canadian that I am, I do not want to offend the lady and still assume the best. However, this faith is dashed to pieces when she returns and does not adjust her seat. In fact, she keeps it lying back even when she sits up and looks out the window or checks her phone. She's clearly not sleeping anymore, and often not even leaning back anymore so I don't understand the need to keep her chair so far back! This horrible passive-aggressive streak takes over me and I try to make it very uncomfortable for her. I cross my legs, which results in my knee pushing into the back of her chair and I lean forward an open my curtain as far as possible and stay leaning forward so that my head is above hers. But she is oblivious or really doesn't care. Personal space is a relative thing in Japan, and often they don't care about you getting in their bubble. Side effect of overcrowded public transportation I guess. I am getting quite irritated at this point, and a quick survey of the bus reveals that this woman is the only one who is this inconsiderate. Very few seats are leaning back, and those that are are the acceptable fraction back and contain actual sleeping people.
In combination with my growing ire, my growing hunger threatens to escalate into a tantrum of epic proportions. The thing is, I can't reach my food. So, I politely tap the shoulder of the offending woman and ask to move her seat forward, gesturing to my bag under the seat and gesturing for her to move forward. I even apologize in Japanese for interrupting her texting or what ever she was doing on the phone. And what her response? She glares at my and audibly sighs before lifting herself up to adjust her seat. Which she seems to have a bit of trouble with, so I kindly help her by pushing it forward. I take a deep breath because even though I am not a violent person, I don't mind yelling a people when they are being idiots. However, I know that will solve nothing in this situation so I just grab my food and concentrate really hard on how it tastes, and the texture, and the scenery out my window, basically anything but the woman in front of me. Thankfully, I make it to Hiroshima a half an hour early and I can walk away from the whole situation.
So, that's the beginning of my trip to Hiroshima. I want to thank you for letting me rant. Also, I want to let you know that event did not set the mood for my whole weekend. It just really annoyed the hell out of me and I needed to get it out of my system. The next post will be mostly pictures as it will be of Miyajima. And just so we don't leave on a sour note. Here is a pretty picture of some plum blossoms in Kyoto.
