| The Voyage Continues |
Still No Pictures... Be patient.
With the many delays of flights, rerouting, and whatnot, we actually did arrive at Tokyo, finally, with all bags accounted for. Yay us! Us: 1. Aviation Industry: 3 or 4 (by this beleaguered point). Then, of course, there was the bus to Tokyo station from Narita, which takes about an hour I think. I cant remember but suffice to say its long with only a brief noteworthy view of Tokyo Disneyland. Then, much to my embarrassment, I admit I made a stupid -and it soon became clearly painful- mistake. I navigated the station quickly, like threading a maze, and got us on the train. After all the traveling about, and the sun was setting in Japan, I knew we were all tired and ready for some sleeping. On the Shinkansen, we sat and breathed a collective sigh of relief. We were on our way to Kyoto. And then, as the stations went by, my lucid stupidity became dim awareness and then dull horror. How it had happened, I cant say for sure. But there was no words to describe the feeling of utter idiocy that crept over me when I realized that we were on the Kodama. The slowest of the bullet trains. By slow, I mean that the two hour ride became a five hour ride.
It was at this point, when I admitted our situation to the girls, that Cheryl began to cry. She didnt say it in so many words, but it was her opinion that we should get off the train because we were quite possibly going the wrong direction, and getting off soon would be better than getting off late, especially to go back to Tokyo. Now, I can not vouch for my state of mind at the time. We had been travelling for over twenty-four hours at this point, and I was pissed off at myself for getting us on the inchworm of the shinkansen family, which became ire towards Cheryl's crying and complete lack of faith in me. It is now, months later, that I can admit that she had a right to feel uneasy. We were, technically, not on the train that I had thought we were on. In the year I lived in Japan not once had I mistakenly boarded the wrong train. Oddly enough, it would not be the last time I did so with the Lees in tow...
I explained the situation as thus: We aint getting off this train. It would not be advantageous for us to get off the kodama and not be able to catch another train, which is exactly what would happen, given the late hour, and we would only be stuck in some backwater townie hole that I had no experience with and we had no reservations except in Kyoto. It was a long ride. Longer, it seemed, than the plane ride. This is a clear portrait of Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The Train was torturous, and by this point in our journey, we no longer gave a hoo-hah that we were in Japan, we just wanted to sprawl, full-length, on a flat surface, safe from the encroaching eyes of, well, EVERYONE. We were tired of everything and everyone, this no doubt includes eachother. I'm certain the Lees were disappointed or irked at me, but hell I was irked with me too. But self-righteously I thought of my own importance to them, as neither speaks more than a phrase or two in Japanese, and comforted myself knowing they would still be at the airport if not for me. And then! We got to Kyoto station (last train!) and finally got us a taxi for all our fershluggedy luggage (which I was ready to chuck at this point, except my favorite jeans were in there!). The taxi driver was rude in my opinion, the first rude cab driver I have ever had in Japan. Apparently I'd been lucky before? We got to the hotel at almost midnight, got out of the Rude Cab, and breathed a collective sigh of relief. With rude people, storms in Chicago, stupidity, we had faced it all (WoMan vs Man) (WoMan vs Nature) (WoMan vs Self), having been beset upon by every adversary known to man we were thoroughly fed up with the way of the world (reference to Naipaul anyone??).
and then!
They had cancelled our reservation.