Ben-san de Takamatsu ni ikimashita...
but unfortunately, Ben-san no jitensha de Okayama ni ikimashita!
Warning: putting your luggage and yourself in different train carriages is a very bad idea. Seems like common sense, doesnt it.
Lucky for me I was blessed on Miyajima the other day.
After an utterly incredible 2 day bike ride from Onomichi, on 'mainland' Honshu, to Imabari on Shikoku, via a chain of bridges and islands across the inland sea - an experience that was absolutely unforgettable, and will get a blog entry of its own, once I get the photos off the digital camera, and some decent net time - I ended up taking the train to Takamatsu this morning.
Train platforms in Japan have a series of numbered signs along their length to indicate the carriage numbers of the train. My seat was in Carriage 1. So I line up under the number 1, and board the train with my bike. I stow the bike in the luggage spot of the carriage, and try to find my seat. 6D. hmm... this carriage doesnt appear to have a seat 6D. Aha! it appears this train, for some unfathomable reason, has the carriages numbered in opposite order to the platform markings. I appear to be in carriage 8. We are already underway, and there's no way I'm going to carry the bike through 8 carriages of people. So I leave it in "carriage 8" and go find my seat in carriage 1.
A scenic but otherwise uneventful trip. We stop at a number of stations. Then, about 2 stops short of Takamitsu, we stop. For quite a while. I get an uneasy feeling...
I make it to carriage 4, to see the back of carriage 5 just starting to pull away... I look at the guard who was waving off the half of the train containing my bike, tent, sleeping bag, trangia and thermarest. Its immediately obvious, with no words necessary, what the story is. "Doko?" I say... "Okayama" he responds sympathetically. Okayama. The place that just won't leave me alone. Site of my first day blues trying to find Metho for the Trangia, and lugging the bike in and out of the train station repeatedly.
Not much I can do now :) So back to my seat, to rehearse in my head the Japanese I would need to muster to explain the situation to the station staff in Takamatsu...
With the aid of clever diagrams, and the slightly off-white belt in Japanese awarded me by Michiko-sensei, I manage to communicate the situation. The heroic station master springs into action. He makes the call to Okayama. Asks me what the bike looked like. Luckily, I took a photo of it, folded up ready to go, on the platform in Imabari. I show him. He gets off the phone, points to some seats and tells me "please to wait". I wait. 15 minutes later, he waves at me, and it appears that the bike has made it safely to Okayama, and is in the hands of the station staff. :)
He then points to a train sitting on the closest platform. "That train, Okayama." The gratitude I feel is tangible. "Domo arigato gozaimasu!" I reply as I dash for the train.
It seems the blessing from Miyajima appears to have worked.
A wonderful train ride on an old train with lovely curved glass windows, across an incredible bridge - or series of bridges joined together end to end - and 40 mins later I am in Okayama. Again. Lost and Found. The bike! w00t! but the torn sidewall from the earlier island hopping has blown out. Puncture, and a dead tyre. Well - my plan was to find a new tyre in Takamatsu anyway, so I ask at Information if there is a nearby bike shop. Near station's west entrance, Im told. This means carrying the dead bike up and down flights of stairs and taking the station underpass. Okayamagoe... (shakuhachi in-joke) But I find the bike shop. no 20 inch tyres. "Any other nearby bike shops?" I manage in Japanese. The bike shop guy tells me maybe at the giant shopping mall down the street a ways. So off I go. 3 doors down is another bike shop that the guy somehow has never seen. they dont sell parts tho. even spare tyres. another 2 doors down, there is a small shop that appears to be, and in fact is, the nearest thing i've found to a bicycle service station. The first bike shop guy must be blind. 2000 yen and 15 minutes later, I have a new tyre and tube, expertly fitted, brakes adjusted and chain lubed ready to go, Sir! Waved at the surprised first bikeshop guy on my way back past :)
I'm really starting to wonder about that blessing. That priest was *good*.
So back on a train to Takamitsu, to pick up where I left off. 3 hours down, but the bike all fixed, and a good story to tell. Im happy with the exchange. Takamatsu felt great from the start. (Still does) I ride the wrong way out of the station - or at least I think I do - so i come back. only to run into a second hand market, and the first thing i find on the table is a near new bike bag! for 500 yen! cant believe my luck. Ive been trying to find one of these things *new* for days. Ive been using a flimsy scooter-cover for the last while, when station staff get thingy about the bike not being in a bike bag. dodgy, and now full of holes, but its got me by. But now I have a funky bike bag!
What did that priest *do*??!
tee hee. but really - its all in the mind - allow yourself to feel the flow of things and go with it, and disaster is revealed to be perfection. hard to explain, but it works. And in all this, the secret gem - I got to see a smiling stationman's unseen flag flourish.
Warning: putting your luggage and yourself in different train carriages is a very bad idea. Seems like common sense, doesnt it.
Lucky for me I was blessed on Miyajima the other day.
After an utterly incredible 2 day bike ride from Onomichi, on 'mainland' Honshu, to Imabari on Shikoku, via a chain of bridges and islands across the inland sea - an experience that was absolutely unforgettable, and will get a blog entry of its own, once I get the photos off the digital camera, and some decent net time - I ended up taking the train to Takamatsu this morning.
Train platforms in Japan have a series of numbered signs along their length to indicate the carriage numbers of the train. My seat was in Carriage 1. So I line up under the number 1, and board the train with my bike. I stow the bike in the luggage spot of the carriage, and try to find my seat. 6D. hmm... this carriage doesnt appear to have a seat 6D. Aha! it appears this train, for some unfathomable reason, has the carriages numbered in opposite order to the platform markings. I appear to be in carriage 8. We are already underway, and there's no way I'm going to carry the bike through 8 carriages of people. So I leave it in "carriage 8" and go find my seat in carriage 1.
A scenic but otherwise uneventful trip. We stop at a number of stations. Then, about 2 stops short of Takamitsu, we stop. For quite a while. I get an uneasy feeling...
I make it to carriage 4, to see the back of carriage 5 just starting to pull away... I look at the guard who was waving off the half of the train containing my bike, tent, sleeping bag, trangia and thermarest. Its immediately obvious, with no words necessary, what the story is. "Doko?" I say... "Okayama" he responds sympathetically. Okayama. The place that just won't leave me alone. Site of my first day blues trying to find Metho for the Trangia, and lugging the bike in and out of the train station repeatedly.
Not much I can do now :) So back to my seat, to rehearse in my head the Japanese I would need to muster to explain the situation to the station staff in Takamatsu...
With the aid of clever diagrams, and the slightly off-white belt in Japanese awarded me by Michiko-sensei, I manage to communicate the situation. The heroic station master springs into action. He makes the call to Okayama. Asks me what the bike looked like. Luckily, I took a photo of it, folded up ready to go, on the platform in Imabari. I show him. He gets off the phone, points to some seats and tells me "please to wait". I wait. 15 minutes later, he waves at me, and it appears that the bike has made it safely to Okayama, and is in the hands of the station staff. :)
He then points to a train sitting on the closest platform. "That train, Okayama." The gratitude I feel is tangible. "Domo arigato gozaimasu!" I reply as I dash for the train.
It seems the blessing from Miyajima appears to have worked.
A wonderful train ride on an old train with lovely curved glass windows, across an incredible bridge - or series of bridges joined together end to end - and 40 mins later I am in Okayama. Again. Lost and Found. The bike! w00t! but the torn sidewall from the earlier island hopping has blown out. Puncture, and a dead tyre. Well - my plan was to find a new tyre in Takamatsu anyway, so I ask at Information if there is a nearby bike shop. Near station's west entrance, Im told. This means carrying the dead bike up and down flights of stairs and taking the station underpass. Okayamagoe... (shakuhachi in-joke) But I find the bike shop. no 20 inch tyres. "Any other nearby bike shops?" I manage in Japanese. The bike shop guy tells me maybe at the giant shopping mall down the street a ways. So off I go. 3 doors down is another bike shop that the guy somehow has never seen. they dont sell parts tho. even spare tyres. another 2 doors down, there is a small shop that appears to be, and in fact is, the nearest thing i've found to a bicycle service station. The first bike shop guy must be blind. 2000 yen and 15 minutes later, I have a new tyre and tube, expertly fitted, brakes adjusted and chain lubed ready to go, Sir! Waved at the surprised first bikeshop guy on my way back past :)
I'm really starting to wonder about that blessing. That priest was *good*.
So back on a train to Takamitsu, to pick up where I left off. 3 hours down, but the bike all fixed, and a good story to tell. Im happy with the exchange. Takamatsu felt great from the start. (Still does) I ride the wrong way out of the station - or at least I think I do - so i come back. only to run into a second hand market, and the first thing i find on the table is a near new bike bag! for 500 yen! cant believe my luck. Ive been trying to find one of these things *new* for days. Ive been using a flimsy scooter-cover for the last while, when station staff get thingy about the bike not being in a bike bag. dodgy, and now full of holes, but its got me by. But now I have a funky bike bag!
What did that priest *do*??!
tee hee. but really - its all in the mind - allow yourself to feel the flow of things and go with it, and disaster is revealed to be perfection. hard to explain, but it works. And in all this, the secret gem - I got to see a smiling stationman's unseen flag flourish.
posted by ben at 4:24 pm
2 Comments:
日本語):
こんにちは第1 息子。
Love the latest news... God Bless the
blessing priest and 'heroic' station master... Venture on my Son !!!
Oh, what a gorgeus story. We read it smiling from ear to ear. Your glass is truly half full. :-)
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