Yesterday (Tuesday, October 10), as we were getting new tickets at Tokyo Station (because of the delay due to the suicide), something happened that brought a little chuckle to us. Tokyo Station is comparable to one of our largest and busiest airports. It is the hub of hubs when it comes to rail service here. So, it’s busy and there are lots of people going every which way. It’s a little nerve racking, to say the least. Anyway, we found the ticket office, picked a line, and waited our turn. Just in front of us, an older English-speaking Anglo couple stepped up to the counter and inquired about the train for which they were holding tickets. Evidently, they could not figure out which platform to use. Unfortunately, the ticket agents do not speak English very clearly. The woman of this couple looked at Dale at one point and just rolled her eyes as if to say this is impossible, knowing that Dale would understand. I tried to help the couple figure out where to go and so off they went. Dale and I started laughing after we realized our little moment with this couple would have made a perfect installment of a television commercial if the couple, after I gave them some direction, had asked, “Oh, do you speak Japanese?” To which I could have responded in truth, “No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!”
As I posted earlier, we started our train travel with this wonderful little schedule put together for us by the Japan Rail agent back at Narita airport. Well, we haven’t used any of it so far. As it turns out, what the original itinerary actually did for us was to help us understand how to reach the schedule book. That has allowed us to make adjustments here and there that will get us to our destination a hour or two earlier. Every little bit helps considering we are on trains for almost 12 hours today.
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