Wait! I said in a moment of panic, realizing the train ticket I had in my hand a minute ago, was no longer there. My sister tried very hard to be patient. Our train was leaving in five minutes. I frantically searched my pockets again, then moved from the middle of the wide walkway where a million people rushed to their destinations, to a rail near the wall. My normal way of looking for things in my purse was to just dump everything on the floor until I found it. But my very well organized, and always knows where everything is sister, would not approve. Besides, we were in one of the largest strain stations in Japan at rush hour. The very well dressed businessmen, impeccably attired women and well behaved children demanded that I behave properly, but I was sure they wouldnt care, they are too polite. Out came my gloves, the 5 sticks of lip-balm, passport, tape recorder, ah! There it is! Where was that recorder when I needed it earlier? My dead wifi receiver, umbrella, and several maps that my sister carefully unfolded looking for the ticket. Time was running out. I looked in my pockets again, then emptied my Starbucks souvenir bag. No ticket! I repeated exasperated. I must have dropped it at the store when I paid for my unsweetened green tea that I hated. Yeah! It was all the fault of that lady behind the counter who insisted I pay her with five 10 yen coins, rather than a 1000 yen bill. Ill run back there to see if she found it. My sister was remaining surprisingly quiet. We had been through this before, and she wouldnt dare judge my careless habits of traveling. I had been very clear that things would go wrong, I would make mistakes, get lost, lose things and make a mess, but if she wanted to travel with me, shed have to put up with all that. I wouldnt tolerate criticisms. I ran back to the store, except I took the wrong turn, I quickly backtracked with my sister in tow, still biting her tongue. The same woman behind the counter was busy attending another customer. I could feel my sisters impatience over my shoulder. When I finally had a chance to ask, her response was Greek to me, or Japanese, I couldnt understand either. The confusion on my face must have tipped her off because she repeated the same words, this time a little louder, as if that made it any better. I took a deep breath and continued to look confused. A man waiting to be served took pity and said not to worry, I could go buy another ticket at the service center. Buy another ticket? Really? I saw $100.00 fly off my account. Oh my!! Now I had really done it. I ran out of the passengers only area by flashing my rail pass and as quickly as I could muster, I ran back to the ticket area. The woman who helped us was behind her now closed window. There were 10 people in line for the other 4 windows. I had no time. I needed a new ticket and I had about 2 minutes to get it, run back to the platform and get in my train, I knew they would not be late, nor would they wait for me. I bypassed the line and headed to the closed window. Trying to calm down I explained how I had lost my ticket and could she please give me a new one without having to pay? It was her turn to be confused. She looked at the clock and said we had to go immediately to platform #15 to catch the train. I almost lost it! Hadnt she heard I lost my freaking ticket? She then explained, in her best calm voice and very broken English, how the reservations had already been made! all we had to do was get on the train. But.. But.. I still dont have a ticket!!! She said all I had to do was flash my train pass and all would be fine. Now Go!! My sister flashed her own pristine ticket and said Dont we need 2 of these? The woman took out a strip of paper, wrote down the train number, the platform number and the time it departed, which was 1 minute later. Ok, I dont know whats going on here, but we gotta go, I said softly, afraid to be overheard. We ran back only to find that we had no idea where platform 15 was, we found ourselves in a corridor with 3s 4s and 7s for platform numbers. We gave up, there was no way we could make it on time. Panic set in for 2 seconds, and then I remembered it was not the end of the world, there would be another train later, and if we had to pay for it, so be it, such are the perils of travel. We had done the best we could, and that was all we could ask for. I took a swig of my green tea only to be reminded how much I hate unsweetened tea. With a bitter taste in my mouth, I walked back to where I thought was the ticket office. We found a different one. Wow! We were really lost! The man said the next train left in 25 minutes, from platform 15 and gave us both brand new tickets. He also said this particular train was only going as far as Osaka, from there we had to go in a regular train, without reserved seats and basically take our chances. I dont know about my sister, but I was willing to take a chance, it was getting late and I felt that most of the commuters would be home by now. We had a good chance of getting seats. As we walked past the ticket check in area, I again flashed my pass, passport and ticket to the attendant. He graciously waved me in barely looking at any of my documents. After looking in the huge station for a while, we found platform 15 and decided we would wait the 20 + minutes we had nearby, although I was tempted to go below, find a comfy chair and take a nap. While I pondered relieving my aching legs, a ver slick, long and very fast white train pulled up in front of us. I was sure it would leave soon and a regular would show up for us. My sister looked at her ticket several times, back and forth from the train label and the clock. I went to find some sweetened green tea at the nearest kiosk. The attendant had the sweetest smile and after a few minutes of explaining how I wanted sweet tea, rather than the yucky unsweetened, she headed to a frige section, pulled a bottle that looked exactly like the one I had and gave it to me. I asked again in as many ways as I could, using a variety of words, all meaning the same, if this tea was yummy, sweet, big smile on my face tea. She also mimicked my words and facial expressions and, grabbing another bottle, scanned it for the price. I paid for it and walked back to where my sister had an anxious look on her face. She said this slick machine standing In front of us with its open door so inviting us, was actually the train that would take us to Osaka. I doubted her very much and to prove how wrong she was, I turned and asked a man coming out of the train to take a break if it was going to Osaka. He only said yes. I walked in with my tail between my legs and sat down. Our isle seats were at the front of the car, plenty of leg room, reclining seats and soft music lulling me to sleep. A woman wearing a spotless uniform appeared at the door in front of me, she bowed deeply and continued walking along the aisle. She did this every time she walked through that door and at every car upon entering and exiting. A uniformed man walking about did the same, but his bow wasnt as deep ore reverent as the womans. Violet and I looked at each other very impressed. I opened my brand new bottle of green tea and to my delight, it was sweet, I finished it in two seconds. I sat upright and leaned my chair back comfortably, but properly, just like every other passenger in the reserved seat car, listened to the whispers of the wind in our high speed train and fell asleep. In Osaka, we found our train to Kyoto immediately, only flashed our passes to get in and out and almost had a train car to ourselves. It then downed on me that because we have train passes that allow us to travel anywhere around the country without any additional charge, we dont really need tickets, we just need to flash the pass, enter the area and platform to where we are going and find a seat. Reserved seats, which are also free to us, do need tickets, but only for information purposes. If you lose it, no one will make you buy a new one. The computer already knows whos supposed to be sitting on that seat. In Japan, no one is likely to cheat.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 02:35:17 +0000
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