So off I set down the stairs to the train platform where I used my instructions to ask for a ticket. About 10 minutes later I was on a train and going through dark tunnels. It didn’t take long before those tunnels gave way to grassy banks on both sides of the track and then a moment later there was actual landscape. The windows showed me small fields and scattered trees, roads and powerlines. Then the buildings came; scarce at first but then forming towns and suburbs.
Looking inside the train however made me feel nervous, I think it was the sour faces of the commuters and the mass of confusing kanji on the posters hanging from the ceiling. I felt very tired and very alone. Then (yes something dramatic happened) I heard a noise, kind of like an electronic bell warning of our approaching train to the outside world. It is a noise unique to Japan but one I have heard countless times before in anime and Japanese films. Hearing it made me enormously happy because for the first time during my trip so far I felt that it was worth coming, that noise alone helped me conquer my fear - for a few minutes at least. Mostly my thoughts were “God I’m tired, must keep going though.”
At Keisie Funabashi station I got off the train and looked left and right for some sign of where I was meant to go. People were going down the escalators so I decided to follow them. At the bottom were 3 different unappealing directions to choose from. I stood between them fumbling in my bag for something to help me, I can’t think what now. Credit to the Japanese people I had only been standing like a lost tourist for less than 20 seconds before a young Japanese couple came asked me if they could help.
My God could they help, they walked me to the next station, took the next train with me (it was on their way, or so they said), they showed me how to use the ticket vending machines and before we parted wrote down which platform, time and how many stations before I had to get off till I reached my destination. She was called Mana (or something like that) and was a photography assistant, I cannot recall his name but he had just come back from backpacking in Mexico. When I thanked him in Japanese he said something like “Yeah, yeah, whatever, we Japanese like to help,” as if my thanks were meaningless as well as unnecessary. When I had a second I sneakily placed two Ferrero rocher chocolates I happened to have on top of one of their bags. I think he knew I was doing it but didn’t say anything, when we said goodbye I had to rush through the barrier. When I turned to wave to them they were standing together like parents waving off their child; her hand on his shoulder and his right hand holding two gold wrapped chocolates.
I got off at Gyotoku then immediately back on when I figured out it was the next station I needed. I got off at Minami Gyotoku (see my confusion?) and walked out the exit and down some stairs. My reward for this was a free packet of tissues given to me by somebody giving out free packets of tissues for a promotional reason I will never understand (it’s all in Japanese). I pulled out my map and walked and walked and walked. With a little help from another Japanese stranger, I finally found where I was staying, hallelujah.
No comments:
Post a Comment