Today, I endeavoured to travel to a Japanese volcano and visit a traditional Japanese onsen. I failed in such a spectacular fashion that it makes this particular report almost pointless.
That’s not to say I didn’t travel. Boy, did I ever travel.
I was still feeling worn out from my day at the Disney park yesterday and got off to a late start. I figured a soak in a natural hot spring would be just what the doctor ordered. I headed onto the subway and, following the directions of Apple Maps, just took whichever train it suggested. I have a metro card that allows for basically unlimited use, but it’s only for the trains in downtown Tokyo. I very quickly found myself outside of the metro area taking trains my card wouldn’t cover. When I got to Shin Yokohama, I disembarked because I knew that eventually I was going to have to pay, but I wasn’t really sure which trains I could take and which I couldn’t.
I scrunched up my face in confusion at the schedule signs and, seeing my consternation, a conductor asked where I was trying to go. Long story short, he helped me pay what I owed and then led me to another employee who helped me buy a ticket to Odawara where I would get a bus to Hakone-Yumoto. Things were looking up. She told me the next train leaves at 10:45am.
I left and went back to confirm which train I should be taking. She very clearly said any train on platform 3 or 4. After ascending the escalator, I quickly inspected the electronic train schedule. I confirmed my location on platforms 3 and 4, and all the trains arriving in the next 20 minutes or so had the same company name in matching orange letters. This all seemed like good news. One of the trains was leaving at 10:39, and it was an express train! My thought process went something like, “Hey, that’s just one minute away, and I can make up some time from my late start — what luck!”
The express train in question turned out to be on the Tokaido Shinkansen line — it was a bullet train. I soon discovered it was en route for Nagoya, a 1-hour-and-15-minute high-speed race across the small island country. Oh dear!
Going on an expensive train far, far away from my destination was indeed some kind of luck, but not the kind anyone wants.
Alas, when I arrived in Nagoya after stewing in my thoughts in the silent car, I ended up taking the next bullet train back to where I came from. When the inspector came around to check tickets — it felt like a scene from a movie — he moved from one passenger to the next, suspense building, and I knew that in just a minute or two, he’d be asking for mine! I did NOT want to pay the $100 CAD+ fee I surely owed for being on this train.
I explained I’d taken the wrong train, and he told me to just get off at the next stop (where I had come from) and it would be fine. It was such a relief.
Feeling disheartened, I headed back to my hotel, had a shower, a beer, and dropped into bed at about 5:00pm.
Tomorrow: Sapporo.