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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Tuesday, August 13, 2002 |
 1?
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As the ferry got into Koyo, halfway up the hillside there was a line of O-Bon lanterns, obviously lit up from the inside. They were far away, and so were only very small, but nevertheless they were an evocative sight.
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Having met Nagareda, we went to an izakaya called Sankyu-tei. It's a chain, where nothing costs more than 390 yen (although we still managed to spend 9000 yen!). We had an excellent time; it was good to talk to Nagareda outside work, and to talk about things which can't be discussed in the office. We drank for three hours, and I caught the final ferry back.
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I'd arranged to meet Nagareda for a drink in the evening, and I had a couple of hours to kill, so after the meeting had finished I called into a bookshop to get a guide to Kumamoto, and then retreated back to Starbucks (another branch!) to peruse the guide book over a tangerine and lime frappucino. Very good indeed, I have to say.
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After this, I needed a drink, but it was too early for the stiff variety, and anyway I said I'd show my face at the AET group meeting for Kure at the Prefectural Orientation, so I popped into the nearest Starbucks for a double espresso (with cream). The great thing (one of the many great things) about Hiroshima is that you are never more than 23 seconds away from a branch of Starbucks.
I was just sending an email when my phone rang, displaying an unknown number from Tokyo; well, recently there's been a scam involving numbers from Tokyo, so I ignored the call and sent my email. Almost straightaway the phone rang again with the same number, though, so I took the call... and found that it was Jo, from Tokyo! It was good to speak to her again after such a while; every time I think we've lost contact permanently, we somehow manage to get back in touch.
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After lunch, I went to book the tickets for my trip to Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Sasebo. I wanted one ticket from Kure to Misumi, one from Omura to Sasebo, and one from Sasebo to Kure. Even with seat reservations and the supplements for the Shinkansen and the express services, this was still not a difficult route to issue. Or so I thought. Amazingly, it actually took a full hour, in the end!
Before I asked for any tickets, I borrowed the JR timetable and worked out all the times for myself. I then showed the list of trains and reservations I wanted booking to the assistant, assuming that she'd go off and book them for me (which is, of course, what normally happens). But no. The first problem came when she was incapable of working which dates I wanted tickets for- this despite the fact that I'd written the dates down clearly, in Japanese. So I explained the dates to her, and sat down, assuming that everything was sorted out. But no. By the time she got to the computer (it must have been a whole five steps away), she'd forgotten the dates, so we had to go through them again.
But it got worse. Misumi is written with two kanji that actually mean 'triangle', and are pronounced 'sankaku', if used as a normal word (i.e. not a place name). So the girl asked me if I really wanted to go to 'Sankaku'. I told her I didn't, but I wouldn't mind going to 'Misumi', and that that was after all the reason why I'd come in to a travel agent's in the first place. But- of course- she refused to accept that 'Sankaku' was actually 'Misumi', and so our double act continued until I lost patience and told her to just put the kanji into the computer without worrying about the pronunciation. But by that time she'd forgotten what date I wanted to go to Misumi- or Sankaku- on...
Anyway, having walked her through the timetable a few times, explained to her just how JR tickets work and the regulations for leaving stations in the middle of journeys, and so on, finally I got the tickets issued. She lined them all up in front of me and asked, in a polite but slightly challenging-me-to-dare-tell-her-she'd-made-a-mistake-sort of voice, whether I wanted to check them. Damn right I wanted to check them! Surprisingly, though, I only found one mistake- I'd asked for the Green Car (First Class) between Sasebo and Hakata, and she'd booked it as normal- so I had her change it. I was almost glad she was so incompetent when she forgot to charge me for the First Class supplement!
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The CIR meeting was an unnoteworthy as ever. I had hoped that there would be questions, but of course there weren't. Part of this is that the new CIRs have only just arrived, so they don't know enough about their jobs to be in a position to ask questions, and another reason is that they're anxious about speaking Japanese in front of other foreigners who speak Japanese. I know from when I first came to Japan, that there is an almost automatic tendency to compare your own Japanese with that of the foreigners around you; if you're better than them it's fine, but if you feel that your own Japanese isn't up to the standard of the people around you, then it becomes very intimidating.
Anyway, we lasted in the end until 11.40, and then called it a day and went for an early lunch...
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For the first time in my life this morning, I got on the wrong tram. Hiroshima's trams are 'imported' from various cities around Japan, and each batch tends to be a different colour, presumably the colour it was in its original city. Anyway, there is a group of three-car trams from Fukuoka, painted salmon pink, and these trams always run from the port, past the city office, through the city centre, and to the railway station, which was the route I wanted, so I got on without thinking, especially as the tram was just about to leave.
These trams always run from the port, past the city office, through the city centre, and to the railway station. Correction. Always ran. Apparently, they now also run on the direct route from the port to the station, which was not the route I wanted. It was only at Miyuki, when the tram should have turned left and didn't, that I realised something was wrong. Actually, I assumed that the points had been set incorrectly, but there was no chorus of complaint, no rising up in anger from the other passengers, so I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the tram that had been misrouted, but me.
Luckily, I needed to go to Heiwa-Odori, and there is a tram stop at both ends of this road. I had intended to go to the Peace Park end of the boulevard, but in the end I simply got off at the stop at the Hijiyama end instead. So not too inconvenient, really- although it'll teach me to check the destinations!
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...Come to think of it, who on earth would carry around a set of nail-clippers with them on a day-to-day basis? Or am I missing something fundamental here?
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I make no comments about gappei- the possible amalgamation of the four towns. However, I do wonder whether we can ever become a city (perhaps 'a self-respecting city' might be better) when middle-aged Japanese men think nothing of clipping their fingernails at the port while waiting for the ferry...
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Business trip to Hiroshima today. I'm the advisor for the CIR meeting of the Hiroshima Prefectural JET Orientation. It's good to be asked to give help and advice at these meetings, but nevertheless, I'm glad I'm employed directly by my town.
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Breakfast Show Staple Randomhaiku of the day (from The Genuine Haiku Generator)
lightly snoring blue
poltergeist melts, bat quailing
fiend abandons, black
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:28:04 pm.
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