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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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Sunday, November 24, 2002 |
 I've often thought this before, but this weekend, my thoughts seemed to clarify themselves into some sort of coherence. I think, put simply, that there's a certain melancholy in travelling, especially in a country where one isn't a permanent resident. This melancholy, I think, comes from a feeling of 'finality', the feeling that there may be no more chances ever to make return visits to enjoyable or memorable spots, or to strike out further and explore the same places more deeply, or the surrounding areas for the first time.
Taking this weekend's travel as an example, we went to Uchiko, which was a most enjoyable day. However, this enjoyment, the pleasant memories of the visit, are tempered by a feeling of sadness, melancholy, for the two reasons above. Firstly, there is the realisation- the knowledge, perhaps- that each new town visited is being visited for potentially the final time. I enjoyed Uchiko; but I may never return, no matter how much I'd like to.
Then there is the melancholy that comes from the knowledge that missed opportunities may never be able to be fulfilled. There was a chance; there may never be that chance again. For example, just over the mountain from Uchiko there was a town- Ozu- that I'd have very much liked to have visited as well as Uchiko itself. But there was no time; and while it's possible to take the view that I can always come back, I think that I know in my heart of hearts that I most likely won't. So there's a missed opportunity that I'll probably never be able to fulfil, and the knowledge that a certain chance, a certain opportunity, has been lost, probably irretrieveably, leads to a feeling of sadness.
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I'd noticed when we arrived that the ferry terminal in Matsuyama (Matsuyama Kanko-ko) had been completely rebuilt since my last visit, but with some time to spare waiting for the ferry back to Hiroshima, we had time for a better look.
It has to be said that the ferry port appears to be modelled as closely as possible on... an airport. The corridors from the disembarkation point to the main building, the waiting area and concourse, all bear a striking resemblance to a small- to medium-sized airport. There were even luggage trolleys, albeit little tiny ones. Indeed, when we arrived from Kure I was half expecting to see a duty-free shop and passport control...
Waiting for the ferry back, we found an area outside on the first floor with a view of the dock, and the islands just off the mainland, so we sat there for a while. This area, though, was notable not so much for its view, as for its location... next to the marriage suite. That's right: a marriage suite in a ferry port! Who would want to hold their wedding reception in a ferry port? The mind boggles.
As we walked to the ferry, though, there was a little plaque proclaiming that yes, this very evening, this was indeed the place of Hitomi and Yoshihiko's wedding reception (the names have been changed to spare any embarrassment)! As I say, the mind boggles...
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I think that 'Iyo Tetsudo' would be better called 'Oyaji Tetsudo' (Old Man's Railway). Everybody on the railway- the drivers, the guards, the station staff- seemed seemed as if they'd been brought back out of retirement. At one station, the man collecting the tickets of the people who'd got off the train was wearing a saggy old cardigan, and looked something like he'd been dragged out of an old people's home somewhere...
Then there was the guard of the train we were on. Iyo Tetsudo trains, trams and buses all have stickers saying that they're doing their best to give 'hito ni yasashii'- 'friendly' is probably the best translation- announcements, which is fair enough, laudable even... except that the guard on our train couldn't pronounce 'S' sounds! To make matters worse, almost every station, not to mention the Japanese for 'thank you', contained the troublesome 'S'. We both tried not to laugh, but in the end it was just too much...
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A sad day. According to the Yomiuri Shinbun, yesterday marked the final run of the Grand Hikari Shinkansen, from Shin-Osaka to Hakata. The Grand Hikari sets were 100-series Shinkansen, but with the four carriages in the centre of the train being double-deck. On the upper deck of one of the cars was a restaurant, which was always the highlight of the five-hour trip to Tokyo, until the restaurant service was discontinued on March 11, 2000, with the introduction of the Hikari RailStar.
I understand that the 100-series are no longer fast enough to keep the Hikari schedules possible with the newer Shinkansen trains, but all the same, it's sad to see the Grand Hikari go.
By the way, the Byun Byun Shinkansen pages on the Internet are a wealth of information about the Shinkansen, its history, current news, etc. A particularly interesting tidbit of information is that the 500-series Nozomi run from Hiroshima (yes, the home of the Breakfast Show!) to Kokura is, at 44 minutes for 192 km, the fastest scheduled train service in the world.
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:57:01 pm.
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