NICK: The most unromantic Valentine's Day.
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2006
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11
106
Trip End
Ongoing
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Okazaki,
Japan
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
That's the big island, in case you're wondering.
In Japan, just in case you're wondering that, too.
Ash and I packed up our luggage from the comforts of John-san's house (most of our stuff) and lugged it to the little Iriya train depot. (Iriya is not a train STATION because it is in the middle of rice fields)
My luggage was so heavy, I honestly had failed to realize just HOW much I had brought. This consists of two large suitcases, my big backpacking backpack, and my 35 lb laptop backpack.
This was a lot of shite.
And I'm about to start a lot of whining. To save you from said whining, I will place it in bullets for you:
+ Luggage was super heavy
+ Missed train - got a neat front row view as it passed us while we stopped at train xing
+ Suitcases don't roll across rice fields. Take the long route around.
+ changed trains 4 times (only 1 station had elevators to the platforms)
+ Hauling suitcases up and down stairs sucks.
+ Shinkansen (bullet train) rocks.
+ Lack of cell phone sucks. Michiyo waited 45 mins since our luggage made us miss trains.
+ Catching Limited Rapid Express rocks. We skipped every station except ours.
+ Showing up and finding out michiyo drives a mini. Cool - Very good thing her dad brought a van, as well.
I was so happy to make it to Okazaki. I'd forgotten how cool Michiyo is, it's been a long time since I'd seen her. She has a small English school that she runs here in Okazaki since she used to live in the LA area for 10 years. Her English is quite good, so it's nice to have a native speaker to help out with some of the Japanese writing and words that we see. Ash and I have really enjoyed being at her house.
