Stories of Kansai Travel 1

Original post May 2008.

It was about one month before I'd leave Japan. I had submitted my thesis right on the val$@&%*# day, so practically it was a month-recess for me before the defense in the mid of March. I'd been in several places in Sapporo, Otaru and other areas in the north, Ibaraki, Hiroshima, Kyoto, etc. so thought now it was the time for southern's turn.

I was fascinated about the southern Japan (ok, anywhere in the country actually). You know, smaller cities often have their own characters as oppose to the large, established capital. The climate was warmer, so people are warmer I thought. And there was this charming lady at the office, Eguchi-san, that always greeted with sincere smile and helped us students through those hard days (ok, sometimes not that hard hehe..). She was originally from Kyushu, and the naive me would tell myself Kyushuans are all like her. So travelling to those places would be fun.

The plan was to go the southest (not including Okinawa) as far as Hakata or Miyazaki, and crawl back-north to Yokohama. It was still February, I could not use 18 kippu the kind and friendly discount ticket. I shared this one-week-or-more plan to Suhut, a fellow Indonesian student from the same office as well, and he was eager to join, but later we found he wouldn't have holiday for Monday classes (I graduated from it already). I attempted poisoning him to skip class only to know he had already been absent some classes ago. So we opted to cut the trip within a week, just to Osaka and sorrounding cities. Talking about companion and trade off.

So we executed the plan. Because the theme was Budget Travel 2008, we chose to use a night bus. Riding bus at night and arriving at destination in the morning can save you several thousands yen from hotel rent that you can spend happily on cha mochi or sweet potato instead. We used the 123bus found from the net, from Yokohama to Osaka, an 8 hour bus ride that costs 3,900 yen. Some questions to Google-sensei also led us to Mikado hotel for 2,100 yen per night per person, which I presumed, was a business hotel because it was cheap.

Riding Bus to Osaka, Simpai Ja Nai (don't worry)

It was raining quite cats and dogs and so windy that evening when I was to go. Valery, one of my house-mates asked whether the bus could fly in that kind of wind. Hehe, trying to scare a brave person. The last local bus of the day to terminal would pass my apartment at 22.40, and Suhut's dorm was 5 minutes after away. It was going as planned, although Suhut had to run to catch the already-passing bus because the driver, of course, did not see him waiting in a shelter of a tree in front of somebody's house instead of at the bus stop...

We arrived at bus terminal about 20 minutes later. It was just a place of wide trotoar across Yodobashi Camera Yokohama, so nothing specially designed for a bus station. But the buses picking up passengers there were so many. At least some 3 groups of staff from different companies were managing registrants and passengers and the coming and departing buses. Each company operates several buses an evening, with different classes, different fares. To our amazement, the buses seemed all full with passengers! And it was even Tuesday not weekend!! Most passengers of our bus (the economy class I would say) if not all were university students, or undergraduate students males and females.

This bus was the normal available and happened to be the cheapest. Initially I wanted to book the one with toilet inside, or if not available, with toilet and wider seats. For those who already experience it must know that nature calls could become real torture like hell. Unluckily when I checked 4 days before the d-day, those buses were already fully booked! Amazing. Just some seats left in the-then our bus, no other way so I took it.

Later I found out that we needed not to worry on the bladder thing. Some one hour and half after the bus hit the road at 23.50, it stopped at a fancy rest station designed for long journey wheelers. The station were also with restaurants, souvenir shops, and even book store with bright lights (later when I returned to Indonesia I knew Indonesian call it setopan). Passengers were happy go lucky to hop out the bus to do their business. Only then the bus stop again and again, every 1 and half hour, or two hours for those rest stations I felt it a little bit too often in order to get some decent sleep.

The bus ran in a very careful way. It ran steadily about 80 kph (I guess) on sturdy smooth road and best illumination of road lights a bus can get. Through some distance the highway even had semi canopy like the ones houses have for carports! You know, from some countries more bus drivers go to heaven than clerics do. It's because when clerics preach parish become sleepy, but those bus drivers drive so crazy that make passengers pray all the time and really remember God! But not in Japan, here I think clerics win unanimously. Bus driver won't scare you.

But maybe that's just because our ride was designed that way so that we arrived in Osaka at the right time, otherwise we got there too early in the dark before dawn with welcoming sound of crickets everywhere.



Picture 1 (railway across Japan) taken from http://www.purple.dti.ne.jp/tokyoryokan/japanrailpass.htm
Picture 2 we boarded our bus
Picture 3 Eguchi-san, with husband, holding a present from Phong Vietnam at farewell party for her retirement December 2007. Osewani narimashita.