Day 7 – Okayama, Korakuen, Kurashiki, a little Tokyo, and night train to Kanazawa
Like I said before, my only plan Friday was to get on a train to Okayama and read some of my book on the train to help me make more of a plan. So I woke up from my second awesome sleep in the creepy abandoned hostel and got ready to head out. I also scratched my sunglasses on the creepy bed post during the “getting equipped” scene so that sucked. I thought about stopping somewhere for breakfast but as usual I wanted to get moving in case I might miss anything.
It was really handy that Eri’s friend taught me how to use the bullet train schedule book because I starting using it extensively and that’s how I came up with my brilliant plan for the day. I decided I was mostly done with the Southwest of Japan and it was time to go up to the north so that I could see plenty of things up there and not worry about getting to Tokyo on time. I was also worried about finding a place to sleep that night so I looked hard for a night train that was going where I wanted and that my pass would get me on for free. There are a few things a rail pass won’t get you on a most night trains fall into that category. I finally found a train from Tokyo to Kanazawa that I could take from 11:30pm to 6:00am, so that was the end of my plan and I just had to figure out what to do before that. I also found a train from Okayama to Tokyo around 5:30 that would get me there almost just in time for the night train. Since I was already headed to Okayama but didn’t know if I really wanted to spend 6 hours there, I found another two trains that would take me to Kurashiki and back in time to catch the train to Tokyo. So that was my plan that went off mostly well and started when I got to Okayama for the first time.
Okayama was a nice-looking, clean, moderately-sized city. There were a handful of attractions I thought about going to see, but the main thing that interested me was Korakuen, one of the top three gardens in Japan. It was a very beautiful garden with some amazing scenes, but it wasn’t my style as much as gardens I saw later like Kenrokuen. This one was much more open and field-like. There were orchards of various types of trees on the edges, but the middle was mostly open with a pond and mini-farms. As usually, the koi (carp) were gorgeous and I also found a little lizard that let me get surprisingly close to him. There was a nice pond on one side that was fully of some plant with a single huge leaf and I got a nice artsy picture of one with water inside (looking like a crystal or ice) that looks like it would come as a wallpaper with OS X. I really liked the edges of the garden where there were little shrines in the trees and things were a little less artificial.
Since I knew I had time before I had to get back to the station for the Kurashiki train, I took my first breather since I’d been in Japan. I took my time wandering around the garden and actually experienced it instead of just seeing it. I also found a nice shady spot on the side to just sit and take it in for awhile before I had to get moving. I headed back to the station and got there just in time to hop on the train to Kurashiki. Kurashiki is an old warehouse town I’d heard some good things about, but I wasn’t exactly sure why. I still don’t know what you’re really supposed to go see when you’re there, and I only had one hour so I just wandered around a bit. I didn’t see anything too special, but it was nice to just get some exposure to more regular cities.
I walked down an alley with lots of old traditional shops. One thing I noticed about old-timey Japanese shopping streets is there’s always one part that smells horrid because there’s an open fish market with tons of fish in all manner of chopped up. I couldn’t stand to work in that shop or one of the nearby stores, but I guess most Japanese are used to it. Though one thing I really missed when I eventually got to Tokyo (and of course when I left Japan) was the smell. Everywhere in Japan I went (except most of Tokyo) had certain smells. I’d say the average was a faint mix of fish and tatami (straw). I can’t wait until I can smell that again one day because I’m sure it’ll immediately bring me back to my travels. My favorite part of Kurashiki was the traditional part that looked like it was straight out of any old Japanese movie. The tiny streets lined with traditional houses were really nice, and I would have loved to have stopped for lunch but I really couldn’t take too much time. As usual, I found some really pretty shrines randomly beside the roads, and it was nice to just wander around a place where no one else would be a tourist. (Japanese or foreign).
Another thing I noticed in Kurashiki and Okayama (and later at other cities) was that every medium-sized city has a really neat thing out outside the main train station. Okayama has this fountain with a spikey ball that shot water out of the spikes. Kurashiki has a flower bed clock. And I didn’t see this until the next day, but Kanazawa has a fountain that can write things in little water sprouts like the time and “Welcome to Kanazawa.” I also saw that all these medium-sized cities have an Aeon, Geos, and Nova outside the station. Those are all the big English teaching companies.
Anyway, I headed back to Okayama and got there with some time to kill before my train left for Tokyo, so I asked if there were any internet cafes around and found one near the station. Most of the cafes I went in were nice but too expensive, but this one was crazy. It was the nicest place ever with very big, comfortable rooms and tons of things you could do. Also they were just opening so they had a special and it was about a $1.50 for an hour. That included a free drink bar. I was used to being outside and so hot that I couldn’t stop drinking their slushies and I tried one of every flavor (and repeated a few) before I left in time to catch my train to Tokyo.
This train was a long ride that took the rest of the day. I passed through Osaka and Kyoto which was sad. I saw the sites I’d seen earlier but just shooting through and I got some blurry pictures of the temples poking out over the city. I had grown really fond of Kyoto and it was sad to pass through and not know how long it would be before I’d be back.
I ended up getting to Tokyo with some time to kill before my train left for Kanazawa so I left the station and looked around a bit. It was pretty much like I imagined it with tons of people and bright lights everywhere. Ueno station is where I was and it’s one of the biggest so it was a little hard to orient myself and make sure I could find my platform when I came back. I headed out into the street to just wander around. It was Friday night so everyone was out looking for entertainment. I realized I still hadn’t eaten anything, so I stopped at a little ramen shop on the side of the road and had another awesome dinner. Maybe the fact that I was eating big bowls of noodles was why I kept being able to go over 24 hours between meals, but it was incredibly tasty and satisfying again. The “restaurant” seemed like one of those places where the good ol’ working men stop on the way home after a hard day and wonder what all these whippersnappers in the streets are so excited about.
After I ate, I just wandered around a bit more and then headed back to the station. I found my platform and it was a little creepy since the station was completely closed and empty besides a few people waiting for my train. I waited with a bunch of families who had a lot of luggage and everyone was pretty somber for some reason. It was a fairly uncomfortable wait while the train attendants did maintenance and cleaned everything inside. Finally they let us on and I found myself a good spot in the back and spread out so I could sleep. I knew it wasn’t an actual “sleeper” car because my pass wouldn’t get me onto those. They have too many services and it would be too expensive to let people on for free. One thing to note is that with all the trains I took, I probably made up for the cost of my rail pass in this one day. Anyway, I knew I was going to have to sleep in a regular seat with no amenities, but I saw another girl who looked like she was sleeping across from me so I was encouraged that my idea wasn’t completely crazy.
Maybe that girl didn’t know any better either, but I soon found out I was completely wrong. I didn’t expect any sort of comfort, but I thought at least it’d be a train that ran smoothly all night and people would read quietly or fall asleep like on an airplane. I was completely wrong. The train just so happened to run in the middle of the night, but it was no different than any train during the day, except louder and it stopped at every single stop (I guess because they knew they had all night so why not stop everywhere). The spot I picked turned out to be the worst spot on the train. I was right by the back door where people got on and of at every stop. The door was also a sliding door which people would open and then let slam itself shut, which it did after a good three or four ear-shattering bounces on the hardwood frame. This happened about four or five times at every stop which was every couple of minutes, and I realized there was a subtle flaw in my brilliant plan to cover more ground and save more money. The best I could do was to take the tissues that are forced on you in the street in Japan and make earplugs out of them. I took out my towel and tried to squeeze under it like a tiny blanket, and eventually with the power of complete exhaustion and a zen disconnect from the physical realm, I managed to fall into to a half-sleep between stops.
Since there was really no end to this day or beginning of the next one, I’m not sure exactly where this entry stops and the next one starts but I guess this is a good spot. I got to Kanazawa around 6:30am and stumbled off the train. It still felt like a strange twilight extension of the previous day since I never really went to sleep, but I suppose this was really the end of the seventh day.
