Busy 24 hours...
Well, I'm at the start of a week or so long vacation (go me!). However, I almost managed to mess the whole thing up before it even started. I got all my packing done and headed to the local train station (located about 10 minutes from my house) with about 10 minutes to spare. Along the way I stopped at an ATM and got the money I would need on my trip. I arrived at the station with 5 minutes to spare. Five minutes is plenty of time, as the trains almost always run on schedule (and never early). Well... I notice a distinct lack of people waiting for a train. I look at the train schedule board and notice that the train schedule had been changed... the train did leave on time... "on time" was just 15 minutes earlier than I had expected. "No problem," I think... I can drive to another station about 35 miles away and catch one of the trains there.
Somehow I conveniently forgot that to do so I would have to drive through a typhoon (and a big one at that) to get to the station. I managed to get to the station 20 minutes before the new train I intended to catch. Well... that would be fine, except for the fact that the station didn't have a parking lot. (Technically, it did... but it was closed off for some reason). I searched the surrounding neighborhood for somewhere to park for a week (to no avail) for those twenty minutes.
So, I had no choice but to drive to Aomori City (the prefectural capital), find parking, and get on the night bus there. I arrived in Aomori almost a full hour before the bus was scheduled to leave the station (I had already double and triple checked the departure time). I looked for a parking place. One place was closed. I went and parked in a parking deck. I asked the gentleman in the fare booth how much it would cost to park there 24 hours. The answer? About 35 dollars. As I was planning to park for about 10 days, that was out of the question. Evidently, there is no long term parking available in Aomori. Bleh. Running low on time I drive out to a mall and park in a spot there. I manage to hail a taxi and get to the bus station. I jump out of the taxi and onto the bus. Two minutes eighteen seconds before the bus left. Had I not made it on time, the 80 dollar bus ticket would have been for naught.
What concerns me is the fact that they close and lock off the parking lot where my car is on weekday nights (starting at 1AM and opening it again at 7AM). I'm pretty sure that someone is going to notice my car sitting there for a week. What remains to be seen is whether or not my car is going to be there when I get back into town.
Anyhow, there is nothing I can do about it for the time being, so I'm not going to worry. I'll let you all know what happens. In the meantime, I'm just bumming around and enjoying not having a schedule of things to do (go me!).
Somehow I conveniently forgot that to do so I would have to drive through a typhoon (and a big one at that) to get to the station. I managed to get to the station 20 minutes before the new train I intended to catch. Well... that would be fine, except for the fact that the station didn't have a parking lot. (Technically, it did... but it was closed off for some reason). I searched the surrounding neighborhood for somewhere to park for a week (to no avail) for those twenty minutes.
So, I had no choice but to drive to Aomori City (the prefectural capital), find parking, and get on the night bus there. I arrived in Aomori almost a full hour before the bus was scheduled to leave the station (I had already double and triple checked the departure time). I looked for a parking place. One place was closed. I went and parked in a parking deck. I asked the gentleman in the fare booth how much it would cost to park there 24 hours. The answer? About 35 dollars. As I was planning to park for about 10 days, that was out of the question. Evidently, there is no long term parking available in Aomori. Bleh. Running low on time I drive out to a mall and park in a spot there. I manage to hail a taxi and get to the bus station. I jump out of the taxi and onto the bus. Two minutes eighteen seconds before the bus left. Had I not made it on time, the 80 dollar bus ticket would have been for naught.
What concerns me is the fact that they close and lock off the parking lot where my car is on weekday nights (starting at 1AM and opening it again at 7AM). I'm pretty sure that someone is going to notice my car sitting there for a week. What remains to be seen is whether or not my car is going to be there when I get back into town.
Anyhow, there is nothing I can do about it for the time being, so I'm not going to worry. I'll let you all know what happens. In the meantime, I'm just bumming around and enjoying not having a schedule of things to do (go me!).