Kanto On Location Day 13: On the Road Again
13 was to be my last day in the city, and it was completely reserved for travel. You may have noticed that as the trip wore on (and was extended two days) I became more and more frugal, going from 5-star hotel to Internet capsule, katsu at popular restaurants to curry at the 24-hour fast food place, and most importantly a private room on the lovely night train, to vying for space on a plain old local train.
Yes indeed, I did not go via night bus, bullet train or even the Moonlight Nagara - I came back to Osaka on a local train. Hah. For the low low price of about $20, versus $60 (bus), $100 (blue train) or $130 (shinkansen bullet train) I sacrificed 10 hours to the JR Gods and took the long way home. So after I woke up, around 7, I spent a few minutes getting my stuff together, paid my bill, and went off to the Krispy Kreme for a quick breakfast. I got 4 donuts (with the intention of eating 1 and taking home 3) and they gave me a free glazed one in the lineup (which was just me, lol, I guess going at 8 AM on a holiday weekend is the key to Krispy Kreme access) so I ate the glazed one and one of the others, then I headed to the station and got on the southbound Saikyo Line.
The Saikyo has some forward-facing seats, so I was sitting across from someone for the first few minutes, but the train emptied after we passed the major Yamanote stations, and I relaxed, looked out the window and checked in on IRC using my mini-pc's USB Internet. I had intended to listen to Radio PSI (which is what I usually do on Sunday mornings) by just turning on winamp, conncting and treating the computer like an oversized MP3 player. However, there was no DJ on, turned out many of the DJs were hanging out together at a mini-convention and so the schedule was different from usual. DJ Not-A-DJ, who would usually be on at the time, was off at the mini-con and DJ Mon's broadcast seemed to be broken, so it was just dead air. They said there would be a special broadcast at 11:30 Eastern, so I shut down my computer to save the battery and listened to my iPod instead. (Turned out DJ Ozztastic actually DID do a show after that, and I missed it. Sadness.)
After something like 2 hours on the Saikyo Line, the line terminated and headed back towards Tokyo, so I switched to the Tokaido Line here.
The Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線, Tōkaidō-honsen?) is the busiest trunk line of Japan Railway (JR), connecting Tokyo Station and Kobe Station. It is 589.5 km (366 miles) long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen runs largely parallel to the line.
The term "Tōkaidō Main Line" is largely a holdover from pre-Shinkansen days: now, various portions of the line have different names, which are officially used in JR. Today, there are no passenger trains that operate over the entire length of the line (other than certain overnight services), so longer intercity trips require several transfers along the way.
I had been let out at Atami Station, meaning I'd officially left Tokyo Prefecture and was now in Shizuoka Prefecture. I got on the next Tokaido and continued on, I believe I stopped in Mishima, then got on a train to Shizuoka Station itself. En route, I passed Mount Fuji for like an hour, but as the weather was cloudy I could not actually SEE the venerable mountain, just catch a glimpse of the lower half of it every couple of minutes. Sad. The few times that it appeared for more than a second before disappearing behind a building/cloud, I got out the camera, but never managed to get a clear shot.
At Shizuoka I stopped to look for something to eat, but very little was to be had. I went up to the food court but the place was blocked with people. Ended up buying a tamago-donburi (scrambled egg on rice) bento box from the convenience store, then Emily called with some odd question about how to order Pizza Hut from their website, then the next train showed up so I hopped on. It was juuuuuuuuust about 1:30 so I took out my mini-pc again, plugged in headphones and connected to the radio stream. The show was really good, but every time we went through a tunnel or a super-rural area I lost the signal, and constantly reconnecting drained my battery stupid fast. I had to change trains again at another station nearby (I forget the name) and since the battery was about to give out, I went and sat down downstaits for a bit to hear the end rather than make it drain faster. I managed to squeeze about 30 more minutes out and it died shortly after a hilarious "Be A Man" karaoke by DJs Beta and Not-A-DJ with like 10 other people chorusing in the background. Nobody is manlier than BlackLeader singing that song in a super-baritone voice, haha.
Once my entertainment had been canned, I got back on the next train and took it quite a short distance, to Toyohashi, the first stop within Aichi Prefecture. Switched there after scarfing two donuts on the platform like a bad foreigner. >.>; Finally it was a train with a forward-facing seat ("Welcome to Aichi! <33") so I took out my DS and played MOTHER 3 for quite a while, until we stopped in Ogaki, in Gifu Prefecture. It had gotten dark during this leg of the trip and I was actually starting to feel like I was getting a little sick of this, even though Ogaki was the biggest sign that I was almost there. (Ogaki is the furthest station I have been to FROM Osaka on a local train.) Had a few minutes so I used the bathroom and thought I would find some dinner, but there were no station shops except a bakery, and I wasn't holding a lot of hope for outside the station either. I decided to wait until Maibara Station instead, the terminus of the Tokaido Line. I ended up having to stand the whole way there, though it was not significantly far.
At Maibara, I left the gates to look for food. I figured, since it was a major line terminus AND a Shinkansen stop, there had to be cafes and stuff. Nope. Nothing to be had inside the gates or outside, I would have to leave the station, and I was cold and hungry already. I decided to re-enter and just keep going. I had another forward-facing-seat train so that was cool, and I emailed Mana back and forth with my cell phone until its battery died. Then I got off at Kusatsu (Shiga Prefecture) to try again for food.
Most of the restaurants were closed because it was still new Year's holidays. ._.
I didn't feel like eating at Lotteria and I prefer not to eat at pub restaurants alone, so after checking out the whole station area (while listening to the full recorded broadcast of one of the last Fobbies are Borange episodes - I thought this was funny because I was in the Kusatsu station mall when I was listening to the very last FaB episode back in November) I got back on the train AGAIN and, after seriously thinking about stopping in Ishiyama to eat at my favourite cafe, I decided to just keep going until I got home. I took out a book and started reading. Not long after we crossed into Kyoto Prefecture, passed Kyoto Station itself (where we picked up a LOT of passengers, so I had to keep my stuff on my lap ._.) and then shortly after entered Osaka Prefecture. To get the most out of my JR train ticket I opted to go to Takatsuki City and then take a bus home from there, rather than change to the Kintetsu Line at Kyoto Station. Thus I had to level my huge suitcase down off the rack while the people in the chair beside me and opposite me were sleeping, without dropping it and crushing them. x.x Luckily I did manage that, and left the gates and went immediately to Subway. Do not pass Go, do not collect anything but an avocado and veggie sub. Then I missed the bus by...mere seconds...but a new one showed up fast and idled there at the bus stop for the next 15 minutes. There was a little girl sitting beside me who was SO cute, she would stretch out her arms allllll the way and then open and close her fists. She looked a little sleepy - it was about 8 PM. I offered her mom my seat several times, but she insisted she was fine.
It was my first time taking the Takatsuki City bus from Takatsuki station, but everything went swimmingly and soon I was dropped off at the stop 50 metres from my apartment. Convenient, that bus. I walked in, turned on my PC and the heater, ate my delicious sub, opened my mail, and slept the sleep of the narcoleptics. It was beautiful.
Yes indeed, I did not go via night bus, bullet train or even the Moonlight Nagara - I came back to Osaka on a local train. Hah. For the low low price of about $20, versus $60 (bus), $100 (blue train) or $130 (shinkansen bullet train) I sacrificed 10 hours to the JR Gods and took the long way home. So after I woke up, around 7, I spent a few minutes getting my stuff together, paid my bill, and went off to the Krispy Kreme for a quick breakfast. I got 4 donuts (with the intention of eating 1 and taking home 3) and they gave me a free glazed one in the lineup (which was just me, lol, I guess going at 8 AM on a holiday weekend is the key to Krispy Kreme access) so I ate the glazed one and one of the others, then I headed to the station and got on the southbound Saikyo Line.
The Saikyo has some forward-facing seats, so I was sitting across from someone for the first few minutes, but the train emptied after we passed the major Yamanote stations, and I relaxed, looked out the window and checked in on IRC using my mini-pc's USB Internet. I had intended to listen to Radio PSI (which is what I usually do on Sunday mornings) by just turning on winamp, conncting and treating the computer like an oversized MP3 player. However, there was no DJ on, turned out many of the DJs were hanging out together at a mini-convention and so the schedule was different from usual. DJ Not-A-DJ, who would usually be on at the time, was off at the mini-con and DJ Mon's broadcast seemed to be broken, so it was just dead air. They said there would be a special broadcast at 11:30 Eastern, so I shut down my computer to save the battery and listened to my iPod instead. (Turned out DJ Ozztastic actually DID do a show after that, and I missed it. Sadness.)
After something like 2 hours on the Saikyo Line, the line terminated and headed back towards Tokyo, so I switched to the Tokaido Line here.
The Tōkaidō Main Line (東海道本線, Tōkaidō-honsen?) is the busiest trunk line of Japan Railway (JR), connecting Tokyo Station and Kobe Station. It is 589.5 km (366 miles) long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen runs largely parallel to the line.
The term "Tōkaidō Main Line" is largely a holdover from pre-Shinkansen days: now, various portions of the line have different names, which are officially used in JR. Today, there are no passenger trains that operate over the entire length of the line (other than certain overnight services), so longer intercity trips require several transfers along the way.
I had been let out at Atami Station, meaning I'd officially left Tokyo Prefecture and was now in Shizuoka Prefecture. I got on the next Tokaido and continued on, I believe I stopped in Mishima, then got on a train to Shizuoka Station itself. En route, I passed Mount Fuji for like an hour, but as the weather was cloudy I could not actually SEE the venerable mountain, just catch a glimpse of the lower half of it every couple of minutes. Sad. The few times that it appeared for more than a second before disappearing behind a building/cloud, I got out the camera, but never managed to get a clear shot.
At Shizuoka I stopped to look for something to eat, but very little was to be had. I went up to the food court but the place was blocked with people. Ended up buying a tamago-donburi (scrambled egg on rice) bento box from the convenience store, then Emily called with some odd question about how to order Pizza Hut from their website, then the next train showed up so I hopped on. It was juuuuuuuuust about 1:30 so I took out my mini-pc again, plugged in headphones and connected to the radio stream. The show was really good, but every time we went through a tunnel or a super-rural area I lost the signal, and constantly reconnecting drained my battery stupid fast. I had to change trains again at another station nearby (I forget the name) and since the battery was about to give out, I went and sat down downstaits for a bit to hear the end rather than make it drain faster. I managed to squeeze about 30 more minutes out and it died shortly after a hilarious "Be A Man" karaoke by DJs Beta and Not-A-DJ with like 10 other people chorusing in the background. Nobody is manlier than BlackLeader singing that song in a super-baritone voice, haha.
Once my entertainment had been canned, I got back on the next train and took it quite a short distance, to Toyohashi, the first stop within Aichi Prefecture. Switched there after scarfing two donuts on the platform like a bad foreigner. >.>; Finally it was a train with a forward-facing seat ("Welcome to Aichi! <33") so I took out my DS and played MOTHER 3 for quite a while, until we stopped in Ogaki, in Gifu Prefecture. It had gotten dark during this leg of the trip and I was actually starting to feel like I was getting a little sick of this, even though Ogaki was the biggest sign that I was almost there. (Ogaki is the furthest station I have been to FROM Osaka on a local train.) Had a few minutes so I used the bathroom and thought I would find some dinner, but there were no station shops except a bakery, and I wasn't holding a lot of hope for outside the station either. I decided to wait until Maibara Station instead, the terminus of the Tokaido Line. I ended up having to stand the whole way there, though it was not significantly far.
At Maibara, I left the gates to look for food. I figured, since it was a major line terminus AND a Shinkansen stop, there had to be cafes and stuff. Nope. Nothing to be had inside the gates or outside, I would have to leave the station, and I was cold and hungry already. I decided to re-enter and just keep going. I had another forward-facing-seat train so that was cool, and I emailed Mana back and forth with my cell phone until its battery died. Then I got off at Kusatsu (Shiga Prefecture) to try again for food.
Most of the restaurants were closed because it was still new Year's holidays. ._.
I didn't feel like eating at Lotteria and I prefer not to eat at pub restaurants alone, so after checking out the whole station area (while listening to the full recorded broadcast of one of the last Fobbies are Borange episodes - I thought this was funny because I was in the Kusatsu station mall when I was listening to the very last FaB episode back in November) I got back on the train AGAIN and, after seriously thinking about stopping in Ishiyama to eat at my favourite cafe, I decided to just keep going until I got home. I took out a book and started reading. Not long after we crossed into Kyoto Prefecture, passed Kyoto Station itself (where we picked up a LOT of passengers, so I had to keep my stuff on my lap ._.) and then shortly after entered Osaka Prefecture. To get the most out of my JR train ticket I opted to go to Takatsuki City and then take a bus home from there, rather than change to the Kintetsu Line at Kyoto Station. Thus I had to level my huge suitcase down off the rack while the people in the chair beside me and opposite me were sleeping, without dropping it and crushing them. x.x Luckily I did manage that, and left the gates and went immediately to Subway. Do not pass Go, do not collect anything but an avocado and veggie sub. Then I missed the bus by...mere seconds...but a new one showed up fast and idled there at the bus stop for the next 15 minutes. There was a little girl sitting beside me who was SO cute, she would stretch out her arms allllll the way and then open and close her fists. She looked a little sleepy - it was about 8 PM. I offered her mom my seat several times, but she insisted she was fine.
It was my first time taking the Takatsuki City bus from Takatsuki station, but everything went swimmingly and soon I was dropped off at the stop 50 metres from my apartment. Convenient, that bus. I walked in, turned on my PC and the heater, ate my delicious sub, opened my mail, and slept the sleep of the narcoleptics. It was beautiful.