I Bless the Rains Down in Ueno

Sorry, I have to admit I'm a Toto fan and couldn't resist an "Africa" pun to kick off my post about the final day I spent in Tokyo before heading off to Nara to start my Mizzou summer program, Japanese Language, Culture & Bunraku Puppetry.

There were two ways for us to get to Nara from Tokyo to get to our next youth hostel. One route, the more expensive and luxurious option, was to take the shinkansen, or bullet train, direct from Ueno station in the Ueno special ward of downtown Tokyo to Nara station. Depending on where you're going, shinkansen tickets could run you upwards of 20,000 yen, about $200 US dollar, but you are definitely getting what you pay for as this is the fastest way to travel long distances on land and the seat options are incredibly comfortable and spacious. If you're wanting to travel across the country during your visit, a shinkansen ride is both a novelty one should try at least once and a great way to see far reaches of the country you wouldn't normally have had the opportunity to see. Another advantage of the shinkansen is that there are trains leaving the station from all different times of the day to different places, so you could leave pretty much whatever time of day you wanted.

Option two was to take an overnight bus from Shinjuku station in the Shinjuku special ward, making minimal stops and arriving the next morning at Nara station. Tickets for the night bus are considerably cheaper than the shinkansen, with tickets ranging from 4000 to 6000 yen, about $40 to $60 US dollar. The seating accommodations vary depending on how much extra you are willing to pay for a more luxurious bus, but are comparable to the US Greyhound bus or the Megabus. You are not sacrificing much in the way of comfort, and, in the numerous experiences I've had with this cheap mode of travel, I've found you can sleep quite comfortably in the cushioned seats. The obvious inconvenience of the night bus is the sheer amount of time it takes to get places, which is the main reason these buses primarily run at night. For instance, from Tokyo to Nara by shinkansen it would generally take about 2 hours. If the nigh tbus is more your fancy, it will take about seven or eight hours. Another downside is that night buses are just that, buses at night; so the usually will not leave until later than 11 p.m. for farther destinations.

As I was beginning my travels on a rather tight budget, as I would unfortunately spend the remainder of my time in Japan, I chose the cheaper option of the night bus. Originally the plan was for John to accompany me on the overnight journey, but was lured away by the luxury and novelty of the shinkansen, so that left just me to wait the night bus while Peter and John left early to catch a midday shinkansen to Nara. Check-out time at our hostel was at 10 a.m. so after we all settled our bills, John and Peter left to catch a taxi to the station while I waited around in the hostel.

The weather that day was particularly awful with on and off heavy rain so my will to venture out unless necessary was rapidly waning. Luckily for me, one of our fellow classmates, Steven, had arrived to spend a day in Tokyo before himself going to Nara, so he kept me company for the day. We hit a bit of a dry spell in the late afternoon so we decided that we would walk to Ueno to see the famous Ueno Park and it seemed logical to me that I simply carry my stuff with me so that I could catch a train to Shinjuku when it got closer to my bus departure time. I dropped my baggage off in a locker at Ueno station after we visited the park and Steven and I decided to try one last trip to Akihabara before I had to leave. As it turns out, two days was not a sufficient amount of time to learn how to get around metropolitan Tokyo and we spent the better part of two hours just wandering in what would turn out to be a fruitless effort to get there. By then the rain had started back up and Steven decided to head back to the hostel so we parted ways while I was walking back to Ueno station. I grabbed my bags and caught the train to arrive in Shinjuku station around 9 p.m. Let me tell you, off all the stations in Tokyo, to me Shinjuku was the most confusing. It is a very intricate system and it is quite easy to get lost if you don't know the way to go.

I had a few hours to kill before my bus was scheduled to leave, but due to the rain, I was forced to sit in the bus station and read a book I had brought along for entertainment. Don't get me wrong, I was reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" so I wasn't too upset at not being able to venture out, but I would learn later that Shinjuku at night is really something see. I also had my travel music to keep me company so the hours seemed to melt away until finally I boarded the bus and was bound for Nara.

Like I said, these buses were pretty reasonably comfortable, so I was able to sleep for most of the ride there, until the sun rose around 4:30 and peeped through the shades on the bus. By then we were making our last few stops before arriving in Nara promptly at 7 a.m. It was a beautiful morning in the city I would come to love, but all I had to go on to get to the right Nara youth hostel were some rather questionable directions given to all of us by our professor.

Here again I experienced the great lengths Japanese people will go to help others. I was visibly unsure of where I should be going, looking around with my bags on the ground, and a young Japanese man carrying a guitar who had arrived on the same bus came over and asked me where I was trying to go in pretty good English. He later explained he had lived in New York for a few years as a kid, so he got to know English pretty well. He read the directions and immediately told me the directions were wrong. He had been to the youth hostel before so he offered to walk me part of the way there. Fortunately, it only ended up being about a 20 minute walk, so once we reached the road the hostel was on, I thanked him profusely for his help and he went on his way. Finally, I had arrived at the Nara youth hostel and after checking in, I was able to move my bags immediately into my room as John and Peter had arrived the day before and were already in the room. I'll be sharing more about the hostel amenities in the next post, but I will say that one of the best experiences I had in those first few days was being able to stay in a traditional tatami mat room that was one of the many features in this hostel.

Useful phrase in this week's post:

shinkansen - しんかんせん - 新幹線

meaning: bullet train