Ending the Itinerary of Doom

MAY 16, 2012

“-Depart Jimmyz Backpackers, Sapporo: 8:30 am**Food?!?!-Board Train: 9:04 am:-Sapporo (JR) Track 7-LTD. EXP SUPER OZORA 3(4,620 Yen)”

-Itinerary of Doom, Chapter 3, Verse 1

“Got up at 7:30, left by 8:30, and totally didn’t count on my walk back to the subway being 30 minutes. Then, I got on the wrong blasted subway train again, but by then I had missed my express to Ikeda so thoroughly hurrying anywhere was useless. I had picked the earliest express on purpose, to get to Urahoro faster, but that also gave me a respectable 3 other choices for trains.”                                   

-Travel Log, Sapporo Japan

“-Depart Sapporo station 11:50, Express Ozora-Arrive Ikeda Station 14:15”

-Itinerary of Doom, Book of Reality, Verse 1

"Know your limits, or end up like Sarah!"

“-Depart Train: Ikeda (Hokkaido) 11:51 am
**Definitely Food-Board Train: 1:19 pm
-Depart Train: Urahoro (Hokkaido) 1:49 pm”                                 

 -Itinerary of Doom, Chapter 3, Verse 2

"Always have a back-up plan!"

“Depart Train: Ikeda, 14:15Board Train: ASAPDepart Train: Around 15:00”

-Itinerary of Doom, Book of Reality, Verse 2

NICOLE!!!!

            By the time I finally made it to Urahoro, I had more knots in my shoulders than muscles and was so happy to see Nicole I pretty much attacked her. I had tried calling her at the station a few times to tell her I had changed trains, since she was sending me a ride (her superior at work, 19-yr-old Torita) and I was still three hours away when he was at the station looking for me. But the phone number I used didn’t work, so I was up a creek.

Scenic Urahoro: MOUNTAINS!

            Luckily, I knew I was in the right place from the pictures Nicole had posted on Facebook of her “new town.” I made my way to the tourist center of sorts, a building that was close to the station and looked official. I was trying to find another payphone.

            All’s well that ends well, but the main lesson I took from the half hour or so I spent in the center was colloquialisms don’t translate well—even ones you think are international. I spent 15 minutes trying to explain that I didn’t have Nicole’s address, because “It’s on my email” made no sense whatsoever to the poor Japanese man trying to help me.

            Now that I think about it, though, that is a pretty strange phrase. How does one break down something like that? I tried a number of ways, mostly with hand gestures. But at the root of it was the problem that really, how is something ON a purely digital medium? ON is a basic directional modifier: For the non-fluent, it usually means the position of something tangible. But for simplicity’s sake, the phrase “on my email” got into circulation to shorten an otherwise stupidly long explanation.

            Because if “on my email” didn’t go over well, trying to explain “Do you have internet? Because… on the computer, email? Yes. I no write address, because address is on computer. Inside computer, inside email… she sent address on email, no write… No address, because no computer” REALLY didn’t go well. It was like that scene in Zoolander when the male models break open the computer to get to the files “inside,” only worse, because it was in real life.

Sunset in Urahoro, Day 1

            Eventually, though, the man at the center called one of Nicole’s schools, which called her BOE, which sent her over with Torita to collect me. It was seriously embarrassing, but I was just so happy to have made it I really didn’t care how stupid I looked. Nicole left work at 5pm, and we went to dinner at a place near her house. Then we went to her place, and I unpacked while we talked. She gave me a basic house tour, and later we walked to the 7/11 where we got snacks. Then we went to bed.