it’s been getting repeatedly pummeled by typhoons this summer. Well, this past
Saturday was one of the biggest ones to hit
Tokyo.
So, of course, I decided
to go out and visit somebody who lives way on the other side of the
city.
It seemed like a good plan.
Once I take the bus from my neighborhood to the station, it’s only two trains to
get over there, so that’s no biggie,
right?
Right!
(No,
seriously, getting there was a piece of
cake.)
Coming home, on the
other hand…
It took just under
two hours on the way to my friend’s place, which was about right. I made my
connections and got there just as I should have – and right on time. It hadn’t
been raining too hard during the day, but it really picked up about an hour
before I was going to leave. But hey! This is Japan, the trains’ll just keep on
chugging along, right? (Well, they’re electric, so they don’t really chug, but
you get what I mean.)
I got to the
station just in time for the Odakyu line (my ride to Shinjuku) to shut down, so
a-chuggin’ they weren’t/
This
is when I met my first train buddy.
I was standing on the platform next to
the non-functional train (which people were still boarding), looking very lost
and confused. A young Japanese woman came up to me and asked me (in English,
thankfully) where I was trying to get to. I told her I had to get to Shinjuku to
catch the train back to Akabane so I could get home. She told me about the line
being closed down, but said I could take the subway, as it was still
running.
I followed her downstairs to
the station office and she talked to the dude on duty and got me some extra
ticket so I could use the one I’d bought for the Odakyu line on the subway. I
don’t know that I really needed that thing, as I never had to show it to
anybody, but I guess it was one of those “better safe than sorry” kind of
deals.
Even though the subway was still
running, it wasn’t running regularly. I had to wait about 20 minutes or so for a
train to show up, and then it was held at the station longer so more people
could get the word and come down to get on it. So I had a train out of there –
but to Yokohama instead of
Shinjuku.
Fuck it. At least
it’s getting me somewhere.
That
ride went smoothly, and I managed to catch an express train to Shibuya about 5
minutes after I got to Yokohama. It’s not Shinjuku, but it’ll do, as the Saikyo
line (the one that gets me home) runs from there as
well.
Or, it’s supposed
to.
Yup. I get to Shibuya and that
line’s closed as well. Super. The station guys can’t tell me exactly where it’s
stopped (probably because I can’t figure out how to ask that question using only
kawaii, sugoi, baka, ohayo
and
konbanwa – the bulk of my Japanese
vocabulary), so I hop on the Yamanote to Ikebukuro to try and catch the Saikyo
there.
Nope, that won’t
work.
I get to Ikebukuro and think
I’ve made it. There’s a train on the Saikyo line at the station, but it’s just
sitting there, much like the Odakyu trains were doing when I tried to start my
trip. There’s some announcement coming over the speakers on the platform, but I
can’t tell what it is. It doesn’t seem to be affecting too many people, since
some are getting off the train, and others are getting on. I stand in the door
of the car, not sure if it’s really going anywhere or not. I give up hoping
after a few minutes.
That’s
when Buddy #2 shows up.
Again, it’s
a young, Japanese woman, and this one speaks even better English than the last
one. Not only does she tell me that this train isn’t going anywhere anytime
soon, she tells me the obstruction on the track is just past the second station
down the line. (Bucket of suck! Akabane is the
third
station down the line!) She asks where I’m trying to get to, and I tell her.
Then she goes into super-helpful mode. She tells me to get back on the Yamanote,
go down four stations to Tabata, then catch the Keihin-Tohoku line to Akabane.
(Apparently she had all this info handy as she was headed the same
way.)
She was dead-on right, and a few
hundred other people were doing the same thing. I got to the Yamanote line just
as the train was about to leave and shoved my way on board. Screw politeness –
I’m trying to get home! (And I know what rush hour is like here, so they
shouldn’t expect anything too different during “typhoon
hour.”)
The plan works great and I’m
soon back in Akabane and off to catch the bus home. It only took an hour longer
to make it home, but what with all the closed lines and transfers it sure felt a
lot longer than that.
I can’t imagine
how long it would’ve taken me to do it without the help of my Train Buddies.
They were complete lifesavers and I shall forever use them as a counter-argument
when somebody says Japanese people are self-centered or not helpful towards
strangers.
More people –
Japanese or otherwise – should try to be like them.