Last day
According to the world clock here on my trusty Brother, it's almost 7 a.m. Another 12 hours to go before getting to Providence, and it's 9 pm by my time. This one's going to be a tough readjustment, I fear. I'll doze later but now I'm not sleepy, having really felt almost drugged in the hot trains today.
I packed and repacked everything last night, bequeathing my Riccola cough drops to a young kendo student who had hacked through the night - he came in with the others from outside early morning exercises, coughing, and accepted them, only to return a few minutes later, opening my door and saying carefully THANK YOU VERY MUCH! All the gifties are in the large Bangkok bag - I checked it so I hope they survive - and I've added up all the tickets I had from my purchases, but except for a few things I bought yesterday in Kyoto, and the fabrics I bought in Bangkok, I really don't have many receipts - you don't GET receipts from street vendors for 70 bhat wicker balls, etc.
No trouble getting the train out of Kyoto this morning - traffic was very light going to the station. I got a reserved seat but barely made the train because the Kyoto station has both short and long distance lines, few with escalators going to them, and I got to the platform as the train stopped. I jumped on at the nearest available car and then walked down through to my car. I was able to see Fuji-san again as we travelled along - big and beautiful - I feel very lucky to have seen it twice. But otherwise the trip was uneventful
And I was early getting into Tokyo Station. I got a ticket for the 12 o'clock train thinking it was the 1 o'clock and looked for a locker to store the bags while I wandered around the station. I finally found a locker where I had stored them before, near the Narita Express, put the bags in, put the 700 bhat in and tried to lock it but it wouldn't lock. NO one around who could help. Finally, I gave up, said, well the Japanese are honest, and went off leaving the bags in the unlocked, still-keyed locker. I went quickly for some food and when I saw that my ticket was for 12, not 1, I ran back to get the bags. The locker was locked. Oh, god.
I changed my reservation to the 1 o'clock train with someone who couldn't speak English but who pointed me to the JR Office. I went there and said quietly and calmly to the man behind the desk, I need to find someone who can speak English. There was a moment's silence as he looked around at all the employees. No one would admit. But there were two girls there who said, WE can speak English. Can we help you? So I explained the situation, and they talked to the station man and we went back to the locker and found the phone number to call to report problems.
Someone will be here in five minutes, they were told.
A nice little man looking official came in possibly two minutes. The girls showed him the locker, I showed him my train reservation. We had about 45 minutes at this point, so I wasn't panicking. He opened the locker and we ascertained that yes, the bags were THERE! He then locked the locker and disappeared to find the forms to fill out. I filled them out. He then called his superior (I guess) and HE came (EVERYone seems to have a pocket phone in Tokyo). He unlocked the locker again and I showed him my passport and compared it to the name on the luggage tags. Yes, all agreed it was my luggage. The girls helped me fill out the form, which I did with great care and seriousness.
The bags were returned to my possession with many arriga-tos and bows and smiles. I had bought a small bag of marron-glaces at the cafe, and I gave that to the girls. They didn't want to take it but finally did, happily. They then accompanied me down to the train track and made sure I was on the right spot. And stayed and talked to me for awhile - they're studying music - indeed classical OPERA - at university and are just beginning a two month break. Happily I found the Japanese-English phrase book and handed it over to them - one is planning to visit Canada soon and the other Hawaii, so they can make good use of it.
After all that, the train trip to Narita, the endless hauling of luggage around the airport, the waiting for the plane, etc., has all been boring and routine. They're showing movies I don't want to watch so I've been catching up with the spell-checker, eating sushi with a FORK! at "dinner" and adding up my expenses.