Another public transit fiasco

Well, here I am again! The last few days I’ve been in a town called Kakegawa, about 5 train stops west of where I live. Monday morning, fellow 'new JET Monica' (who has an apartment by mine), and I ventured off to a prefectural orientation in Kakegawa. We planned our transportation diligently and felt confident we’d arrive with ample time to change into our business attire, get settled, and catch up with other JETs we last saw 2 weeks ago. Our modes of transportation included a bus, train, local train, and our own legs for an uphill hike to an educational center where we’d stay with the other 65 new Shizuoka--ken JETs.

The morning started out fine, we were all set & ready to get on the first bus. Not quite 9:00 am, and I could tell already it was going to be a scorcher. We waited with our luggage at the bus stop, moving with the limited shade as we checked our watches & wondered why the usual on-time bus was delayed. A few buses came & drove on without us after Monica asked if they were going to the station we needed next. We had arrived at the bus stop 8 minutes before our bus was scheduled to come so we were baffled why there was no sight of it. It was about our 6th time checking the schedule that Monica noticed a small paper stuck onto the schedule. She can read some kanji…enough to make out what she thought was a notification that the buses would run on holiday/weekend schedule August 13, 14, 15. UGH. If that were the case, the next bus would come an hour and 40 minutes after we thought it would!

We walked a couple blocks to a grocery store to seek a bit of comfort in the air conditioning & pick up some snacks (after all, cooling off & eating do wonders for the soul)  Then we went back to the bus stop in time to catch the perfectly prompt bus on its holiday/weekend schedule.

We got to the station & easily caught the train with little confusion. We took this train to a station near the town of Kakegawa. There, we made our way to another platform to catch yet another train (this one is a small, local train that just buzzes through a few towns). Monica bought her ticket & boarded while I paid for my ticket. The ticket machine spit out my ticket, I grabbed it, and turned around just in time to see the train go whizzing away.

I felt like I was on candid camera or in a movie that was playing jokes on me. (Funny, I’ve had that feeling often since arriving in Japan) 

No worries…the next train will come in 40 minutes. 40 MINUTES??! Between this and our first bus being so late, I could have slept in another 2 hours!!!! Ridiculous! So much for having plenty of time to change, visit, and explore…I’d barely make it before the first meeting!

Well, the next train came 40 minutes later & I rode it to my stop in Kakegawa. I lugged my bags up the hill, was one of the last 3 to arrive for orientation, madly changed into dress clothes, and found a seat just as the opening ceremony began.

It was a good 3 days, the trip home yesterday was boring compared to Monday’s so I won’t include details. Now, I’m back at school trying to hash out my self-introduction & first few lesson plans. It reminds me why I decided not to be a teacher in the States—I do NOT enjoy preparing lesson plans! I need some serious creative juices to start flowing!! I’m very open to suggestions for lessons—especially 10th grade…for all those reading this, why not post your favorite high school foreign language lesson/activity?!

More later--
Love from smooth-travel-challenged Sarah!