We all slept in a bit in the morning, and then I got up and cooked up bacon, eggs, and toast for everyone’s breakfast. The bacon was great – Farmer John’s from Costco.
Richard and Naoko packed up all their gear and took off for Osaka. They wanted to look around a bit more before we all met up at the big “wedding” party in honor of Richard and Naoko that night. I came home to do a little quick clean up, and then I called Kuniko. She was home, so we decided to meet up there and spend part of the afternoon together before we left for the party.
On the train ride to Osaka I was in the first car, and I could watch the driver while we were traveling. I could see all the controls, too, and I was surprised to see that the top speed for the train was around 80 miles per hour. Most of it was automatic, and the train “engineer” constantly checked the schedule to make sure they were on time.
I spent the afternoon in Shin-Osaka with Kuniko. We watched part of The Majestic, with Jim Carrey. It was so-so… a little sappy for me.
Just after five o’clock we got our act together and hit the road to try to find the party. It took two train connections, but then we found the place, just as it was starting to rain. Inside the room was filled with people that we didn’t know.
Naoko’s strategy was for them to hide somewhere, and once everyone had arrived, make a grand entrance. That was cool – very dramatic, but in the meantime we just kind of introduced ourselves to random people.
Somebody started playing some music – they had a three piece band of girls playing the ukelele, the keyboards, and some pots and pans. The song was great – lots of Japanese, and then the chorus was in English – “Hello Men!”
After a couple choruses of “Hello Men!”, Naoko and Richard suddenly appeared at the door. Everyone cheered and welcomed them in, and then people starting chowing down on the food. The food was quite good, centered around a bowl of oden – kind of a cold weather stew full of boiled vegetables and cooked meats. Richard and Naoko made the rounds meeting friends, and Kuniko and I chatted with the people around us.
Finally around 8:30, we had to excuse ourselves to leave. Kuniko has to be up early on Monday and it was a school night for me, too. We walked back to the subway station, and took the train from there to Shin-Osaka. We said our goodbyes there, and I caught the next super rapid train towards Futami.
At Kobe station, when the train stopped, they made an announcement over the loudspeaker. I didn’t quite catch it, but 90% of the people jumped up and ran out of the train to get on another one on the next track. What the heck? I decided to stick with my original train – this has never happened to me before.
After five minutes it became apparent that the train wasn’t going anywhere, so I transferred to another train, and then leapfrogged my way west, taking a grand total of four different trains to get to my station.
At Okubo station, we pulled up in our train and saw that they had the super rapid track closed off. There was a mixture of police and construction workers milling about, and some men were picking up things from the track and putting them in what appeared to be a body bag. Ugh. Some people were staring, trying to see as much as possible, some were looking away, and it was a real bummer to see. It explained all the delays up and down the line – since I can’t read the newspaper I probably will have to ask my teachers what happened tomorrow.
Getting off in Tsuchiyama, I was near Carrefour, so I dropped in to do a little shopping for groceries. I was super thirsty, so I bought lots of juice to drink, and on impulse, a tiny umbrella that I can fit in my man-purse.
As soon as I walked outside, it started raining – perfect. I opened up my little umbrella, and it kept me dry for the short walk home.
Now I’m getting ready to hit the sack. Tomorrow I’m back to work, and it looks like the rainy season is in full swing.
