Japan 2023 - Days 15.5 and 16

 Sure, day 15.5 sounds a bit weird, but that's what happens when you forget something blogworthy!

Day 15.5

There was one minor hiccup in our travel to Shiga Kogen that I neglected to mention as my mind becomes befuddled by time and distance. One of the best things you can do if you’re travelling around Japan is buy a Japan Rail Pass. However, when you buy one, its quite alarming to realise that the money you’ve dropped (in the hundreds of dollars) is now represented by a rather flimsy looking ticket. A ticket that if you lose it, will not be replaced. And you have to put it through the ticket machine every time you enter and exit a relevant train station. That's a lot of times to potentially lose your ticket!

Caroline was rightfully paranoid upon realising we wouldn’t have a passbook kind of ticket as we’d had in previous years that would enable you to acquire tickets as and when you needed them. That was it. One ticket, one go, if lost, gone.

We made it all the way to Day 15 before that was an issue. We scrambled off the Shinkansen in Iiyama and Thomas was panicking because he couldn’t find his ticket. The train hadn’t left, but we had no idea what the dwell time at the station would be. It’s never a lot on the Japanese rail system. Caroline tried to ask a couple of railway staff who were on the platform, but they didn’t understand and the train left before anyone could do something like jump back on and look for it. D’oh. We had no option but to continue on and try and sort things out as we were going. We were hoping it would be found on the train and could be collected later.

... and day 16 ...

With our skiing done yesterday we were debating whether we’d squeeze in a morning of skiing but as we went to sort out dinner for the night, it started raining. We’ pretty much decided that skiing was unlikely but rain was the icing on the cake.

So that just left us to pack get to the bus stop and travel. The sort of day that leaves you with nothing to write about really.

Easy.

We enjoyed the buffet breakfast after something of a later start and set about packing to get to the busstop. For the first time on the trip since arriving in Japan, we had to take ALL of our gear with us … skis, boots, clothing, the whole shebang. Add to that the rain and it was a fully laden, sloshy trip to the bus stop. But at least we were there on time(ish). The Rowlands were of course more organised than us and were waiting so we joined them, mostly because the rain had resulted in enough ice on the ground that my attempts to get up the slight hill to join the back of the line were threating to land me on the proverbial and send me sliding back to where I was standing anyway, so I didn’t tempt fate.

Then the bus arrived, took a look at the people waiting and left. So did the next one which was as full as the first had been. Fortunately, it seems they bus company keeps calling for as many buses as are needed to meet the demand on the day, so it wasn’t too long before one came along that we were able to load our gear into.

The transit to Nozawa Onsen involved a bus from Shiga Kogen to Nagano, a Shinkansen from Nagano to Iiyama  and another bus from Iiyama to Nozawa Onsen. What could possibly go wrong?

For most of us, not much. But remember how Thomas had lost his ticket? He was going to have to buy one in Nagano to get him to Iiyama. Not a big deal. All went well, he had his ticket, we had ample time in Nagano and we just needed to catch the train. So I went to grab some food. When I returned, Caroline thought we might need a bit more and went to get some too. She took longer than Thomas, Emily and I were expecting.

By the time we had minutes to catch the train, we’d decided to meet her on the platform, shepherding all the luggage through the gates. Caroline caught up to us as we were doing that and we quickly worked out which platform we needed to be on.

But the ticket machine ate Thomas’ ticket and the next train was about two hours away.

Bugger.

He had someone helping him and we thought he, like us, knew which platform we needed to be on. Caroline, Emily and I scrambled onto the train (wrong car though) just in time to leave, thinking Thomas was also getting on. As we tried to steer all our crap down the aisle to the right car (about three cars away thanks to my misdirection) my phone rang.

Thomas wanted to know if we were on the train ... because he wasn’t.

We’d abandoned him.

At least he’s a competent adult who’s capable of sorting himself out, getting on the next train after a really disappointing delay and meeting us at the accommodation later on. He didn’t freak out and did an admirable job of not screaming down the phone (as may have happened if we’d done this to another member of the family).

Eventually he sent me a message to let me know he’d managed to get on an earlier train than he’d thought and we were much relieved. Until we got another message to let us know the train he’d boarded didn’t stop in Nagano as Iiyama as required. Did I say he was competent? Oops.

Eventually he did make it to join us, even in time to come and enjoy the burger dinner we had. He wasn’t lucky enough to get to partake in our first steamed apple bun of our time in Nozawa Onsen, but then neither was Emily who’d opted no to take part in our exploratory walk ahead of our first day of skiing! At least he made it and bore it in relatively good grace and was there in time for our first day of skiing.

And at least there was no sign of rain … it was snowing again.