Last week my friend Drew told Josh and I that he had some extra train tickets and wanted to make a weekend trip to visit some friends in Sendai. The train tickets are cheap tickets that allow you to take as many local trains as you want in one day. I'm not one to pass up any sort of adventure and agreed to go along. On Friday we went straight from work to the train station to catch the 2:38 train. This would allow us about 30 min for dinner and just a little leeway in case a transfer was missed. It was supposed to have us arriving in Sendai at 11:30pm.
The trip started out smoothly. We made is past Tokyo (about 1 or 1.5 hours away) and then we were on a train that traveled through a valley and at one station the train stopped. This is common. Trains stop to pick up passengers and so we just stay on until our stop, but this time when the train stopped the conductor walked through the cars and shooed everyone off. Looking around at fellow passengers it was clear that no one really knew what was going on. We got off the train and stood on the platform waiting to be given the ok to get back on the train. We never got an ok and the train eventually left, empty. We finally started hearing announcements about train delays due to high winds. At this point we weren't too worried because we knew we had a little time to spare and still make the trains. However the delay was excessive and by the time we finally got on the train and made it to our next destination we realized that we were in danger of getting stuck at a station past the time the last train left for Sendai. So at this point we went to talk with the guy at the counter who informed us that indeed we wouldn't make it on the local trains. So we spent some extra money to get tickets for a special express. This in itself was an interesting experience as we kept getting different information and were finally handed tickets that we weren't totally clear on. We were told that we might still get to a station past the last train, but that we could take a taxi that'd be paid for by the JR Line...hmm. We decided to give it a shot.
I always see the nicer express trains and wasn't too upset to be riding one. We also had a few interesting encounters with some drunken Japanese people which added to the excitement of the trip. There was one drunk older woman who was trying to talk to Drew, not making a lot of sense, and offering him candy from a 17th century emperor. That was particularly funny because not only were we amused by the situation, but the usually "to themselves" fellow Japanese passengers were doing all they could to not burst out in laughter as this lady talked to Drew. When she left our train car a group next to us was all laughing. Turned out this was to our advantage because they heard us talking with the conductor about our next transfer and final destination and we got off that train one of the guys who was going to be taking the next train with us, stuck with us to help us out. Turned out the next train was also delayed, but once we were on it, that guy sat with us and spoke to the conductor to make sure that when we got to our next station, he understood we needed to then get to Sendai and may need a taxi. He was a really nice guy.
So we made it to the last train station, but were still about 2 hours from Sendai and there were no longer trains running. We talked with two workers and things got sorted out so that we were able to take a taxi for free. We rode with one other man going to Sendai. No leg of this journey was without it's excitement. As we neared Sendai our cab driver started making comments to the other passenger about how he really didn't know the Sendai area very well. Eventually he saw a police box as he passed it and then promptly put the car in reverse, drove backwards and into the parking lot. He then apologized, hopped out and went to ask for directions. Once he had the directions he got us to the Sendai station without any other issues other than nearly turning into the wrong side of the median.
We made it to Sendai at 1am and then Drew's friend picked us up from there. It was quite the trip. Needless to say, when we came home we chose to take a route that wouldn't pass through the valley where there was the possibility of wind delays.
The weekend trip turned out to be quite a lot of fun. We spent Saturday exploring the area. There are some islands near Sendai, and we took a ferry tour around them. Then we crossed a long foot bridge to one of the islands and hiked around appreciating the scenery. Saturday evening we went into downtown Sendai and looked around a bit. It actually reminded me a lot of Portland. The city and area had a very friendly feel to it. Much less chaotic than Tokyo.
Easter Sunday we spent with Drew's friends at a very small Japanese church. I really enjoyed it despite not being able to understand most of the message. The small group was very friendly. We had the most difficult Easter egg hunt I've ever participated in. Everyone looked for the 24 hidden eggs and it must have taken a good 10 min to find the first three and the following 21 were no easier. Considering the small area they were hidden in we never did find all 24 eggs. The egg hunt was followed by a nice lunch with the church and at one point everyone went around and shared something about how God had blessed them, or something they needed prayer for. This is something I've noticed about Japanese Christians, they don't share away from asking people to share about what God's doing. Although Japanese people can often be a bit reserved, they frequently call church members out to share something about what God's doing. I like this.
Our trip home was uneventful. Today, Monday, I was so tired, but the weekend away was definitely worth it.
Sendai Station...
Me with my Special Express train ticket :)