NOTE: This blog was written post-Japan.

Overnight bus – arrived too early – got lost – asked someone for directions – got onto the wrong train – changed for the right train – arrived – called Ririka – bussed it to her house – met her parents – went out with a friend called Nari – went home – rested – went out again to look for a prepaid mobile phone – no avail – went home – had really delicious Japanese curry that Ririka’s grandma made – slept.

The overnight bus arrived outside JR Osaka Station at 6:30am, almost an hour and a half earlier than expected. I got off the bus, still half asleep, and was hit by the stench of urine from the sidewalk. Why oh why…

So I hauled my heavy-ass luggage across the road and into JR Osaka, and found myself standing outside a “Seasonal Tickets Vending Window”… so I figured it would suffice to ask the polite ladies inside exactly where I should be going. I didn’t want to call Ririka’s family that early as I figured they’d be sleeping… Without even knowing where I was supposed to be going, and only having a few tidbits of information Ririka had told me a few days earlier, I asked the woman how to get to Nishinomiya. When she told me, I was almost sure that Nishinomiya was not the place I was looking for. Also, when I heard the ticket price (460 yen) I didn’t want to buy a ticket only to find out that I was mistaken. So I thanked the clerk and left the office. I walked around a corner to somewhere which wasn’t as populated (as people were starting to trickle in from all entrances) and opened my laptop and booted it up. I found Ririka’s address by swimming through my MSN chat logs.

I took the messily scribbled-down address to an information booth and the guy told me, after a lot of talking and “hmm”-ing that I should go to Nishinomiya-Najio. Somewhere in the conversation he also told me my Japanese was excellent (awww :D) Anyway, I bought a ticket to Nishinomiya-Najio and was told to go to platform 4, but I thought I’d double-check. As I went through the ticket barrier, I asked the attendant if platform 4 went to Nishinomiya-Najio. His response: “it’ll take you ages that way. Go to platform 5 and take the Limited Express service instead!” So I thanked him and went into the station, up onto platform 5 and onto the train that was waiting on the platform.

Luckily, I checked the train map inside the train, after it had parted from Osaka already. Turns out the idiot I spoke to last was mistaken – methinks he thought I said “Nishinomiya” instead of “Nishinomiya-Najio”. In any case, I got off at the next stop, and changed trains for the correct one.

So it was around 7:40 when I arrived at Nishinomiya-Najio which turned out to be almost what one could call ‘the country’ – alot of green trees and mountain ranges. I sat inside the air-conditioned section waiting around, wondering what to do. Around 3 minutes passed, and then I couldn’t stand waiting any longer – so I called Ririka’s house. Her grandmother picked up and, whilst silently freaking out, I asked for Ririka. She got on the phone a minute later, and it was evident that she was still sleeping – aka I woke her up. Gomen ne, senpai.. 🙁

She asked me to take a bus to Kitarokkodai so I did. I wasn’t sure which bus to take and I only had a slight idea of which line went to Ririka’s so I decided I’d ask someone. There was an old man sitting on a bench, so I walked up to him… “Hello, sorry, could I ask you a quick question please?”

The man did not respond. I repeated the line, then waved my hand in front of his face – still no reaction. O very wtf…

So I just jumped on whichever bus was at Bus Stand 3, and as I’d seen someone else do, I took a ticket and sat on the bus. When I heard Kitarokkodai, I pressed the stop button and got off at the stop.

Hey Ririka, I think I’ve arrived.

Ririka came shortly after to pick me up from the bus stop, and we walked to her house.