Remembering how Japan works

You would think, given that I now have 4 entry stamps for Japan in my passport, that I would remember how things work in Japan.  But I never do!

The hotel shuttle bus took us off in the morning, allegedly in the direction of a station. The driver stopped in the middle of nowhere :-S  We looked puzzled.  "Eki," he said. "Station!"  We looked even more puzzled. He waved in the direction of what looked like a concrete pillar.  We looked even more, even more. puzzled.  He pointed behind us and looked up.  Aha!  The station is all the way up there, and the concrete pillar is actually an elevator!!!  We trundled off. luggage in tow, and found the station, and the ticket office, and acquired tickets. The ticket man helpfully pointed us in the direction of platform 3.  A train arrived and on we got.  An hour or so later I was beginning to worry that Shin-Osaka, which is where we were going to catch the shinkansen, wasn't ever showing up anywhere on the display screen on the train.  So I checked the map on the wall - and just in time realised that we needed to change at Osaka. I had assumed that if we needed to change anywhere the helpful ticket man would have mentioned it :-S

So we are at the platform at Osaka, wondering which of the trains went in the direction of Shin-Osaka, when an elderly gentleman (who had been watching me reading the various maps on the columns) came up and asked in stunningly good English "May I help you?". I figured anyone who had a good enough grasp of English grammar to use "may" instead of "can" probably would understand anything I said. He assured me that I could catch any of the trains at the platform and carried on in conversation until the train came.  He had been in London for some time a few years ago and had mastered his English there.

And so to Shin-Osaka and onto the shinkansen.  A brief moment of confusion while we worked out which ticket was the reservation and which coach we were supposed to be in, and we were on the train and off on our way to Nagoya. 45 minutes later, we were there. I was just wondering where we were going to meet Austin - and there he was!!!  The ticket barrier didn't want to let The Builder through (stuck for ever roaming the depths of the shinkansen station :-S) but fortunately the Man watching did.  And then we were on our way to Mizuho-shi to Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki's apartment.

Slowly, the way Japan works is coming back to me.  It will probably all make sense by next Saturday, when we are due to leave :-D

So we've met Tatsuki - who seemed to be a bit puzzled that people who usually live inside the laptop had emerged into his flat - and we've been to the supermarket. We've had curry at the curry house (tonkatsu for The Builder and me). We've played cards. We went to bed late.  And the sun is shining. But it's remarkably cold outside, despite the sun. There was snow on the ground between Kyoto and Nagoya.  It's not cold in Melbourne. It was 41d yesterday. We got out just in time!!!