I had a fun evening, and things are slow, so I’ll tell you all about it now, because I have super-fast Ethernet.
I decided to go to Nagoya for dinner. I thought it would be fun to go to the station, which I hear is one of the largest train stations in the world, and find a place to eat.
Well, sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect them to.
I walked to JR Okazaki to catch a train to Nagoya. I went through the wicket, and down to the tracks. As I got to the platform, I sensed something was up, because both the local and the special express were sitting there, waiting for me with open doors, and nobody was running to them.
From what I have gathered so far, this is not normal train behavior in Japan.
The crowd of people at the ticket booth hassling the poor ticket agent should have also triggered my sense of alarm, but it did not. The people sitting on the train cars looking tired, bored, and ready to go to sleep should have also clued me in.
I think the jet lag has made me slightly dumber to miss that one.
So I got in a train car and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Meanwhile someone kept repeating something very polite about police I couldn’t quite understand, and “sorry for making you wait.”
I really need to improve my listening skills.
I did a little thinking, and realized that Something Really Bad must have happened to stop a whole train line, so I bailed for the local student bar on the Yamasa campus, “ZigZag,” again. It’s a nice place to socialize with the other students, and the food is cheap. So is the Guinness. But I skipped the beer again, because I reasoned that if it took me 25 minutes to figure out that the trains weren’t working, beer would not in any way improve my mental acuity.
On the way home, I found a drink called “Qoo.” I would have photographed it, but I didn’t feel like it. I’m not really sure what Qoo is. It seemed like a flat orange soda to me. Then again, it was late and dark, I was thirsty, and it looked cute.
I’m a sucker for cute, so Japan is probably going to get me good.
I stopped by my savior, the local QuickMart, where I found a “Crunky” bar (yes, Crunky) and some milk. Ah, that hit the spot.
And now I will finally pass out for the night.
Crunky bars are good. Kind of like a Nestle Crunch ice cream bar, only with a much cooler name.
Crunky.
My fellow Americans will know why the name Crunky amuses me, if they’re under 50.
Burugaria (is it Bulgaria?) brand blueberry yogurt has also served as a great breakfast and random snack.
And as a shout-out to my online gaming friend Omi, look what I found!
I’ll try to go to Nagoya again tomorrow.
Oh, I also found a great laundry detergent. It’s called “Attack! All In.” Just my style of laundry cleaning.
Attack!
I’m all in.