50 and beyond

We usually rent a car when we holiday in Japan. It’s convenient and we have flexibility in scheduling. In addition, it’s easy to bring our luggage around. No need to Ta-Q bin etc. But this time, we decided to follow a friend’s advice and use public transport.

Upon arriving at Kansai Airport, we joined a long line of people at the bullet-train ticket vending machine. While waiting, we were told by a service staff that the queue was shorter at the physical JR counter. And so, we changed queue. We purchased our tickets within 5 minutes and off to the platform we went.

Boo boo number 1

We reached the platform 5 minutes early. Hubby was very excited and promptly entered the train to find our reserved seats. The train doors closed within seconds of us entering and the train started moving right away. How odd. We felt uneasy right away because we had seen other commuters waiting in line at the platform but not entering the train. So, just to be sure, Hubby decided to ask someone if our train was heading towards Shin-Osaka station, which was where we were supposed to be headed to, to change train to Okayama.

Oops. We were “one train early”; we had hopped on too early. The train we were on was not going to Shin-Osaka station. So, we disembarked at the next station, walked across to the other platform and took the next train back to the airport to start again. Needless to say, by the time we were back to the first platform, the original train we bought reserved tickets for had of course departed by then. Fortunately, there were available seats in the unreserved section of the next train and we were able to sit throughout the 2.5-hour journey to our destination.

Boo boo number 2

The following day, after a lovely day exploring Kurashiki, it was time to check out and make our way to Takamatsu. We took the express train (non-bullet train, it’s like a regular MRT train) and crossed the long bridge over. But ahem…Hubby decided that he needed a washroom break, and so, I suggested that we get off the train, and then get onto the next train.

Easy-peasy lah.

Famous last words.

We took the first train that arrived. Only when we left the station did we realise that we took a regular train instead of the express train. Result? It took an hour longer to get to our destination because the train took a different route and stopped at every single station. Ah well. So be it. It was a relaxing ride and we saw cute little primary school kids commuting via train on their own.

Boo boo number 3

To travel back to Osaka from Takamatsu, I went to the JR counter and requested for bullet train tickets to Nakatsu Station. Nakatsu station is next to the Hankyu Hotel we were going to stay at in Osaka. After paying for our tickets, we went to the platform and got onto our train. We made sure we were on the correct train this time, we even showed our ticket to the service staff at the platform to confirm this.

It took about an hour for the train to travel to its first stop. As we approached our first stop, Hubby immediately noticed something was wrong and hurried us to alight immediately. To our horror, we realised that we had arrived in Hiroshima! That’s the opposite direction from Osaka! Oh my…but why was this happening? We had even checked with the platform staff to make sure we got it right this time!

We went down to the ticket counter to ask for assistance. After explaining our situation, the chap on duty realised where the error occurred. He informed us that there are two Nakatsu stations, one in Ōita and the other at Osaka! The staff at the ticket counter did not ask me which Nakatsu Station we wanted to go to and presumed that we wanted to go to Ōita. Oh man! So anyway, the staff directed us to the platform that would bring us to the Nakatsu Station in Osaka. Upon arriving in Osaka, we approached the service staff as advised. Very quickly, the staff at the counter refunded us the original fare amount before charging us for the revised route. We arrived in Osaka an hour later than planned.

I originally thought that perhaps I had pronounced the station names wrongly. Or perhaps the two stations’ names sound similar but the kanji words for the two stations are different. But I did a check and found out that the two stations have the same kanji writing—中津駅

Boo boo number 4

We were at the KIX airport departure hall waiting to go home. I mean, what can go wrong right? We were at the departure hall already! We were just hanging around, using our loose change to have tea and matcha ice cream. We finally decided to head to the gate near boarding time. We walked to the far end of the hall, turned the corner, and found ourselves moving up an escalator, and then we reached an internal transit system. Huh? Well, well, what did we know? We had to take an internal transit rail to the gate! It wasn’t like a travellator that just sped up the walking. The gate was in another building! Good thing we didn’t walk to the gate just 5 minutes before the gate closed!

I think Hubby and I are old liao. Dunno how to look after ourselves anymore.