Day 270 { Matsue Jo Part 2/ Running Late } - Sunday, December 14, 2008
Day 270 { Matsue Jo Part 2 / Running Late }
Woke up at the onsen place and we had breakfast there in the morning. Finally in this part of Japan I get buffet style food. I can actually choose what I want without anyone throwing down food in front of me that I don't want. We then went to Matsue Jo or Matsue castle, which I visited before on Day 122 - July 19th ... Which was also in Shimane Prefecture... Sorry I didn't call you X :( .... My friend from Hiroshima had a tight schedule and she wanted to get back to a place near to Hiroshima city name TOJO by 2:36 pm... It would then take her about 2 hours and 30 mins from TOJO to Hiroshima City...then about 45 mins from Hiroshima City to a rural part of Hiroshima name Kumano.... Oh boy...
So after we were walking around Matsue castle and looking at some old stuff while it was cold and the rain was falling, the time was running very fast... It's like 2 hours and 30 mins to get to Tojo from Matsue and that's not taking traffic into consideration... It was about 12:15 when we decided to make a move from Matsue, then we all wanted to use the bathroom... ultimately adding another 10 mins or so to the time... Then another 5 minutes to walk to my friend's van. I was trying to tell him to let's hurry and go as we did't have much time... But he for some strange reason unknown to me, insisted that we stop in this gift shop place... I was boiling inside and wanted to explode in anger, but only a few people have seen that side of me and I didn't want to offend anyone... My friend from Hiroshima was being a little miserable, understandably, but she was also being very modest at the same time... Why in the world did he want us to stop when we were running late??? ... I think because he is so used to going to this gift store after the castle, he could not resist... After about 5 or 7 mins inside the gift store, he finally realized that, "Hey we are running late", so he told us to come on".... Hiroshi was now faced with the challenge of trying to get to Tojo for my friend to catch the Hiroshima bus... While he was driving he kept saying stuff like "aaah this seems impossible to get to Tojo by 2:36 .... He drove as fast as he could, and took every short cut he knew... But still didn't make it, because traffic was on the road..... When we got to Niimi which was about 30 mins from Tojo, it was about 2:15 .... He started saying stuff like... "If only I had 5 minutes" ... I personally don't think 5 minutes would make a difference but if it did, then that was the 5 minutes we took inside the gift store, which I think was totally unnecessary.
My friend from Hiroshima eventually had to follow us to Niimi and she was going to take the train from Niimi to Okayama city then a bus from Okayama City to Hiroshima city... So she was asking him to ask a Japanese lady about some information for buses... because my Hiroshima friend wanted as much information as possible and she was a bit edgy and miserable, again understandably so, she had to be asking Hiroshi constantly to go back to the Japanese lady with the information... Each time he went to the lady, he had to be apologizing, as if it's not a part of her job to help us with information... But I guess that's just the culture here...
Eventually, my friend got on the train and she ended up having to take the very expensive but very fast shinkansen from Okayama city to Hiroshima city, in order to catch her bus to Kumano... I felt very bad that she had to go through all this trouble and pay all this money just to see a castle, and a shrine... But I guess everything worked out and she got home safely..
Woke up at the onsen place and we had breakfast there in the morning. Finally in this part of Japan I get buffet style food. I can actually choose what I want without anyone throwing down food in front of me that I don't want. We then went to Matsue Jo or Matsue castle, which I visited before on Day 122 - July 19th ... Which was also in Shimane Prefecture... Sorry I didn't call you X :( .... My friend from Hiroshima had a tight schedule and she wanted to get back to a place near to Hiroshima city name TOJO by 2:36 pm... It would then take her about 2 hours and 30 mins from TOJO to Hiroshima City...then about 45 mins from Hiroshima City to a rural part of Hiroshima name Kumano.... Oh boy...
So after we were walking around Matsue castle and looking at some old stuff while it was cold and the rain was falling, the time was running very fast... It's like 2 hours and 30 mins to get to Tojo from Matsue and that's not taking traffic into consideration... It was about 12:15 when we decided to make a move from Matsue, then we all wanted to use the bathroom... ultimately adding another 10 mins or so to the time... Then another 5 minutes to walk to my friend's van. I was trying to tell him to let's hurry and go as we did't have much time... But he for some strange reason unknown to me, insisted that we stop in this gift shop place... I was boiling inside and wanted to explode in anger, but only a few people have seen that side of me and I didn't want to offend anyone... My friend from Hiroshima was being a little miserable, understandably, but she was also being very modest at the same time... Why in the world did he want us to stop when we were running late??? ... I think because he is so used to going to this gift store after the castle, he could not resist... After about 5 or 7 mins inside the gift store, he finally realized that, "Hey we are running late", so he told us to come on".... Hiroshi was now faced with the challenge of trying to get to Tojo for my friend to catch the Hiroshima bus... While he was driving he kept saying stuff like "aaah this seems impossible to get to Tojo by 2:36 .... He drove as fast as he could, and took every short cut he knew... But still didn't make it, because traffic was on the road..... When we got to Niimi which was about 30 mins from Tojo, it was about 2:15 .... He started saying stuff like... "If only I had 5 minutes" ... I personally don't think 5 minutes would make a difference but if it did, then that was the 5 minutes we took inside the gift store, which I think was totally unnecessary.
My friend from Hiroshima eventually had to follow us to Niimi and she was going to take the train from Niimi to Okayama city then a bus from Okayama City to Hiroshima city... So she was asking him to ask a Japanese lady about some information for buses... because my Hiroshima friend wanted as much information as possible and she was a bit edgy and miserable, again understandably so, she had to be asking Hiroshi constantly to go back to the Japanese lady with the information... Each time he went to the lady, he had to be apologizing, as if it's not a part of her job to help us with information... But I guess that's just the culture here...
Eventually, my friend got on the train and she ended up having to take the very expensive but very fast shinkansen from Okayama city to Hiroshima city, in order to catch her bus to Kumano... I felt very bad that she had to go through all this trouble and pay all this money just to see a castle, and a shrine... But I guess everything worked out and she got home safely..
Comments
(Kesha)