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I made it on time! Correction: I made it with a whole ten minutes to spare!
My right shoulder is so sore it hurts to type on my phone.
My bags are sprawled around me in an unruly mess; promising to be an huge hassle when my train arrives and I have to somehow grab all three at the same time and quickly scurry onto the train.
I'm busting to go to the toilet because I didn't have time earlier.
This would not have happened when I was on tour with the group in China.
We would have arrived with plenty of time, enough to sort out our luggage, go to the toilet if necessary and even stand around having a chat - not rejoicing we made it on time.
Everything would have been planned out and organised for me, I wouldn't need to worry about a thing.
That's one of the disadvantages of traveling by yourself.
But to be fair let me explain why I ended up in such a mess.
About an hour and a half ago I was sitting in Shukkeien - a lovely Japanese garden in Hiroshima - eating lunch all by myself and quietly laughing to myself at this lady in front of me who seemed to be having extreme trouble purchasing a drink at the vending machine.
Suddenly she turns around to me and says in accented English, 'You may laugh at me but it was out of warm Chinese green tea so now I have to choose something else'.
Embarrassed I had been caught enjoying her misfortunes I sat in stunned silence trying to think of something vaguely intelligent to say and was surprised again when she started talking to me again.
'You know we are going to sit under the cherry blossoms and have lunch if you want to join us. Eat by yourself is a bit sad.'
This woman had unknowingly fulfilled one of my biggest wishes. Ever since arriving in Japan I had wanted to do 'hanami', which is basically just having a picnic whilst sitting under the cherry blossoms (Sakura), but none of the other tourists I'd met at hostels were doing it and I couldn't exactly ask some random people if I could sit down and join them.
Excitedly I accepted her invitation and joined her and another elderly relative for lunch beneath the Sakura.
We had a wonderful conversation. They were very impressed with my Japanese which I hastily politely said was not very good. I complimented Tanaka-san on her English and she said I was being too kind.
We talked about how pretty the Sakura were as well as the brides and grooms taking pre-wedding photos fully dressed in gorgeous kimonos just in front of us.
There was an awkward language-barrier moment when I thought Tanaka-san said the Sakura were really pretty and I full heartedly agreed but she was actually saying she thought I was really pretty and I was embarrassed I had agreed so strongly.
They asked about my experiences in Hiroshima and what I had thought of the Memorial Museum. It turned out that Tanaka-san (the elder relative) was actually a survivor of the A-bomb. She was an elementary student at the time and she was 2km away from the hypocenter at the time. I felt honoured to meet her.
They asked me about cultural differences. The first thing I thought of was having to take my shoes off all the time. We laughed at my description of trying to put on my zip on boots whilst carrying my luggage on my back at the hostels.
We chatted some more, they shared their homemade food with me and I had just the loveliest time.
Then I checked the time on my phone and suddenly realised I was supposed to have left already. I had completely lost track of time. I needed to get back to the hostel to pick up my luggage and go to the train station, buy my tickets and catch the 2:36 train to my university where a staff member was going to pick me up.
But we simply had to take a photo first and I got Tanaka-san's address and phone number in case I come back to Hiroshima.
And then I ran.
Well, I walked quite quickly.
I made jt back to the hostel just in time, barely a minute to spare.
And I realised as I walked through the door that, despite having just talked about it with the two Tanaka-sans, I had failed to factor in some time for taking off my shoes, walking two metres to pick up my luggage, and then, with luggage strapped on, struggling to zip up my shoes again.
As a result I hastily picked up my bags in a way that I know, from past experience, is really bad for my back.
I rushed to the tram, made it just in time to catch the one which just arrived.
Got to the train station and waited for what seemed like an inordinately long amount of time to buy a ticket.
Having finally bought a ticket I hurried towards platform twelve. My jeans started slipping down my bum, gangsta style.
Unfortunately I remembered that, having not done any laundry in a while, the undies I happened to have on were my bright blue, see-through ones, rimmed with purple lace.
Pulling down my shirt as far as it would possibly go I rushed towards platform 12. When I finally got there I realised that one of the advantages if buying a reserved-seat ticket is that, unlike the non-reserved tickets, you don't have to walk right to the very end of the platform to get on at the right spot.
I dragged my bags the final hundred meters (although it felt more like five hundred) to the closest seats and collapsed on a seat next to a man who looked slightly discomfited to have me sit next to him.
And I considered that, had I been traveling with a tour group as I did in China this whole stressful situation probably would not have happened. On the other hand I would not have ended up having lunch with the two Tanaka-sans or met many of the other people I've met so far.
So, if you're trying to decide whether or not to go on a tour or simply travel by yourself consider whether, in the country you're going to, the stress of trying to book hotels/hostels or using public transportation would outweigh the joy of those occasional meetings you only ever have whilst traveling alone.
For me, in China it was definitely worth traveling in an organised tour because I would've been completely lost otherwise.
But in Japan, my language skills being enough to find my way around I definitely prefer traveling by myself.
By the way, you may have noticed a change of style between my China blogs and this new blog.
Seeing as I will be, for the majority of my time, in the same place I have decided to make my Japan blogs topic-based rather than location based. And also they might not be in chronological order, but in the order I think the topics make the most sense to go in. Or just what I feel like writing about at the time.
So I hope you enjoy it.
(^_−)−☆
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