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Well, I’m still in Japan… My departure date was today (July 15th) but somehow fate or whatever you call it had something else in store for me. It’s been a roller coaster of a day, truly hardcore. The good, the bad, the ugly, all mixed together in a spray of events that in the end turned out for the best. I can’t even begin to describe my desire for warm food, a hot shower, and a soft bed as I rode the bus to our temporary lodging (read: hotel). A pounding head had been my constant companion since I woke up at, what was it? 3am, 6am, 830am, 1045am? And I was eager for a bit of respite.
It started rough, really rough. The final goodbyes with the girlfriend (now ex) on only a few hours of sleep were done in a half waking, half dead daze. My eyes refused to focus and my head was swimming as we embraced for the last time. Three months of deliberation as I strode from place to place around Japan had led me to the conclusion that breaking up was for the best. The, ‘we’ll see what happens,’ that we left it at when I first started my trip had turned sour in my mouth and I knew it had to be one way or the other.
After she stepped out the door and I took a deep breath to calm my racing emotions it only took me a few seconds to fall back into a deathlike slumber.
My eyes opened again at 8:30 accompanied by the first signs of a headache. I figured I would put in another 30 minutes to an hour to get rid of the pain in my head.
As I looked up at the clock after waking up for the third time that day a few choice words slipped from my mouth. I’ll give you a hint, one of them starts with an ‘s’ and the other an ‘f.’ Two hours had passed and it was now almost 11am. My plane was scheduled to leave at 5 and I still had a lot to do before leaving for the airport.
The next couple hours went by in a rush as I finalized hostel reservations, replied to some critical emails, and packed my bag. It was 10 minutes until 2 when I finally arrived at Osaka station where I could cancel my cell phone contract at a nearby Yodobashi Camera. The process was relatively quick and painless and before I knew it I was standing in front of the ticket counter checking when the next express heading towards Kansai airport left and how long it would take. The answer, 2:33pm, the travel time 70 minutes.
Let’s do a little but of math here. The next train left at 2:33pm, it would take 70 minutes to get there, which means I would arrive at about 3:43, definitely not ideal for an international flight. My jaw dropped a bit lower when, as I was standing on the platform waiting, the signs announced that the trains were delayed three minutes. Three minutes is not a lot but when you are counting the minutes to begin with…well, you can imagine where my stress levels went.
So there I was, finally on the train to the airport with my own seat and everything. My nerves were frazzled and the constant throbbing in my head was not helping so I decided to listen to some music. Bit by bit I finally calmed down and the stress began to subside. Thirty minutes went by, forty, fifty, everything was going okay. Time was tight but not impossible.
Then I noticed something.
It was at Hineno station. Some of you might know it, most of you will not. It’s where the train splits in half. The front goes to the airport and the back goes on to Wakayama. I just happened to look up and notice the scrolling text say something about being careful about which half of the train you were on. I waited for it to go by again to make sure everything was okay.
‘This train does not stop at Kansai airport….’
I jumped up and ran to ask a conductor what was going on and found out the horrible truth. I was on the wrong half. At this point once again choice words slipped from my mouth and I sprinted back to my pack so I could get off before the train left (which it did about 10 seconds after I exited).
So there I was, only 10 minutes from Kansai Airport but unable to get there. I walked down the boarding platform in search of someone who could help. ‘When’s the next train to Kansai Airport’ I asked desperately of an older conductor. He looked at me with passive eyes, ‘4:06.’
My plane was scheduled to leave at 5pm.
I believe the words to describe my mood would be ‘utter hopelessness’ and ‘panic.’ Some of you at this point are probably saying, ‘well, you did it to yourself by not setting an alarm,’ or something along those lines. Guess what, nobody’s perfect. Every forget something important at home or been late?
I paced up and down trying to think of what to do, my mind in complete confusion. ‘Taxi, maybe a taxi,’ I muttered to myself. Making for the gate I noticed a signboard announcing coming trains. I stopped, ‘what the heck?’
‘Excuse me, when’s the next train for Kansai Airport?’ I asked the train employee sitting behind the counter. He glanced up at the board, ‘3:50pm.’ ‘And how long does it take to get there from here?’ ‘About ten minutes.’
Ten minutes, it would be tight, very tight, but not impossible. With a bit of luck maybe I could do it. What the heck the last guy was talking about I had no idea but I sure wanted to strangle him.
Let me tell you, those ten minutes of waiting on a train were some of the longest in my life. When the doors finally opened I was out like a shot. From the basement floor train station to the 4th floor international departures counter it took me 3 minutes. Only enormous amounts of self control prevented me from sprinting. (Sprinting in airports nowadays is frowned upon heavily.)
I was greeted by a young smiling lady. ’Taipei,’ she asked. I nodded vigorously trying to calm by beating heart. Was I in time?
‘You just made it, please go to counter 10.’ The clock read 4:08pm.
I have to state at this point in the story that the staff at this counter were the best I have ever met. No other airline has ever even come close to what they did for me that day (or the next but that’s another story).
‘Taipei?’ Tomoko asked looking up at me with a smile. I fumbled to pull my passport out of my side pocket, ‘yes.’ ‘Sorry I’m so late. It’s been a long day.’ ‘No problem, you made it just in time.’ She looked intently at the computer for a second, ‘do you have a return ticket?’
‘Actually I don’t know when I’ll return to Japan,’ I replied thinking that they were referring to my work visa for Japan. ‘Well, Taiwan is very strict about tourists having an onward or return ticket. If you don’t have one you can’t go to Taiwan.’
‘…Really?’ ‘…Really.’ ‘Hmmm….’
The details of the conversation we had over the next half an hour are long and tedious. Basically, Tomoko and her two coworkers decided for one reason or another to take my case to heart and beat the bushes to find a cheap ticket for me (through Jetstar of course) so I could go to Taiwan. At the end of it all I had a ticket that brought me back to Japan and only cost me $100. I didn’t have to use it but it was enough to get me into the country. The gratitude I felt as they rushed me though security and on to immigration was immense.
When I asked them why they did it the only answer I got was, ‘because you are a nice guy.’ All I did was smile, say please and thank you, and practice what my parents tried to teach me many years ago.
Then I waited for an hour and a half. The pain in my head got steadily worse as time went by. Problems with the plane, weather, terrorists? Nope, apparently one of the crew members had gotten sick and they were trying to figure out what to do. In the end they made an announcement asking for volunteers to switch to the next days flight. You see, flight regulations require airlines to have a certain ratio of cabin attendants to passengers, so they needed 25 people to make a sacrifice.
It only took me a few minutes to make my decision. One good deed deserves another so I headed up to the counter to switch my flight.
Yes of course the incentive of a $100 voucher, a nice hotel, and dinner/breakfast/lunch were nice but something that has been pounded over and over into my head on this trip is that things happen for a reason. My $100 ticket that I had to purchase in order to get into Taiwan but wouldn’t use would be covered by the voucher, so where I thought I would be losing money would actually be a zero sum. As for the hotel and food, well, I was dead from a hellish day and was in no mood to try and enter into an entirely different culture.
My volunteering would come back to haunt me, especially since I was the first.
It was about 2 hours before we (the 25 volunteers) finally arrived at the hotel and were able to enjoy a good meal. The place wasn’t high class but it certainly wasn’t low class. The food was tasty and the view from my 15th floor room was, to put it simply, awesome.
I was about to settle in after dinner and take a shower when the phone in my room rang. ‘Who could that be,’ I thought.
‘Excuse me, this is the front desk, Jetstar is on the line and would like to talk to you.’ Jetstar, why Jetstar…
‘Hello?’ ‘Hi, this is Tomoko from Jetstar. Remember me from earlier today? Remember her, how could I forget her and her coworkers. ‘Of course, I recognized your voice.’ ‘Really? Well, we heard that you volunteered today so tomorrow when you come to the ticket counter we will refund your ticket (the one back to Kansai that I wasn’t going to use). Please look for a connecting flight to a destination you want tonight.’ ‘Wow, thank you,’ was the best reply I could think of.
Before I moved I had a cork board in my bathroom. On that board was tacked a note along with a thousand yen note. About a year ago I had helped someone out and for my troubles they had given me some money. The note read, ‘Sometimes helping out pays.’ (The full story of that is here)
Helping out really had paid this time.
I finally got to sleep sometime around midnight. My day was finally over. I hadn’t been able to escape Japan but instead met lots of great people. We don’t always get where we want to go but we usually get where we need to go.
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