Day 6: Okayama

Exploring the neighborhood #

Another specific request Van had for this trip was riding the Hello Kitty shinkansen, which runs between Osaka and Fukuoka. Honestly, this is what brought us down to Osaka in the first place or else I would have had us go elsewhere since I’ve already been to Osaka. That’s okay, because I was pretty happy with the things we ended up doing in the area.

For this first day in Osaka, the plan was to take the train west to Okayama, where we’d explore some parks in the area. It turns out the Hello Kitty shinkansen only runs once a day in either direction, so that made our departure time pretty straightforward. It didn’t leave until just after 11:30 a.m., so Van and I used the morning to explore the neighborhood around our AirBnB.

Our first stop was a Mister Donut shop (or “Misdo,” as the chain is known) down the main street from us. Inside there was a self-serve shelf full of beautiful donuts for us to select and pull onto our trays.

After having paid for our donuts, which we planned to take back to the AirBnB, we found a grocery store a few streets over and stocked up on some more food.

Although I remember really struggling in the grocery when I first moved to Japan as an illiterate JET — was this salt or sugar that I was looking at?? — as my reading skills improved (although they remain deplorable) I really grew to love the quality and variety of Japanese grocery store offerings. Like Japanese convenient stores, the pre-prepared foods at Japanese groceries are both tasty and certainly healthier than their American counterparts. And so many different ramen varieties to choose from!

Hello Kitty shinkansen #

Our food supply secured, Van and I hopped on the day’s Hello Kitty shinkansen, riding it for just over an hour. The exterior of the bullet train was pink and white, with Hello Kitty highlighting a different region on the route on the outside of each car.

We had reserved seats to ensure spots on the train but the reserved-seat cars were just normals cars that looked like any other train’s. The special cars were Numbers 1 and 2, so once the train started pulling away from the platform at Shin-Osaka, Van and I made our way to the front to check them out.

Car 2 had non-reserved seats upholstered in pink and purple, with a spot for selfies at the front sporting a life-size Kitty-chan (as Hello Kitty is known in Japan). Car 1 was entirely decked out in Hello Kitty colors and decorations and had a mini Hello Kitty shop with merch for purchase.

All my fears come true #

At Okayama, we transferred trains and went one stop over to a small unmanned station, Hokaiin Station, where all my JR Pass fears manifested.

When we got off the train, I headed as usual to the ticket gate. Without thinking, I put my JR Pass into the first slot in the gate that I saw, only to realize the second I dropped it into the slot that I shouldn’t have done that.

Unlike the automated ticket gates at all the other stations we’d been to, Hokain Station was so small that their gate wasn’t automated. In fact, the slot was just an opening to a locked box. You dropped your ticket into it if you had a single, terminal fare ticket and so obviously no longer needed it.

But I immediately knew if you had a JRail Pass, you just held onto it.

In my shock, I froze up, which prevented Vannie from coming behind me and making the same mistake. I was also blocking all the other train passengers who wanted to get through. I moved aside in a daze. A gentleman passing us heard my distressed conversation with Vannie. He slowly raised a hand to point to the intercom system over by the counter window. The shades were drawn at the window since no employee was working at the station, so the intercom was our only way of reaching an employee.

I don’t do great at in-person interactions in Japanese, so an audio-only conversation was going to be awful. With dread, I pushed the button and was answered by a brusque Japanese male voice. I explained in halting, I’m sure barely coherent Japanese, that I’d put my JR Pass into the box and asked what I should do.

The man replied but I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do. I asked him to repeat himself, hoping he’d elaborate enough for me to pick up on his meaning but he just did as I asked, which was repeat the same exact words several more times.

I pulled up the Google Translate app and though it was able to listen to what he was saying and produce an English translation, I remained mystified and still had to take a guess (very reminiscent of my entire two years on JET). While I was still processing what he was trying to convey, I heard him do the reverse on his end, playing a translation of his words in English over the connection.

In the end, I felt he was telling me to just ride the train as normal, as though I didn’t have a JR Pass, and thus pay for my tickets individually — the very scenario I’d wanted to avoid in the first place because we had so much more train travel ahead of us.

Handayama Botanical Garden #

Troubled, but knowing there was nothing I could do about it at the moment, I decided the best thing to do was carry on with our plans. Van and I proceeded on to the Handayama Botanical Garden, situated in the hills overlooking the city of Okayama.

It was raining, which suited my mood, and likely because of the rain, the park was deserted — unlike every single other park we’d visited and would go on to the visit during the course of our trip. After paying the paltry ¥310 entry fee, we found we essentially had the park to ourselves, which was a boon.

The park, though not as grand as the other gardens we’d seen and would see, still had a nice selection of flora, including peony and tulip gardens as well as 1,000 cherry trees total made up of 45 different varieties. To my pleasure, many of them were in bloom. I firmly believe the two best ways to view cherry blossoms is 1) on a cherry tree-lined avenue as sakura petals gently snow down and 2) in the rain. Bonus points if both conditions are true!

Resolution #

After Handayama, I’d originally planned for us to visit Korakuen Garden beside Okayama Castle but I was too stressed out about my JR Pass. Instead, Van and I returned to Okayama Station (I paid for the single fare return ticket — the cost of which, granted, was minimal), the hub station in the region, where I figured I’d have better odds for an improved outcome because it had a ticket center where I could speak directly to an employee.

The line at the counter was not short, so I stood in line waiting for a while. When I finally made it to the counter to speak to the employee, my opening salvo in rudimentary Japanese went something the line of: “I had a JR Pass. This morning I went to Hokaiin Station. At Hokaiin Station, I put my JR Pass in the ticket machine. Now I don’t have my JR Pass.” As a visual aide, I showed a picture of the ticket box that now held my pass.

The employee got it right away. I had my passport with me — the last few digits of your passport are printed on your JRail Pass — and secretly hoped they could just nullify my pass in the system and issue me a new one. But I also knew Japanese bureaucracy doesn’t work that way. The rules are the rules.

However, they threw me a lifeline. The employee consulted with his manager and returned, giving me my choices: I could wait for an employee to go to Hokaiin Station and retrieve my pass or I could just take the L and buy individual tickets going forward. I asked how long the wait would be. More consultation. The employee returned to say: “About 30 minutes.”

Thrilled that this was even an option, I said I’d wait. He gestured to a bench nearby. Within 20 minutes, the employee came to the counter with my JR Pass. I thanked him profusely, in slight belief they’d gone to so much trouble but so, so grateful that they had.

Ramen dinner #

While I’d been at the ticket center, Vannie had been browsing the shops at the station and found something that had caught her eye. After I recovered my J Rail Pass, we returned to the shop, Lupicia, which specialized in loose leaf tea.

Okayama Prefecture is known for its muscat grape, and she ended up getting some muscat-flavored tea. It smelled delicious and was such a nice souvenir of the place and trip.

Van and I hopped on the shinkansen back to Osaka, where we went in search of dinner. We’d not had proper ramen yet, so we went to a ramen restaurant a few blocks from our AirBnB. Based on the copious amounts of garlic cloves hanging around the restaurant, this place may have specialized in garlic-infused ramen, but I’m not sure. I got ramen with copious amounts of seaweed — I felt I need some veg in my system — and it was great. Hard to go wrong with ramen.

On our walk back to the AirBnB, we popped into a conbini for ice cream to bring back with us. When we came out of the conbini it was pouring. We booked it back to the AirBnB to dry out and enjoy our frozen treats.