Lost in Kansai

Two posts today to catch up with my lazy ways yesterday! To read about our adventures yesterday, please scroll down but today was the real adventure!

We have spent six hours on trains today and have ended up lost on quite a few occasions! We went to Ise-shi which we thought was on the coast but wasn't (quite). After the long trip, we were quite disappointed when we arrived in a sleepy little ghost town with nothing to see but a temple. We had to get a bus from the station as well because it was so far away. The guide book had described the temple as being a kin to the one at Nikko. It was impressive but a long way off the jaw dropper of Nikko.

The highlight of the temple was a tree we found in the grounds that was so big, Paul and I could stand with arms outstretched, touching fingers and we still couldn't reach the outside of one edge of it's trunk! It must have been around since the dinosaurs that thing! And it's bark was lovely and pink and shiny, it didn't look old at all! It was like seeing an 80 year old with the skin of a baby!

Getting home was where the adventure started! We don't know what happened exactly but the train we thought we were on took us somewhere different! When we got to the end of the line, we (I) were panick stricken and didn't know how (or if) we'd ever get home! We went to speak to the ticket man but he couldn't understand what we were saying and in our (my) panick I think we (I) just confused the poor man!

Just when I was starting to think we were done for, doomed to live at this two track station for the rest of our days, in rolled a brave Ninja spinning his nunchucks around his head offering to save us.

Actually, it was a cheery old man (who, thank goodness, spoke very good English). He told us which train we needed and walked us all the way to the track. About 5 minutes after he left us, he came running back down the stairs to tell us that he thought it would be better if we waited until the second train as it had less stops and would be quicker.

What a lovely man we thought! But that isn't all! Paul nipped to the loo while we were waiting and on his way back, the man came running back to him waving a little scrap of paper. He'd written us a little note in Japanese that we were to present to a guard at the transferring station. It said "we are going to Kyoto and need to change our tickets. Please could you show us to the Shinkansen line?"

What a lovely man! I can imagine that he is laid in bed now worrying whether or not we made it back to Kyoto safe and sound!