I’d been looking forward to the lovely views from the 8-mile Great Seto Bridge crossing the Seto Inland Sea from Shikoku to Honshu. The thought of my first bullet train ride on this trip to Japan gave me joy.
Note: Japan has four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
With that in mind, this was the plan I posted early today:
Express train Takamatsu (blue dot) to Okayama, bullet train to Kokura (white dot to white dot), express train to final destination, Oita (red pin).
At Takamatsu Station my train was not on the departures board. A notice announced strong winds had forced the cancellation of train service across the Great Seto Bridge on the line from Takamatsu to Okayama.
Eh?Google Translate came to the rescue.
It was time to piece together an alternate route including a ferry from Shikoku to Kyushu, completely bypassing Honshu. The math made sense. I was on the hook for tonight’s hotel reservation, so the US$27 ferry fare seemed financially prudent. So that’s what I did.
Express train from Takamatsu (bed symbol) to Matsuyama, express train to Yawatahama, 25-minute fast walk to ferry terminal, ferry to Beppu (three hours), walk, short train ride to Oita (blue dot).View of Seto Inland Sea from Takamatsu to Matsuyama express train. Yes, I’m on a train.Loading at Yawatahama Port. I made it with eight minutes to spare.I like a perch with a view, especially if I can sip a beer. I had full Internet access: the ship had its own LTE cell “tower” that worked with my service (no charge).View from the perch. Initially, it was seriously windy, the sea was being whipped up, but the ship was quite stable.These raised no-shoe carpeted areas are perfect for stretching out and having a nap. So, that’s what I did for an hour. (The black block is a foam-filled pillow.)Stepping stones on the way to Beppu Station.…And finally, Oita Station. This view of an entrance to Oita Station is from my hotel room. Tomorrow I won’t have far to walk to start my next adventure.
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Fascinating tale of your improvising skill. I believe I would have been a quivering blob of jello looking at the Japanese notice. Good-on-ya.
Fascinating tale of your improvising skill. I believe I would have been a quivering blob of jello looking at the Japanese notice. Good-on-ya.