Be Afraid

"Please be afraid," warns the Orion bus company's English Web site, "of talking on your mobile phone on bus."

Noted. I'll be sure to bring the fear.

Bus travel in Japan can be cheap compared to trains and planes. I can get from Tokyo to Nagoya, overnight, for roughly $35 on the Orion bus, assuming I can get a seat reserved in time.

This is yet another possible plan for getting around Japan - the highway bus system. While the cost of using the special discount train system called the Seishun Juhachi Kippu turns up cheaper, that plan invovles lots of changing trains on a day-time trip. With the bus I have in mind, I can take an overnight route for not much more cash. Then, once in Nagoya, if I feel like I'll have a lot more train trips, maybe I'll by the Juhachi Kippu. Or maybe I'll go bus again.

I have emailed the bus company, but they're nowhere near as fast to reply as the cell phone company. Perhaps I'll give them a call.

---

Meanwhile, I called a phone number I tracked down for friend Maki and gave it call thinking it was her cell phone. It was not. What must have been her dad answered. I looked again -- home number. I shifted to Japanese. I was able to tell her dad that I was from OSU, and he seemed to make the connection. I told him my name. He repeated it. I said "raishyuu, Tokyo ni ikiumasu," which means, "I'm comming to Tokyo next week." He understood that fact. He said lots of things in Japanese that I didn't understand. However, I gathered that at least for now, Maki might be in Hawaii. Right. Back to ground zero there. Bye, I said. Thankyou very much (arigatou gozaimasu).