EXPERT ADVICE

I grew up in Europe where we have trains like the ones in Japan, so I am an expert with trains. Brie is not bad at finding her way, but I have been in Japan before and I do know a little more about it.

So, anyway we had gone to Hakone and were caught in a thunderstorm walking to the hostel with our luggage - and no umbrellas. We were soaked and the hostel had mildew in the bathroom. So we moved to the Ra kuun hotel, which was not much better but a lot more expensive. When next morning was grey and foggy we decided to seek other pastures. Kamakura was the place we all had liked. Let’s go there!

We had come by train on the Tokaido line from Yokohama and an hour in a bus. Now we backtracked, but we didn’t have to go all the way back to Yokohama because half way back, in Ofuna, we could change from the Tokaido line to the line for Kamakura.
What we wanted was an express to Ofuna. The panel showing the next trains announced a Tokaido line Express, and there was only three minutes to get to the platform and the train. I urged Tony and Brie to hurry up and we got in just before the train left.

We went through a tunnel, and another tunnel and another.
Did we go through so many tunnels?
I didn’t think so.
I asked Tony and Brie and they said, oh, yes!
Then we stopped at a station that I hadn’t seen before. I didn’t want to believe it, and it was too late now to get out, but we are going the wrong way – away from Ofuna! The mountains are on the right, the ocean on the left, there’s no doubt. Oh, the downfall of expertise!
My fellow travelers took it quite nicely; they didn’t rage against me or stop talking to me, but I had to relinquish all leadership in railway stations hereafter.
In order to stop their snide remarks about my mental abilities, I promised to take them out to lunch in our favorite restaurant as soon as we came to Kamakura. In return I made them swear that they would never, ever mention this again, neither to me nor to anybody else.
So I know that you haven’t heard the story before!