More trains...

After three days in Kyoto I departed. I had seen only a little of the rich culture of the old capital of Japan, but experienced a lot.

With my first long distance train journey my preparations were to be tested. If I missed a connection I would have to change plans and loose half a day to get acquainted with the new place.

Therefore I was arriving pretty nervous at the platform for my train leaving Kyoto. I would have to take a slower train to Shin Osaka before changing to a Shinkansen for the next leg of my trip. I was half an hour too early but all the trains were already announced with up to 10 minutes delay.

What to do? I tried to ask the stationmaster if I could take any of the earlier trains into Shin Osaka and showed him my reservation. But he did not understand and tried to calm me. I suppose he told me to wait until my train would be announced on the monitor. After a while I made another attempt. Meantime I had drawn a young man’s attention, he had enough English to understand my problem and to speak to the stationmaster who immediately put me on the train he was just about to whistle off. Here I was in the early morning among commuting Japanese, most of them still half asleep sitting on the benches or hanging in the "rings". Nobody cared much and so with one hand I reached out for one of the rings from the ceiling while trying to hold firm to my luggage with the other.

There was nothing else to worry about. We reached Shin Osaka in good time and I got on my Shinkansen without further problems.