Trains...

On my way back misfortune struck. The station is about 1 km along a straight street and when I asked for "EKI" I was directed towards a building where trains departed for Kyoto but everything looked strange - it was local train company. Only when I used the magic word SHINKANSEN I was pointed towards the nearby JR station. Next I jumped on a train bound for Tokyo. To travel on a Shinkansen is easy, apart from the comfort and speed you get any information before approaching a stop on a running board and over a loudspeaker in English as well as in Japanese. When Kyoto was not announced as one of the stops I became uneasy and asked fellow passengers. Unfortunately they were all Japanese with not enough knowledge of English to understand my problem. I decided to join the queue ready to get off the train when one of the passengers came forward remembering the word CHANGE. Once on the platform I must have looked quite lost, so an elderly man came to help. Although he himself did not know where the platform for the next train to Kyoto was, he at least could ask properly. He saw me to the train and made sure that everything was right.
Once in Kyoto my next train was a local train to the vicinity. Local trains do not have English announcements but on every station there is a sign in the middle of the platform both in Japanese letters and in Romaji. In the middle of the sign is the name of the station given and in smaller letters either the previous or the next stop in the respective directions. A very clever system unless you sit in a car where you cannot see the sign or in a rapid train which does not stop everywhere. I did not chance it and followed the stops on my map, whereupon I was asked where I would go, with the result that everybody in the car listening knew my destination. This proofed very useful, I would have missed it, had it not been for another passenger shouting with raised voice ARASHIYAMA.

I was glad I knew at least

ARIGATO GOZAIMASU