The Alarm
rang, but I was already up. . . feeling groggy I tried to figure out how I made home last night. Looking in the mirror and seeing the way my eyelids looked with eczema made me feel embarrassed I interacted with anyone yesterday. After checking out of my hotel I took a train to Shinjuku and from there I waited patiently to ride the bullet train for the first time. As I waited another train accelerated and left with blazingly fast speed and precision. As a child I remember standing in the small dinky library and reading about these speedy trains, but the small picture in the already small book didn’t do it any justice.
Having an unreserved seat I immediately asked the conductor which car’s I was allowed in and took my seat in the front of the section. Those spaces were the best because they allowed me to stretch my legs. Being the first train in the morning, the majority of the seats were completely open. Using my tablet I checked the route of the train and saw that it would pass right by mount Haruna. Sitting on the train I’d realized this was the first time I’d really gotten a detailed look of where I was going to be living on a map. It was really ever the first time I’d taken a detailed look of Japan. Nagano was right in the middle of the country, Kyoto was four hours to the west, but gunma was right there. Connecting Nagano to Gunma was a small little road called Usui pass, I was determined to stay awake.
I Sunk
deeper into the seat as the station started to move by the window, until the vast expanse of the city was revealed. The foreground was flying by, the middle ground moved a little slower, and the background moved, but only slightly. It made for a beautiful composition, I was in awe as we seemed to leave the city behind in minutes. While I enjoyed looking out the window, lush views would be cut off by tunnels, and high walls. Periodically checking the map I was determined to see Mount Haruna with my own eyes. Which were getting heavier and heavier until I couldn’t feel the weight anymore.
I woke up in a panic. . . did I miss my stop? Checking my surface I was relieved that I hadn’t missed my stop, but I had missed all the mountains I wanted to see. Having missed all the sights I wanted to see I was content with returning to the abyss until my stop.
Arriving at Nagano Station
the grogginess from the nap and low amount of sleep from the night before compounded to have me feeling like I was stumbling instead of walking. There was only a short gap of time to catch the train to Matsumoto, so I quickly bought my ticket and ran to the platform. There was a train just about to leave but waving them down they held the train as I ran up a flight of stairs and down the other.
I squeezed through the doors before calmly taking my seat. Seeing me enter the train engineer started the train. I felt good that I made it onto the train, but than I had realized that this train was the wrong one.
