Raining hard today too.
So my train stopped at Hamamatsu for 3 hours and didn't move at all. The conductor was giving us updates and keep appologizing for about 2 hours, and then he told us that the rain is getting less. Finally, after about 3 hours, he old us that the first train is started moving in 30 km/h, and my train followed. Everyone (not me) were drinking at this point. In-train vending services ran out food, but people were still buying beer.
When we arrived, it was past midnight, and most of local lines were over. So I took taxi. At the station, we lined up for receiving reinversing stamp for express ticket, and then lined up again for taxi. We get reinverse for express ticket price (which is about a half of the entire ticket price which include express ticket and train ticket) when the train delay more than 2 hours.
Taxi line was long, and the line was bent in weird shape. I was wondering why the line wasn't straight, but had a kink. It showed actually how much Japan has changed in last few years. Taxi started arriving (later I heard there was a big dispatch of taxi cars over their broadcast to "save" us) and I moved forward slowly. Then I came about the kinked spot of the line. As soon as I reached the spot, I noticed a smell of smoke. I saw one guy in the line smoking. Now I understood.. The line was bent in weird shape, because people were trying to avoid the smoke from the guy.. I moved few step sideway, and let the kink stay as the way it was.
If this were 5 years ago in Japan, probably smoking in line like this wasn't a big deal. So many people were smoking in public back then. However, smoking in public started getting banned in many place including railroad stations, people finally realized that how refreshing the tabacco smoke free air is. Obviously, smokers are becoming minority here. There was only one person smoking, the guy causing the kink, in very very long line waiting for taxis.
For people who missed connection to long distance train from the station, JR prepared "accomodation". It wasn't hotel room like airplane delay. JR pulled out some regular sinkansen carriages for poor passengers to sleep over.
I standed in line for about half hour and finally got into a taxi. I told the driver the address I needed to go, and he asked me where it is. .. I wasn't familiar with the area at all, and we were stuck at a big intersection for few minutes to decide which way to go.. He pulled out a thick map book of the area and let me find the location. I had very little idea of the area, and so did he.
He told me that his speciality is picking up very intoxicated passengers at a bar district after the last train left and send them to their homes in distance. This is very efficent way to make money, because often the charge goes up to $300. They are vaguely consious about what they are doing, so they don't care how much it takes to get home. However, he told me downsides, like putting up with drunk passengers naggy converstations and some passengers try to pick up a fight. I'm sure puking etc could happen too (unfortunatelly it's common in Japan).
So he wasn't used to picking up a sobber passenger at railroad station and going to a in-town residential area. He told me that all taxis in town were called up to take passengers from the delayed shinkansens so they won't get left out at the station. It was already 1 a.m.
When we arrived at the area, we circled around for about 5 minutes to find where I was supposed to get off. He went to far, and stopped the fee meter. We arrived the spot and he let me call my family from his cell phone. No one answered.. So I assumed that my father proabably came out to wait for me in front of the building, but I didn't see him. Instead, there were one homeless guy sleeping at the bench, and also a young guy waiving a hand to the driver to catch the taxi. The driver didn't let me get out insisting it's not safe to step out. Japan became less safer in last 10 years.
We were double checking the map and called my family again for few more minutes in the taxi.. Then my father showed up told us he was at the other side of the building waiting for us. I thanked taxi driver and got off. I wish his luck with catching more good "deals" and someday make his dream of owning and driving a large tourist bus come true.
So my train stopped at Hamamatsu for 3 hours and didn't move at all. The conductor was giving us updates and keep appologizing for about 2 hours, and then he told us that the rain is getting less. Finally, after about 3 hours, he old us that the first train is started moving in 30 km/h, and my train followed. Everyone (not me) were drinking at this point. In-train vending services ran out food, but people were still buying beer.
When we arrived, it was past midnight, and most of local lines were over. So I took taxi. At the station, we lined up for receiving reinversing stamp for express ticket, and then lined up again for taxi. We get reinverse for express ticket price (which is about a half of the entire ticket price which include express ticket and train ticket) when the train delay more than 2 hours.
Taxi line was long, and the line was bent in weird shape. I was wondering why the line wasn't straight, but had a kink. It showed actually how much Japan has changed in last few years. Taxi started arriving (later I heard there was a big dispatch of taxi cars over their broadcast to "save" us) and I moved forward slowly. Then I came about the kinked spot of the line. As soon as I reached the spot, I noticed a smell of smoke. I saw one guy in the line smoking. Now I understood.. The line was bent in weird shape, because people were trying to avoid the smoke from the guy.. I moved few step sideway, and let the kink stay as the way it was.
If this were 5 years ago in Japan, probably smoking in line like this wasn't a big deal. So many people were smoking in public back then. However, smoking in public started getting banned in many place including railroad stations, people finally realized that how refreshing the tabacco smoke free air is. Obviously, smokers are becoming minority here. There was only one person smoking, the guy causing the kink, in very very long line waiting for taxis.
For people who missed connection to long distance train from the station, JR prepared "accomodation". It wasn't hotel room like airplane delay. JR pulled out some regular sinkansen carriages for poor passengers to sleep over.
I standed in line for about half hour and finally got into a taxi. I told the driver the address I needed to go, and he asked me where it is. .. I wasn't familiar with the area at all, and we were stuck at a big intersection for few minutes to decide which way to go.. He pulled out a thick map book of the area and let me find the location. I had very little idea of the area, and so did he.
He told me that his speciality is picking up very intoxicated passengers at a bar district after the last train left and send them to their homes in distance. This is very efficent way to make money, because often the charge goes up to $300. They are vaguely consious about what they are doing, so they don't care how much it takes to get home. However, he told me downsides, like putting up with drunk passengers naggy converstations and some passengers try to pick up a fight. I'm sure puking etc could happen too (unfortunatelly it's common in Japan).
So he wasn't used to picking up a sobber passenger at railroad station and going to a in-town residential area. He told me that all taxis in town were called up to take passengers from the delayed shinkansens so they won't get left out at the station. It was already 1 a.m.
When we arrived at the area, we circled around for about 5 minutes to find where I was supposed to get off. He went to far, and stopped the fee meter. We arrived the spot and he let me call my family from his cell phone. No one answered.. So I assumed that my father proabably came out to wait for me in front of the building, but I didn't see him. Instead, there were one homeless guy sleeping at the bench, and also a young guy waiving a hand to the driver to catch the taxi. The driver didn't let me get out insisting it's not safe to step out. Japan became less safer in last 10 years.
We were double checking the map and called my family again for few more minutes in the taxi.. Then my father showed up told us he was at the other side of the building waiting for us. I thanked taxi driver and got off. I wish his luck with catching more good "deals" and someday make his dream of owning and driving a large tourist bus come true.
