Getting Lost
In the mid 1980's my wife and I traveled to Australia from Canada by
way of Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. We landed at Narita airport
in Japan, and having an overnight stop, we ventured from our airport
hotel into Tokyo by train the next day. Halfway into our train trip,
we had to change trains in a tiny place called Ueno (pronounced
Wayno). There was this great underground facility at the train
station, with birds flying all around inside, and nobody spoke
English. We didn't have a clue how to catch the right train. There
were lots of machines lining the walls of the station in which one
should deposit the correct fare for the distance that one was
traveling. We were hopelessly lost. (we did encounter another
Caucasian in the train station, but that's another story). We stopped
at several little shops for help, but nobody could understand us.
Finally, one elderly shopkeeper, who couldn't understand our language
but could understand our plight, closed up his shop, took us to the
proper machine and made sure we got the proper fare. We subsequently
got on the right train into Tokyo. God bless him!!!
Regarding that other Caucasian at the train station in Ueno - we
ended up meeting again in Hong Kong, on a trip to Lantau Island, and
it turned out we lived about five miles from each other in our
hometown of Kitchener in Southern Ontario - go figure! We all spent
New Years Eve together at Jimmy's Kitchen in Hong Kong - sounds a bit
grotty, but actually a classy place! Ahh life...
Ross
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