A Golden Week, With Small Adventures.

Hello again, readers!

DW is hairline-deep in school work this week, so you get another post from Japan!  Lucky for me (well, sort of...), this week has been full of many small, unexpected adventures, so a blog topic was easy to find.  And it's Golden Week (a string of several Japanese holidays), which meant I got extra days off!  Hooray!

Since there were so many, many trips and stories this week... I'm going to break them into blog installments.  Blogstallments, if you will.

A-Ah-Ahem.  Let us begin.

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GOLDEN WEEK ADVENTURES.
Fukutsu / Fukuma: The Tale of the Wandering SUGOCA.

Last weekend, on Sunday, I was struck with a sudden, random blueness of mood.  I didn't want to spend much money, but I wanted to get out of the jutaku for a bit, so I hopped a train to Hakata Station.  It's a major entertainment and shopping hub in Fukuoka, so it's a cheap and easy pick-me-up trip (especially since it's included in my "commuter route," so my train ticket is essentially free).

I walked to my home station and entered through the electronic train stalls.  Scanning my SUGOCA card (my 6-month train pass for work, which I can charge with cash and use in tons of places) with a satisfying BEEP, I glanced down at the digital display.  It showed my current card-cash balance.  "Good," I thought.  "Pleeeeenty of money to head to Tenjin, if I feel like it."  Then, I intentionally boarded a very slow local, knowing that the journey itself was a part my evening's escape, not really the destination in itself.  I settled in by a window in Car 4, listening to my audiobook and gazing out at the late afternoon sky.

After about 40 minutes, my train pulled into Hakata Station.  I stood and zipped up my hoodie, thoroughly engrossed in my audiobook, and exited the train.  I trotted down the steps from the platform, reaching into my hoodie-pocket for my train pass.  Nothing.  I patted my jeans pockets.  Nothing.  I turned, found an alcove, and emptied my purse.  NOTHING.  I ran to a JR attendant, but just as I approached, a woman stepped in front of me for directions.  The attendant, apparently confused, turned and consulted a map.  He squinted, removing his glasses.  As I waited, bouncing nervously, a thought hit me: my train might still be here.

FYI, in small stations, the train lets people off and it leaves.  Immediately.  Unless there's a direct connection, it leaves right away.  And even if there is a direct connection, we're talking about a 60 second or so window.  This is what I expected, because this is what usually happens (given that I'm most often boarding at smaller stations).  But not in Hakata.  In the big stations, the train sits on the tracks for a few minutes.  So, with this thought suddenly in my head, I turned and SPRINTED up the stairs, back to to my platform.  I made it to the top step just in time to see the doors shut and the train shift into gear.

(Sigh....)  I won't give you the gruesome, painful details of my talk with the attendant, my tearful handing-over of train fare, my trip to the "Lost & Found," the embarrassing conversation with the clueless, super-fast-speaking JR lady, and the remainder of my mopey, sniffling evening by myself.  But, needless to say, I had a very bad evening.  If they didn't find my pass, I'd have to pay 1000 yen to have the commuters pass reissued, plus I'd lose ALL the cash on the card and my I-spent-a-long-time-picking-it-out-even-though-its-cheap case.  If that wasn't depressing enough, my language skill was totally defeated by the problem.  I could barely do anything about the situation, could hardly communicate at all despite studying and practicing for months.

So, I went home (paying my way... again) feeling even worse than when I'd left.

The next morning, I get a phone call from my supervisor.  They found my card!  It ended up hitching a ride from Chikushino to Ebitsu, to Araki (I think), and finally ending at Fukuma Station in Fukutsu.

Chikushino = where I spent the night.  (A) = where my card spent the night.

HOORAY!  My card!  They had my card!  I could go, reclaim my SUGOCA, and redeem myself by handling the interaction in non-crappy, dry-eyed Japanese.  And, since I was already going to have to pay the fare, I decided that I'd find someplace cool in Fukutsu on the internet and I'd go there.

ADVENTURE, MOTHER F&%KERS.

Here it is.  In photos:

My precious!

A mascot: Fuku-Fuku-chan.

The station.

One of the views as I walked.

My e-directions were frighteningly... residential.

But they were beautiful.

Miyajihama Beach!

Gorgeous.

It was a windy day, so there were lots of windsurfers.

I love beaches.

Ahhh... relaxation.

Yeah, I know.  Selfie at the ocean.

So, in short:  A terrible, weepy evening turned into a long, lovely walk and a picnic-for-one on a beautiful Japanese beach.  Lemons into lemonade, or some such.

Thanks for reading!
WR