Getting There
2003.May.05 - 2003.May.06
Finally I could go "back home" again for a couple of weeks, back home to Japan. As usual I only planned very roughly where I wanted to go. Amami Oshima was set, the rest not.
I was at the airport in Zurich rather early, checking in and proceeding to the gate at once. There I started reading one of the novels I had bought. And after an hour or so I had a brief look at some pamphlets I had brought along. The one of Hida-Takayama was quite interesting and the decision was made that Hida-Takayama would be one stop on my travel itinerary.
25 minutes before the flight was scheduled to take off, there were still almost no Asians around and surely no Japanese. "Something must be wrong," I thought, "It should be boarding time now but nobody here. Sure, due to the war in Iraq and SARS the number of passengers drastically decreased, but not this much." So, checking again, I found that the gate had changed while I was reading...
On the flight from Zurich to Amsterdam I was seated next to an elderly Japanese lady. She somehow looked a little anxious. After some time I asked her whether she was a member of the group sitting in front of us. Rather surprised that I speak Japanese and do so quite fluently, she said no and started talking to me. Soon we found we were going to be on the same flight from Amsterdam to Tokyo. She had been travelling between Japan and Switzerland many times, but always using direct flights. Also this time she had booked a direct flight but, just like me, had to take a flight to Amsterdam and change there because for the whole month of May direct flights between Zurich and Tokyo had been cancelled. However, she had not known about the change until she was standing in front of the check-in counter. For her it was the first time to change planes somewhere and she does not speak English. So she was rather worried and very happy and relieved to hear that I was going the exactly same way and she could come with me.
Changing at Amsterdam was no problem. There was some Japanese speaking staff already waiting for her and one of those carts they have there was also ready to take her to the other gate. It must have been obvious that I was going to help her, because I was allowed to ride on that cart as well.
On the rest of the flight I was scanning through my guidebook and some plan for my journey formed in my head.
Good luck I was reading the applicable sections during the flight, because it said that one bus route I definitely wanted to take, would not operate before May 15th. So, still at the airport, I changed the dates for my flight from Haneda to Naze. A bit of a problem, because JAL sent me from one counter to the next, everybody telling me they were not responsible for such changes. This went on till I was sent back to a counter I already had been to and I finally complained. The lady checked with her superior and I was given a free dial phone number to call. The same happened again. They said they were not responsible and I got another number. There they wanted me to call the first number again. So I insisted once more on getting this issue resolved, was kept waiting for a minute or two and finally it was confirmed that the office at the first number was responsible. From the explanation I sensed that this whole confusion had something to do with the fact that the inland flight was a JAS flight, but I had bought the ticket abroad and thus still JAL, rather than JAS, was responsible. So once more I made a call to the first number and told them from the beginning that this ticket had been bought in connection with an international JAL flight. Finally the rescheduling went smoothly. It was only later, when I reread the regulations, that I realized the date of the first inland flight could only be changed on the day of arrival in Japan and only to an earlier date. So I had been lucky, unknowingly asking for the only kind of change possible at the only time possible. Maybe it would have worked out later as well, but at least this way I had no trouble, except for being sent hither and thither, that is.
As usual I went downstairs at the airport, exchanged my JR Pass sales slip for the real thing, got a 
reservation on the Narita Express to Ofuna and then called up a couple of friends. Some of them did not know I was coming to Japan and were surprised when I suddenly called them, saying that I was in Japan again.
Of course I also called my parents-in-law to tell them what train I'd be coming with and asking whether they could pick me up from the station. Usually I walk, but with a lot of luggage even I prefer a ride. At first nobody picked up the phone and only five minutes before the train was leaving could I talk to father.
Because there was a traffic accident on the train line somewhere close to Chiba, the train arrived much later than scheduled. So there was nobody waiting for me any more at the station. After some more calling and waiting everything went fine.