Transportation to school

The transportation system in Japan is slick, though I really haven't used a whole lot of different types yet. I have my Lagari card which lets me ride the train near my house, and I have a couple of bus cards for the bus to work. I think L'Shawn says you can get to work in about 35 minutes door to door if you need to. I only have one class which starts at 9, so I don't think I'll be in a time crunch that way. Anyway, to get to work, you have options. You can take the train for 1 stop and then get on the bus, which takes 25 minutes. Or, you can take the train for 2 stops and walk for 25 minutes. Or you can walk all the way, which takes about an hour. It's not particularly cheap to ride the trains, though I am oblivious with my handy card. L'Shawn said they figured out it would cost $200 a month to commute to work if you ride the whole way round trip.

For now, I am enjoying walking to work. The season is spectacular with all the cherry blossoms, and you see interesting sights along the way. Beautiful houses and gardens tucked in with more normal ones. And lots of narrow, winding streets. Yesterday, I saw a lot of people who were quite dressed up all walking the same way (not together). They all had darling little children with them dressed to the nines. One woman was wearing a kimono. Nosy person that I am, I dug out my little dictionary and asked one woman who looked nice if there was a wedding. She smiled and said no, it was a ?????? That's the problem. I can figure out how to ask the question, but have no idea what the answer is. Anyway, I asked at work, and they said it was probably a new school ceremony (translation). So it must have been the opening ceremony for either an elementary school or a preschool, from the looks of the children. On the first day of school, I sometimes took the kids to school, or at least walked them to the bus. This is apparently a much bigger deal here.

My house is right by the train station, which is quite handy. However, I often think, wow, the wind has really kicked up, only to realize that it's a train going by. Luckily, there are no streets near here that cross the tracks, so there is no whistle like there is at home.

So the commute is quite manageable. Most of my students have to ride the train between an hour and an hour and a half to get to school. That's because there is no dorm, and most students go to college in the general vicinity of their home, but that vicinity can be up to 2 hours away I guess.

Today we're going to take a train ride up the mountain to a village famous for its hot springs (onsen) More on that later.