I hardly spent a minute on any kind of social platform these past three days.
We spent the weekend in the countryside, not too far outside of Tokyo. The main purpsose of our trip, aside from seeing a band we like in a cool outdoor venue and getting some country air was to try selling hats at an event outside of the city and see what it might be like.
City life and Country life in Japan are so vastly different, it’s sometimes hard to imagine if you haven’t traveled outside the city much.
I was surprised a bunch of times.
First was that there were no buses. I’ve been 3 other similar coutnry spots about the same 2 hour distance from Tokyo and all of them had bus stops near the station. I thought it was strange that google maps said we would need to walk 20 minutes to our hotel.
“It’s fine”. We can catch a taxi and call one if we cant find any. I wouldnt be surprised if there was no taxi stand but i checked online and there was one, no problem right?
Well a taxi stand does not equal a taxi. We waited for 10 minutes and i asked the person at the station office (who was also missing for a few minutes) and he said we’d have to cal and it might take an hour.
So we walked 20 minutes to the hotel.
On the way and when we arrived, we were met with perplexed looks. Generally people don’t walk here. Its a car society, which was surprising to me because it looked like more of a town center on the map and this area is quite popular among young people trying to escape the city, while most other country areas are dying.
They were also surprised that we were staying 3 days. This is not a tourist area first of all, just a quiet country area, and most people in Japan make trips as short as possible, they see the sights and go home. They don’t like having free time in their schedule.
There are plenty of fancy resorts nearby and if we had driven to one and stayed there for 3 days that may have made sense, a romantic getaway to the ocean, a bit luxurious since the work ethic in Japan means people don’t relate to such travel and if they do it’d be to Hawaii.
I cant relate to one day trips. To me, they are more stress than they are worth. A day trip makes sense to me as a way to save money, but if im paying for a hotel already, i might as well stay longer. If i can’t get 3 days off, i dont need to travel, plain and simple.
Almost everyone else at our hotel probably stayed for one night, filling the schedule the day before and after before heading home.
When we went to the concert which we were supposed to sell hats at, I was also surprised at how underprepared we were and how impossible it would be for us to be fully prepared with out a drivers life se and a car.
We had to call 5 taxi companies. 4 refused to drive us and recommended other companies who also refused us. I don’t know if they try to respect each others territories or if they just make excuses for not wanting to take us because they have more pormisong fares, or more likely because they have a routine and don’t like to stray outside of it. It seems all the drivers and companies are very old and family run.
Something funny about Japan, everywhere else I’ve been either tries to maximize profit or maximize lifestyle. Japan does neither. People tend to prioritize predictability. They’d rather starve than change, and they think they are supposed to work long hours so they find ways to stay busy even if its not productive. Some people think work is supposed to he 8-9 hours a day, and so thhey won’t work less and they won’t work more. Many people think work is SUPPOSED to be 9-6 and so they won’t work a second more or a second less.
I imagine the taxi drivers cleaning their already clean dashboards with clean wipes until exactly 5 PM rather than taking a fare at 4:50 and risk working overtime, since they are their own bosses and this isnt the competitive atmosphere of the city. The overtime culture tends to be a result of corporate culture. Even deeer than that is the culture of regularity.
And so no taxi’s are avaialble after 5 PM! I couldn’t believe it. If i was the 6th taxi company in town to open (there seem to be 6 now), I’d be the one to open different hours! Why not! No competition! Pretty much gauranteed business! Easy life! I imagine if you do something like that in the Japanese countryside though, the other companies will be very unhappy with you for changing the standard practice and may team up against you. Local people will probably make rumors about you and not recommend you to anyone. Maybe im wrong but this is what I guess from hearing students and friends stories of old people in the country.
So we went to the event with no idea how we would get home. “It’ll work out” i said. And it worked out and we had a crazy adventure, but I’ll have to share that story next time!
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My music and fiction
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