First post in 2015. Hope y'all had a great New Year's.
For winter break, the gf and I decided to go to the Osaka area, specifically for USJ (and the new Harry Potter ride). We even rolled in the new year in Osaka, quietly and peacefully in our hotel room.
After days of eating, walking, and running, it's time for us to go home. A few years ago, I would've added "unfortunately". But, I have become more of a homebody since, and nearly a week of eating out, taking public transportation, not sleeping in my own bed, and endlessly spending money on everything made me miss my place in tiny Miyako. I would even go as far as saying that it's home, which is what it has become in past 2 years.
Let's set the backdrop. The Osaka area had been surprisingly cold during New Year's. We were shivering when we went to USJ. It was cold enough for us to splurge on a pair of Spider-Man poncho blankets, and we were still cold afterwards. We found out later that much of Japan was hit by huge snowstorms, except for Miyako.
We were flying out of Osaka (Itami Airport) in the evening. With about 30 minutes before takeoff, we got the unpleasant news that our flight was cancelled. I was on the toilet when I got that notification. That immediately sent us into scramble mode, had me running out of the bathroom. I have had many unfortunate experiences of dealing with this, as recently as last year, so I was a bit calmer than the gf. Luckily, airline people spoke English, the gf speaks Japanese, and ANA is good with taking care of its customers. Flights out of Osaka were booked up until Monday (not acceptable), but we could fly out of Nagoya the next day. After quickly working out a way to get to Nagoya that night, we took that option.
While the gf talked to the ANA counter person, I reserved our shinkansen tickets online. When you reserve online, you still need to pick up the paper tickets at a JR station, or at least that's what my past experiences told me. However, when I got to Shin-Osaka Station, the JR counter person told me that I couldn't pick up the tickets. He said that the JR online booking system can only be used for JR East, which is everything eastward from Tokyo; Osaka is very far west from Tokyo. Although I can book tickets for trains throughout Japan, I have to pick them up at the JR East service area, which wasn't possible in our case. The gf, always concerned about my well-being, split off to get me food while I was in line, so I had to stall for her to come back. I was getting very frustrated, because while he was very patient, he kept repeating the same "you can't pick up tickets here" line and offered no other solutions. I couldn't seem to convey the urgency that we need to get on the train that leaves in 30 minutes. When the gf returned, the solution of buying new tickets at the counter and canceling my reservations by phone suddenly appeared. Normally, I would be even more pissed. But today, I was just grateful to make it through, so I coughed up the money and thanked him for entertaining our troubles.
The rest of the night went smoothly; the gf had booked a hotel near Nagoya Station while we were on the bus to Shin-Osaka Station. However, the real drama had yet to come.
Next morning, we had trouble finding the bus stop for the airport shuttle, and barely made it. When we arrived at the airport, we couldn't find the ANA counter. Then, the dreadful realization came upon me: does Nagoya have more than one airport?
Thank goodness for smartphones, which saved us from asking real people and the resulting embarrassment. As it turned out, Nagoya has 2 airports, and our flight was at the other airport, which is on the opposite (south) end of the city. The ANA counter person at Osaka had told us "Nagoya Airport", and Google Maps showed us this (wrong) airport when we inquired with "Nagoya Airport", so we were none the wiser. Probably that person didn't know either. We should have checked anyway... I mean, Nagoya is one of the biggest cities in Japan, why wouldn't it have 2 airports?
With 90 minutes before takeoff and the other airport being 45 minutes away by car, we had no choice but to take a taxi. It was the most expensive taxi ride in my life, but we got a nice tour of the city of Nagoya from the expressway. When we arrived with time to spare, and had enough money to pay the bill, we were very relieved. The correct airport, Chubu Airport, is new and enormous, and I was in awe.
The rest of the day proceeded smoothly but hectically. We shuffled from one form of public transportation to another, with little time in between, before finally reaching Miyako in the evening. The gf and I joked that we took almost every form of transportation in Japan in the past 24 hours.
The plus side of all the shenanigans: this view of Mt. Fuji from the airplane.
In hindsight, I think the real plus side to this unexpected adventure is that the gf and I worked together to solve a common problem, instead of panicking and arguing. If anything, it may have made our relationship stronger, and gave us vacation stories to tell. Unfortunately, the gf wished to have nothing to do with Nagoya for a while.
And let's not forget the most important lesson: Nagoya is a city of two airports!
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