So after the test on Friday, Sean Siberio, someone in first year who I’ve been chatting with a lot lately (who will for the rest of the post be referred to as Mr. Negative) invited me to head down this private rail line that you can take from Hikone Station (Omi Railways) to a town called Shigaraki, which is famous throughout Japan for its ceramics, especially for the fact that they made the tanukis that you find everywhere. He told me that by the Omi rail it would take about an hour and cost me 980yen each way (he told me this because for some reason he finds it extraordinary that I’m very conscious of how much things cost and how much money I have). So, when we got to the station around 1:30pm that day, he told me that we were instead going to be taking the regular JR line, and that it would cost 1100yen. I wasn’t very happy at this fact, but he had already bought his ticket at the station so I bought mine as well. Before we even got onto the train, I was already regretting the fact that I was going with him. Every comment out of his mouth was negative or hurtful. Getting on the train, he went on a tirade for 10 minutes at the fact that we passed a NEC factory (which I pointed out), and that I pronounced it like “neck” instead of N-E-C. “I’ve never heard anyone on this planet say it like that? Who have you heard say it like that?” “Well, just about anyone I’ve ever worked with in technology, since I’ve worked on help desks since my mother was a DIRECTORY OF TECHNOLOGY.” “Oh, well that’s a very limited selection of people you’ve heard it from, I’ve never heard if like “neck”.” And on, and on, and on. Then Mr. Negative asked me what I was thinking of doing as an Asian studies major. “Well, I’m not really sure yet. Maybe something in international business or the government, maybe translation work. There’s lots of things I could do.” “Are you kidding, there’s nothing you can do with an Asian Studies degree. Government work, you’d have to be a political science major or major in international relations.” And so forth. (Why did he even ask me then???). He continued on by saying things like “The Big Ten sucks. There hasn’t been a decent team in the Big Ten in years.” “…..Michigan went to the Rose Bowl last year.” “Oh, they did.” “Yeah, I’m even wearing a FREAKING SWEATSHIRT that says that.” “Oh….I didn’t notice.”

This went on for about 40 minutes until we got to a station where we had to transfer to another line. Thing is, the other train wasn’t going to come for another 30 minutes. So, ok, 30 minutes, not so bad. So we’re sitting there, I’m attempting to not make conversation with him that he might say something negative to me about. I mention that we have 11 minutes left to wait until the train comes. “Well there’s really no point in knowing how much time is left. Once you’re in the [train] system, you’re at the mercy of the schedule.” (Oh, EXCUSE ME for telling you how much longer there was to wait!!!). Seriously, I don’t even know how his brain works if he managed to say something negative about me letting him know how much time there was left to wait. Becoming increasingly more disappointed and frustrated, and pondering just turning around a going back, we finally get to yet another station where we have to transfer. Since this was Mr. Negative’s trip, I was letting him navigate us. BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE. We left the station, because we were looking for yet another private line to transfer to to get to Shigaraki, and when we couldn’t find where to go, I told Mr. Negative that he needed to ask where we needed to go. “Oh, how do I say that?” (Before we had even gotten to Hikone station, he had made fun of me for the fact that I didn’t know how to communicate exactly to this discount ticket vendor on how to get ’roundtrip’ tickets. He told me that he was trying to not use ‘hand gestures’ in order for people to understand him in Japanese. He’s in first year and thinks he knows more than I do.) Telling him word for word exactly what he should say, and having him repeat it back to me in a garble of nonsense, I said fine, I could ask myself. So I was directed to a strange orange box with a button, and on pressing the button, it gave me a little printed piece of paper with some numbers on it for the private line. The station attendant then showed us where to go to get to the platform, which was THE SAME platform we had been on before. Remember now, by leaving the gates to look for the private line, we had to put in our 1100yen tickets.

Getting back down to the same platform, we discovered that we had 40 minutes to wait for the next train. By this time it was about 3:15. The next train came at 3:51. Stores and museums we had planned to see were closing at 5pm. I’m seriously having doubts at this point as to whether or not I should continue on. It would mean another 1100yen just to get back after a probably 2 hour stop in this town where nothing will be open, since I had no desire to buy a ceramic tanuki as it was. As Mr. Negative continued to spew his ‘anarchist’ ideas, dissing almost everyone else’s political views (saying such things as he hates it when people talk when they dont know what they are talking about, well, you sir are a hypocrite). 3:51 comes around. And it passes. Another 30 (THIRTY!) minutes goes by. Where is the train??!? Yes, a train was LATE in Japan. I’m not sure how this is possible. Finally the train pulls up and we get on, only for me to find out that it will cost me another 450yen each way to get to this city in the middle of no where. At this point I’m about 85% certain that I should just leave and go back to Hikone. But since I didn’t want to be mean and leave him there by himself, despite the way he had been treating me, I sat on the train. He continued to say things like “If you go you can’t do any complaining.” etc etc. Eventually the JR train that would go back the way we came pulled up. “There’s the other train, this is your last chance.” “What, so do *you* just want me to leave?” “Yes, I do want you to leave.” Oh, ok then. Gee, and here I was trying to be nice. So, with that, I said “Ok, well, fine then.” and I walked off the train to go back to Hikone.

Oh but the adventure isn’t over yet. It took me about an hour to get back to Hikone, and all the while I was trying to figure out what I should do when I got to the station. Since I technically didn’t have a ticket for the JR lines, but I hadn’t actually left the station, I would have to talk to the station attendant. I didn’t want to pay another 1100yen since I hadn’t actually gone anywhere. So as we were getting closer to Hikone, I figured that I’d tell the guy that I had come from Omihachiman and that I had lost my ticket, that way if they charged me for it again, it wouldn’t be as expensive. I didn’t want to lie to the guy, but I also didn’t want to pay double since I hadn’t gone anywhere. So getting back to Hikone station, I told the guy that I had lost my ticket. He asked me where I had come from, I said Omihachiman. Then he said “how much?” as in, how much had I paid for the ticket. Uh oh. If I told him an incorrect price, he’d know I was lying. So, not even haven’t a clue at this point how to explain my true situation in Japanese, I told him that my friend had bought it and so I didn’t know the price. Then he waved me through the gate and I was on my way. I felt like a lowly human being. Then I got to bike back to JCMU in the dark alone with a bike that doesn’t have a working light on it.

Well on the good side I only wasted about $10. On the bad side, well…yeah. I don’t think I’ll be socializing with Mr. Negative much in the future. He’s already been blocked from my buddy list. I had no idea how much of a jerk he was. -_-