Streets with no name
...written on 2001-06-17, @ 2:37 a.m.
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Sun June 17, 2001
I thought I was safe. Hey, I even thought I was clever. Before my one and only class of the night at Tarui, I asked the branch boss to draw me a map of how to get to the train station. I would finish teaching at 7:45pm and could head out on my own to the station rather than waiting for at least more 3 hours and have someone drive me back to Hombu.
I looked at the map he drew. There was the branch, there was the Circle K, there was the corner with the street light, a right turn, a left turn, a couple of bridges, and then that road that bows sharply to the left.
Yep, I thought I was safe. Hee, yeah, I was clever.
Note to unsuspecting visitors to Japan:
Never accept a hand drawn map just showing a road that bows to the left. I'm telling you, DON'T DO IT! If you can't get a landmark out of them, CALL A CAB!
You see, most streets in Japan have no names. People and mail get around by neighborhood grids and if you could see the little winding streets you would know why. The last time I was in Tarui, the map I was following showed a road bowing to the left. Why no alarms went off in my head, I'll never know. (See Carp Unplugged
)
Anyway, I said my goodbyes after class and took the first turn at the Circle K. The sun had set about an hour and a half ago and I could feel the thick top of clouds heavy with moisture, threatening to burst over me and the city. It was cool and I found the walking to be pleasant.
I crossed the bridges and remembered the carp flag spectacle of the month before, when the river was awash with two hundred silk fish flags flailing in the mountain winds. I breathed deep and looked from the left side of the narrow street to the right, taking in the sights of the old and new Japanese houses. I saw a convenience store, Coco's, and thought I should stop there and confirm my directions, but I continued on past as I saw the road begin its curve to the left.
The street began an incline and I could feel the clouds start to spit. I had already been walking over half an hour and Mori-san said it was about a 20 minute walk. Everything was closed. Everything was dark. No one was out on the streets.
It was a quiet solitary walk and I wouldn't have minded going a little farther, turning around and finding my way back, if it hadn't been for the fact that I started hating my shoes.
Since Japan is in the rainy season now, I have switched out the shoes I wear. My Rockport suedes are retired for the season and I'm wearing my Rockport dress sneakers. I love my Rockport suedes, but I HATE THE ROCKPORT SNEAKERS!! I hate 'em! I have always hated them! I will always hate them! I bought them just before I left for Japan and didn't have a chance to try them out, but they have these nubby reflexology pads in the shoes that really irritate my feet. I hope some google searches land here on a search for Rockport. I WANT MY REVENGE!
So there I was, those reflexology bubbles hitting my anger spots, starting to get soggy, and afraid that by the time I did turn around, I just might meet everyone heading back to the main office anyway, when at the crest of the hill I spotted three high school boys on foot. I could tell they were in high school by their uniforms. I intruded on their conversation with a tired "Eki wa, doko desuka?" (Where is the train station?) They pointed with their arms, and said haltingly, "Go straight." I felt like they wanted to say more, and I knew I had just come as straight as anyone could come, but they just repeated "Go straight" and I heard one of the boys say something in Japanese about a bicycle, but that didn't concern me, so I just turned around and started walking back down the hill, almost limping from the pain in my feet. (DAMN ROCKPORTS!)
I hadn't realized how far I had walked, and it seemed like it was taking longer to get down the hill, but just as I saw Coco's convenience store, and was about to go in and ask directions as I originally had meant to do, I saw two high school boys on one bicycle coming towards me. The driver stopped and the piggybacker jumped off. In excited voices they asked me if I had found the station yet. I smiled at them in recognition and said no. It was then that they were able to finish the directions that they had given me at the top of the hill. "Go, go and go straight. Turn left.", they gulped with satisfaction. I thanked them warmly and turned down the road they indicated.
As I was walking, I thought of a conversation I had had a while back with another English teacher, who said that he absolutely refused to teach his students how to tell directions because he felt they would never need them. I myself have had to teach many an English class this year utilizing these terms, and wasn't it just a few weeks ago when I was listening to my Japanese teacher tell me how to say intersection (kosaten), right (migi), left (hidari) and traffic light (shingo)?
Up ahead it looked like the road was about to come to an end. I couldn't tell if there was a left turn or not, or even be sure when the boys had meant for me to turn, so I waited for a woman to finish her conversation with a friend dropping her off at her house before asking where the station was. She happily answered my inquiry in Japanese, saying all the words I knew above and I was off to the end of my adventure, extremely thankful for the teachers who took the time to give their students directions.