Our Korea and Japan Adventure 2024. Korea and Japan through New Eyes and Old: May 5th. Golden Week.

So I wake up to an empty house. Not too bad. I can shower and shave at my own pace. Finally everyone wanders back in from breakfast and whatever. Today we will stay local and go see the Arashiyama monkeys and bamboo grove and then take a ride on the Romantic train

Before we even get very far, Mary Ann and I decide not to see the monkeys because of the steep climb involved. Just the bamboo for us. Then the crowds hit. Last day of Golden week and everybody came to see monkeys and bamboo.

So game plan C. We eat and then meet the rest at Romantic train later.

Wagyu beef. And by the time we were done, the crowds were gone.

Try and get a taxi at this time of day Golden Week. Went to train info and he points to where the taxis should be. Wait 10 minutes and go back to train info. My non Japanese and his limited English doesn’t help. He gives me a phone number which I call and manage I think to order a taxi. Gary-San. 15 minutes later I go back to see if there is a possibility that the two train terminals are connected. He greats me with a “No Taxi?”. Not sure how to answer that. He also tells me to walk.

We start to walk, and Gary-San taxi shows up. So thankful to see a taxi. He takes us to the correct station, we meet the rest of the crew and wait for the Romantic train to leave.

Tunnel shot. There were a few

Not everyone feels romantic.

Scene 1.

It was scenic.

We reach the end point and all of a sudden they yell for everyone to get back on the train. We were going to take the bus back but it seemed like something had happened to prevent that. We get back to original station, and now they want money for return trip. Cash. We argue back and forth. I teach one person about the term “bait and switch”. All to no avail. But we do manage to use a credit card. Not much romance to this railroad. Jessica ends by telling them I have a National Blog in the USA and this will be poorly reported in it. And so I did. The walk back was great. Jessica bought me a real cane instead of the umbrella I had been using. And most people had gone home so the streets were empty.