April 2nd, (Japan Day 2) Nikko and JR Trains Part II

We went down to the JR station an hour early as advised by JR and disability Japan and encountered the three stooges of JR. Or as I put it when we FINALLY got on the train, “Not the sharpest pencils in the case.”

We left out of the same station we entered, the JR Nikko which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and we had a passing couple take our picture in front of this station (oldest in eastern Japan). We prefer to think that us in the picture ADDS to the beauty of the station.
Well, every time we arrive we tell the JR staff that we are coming back tomorrow, and this is our train schedule and I am in a wheelchair. Then we come an hour early and do it all over again. Only today this guy goes, “Maybe you want to take the train TOMORROW.” Huh? Is the train on schedule? Well, yes it is but it is not good for me to take it. Odd, because no one said anything before. Some time later we find out the problem: The train leaves from platform 2 and there is NO way to get to Platform two except for stairs.

However before this there is this very insulting questioning which indicates how few wheelchair users there must be going around on train (I have YET to see another wheelchair anywhere). First they ask, “Can you perhaps, WALK to train?” (see, they don’t want to tell us about the stairs), I am, “No, wheelchair means, no, I don’t WALK to train.” Then it was, “What if you walk VERY SLOWLY.” I was thinking, “What exactly do people think when they see a rigid wheelchair around here, that is it a fashion accessory?” I mean, in the hotel room Linda has already caught me from falling about 4 times in 1 day from Limited wheelchair to bed walking. I fall on the stairs, even bruise a hand, and that is it, the trip is pretty much over. Assuming I don’t pass out due to the orthostatic hypotension as soon as I try to stand. So, no; no matter how many times they ask, “What if you walk HUNCHED OVER?” is the answer not going to be yes. My God, is this what they ask spinal cord injuries, “Can you walk SLOWLY?” Dude, I am in a WHEELCHAIR! Anyway, the result is that, no, I can’t take the train today, because it is on platform 2. Well, screw that. I said, I will pull myself up the stairs. So JR guy one wants me to show him, and Linda transfers me to the stairs and I start going up, and he says, okay, I can go, as we have 40 minutes now (Linda had returned from buying us Bento lunchboxes for the train) and he says, “Only 150 stairs!” And I think, “Oh fuck!”

Well, I start going up and JR number one is happy I am going up and then JR number 2 comes out and is furious because…..this isn’t the staircase I am supposed to go up. This is the staircase to the dance hall (Don’t ask me about a second floor dance hall in a train station, ask Frank Lloyd Wright). So I bump down the stairs again and we go over to the overpass and I start up the stairs while Linda is trying to find the words for “JR is ruining her JEANS, they will be filthy and ripped and cost $150” But she gave up and helped me by carrying my legs as I hand walked up the stairs of this walkway and then had to pull myself into the chair to do the flat bit. I get to the downside and say to Linda, “Turn me around, let’s do this in the chair.” And thank God the axle held as we bumped down all the stairs, while I used my right arm to control the drop and there we were on Platform 2. Then the train came and I shit you not, there was 18 inches up into the train, I had to see sky to get my front casters on the train and then the JR guys are pushing to get me vertical and I grab the bars and just yank myself in. Sigh. Couldn’t have mentioned this LITTLE detail when we told you yesterday we were leaving today JR guys?

Anyway after that little commuter train it was back to the Shinkansen (Bullet Trains), first up to a connection point at Sendai to catch the REALLY fast express train though the mountains of NorthernHonshu. When we got on board the special express Shinkansen we got free drinks (non-alcohol) and were treated like rock stars (so sort of like royalty). Due to many, many mountains (and thus MANY, MANY tunnels), I started on the post cards. I found that writing is kind of hard to do so I hope you can understand what I wrote. Somehow it isn’t the same if I don’t write it but I have been having increasing deteriorating hand problems. Last week I kept dropping manga and books I was reading, I mean, one second, holding flat with two hands, the next on the floor with a bang and a swear word, and every few minutes. Exactly how can I not feel the pressure loss of two hands and an entire book? Linda offered to dictate some for me but they were sort of personal messages and I didn’t want to shout that out whether people spoke English or not. So I AM working on the postcards, and if you get one in my handwriting, I hope you can read it but keep it as a collectors item as I don’t think I will able to do handwriting of any kind for much longer.
We had our Bento boxes, which I ate with my built up fork (yeah, chopsticks, that’s going to work! NOT!!), and it was pretty good, and I even ate my sweet potato and fried ginger, just not the scary grey thing that looked and felt like rubber in the corner. The rice was GOOD, not like our rice, and the yellow omelette had all sorts of interesting flavours, so it was like a positive new eating experience (And I don’t use the words “new eating experience” and “positive” together that often).

Arriving at Kakunodate we got a taxi and the usual amazement as I well up as well as our first experience getting hit up with free stuff (something that happens to girls a lot in Japan apparently – happened to us twice just getting to our hotel). You would think girl wearing fairy eating skulls t-shirt showing some cleavage with red hair is a major attraction. Well, not as much as a collapsible wheelchair. Linda collapses it and when she pulls off the wheels their eyes go crazy. This driver had to call all the OTHER taxi guys over to see this AMAZING wheelchair, which folded and had bits like wheels come off. I would like to say I did not feel envy being upstaged by my own wheelchair but I would be lying.

We are going to bed now, we have to check out early of this “businessman Hotel” which has a great connection for the computer but has a bathroom which is a) freezing and b) TINY and I mean like, makes a bathroom in a trailer look big – tiny. Linda HAD to take a picture. I shudder to think our photos will be found by future archaeologists who will assume we have an obsession of toilets. Which, as a wheelchair user, isn’t far off.

Anyway, to bed with us, here in the COLD north, where there isn’t a cherry blossom in sight. But tomorrow in Tokyo, the cherry blossom festivals are already going on so we might see that tomorrow evening. Tomorrow we see the Samurai district and the sights of Kakunodate. Happy dreams and warm comforters! (Linda couldn’t get me to wake up from my nap so she pulled mine off me – meanie!)