Trip of Terror

There comes a time in a persons life when they eventually go out and travel to some far away place all by themselves. No friends or family there to help them on the way there, only the instructions they were given and the hope that nothing goes wrong. Well, this is the story about how my first trip out of the country on my own went horribly wrong.

I was 18 and had only once been out of the country when I was 8 years old. I had not been out of the country since then and I had only once traveled by myself and then Iw as young enough to have an escort. This time I would not. My sister and Brother-in-law had been living in Japan for a few years, and wanted some family to come visit. Unfortunately my mom coulnd't travel long distances and my dad had work. That left me to figure out a way to get there. Thankfully with the help of my parents and brother and sister, I was able to get enough money to afford the trip.

When I found out I was going I was very excited.

Okay... maybe 'excited' is an understatement.

Anyways, I was pinging off the walls for a few good days after I figured out I was going. All preparations where going well after that and it seemed I would go without any problems...

Two days before I was supposed to leave we got word that a hurricane was heading for our area, and that I would not be able to go if I went at the arranged day. So my parents decided to send me a day earlier, which completely caught me off guard.

I was okay for the first few minutes of the drive to the airport on the day I was to depart, but about half way there I started to become nervous and a bit paniced. I ran through many cinarios of what it would be like, but I was still scared to death.

By the time we actually got there I was a nervous wreck and was seriously reconsidering going on the trip. But it was already too late. The tickets had been bought and now I was going to Japan whether I wanted to or not...

I boarded my plane normally and found, to my horror, that I got stuck in the middle seat of the middle row in the plane. This was not good for me bacause not only did I love looking out the plane windows, but I liked being able to lean on the wall and sleep. This would prove impossible because I had people on either sied of me and for some reason EVERY ONE in the plane kept their windows shut.

My only saving grace was that I got a seat right between to very cute Japanese guys. Neither of which new much english, but I was still happy to have some cool people to sit next to. The three of us and the guy in front of me sat and played video games most of the way there. Every once and a while one of us would look over to see if we could figure out what game the other person was playing. Much to my dismay, my DS was the first to run out of batteries. Then I was stuck sitting there twitlling my thumbs and wondering what japan would be like. After imagining it for a while I heard a voice come over the speaker saying that we were close to landing. I got kinda nervous and excited.

The initial nervousness coupled with the fact that I had been sitting next to two cute guys made it very difficult to sleep, and the food they served wasn't really anything I liked so I didn't eat that much either.... Big mistake.

As soon as I got off the plane, which had arrived at the airport a little late, I was feeling a bit ill and was totally confused. Many of the signs were in Japanese and I had no clue where I was supposed to go t get my train tickets.

I wandered around for a little while before finding a nice lady who worked there and knew English. She helped me get my tickets and pointed the way to where the trains came in.

I, still being horribly confused, ended up wandering around a little while more before I actually found my train. I looked at my ticket and realized that my seat was all the way at the front of the train... I was currently standing looking at the back of it.

I walked beside the train trying to find the right car number to match my ticket. Then suddenly I realized something... The train was starting to move. It very quickly hit me that my train was now LEAVING WITHOUT ME.

I began to run as quickly as I could but to no avail... I had missed my train.

I stood around moping about my loss for a few good minutes before returning to the lady who had helped me earlier and telling her what happened.

The lady was astonished that I could have possibly missed my train, but was kind enough to walk back with me and help me exchange my tickets for new ones free of charge.

I thanked her many times before walking back to where the trains were. At this point I was still feeling the adreneline from having chased after the train and was still not feeling well from earlier. This combination made me feel very dizzy and I ended up leaning on my luggage trying not to fall over while I waited for my train.

Thankfully I did manage to get on the next train and was very happy to do so. I was finally able to sit and relax... or so I thought. As soon as I looked out the window I realized that the train was going past everything VERY FAST. Fast enough for my already exhasted, empty, dizzy body to completely break due to motion sickness. I spent the rest of that train ride feeling like I was almost literally about to die.

 I soon got off the first train and was now at Tokyo Station. There were people everywhere. The first thing I did was find a pay phone and call my sister and brother-in-law to let them know I would be getting there a bit late because I missed my first train.

From there I still had another 2 hours before my next train came. I took this time to sit myself down on the floor next to a pillar and take a nap. I made sure to keep a firm grip on my luggage just in case someone tried to steal it. But to my amazement, something I did NOT expect happened.

As I sat there people began to walk by and set their luggage down next to me and walk away... At first I didn't notice because I was sleeping, but I soon opened my eyes to find people setting their stuff down around me.

Then, eventually, one by one they would come back and pick up their stuff. It was very odd. I wasn't sure what happened but everyone seemed to think I was the luggage sitter. This kind of weirded me out so I grabbed my stuff and decided to go to where my train was supposed to come in even though I still had about 20 minutes left until it came.

Now, in Tokyo station the waiting places for the people is on the basement floor. The place where the actual trains come in is on the ground floor. Because of this they had many escilators and flights of stairs. Unfortunately, and much to my dismay, no matter how hard I tried I could NOT find an escilator that went up. They all came down and that did me no good.

So I ended up having to trudge up a huge flight of stairs while still feeling naucious and exhasted.

By the time I got to the top only 10 minutes had passed, but I was so caught up in the stairs that I forgot that my train had not come yet. So I went to the place where my train was supposed to be and boarded. I walked down the corridor with an odd sense of dread before arriving at the last car...

My seat was seat 32, but the seats in this train only went up to 28.... I then realized that I had gotten on the wrong train.

At this point I was completely freaking out and had no clue what to do. Thankfully a nice couple tried to ask me what was wrong, I showed them my ticket and they quickly caught on that I was on the wrong train. They called over one of the men working on the train and he told me to get off at the very next stop and wait five minutes. He said that if I did that my train would be there.

I quickly got off at the next stop and thanked the couple about 7 times before taking my leave. I managed to get myself only my next train. This ride was a 3 and a half hour one... I spent the entirety of it out cold, no longer able to keep myself awake. Even though it was pouring rain and thundering outside.

Eventually one of the train employees had to wake me up and tell me we were at the last stop which was the one I was suppoesed to get off on.

Thankfully it wasn't long before I met up with my sister and drove back to her place where I slept for a VERY long time. Most of the rest of the trip was rather nice and uneventful, but I will never forget that nightmare of a time I had trying to get there.