I didn’t sleep well for my first few nights in Japan.  Sometimes I have no problem when I travel, sometimes I am restless or wake up at weird times.  My watch records my sleep and when I get up I can see how I did.  The night on the plane I got a sleep score of 41.  Last night it was a 58, not much better.  I don’t really know how it calculates the score, but I’m obviously failing Sleep.  Then I look at my energy score and it’s in the low 80’s.  Huh?  Watch Math makes no sense.  I’m failing Watch Math too.

Failing Sleep was not great preparation for all the stairs.  My hotel was near a smaller train station with no escalators.  And if there were elevators, I missed them.  I saw the entrance to the station (all stairs) and went down to find my train on platform 2.  All I saw was platform 1 and no way around the tracks to the other side.  I walked around and it seemed the only solution was going to be going back up to ground level and finding another entrance.  Or I could get on the train going the wrong way for one stop and hope switching tracks would be easier at the next station.  I decided to go with Plan B, the possible no stair option.  The train pulled up to Platform 1.  I laughed out loud as the doors opened to a wall of people.  There was no way I was shoving myself, my big backpack and suitcase into that mess just to avoid stairs.  So I hobbled up a lot of stairs back to ground level.  As I looked around, I could see there were 4 entrances to the station, one on each corner of the street intersection.  I only knew the one I came up was wrong – I had a 2/3 chance of picking the right one.  If I was wrong, it would be another down and up of stairs.  Carrying my suitcase down was just as hard as up.  I crossed the street and went down again.  Success!  Platform 2!  The train was practically empty which was great too.

Even though my next station was bigger, there were still so many stairs.  I was getting more of an upper body workout than I expected.  I got near my next train early and sat at a coffee shop to cool down and enjoy an iced coffee.

This train was a shinkansen and wasn’t very crowded so I could relax before any more stairs might appear.

My last train was a small local train.  I heard it coming before it arrived.  I love the way the rails start to sing long before a train arrives.  A high pitched ringing, ping ping., the sound moving in tight waves along the rails toward you.  Then as it got closer, a cute, happy song played in the station to mark the arrival of the train.  It sounds like we might be in grade school, being invited to the playground.  The train is brightly colored and even has grade school drawings hanging up inside. 

The sounds don’t stop there.  The train sings the whole way to the town of Bessho Onsen.    As the train changes speed, the pitch of its song changes too.  There are many rural stops along the way with old wooden platforms and small stations.  It helps paint the picture that you are in the countryside.  As the train slows or sits at a station it sighs, moans and makes cooing sounds.  I’ve never heard anything like it.  After I looked it up, I learned it was from the air suspension system that balances the load of the train and its passengers.  It sounded like the train was talking to me.

I arrived in Bessho Onsen around lunch time, already exhausted, but happy to meet up with my friends.