One Tired Puppy

Well, that was quite the tiring day. We went back to Zenkoji temple, seeing as it was closed on us the last time we tried to visit. It really is a lovely temple, with beautiful grounds. One of the must-dos in Nagano, is to touch the key to paradise. But to do this you must go underneath the temple, through this winding tunnel, in the pitch black. Not something you could do in America - someone would get sued. It was so weird. We are talking this tunnel is long and absolutely pitch black. When I went down there it was quite busy, so there people in front of me, and behind me. And we are all bumping into one another as people stop and go. The people in front of me were a tour of older folks. I always knew when I was going to bump into the lady in front of me because the top of her hair would tickle my chin. And most of the ladies were laughing so hard, bumping into one another and tripping over each other. So when I touched the key to paradise, all I could here was laughter. I definately agree that laughter is the key to paradise. After that I looked at my watch and saw I had only 30 minutes before my train left, so we trotted back to the car and headed straight for the station. I jumped out of the car, pulled my suitcases out of the back, said a quick goodbye and skidattled off as quick as I could. I missed the train by 10 seconds. I'm not kidding! I cried for about 3 minutes and then sighed heavily and sat down and ate a pumpkin muffin. Missing the train meant I missed the connection. But when I got to Nagano, I walked right up to another train bound for Hamamatsu and we were off in no time. Unfortunately I picked the Japan's slowest train. This train stopped every 100 feet for another station, and frequently the stops were for 10 or 15 minutes. The Shinkansen takes an hour to get to Hamamatsu. The connection I planned to take would have taken 80 minutes. This train took 2 and half hours. I watched a train pull up across the platform from us bound for Hamamatsu and it left again before we pulled out. We sat there for another 10 minutes. Boy, did I pick the wrong train. But it eventually pulled into familiar territory. I hopped off that train, pulled me and all my stuff over to the local train and 12 minutes later I was at Hikuma station. I then wheeled my suitcase, my tote bag and a shopping bag filled with souveniers through the back streets of Sode-Cho to the aparto. It was a nice cool, beautiful autumn night. Things instantly seemed much better. But I am one tired puppy.