Last Updated: Aug 15, 2024

Rainy Days in Osaka

How to Salvage a Now-Ruined Itinerary

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

“This is really taking a long time…” I thought to myself while sitting on the Hashidate №1 limited express train bound for Kyoto’s Amanohashidate. Due to the heavy rains, my departure had been delayed by over an hour now. Little did I know just how bad it was though. You see, ALL of the JR trains leaving Kyoto Station (sans the unstoppable Shinkansen) had been ground to a halt due to the incessant deluge. Quite literally, every single departure listing on the LED display read “unknown.” It was a scene that viscerally reminded me of the March 11th earthquake in 2011.

I had originally intended to link up there with a close friend and then check out the seaside portions of Kyoto. Alas, my plans were now FUBAR (fucked up beyond all repair) due to our inability to get to that part of the prefecture. Seeing as my travel companion was still down in Osaka, I decided to make the best of the situation and head south instead. That way, we could at least do SOMETHING with the now ruined weekend. All in all though, it took me around five hours to finally get myself out of Kyoto Station via the subway. Sheesh, talk about a typhoon…

Now, the sane people out there are probably wondering why the hell I was even traveling during a storm to begin…