Last Thursday/Friday was the Hokkaido Mid-Year Conference (MYC). Technically it’s been re-named to Skills Development Conference, but that sounds like we’re all in special ed, so I refuse to use the new name.
It was a fun even with some very useful talks (as opposed to past years that have had some very boring and un-useful ones). It also included some fun with friends.
The conference ended with an announcement that the big snow storms had been causing problems for JR (Japan Rail) and many trains were cancelled or delayed.
We made our way home on Saturday night, myself and some of my far-north friends taking the very last trains for our destinations.
We ran through the gate to line up so we would be able to find seats and then discovered that our train was not on any of the reader boards. In fact, none of the express trains were even on the reader boards at that time.
We went back to the JR desk near the gates and had a chat. Is the train cancelled? No, the one before it hasn’t even left yet (was supposed to be leaving as we stood there).
Will I be able to make my connection? We had to wait about 5 minutes for an answer to that one. Turns out yes, I should be able to make it.
I got on with two friends who both lived near stops before mine. We arranged the seats so we could chat and then settled in for the trip to our towns.
By the time we made it to the town where my connection was, we were merely 10 minutes late (compare that to my friends headed way north who were over an hour late and hit 3 deer on the way home).
I got there, hurried to my train and settled in. I was supposed to have 20 minutes for the stopover and still did by the time we left 10 minutes late.
The whole time I’m thinking about how terribly covered in snow my car is going to be and how I’m going to get into it with my luggage hanging on me.
When we finally arrived at the stop before mine, there were about 10 people on the train – a few post-high school girls (they must be early twenties, because I’ve never had them as students), a high school student and a couple of other people.
After we had been stopped for a few minutes (the train often stops here for a few minutes so it can arrive at my station on time), there was an announcement. I listened carefully, but understood nothing.
I saw the group of girls pull out their phones and knew something was up. Unfortunately, it’s one of the many places where Softbank doesn’t have service. I couldn’t call out even if I had wanted to.
So I waited. I hoped that I was going to be able to get home that night.
A while later, 3 cars show up. Again, I can’t call anyone, am I going to be able to get home tonight if these people are picking up their kids?
Thankfully, when the ladies that came out to rescue their kids got on the train, they rescued not only their own kids, but the other random people riding the train – a sweet woman in a long parka motioned for me to come into her car.
They drove on main streets that had more snow on them than I’d ever seen on any of our main streets. Apparently that afternoon and evening about 50cm (almost 2 feet) of snow had fallen. I was glad I didn’t have to drive home and glad I didn’t have to dig my car out that evening.
I finally made it home at about 11:30 pm, almost an hour after my train was supposed to have arrived at my station.
The next day, when I went to dig my car out of the mess, this is what I found.
