Some may be wondering how I spend my
weekends in a town of 3,000 people in the foothills of rural Japan. The short
answer is: I don’t. Nearly every weekend I commute by car, bus, train, or plane
to cities all over Japan.
If I am staying within Shimane prefecture, I usually drive my car out somewhere on Saturday or Sunday. Getting anywhere
takes a minimum of 40 minutes to the nearest place that can be called a
city (Oda), an hour to most other places (Hamada, Gotsu), and the farthest areas
of interest from my town are about 2 hours away (Masuda, Izumo, Matsue). Typically
I can get by with just a day trip, but sometimes I will stay overnight. Since I
know so many people within the prefecture, I can usually find someone’s house
to stay at, so I don’t have to drop money on a hotel. So far in Shimane, I have
been to Ohnan, Oda, Gotsu, Hamada, Masuda, Izumo, and Matsue.
If I am traveling outside of the prefecture,
but staying in Japan, things get more complicated. On Friday I finish work at
4:00 pm, then I board a 5:00 pm bus, and arrive at Hiroshima station two hours
later. From there I can go anywhere in Japan by bullet train. It takes about an
hour and twenty minutes to Osaka or Fukuoka, and about four hours to Tokyo. So
far I have traveled to these cities outside Shimane:
Hiroshima (x8), Osaka (x3), Tokyo (x3),
Kyoto (x2), Fukuoka (x2), Shimonoseki, Nagasaki, Onomichi, and Nagoya.
If I am traveling abroad (not Japan), then
things become even more interesting. The closest airport to my house is Izumo
Airport, but since it is not an international airport, and has very few
flights, it really doesn’t serve my interest. Hiroshima Airport is the second
closest, but flying in or out of that airport is cost prohibitive. Usually I
fly out of Kansai Airport in Osaka. This means I have to take a two hour bus to
Hiroshima station, then a one hour and twenty minute bullet train to Osaka,
then a one hour local train to the airport. A total commute of just under five
hours. By plane, I have gone to Taipei, Taiwan, and soon I will visit Seoul,
Korea.
So goes the life of an urbanite and
travelholic in rural Japan.
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