Introduction. In
early July 2017, we decided it was time to go to Japan to visit
Jane’s brother Tom before we were too old to do it. Tom and his wife
Kyoko had moved to Japan around 2000 after he retired from his job
in Wisconsin. We visited them over there in 2002, and they visited
us in Virginia in 2006. We were planning this trip as a final
farewell since it was unlikely that any of us would be able to make
the trip again in future years.
The only reason we thought we could manage it now was that
Darrell had found an ingenious way to eliminate one of the long
overnight flights. We would fly to Vancouver, Canada, where we would
board a Holland America repositioning cruise to Yokohama (near
Tokyo). From there we would catch the bullet train (Shinkansen) to
Kyoto and then a local train to nearby Sakamoto, where Tom lived.
After coordinating with Tom, we booked the flight to Vancouver
for September 26 and the cruise for the next day. The ship would
arrive at Yokohama on October 13 and we would get to Sakamoto early
that evening. Our dreaded return flight would be on October20. A
great plan but-
On July 17, Tom had a stroke and was hospitalized. We were
shocked, but it was not considered life-threatening. Thinking that
Tom would be out of the hospital by the time we got to Japan, we did
not change our travel arrangements. Then on September 9, Tom got a
serious infection and his condition deteriorated drastically. He was
not expected to survive until we arrived on October 13. So we
canceled the cruise (too late to get a refund) and planned to leave
immediately, flying both ways. However, we were delayed several days
when Jane got a serious infection requiring daily infusions at the
hospital through September 21.
Thursday (September 21).
Jane had her last infusion. After dinner, we drove to Dulles airport
(IAD) where we stayed overnight.
Friday, September 22.
Our United flight left Dulles at 6:35 the next morning, and after a
stop in San Francisco, we landed at Osaka (KIX) at 3:00 p.m. (still
Friday because we had crossed the International Date Line). We
caught the 4:14 train directly to Kyoto where we arrived at 6:30.
Kyoko met us at the station. After we had a quick snack, she
accompanied us on a local train to Otsu, location of the Red Cross
Hospital where Tom was staying. We took a taxi from the station to
the Toyoko Inn, arriving about 6:30.
Otsu Red Cross Hospital |
The Toyoko Inn was very convenient, just two short blocks from
the Hospital, but making reservations had not been a smooth process.
Because of a lack of vacancies early on, we had to make four
separate reservations to finally cover the seven nights we would be
staying there. What we did not realize was that the rooms were not
fungible so each of the reservation was for a different room. Also,
most of the time there was no one at the hotel who spoke English.
Kyoko helped us check in, but then she left. She still lived in
Sakamoto and had a half hour commute by train to get to Otsu.
So we were on our own at the hotel. Fortunately, over our years
of traveling we had learned to communicate quite a bit by gestures.
Also, as our stay progressed, we found that we could use our smart
phones to translate more complicated questions into Japanese.
We were really tired from our long trip and the lack of sleep, so
we went to bed as soon as we got to our room. The room was small and
sparsely furnished, but clean, quiet and comfortable.
Saturday, September 23.
Our room included a large buffet breakfast, but it was mainly a
Japanese meal with several cold vegetable and noodle dishes that we
did not want for breakfast. But as an accommodation to Western
guests, they also had a separate serving table with hard boiled
eggs, rolls or toasted bread, and coffee. These were also popular
with some of their Japanese guests, though, and we soon learned that
we had be down early to get any of these items.
The only utensils displayed were chop
sticks. When we used gestures to ask for Western utensils, the only
female waitress quickly understood and told us their names. But
there really are no Japanese names for them. As is the case for many
things that were not native to Japan, they have simply adopted the
foreign word, but they use Japanese pronunciation. Thus we learn
that the common utensil are the supunu (spoon), foku (fork), and
naifu (knife). After breakfast, we had to move all our belongings
from our room and put them in a storage area for the day.
Us with Tom & Kyoko |
We had agreed to meet Kyoko at the hospital about 9:00 a.m.
She arrived right on time. Her routine was to spend the whole day with Tom
every day, seven days a week. When we found Tom’s room, we were shocked at
his poor condition. He was completely bedridden and mostly paralyzed.
Although he seemed to be aware of what was happening, including our visit,
he was barely able to communicate, at most a short phrase once or twice a
day. It was heartbreaking.
We stayed with Tom and Kyoko all
day, having lunch in the Hospital cafeteria. We left the Hospital
about 5:00 p.m., moved into our new room, and had a short rest
before going out to dinner. There were many restaurants in the area
and Darrell took a walk after lunch to scout out a restaurant for
that evening. They varied greatly and most were pretty good.
Sunday, September 24. We followed the same routine. We
had to store all our belongings for the day again. We moved into a
new room when we returned to our hotel. This time our reservation
was for three days.
