I Learned This From Some Other Angry American Tourist

During one of our many misguided attempts to use Japan’s rural public transportation network to get to the mountain, we missed a bus. We missed it because we were standing at the wrong bus stop, which was about 30 feet in front of the right bus stop. We had to go back to the ryokan to find out our options. While I was conferring with some of the other English-speaking guests, Joanna was on the phone (with a person who she thought was from the bus company) trying to figure out how we could get to the mountain. Suddenly, Joanna could hear the woman’s voice in both ears. It turned out that she was really talking via cell phone to one of the ryokan staff. The woman was vaguely sympathetic, but typically fatalistic about our chances of getting to Fuji-san. She kept saying, “too bad, too bad.”

Finally, sensing our mounting frustration, she suggested that we could take a taxi. It would be very expensive, of course. But, she said, pointing to her watch, “time is money!”