My best Japan trip part IX

Along the way from Yanago to Takayama the temperature was gradually decrease. The train bogie was cut down from 7-8 bogies to 1-2 bogies because fewer customers travel at night to Takayama. I reached Takayama around 11 p.m. and the temperature outside was minus 15. There was some snow outside train station, so every traveler that took the same train of me had their relative to pick up them. I didn’t prepare for this temperature, it was unexpected cold for me. That night didn’t have any bus and taxi nearby the train station. My reserved hotel wasn’t far from the train station, about 1 k.m., but the snow that covered road and foot path were the real enemy.

My Onisuka shoe was normal shoe that couldn’t protect any cold. Every step I put on the show the cold would bite my foot, so 1 k.m. from train station to the hotel may cause the terrible foot ache. I decided to stay at the train station where it had some heaters but every good condition heaters had their owner which called the homeless. Therefore, I sit near a noisy heater and couldn’t sleep for a night. Moreover, I had to drink some beer and wear as many cloths as I can to make me warm. I remembered that I wore 2 jeans at the same time. The time was slowly passed; 7 hours from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. seem a week for me. I kept waiting until the first light of the sun appear then I called the first cap that came to the station and went directly to the hotel.
6.30 a.m. at the hotel, it is a family Japanese traditional hotel and no one woke up. I felt like I was in quick sand because after passed a bad situation then I found another bad situation. The thermometer showed minus 10 … “um better than last night” … I thought. However, there was no alarm and no one open the door. There was no heater outside the hotel and I had to keep my body warm by joking in front of the hotel, there was a 2x2 meters terrace in front of hotel, under the snow. Until 7.00 a.m., there was a teenage girl, about 18 years old, who want to go out for take an early bird tour, opened the door. She saved my life….Next chapter I will explain about Takayama city and my way back to Tokyo.