Courting traveller's karma

Several times on this trip, I've had to put myself at the mercy of the travelling deities to come through. And, remarkably, they have - especially when I've given over control. Some stories!

There was the time in the Shibuya neighborhood of Tokyo, one of the busiest and craziest of many busy and crazy neighborhoods, when I needed a locker for my bags. I had just emerged from the train station, K had just left for the airport, and I was solo. I looked around and finally found some coin lockers but...full! I found some more, full also. I walked around and around this station (and it was a big station!) and kept finding more coin lockers and kept finding them full. I could feel myself getting tired and grumpy. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity but may have only been 30 minutes, I stopped. I simply stood outside of the ticket office, next to a bank of lockers, and waited. Lo and behold, within five minutes someone came, got their stuff, and FREED UP A LOCKER! The heavens rejoiced, or, at least, I did.

There was the time when I arrived in Matsue, looking for a place to stay. It was about 4pm. I walked for about 20 minutes to a accommodating looking place across from a temple. The door - locked. I could see no one inside. Hmmmmm. But I wanted a place to stay and it didn't look full. Again, I began to get tired from schlepping my stuff to and fro. All of the other places in my book didn't look close, nor did they look like what I wanted. Just as I was about to venture off, somewhere, anywhere, in search of a place to sleep, a minivan pulled up in front of me. She started talking in Japanese, but also used handsigns to ask if I was trying to get in. I said yes, but shrugged and tried to mimic that it was closed. No, she said, it's mine (pointing to her nose in a local custom that I hope to adopt). Yes! A PLACE TO STAY! And it was nice too, spartan Japanese room with comfortable tatami mat.

There have been countless others too. That Shingo was headed to Kyoto and offered us the chance to stay with him. That Yasuko let us stay on there. That the 7-11 cashier and the baseball station agent helped a poor guy who was oh-so-lost. Let me just hope that traveller's karma is the kind of thing that grows the more it is used!