@pichi

I just spent 2 hours trying to figure out how I’m getting to one of the temples on my pilgrimage because all the transit apps suddenly gave me “no way there” errors. I occasionally run into this in Japan, but the stakes are lower. I couldn’t ignore this message. I had to figure out why it was happening and fell down a rabbit hole of transit problems in rural Japan. There used to be a bus that got you to the base of the mountain. Most tourist info in English (which is usually woefully outdated) points to this magic bus. The bus is gone due to lack of ridership. No problem. I’m sure there is another way. I find a guide in Japanese from a couple of years ago. Cool. Take the bus from the station to the high school. But I can’t find a bus to the high school. Because the high school is permanently closed. They ran out of kids. Sigh. So now there is a community shuttle. I have to book the shuttle in advanced…from a random bus stop. And I have to call to make the reservation. But I can’t do it now….only one week before. But I might be able to do it online…but instructions are unclear. And then I have to do the whole thing in reverse as well. So I have to guesstimate how long it will take my mom and I to hike up the mountain, do all we need to do at the temple, and the hike back down… If I wasn’t going on a pilgrimage, I wouldn’t do this at all. I did find out on the city’s website that there is a “maintenance bus” that still goes to the now defunct high school, but only twice a day…which just confuses me further. I’ve previously relied on the kindness of the tourist offices and hotel staff to help me with these types of things. I’m pretty confident that it will work out and that I have the gist of the process and what needs to happen, but I can’t imagine most travelers jumping through these hoops. And I see more of this every trip. Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka work like well oiled machines, but I tend to avoid those machines and get off the beaten path. I see more and more of rural Japan disappear and I ponder if I’ll even be able to go to some of these places one day.

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