Day 6 was indeed a day in Japan. We finally set out for a trip, except that it was less planned than what we wanted it to be. With a faint little hope of seeing a glimpse of the cherry blossoms, we started to Hikone. Boarding a bus in Kyoto, getting into the right train, asking for directions, and finally reaching the place only to see there’s no blossoms whatsoever – each of them was an experience in itself! Travelling with not family, not friends that you have known for a long – that was an experience too. You don’t realise what’s the best way to deal most things and it’s always by the time you figure that out. My day out with Saikat and Divya wasn’t bad. But it gave me an insight on how different we all are as individuals, but yet stick together in the common situation. That’s something life teaches you, as it evolves. More often than less, we do not need friends, love or family – we only need people. We need companions who just stay through and make life easier and happy. After a long day at the castle and museum, we walked back to the railway station. On our way back, we picked up some ‘Sakura specials’ – a special edition Coke bottle, a cherry blossom sweet and some sakura! The bottle looks cute, the sweet tasted like a normal Mochi (a traditional Japanese sweet – rice cake with red bean paste filling) in cherry blossom hue, and the petals are precious! Somewhere then, it started drizzling too.
Once we reached Minami Kusatsu, we explored the place and found a KFC! To my relief, a place that serves French fries finally! Adding KFC to our bucket list, we walked into Seiyu Store, ‘only’ to buy some butter, though we ended up buying a lot more than we could carry. Japan has turned us into shopaholics; but all we buy is food, food and more food! To add more flavour to the day, we also planned to drop by Raju – an Indian restaurant. Though a bit on the expensive side, I finally found some vegetarian food that looked familiar and trustworthy. I loved the food, not sure if the other two did though. But that’s okay – they have many options, this is my only! Now that Raju turned to be a Bengali, Saikat had a new found friend too. Things were good so far, until we had to catch a bus back to BKC. It was just 9.40 in the night, and we didn’t quite expect the mishap of not getting a bus. We weren’t sure if walking all the way was a smart choice; we had no choice after all. As we walked in the drizzly shivering cold night, I could see my death somewhere in that dark road. Saikat was cursing, I was praying and Divya was enjoying it both. As it turned out, God heard one of it and send a taxi by our way. With new found energy, we ran to it, hopped in and came back home. Wonder if it were the curses or the prayers that were answered!
The Last Straw 