Oh, Japan. DX or XD? I DON'T KNOW!!!

nekonezumi and I are elbow-deep in planning our Great Train Adventure. Ironically, it will start with a night bus and end with a flight back to Tokyo. In between, however, there WILL be trains, and we may or may not be reduced to sleeping on park benches/in a net café/at Denny's in Hiroshima, because we're going to be there during the long weekend, same as everyone else in Japan.

Because I am lazy my partner-in-travel is much better at internet research than I am, I volunteered to do the legwork and get us various tickets. Plane tickets were purchased yesterday, so this evening my mission was simple: go to Shinjuku and acquire bus tickets for the first leg of our journey, which resulted in simultaneous "Oh, Japan. DX" and "Oh, Japan. <3" moments.

I went to the JR terminal first, but their bus to Okayama was already full. They directed me to the Keio or Odakyu bus services, so I decided to check out Keio first. What can I say, their secret entrance to non-same-day ticket sales amuses me. I took a number, sat down, and awaited my turn, which took about 10 minutes. When I told the clerk where I wanted to go, he picked up the phone to call... who knows? There was no answer, so he checked the time, and told me he was very sorry, but reservations for green buses (and the bus I wanted was apparently one of them) were only possible before 7 p.m. (WHYYYY?) It was 7:04. He was quite apologetic, because he'd seen me come in before 7, but then he asked me if I understood Japanese (I was all, "Uh... I'm speaking nihongo to you, aren't I?", but I guess he meant written Japanese), brightened when I said I could, and handed me a pamphlet that explained how to buy bus tickets at your friendly neighbourhood Family Mart or Lawson.

When I stopped to think about it, it made total sense that you'd be able to buy travel tickets at the convenience store, because seriously, what can't you buy from a Loppi machine? XD