Jumping trains

I finally arrived in Nara on Friday morning having taken the 6:00am bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto. This city is only separated from Osaka to the west by the Ikoma mountains, you'd have thought it easier to take the Osaka train but no, I had to come via Kyoto The city of Nara used to be the capital of Japan back in the eighth century but it was a little hard to believe that historical fact from the off-white and medical green gloomy interior of Kintetsunara station. This city does have one of the two women's Universities surviving into this age, the other being just north of Tokyo station in Ochanomizu, so I must believe it has a well-developed sense of propriety.
Actually as I climbed the stairs to the station ground level the gloominess disappeared and it promised to be a beautiful bright day. I put on my sun bonnet. It's been getting quite hot lately.
I had arrived here to feature in the cities new tourist brochure but no one met me at the station as I had been informed. I was several minutes early so I sat on a public bench and waited and sent a text to Hitomi to say I'd arrived. Several long minutes filled with furtive glancing up from my phone had we a little worried.
I went to the drinks dispenser and I was surprised to see an old favorite drink of mine in there. I bought myself a nice chilled Oronamin. It had a neat little ring pull top which is unusual for a bottle but it was nectar of the Gods as it passed over my dry tongue.
I stood outside the door and let myself soak in this city and the sun shone down on me. I felt warmed and closing my eyes I lifted my face to the sun. I felt the glow radiate across my face and I saw the red from behind my closed eyelids. The smell of the breeze was fresh against me was tainted with the unmistakable trace of petroleum.
A dark green Toyota suddenly screeched to a halt into the car park. A man got out and raced to the station entrance, he paused momentarily and looked at me and then put one foot inside the door and disappeared. He backed up and looked at me again peeking at me from behind the door frame and then finally he slipped inside the cool interior. I drank the last of my vitamin orange juice and then put the empty bottle into the litter bin. I reached into my bag for my peppermint mouth spray and after one quick spurt, I wrinkled my face. It tasted really strange straight after my orange. I won't so that again!
What a totally bad reaction!

My phone clock said 10:13 and so I looked in my bag for my contact number and as I was doing so the Toyota owner came out of the station and once again looked at me. I could see in his hand now a small photograph and he was just struggling to see me. I took off my bonnet and at once he smiled and called me by name. I smiled and bowed. He apologized for being late and said that he had been misinformed and had waited for me at Nara train station. I apologized and said I had misunderstood my directions and had not changed at Shin Hosono station and so had ended up at this station rather than Nara station which is a five minutes’ drive away from Kintetsunara station. He nodded his understanding and said it happens to many people and that's why he came over to check this station too. He introduced himself to me as a minor city official and we exchanged our business cards and he apologized for not having recognized me. I said the bonnet was protecting me from the sun and it is also very effective at concealment. He said this was not what he meant but rather he meant that with him meeting a well-known model but he wasn't quite sure where he had seen me before. I bit my lip! I was famous? I wasn't sure what he had heard or what had been said or if I was the last minute replacement of some real star but I decided to say nothing.
"I'm sure it will come to you." I said smiling with my ego really enjoying the moment.
He nodded and smiled at me and he kept stealing glances as we drove down the busy road.
Thankfully we only drove three blocks before we were at the prefectural office.
I was shown to where I was to be photographed, which was a scene from Nara Park next to an information stand in the side foyer. The little character of Sento-kun stood in front of the park scene. He is the boy-Buddha mascot of the city with deer's antlers growing from his head. The surrounding parks are full of deer and many quite tame too. One story I heard was that tourists could buy the deer biscuits from the vendors to feed these deer and many of them have learned to bow to say thank you. I'm not quite certain this is true but it sounds wonderful and would certainly add to the spice of this ancient place to attract even more tourists.
Unfortunately the photographer had also not yet arrived and the feelings I experienced inside my tummy on this news was like as if I were playing out a scene from a comedy of errors or perhaps one of mishaps.
I took my time and used the very nice and certainly executive looking washroom to do my hair and makeup and when I was ready I hung around with the Toyota driver and a couple more representatives from his office while we waited and he kept pulling out his phone to make calls and shouting at people in a whispered kind of way.

Finally this well-worn leather dressed photographer arrived claiming his car had broken down. Why I had imagined him on a dirty old motorcycle I'm not quite sure. Later I did see his old car in the office car park and it did look like it needed some (read lot of) attention. It was perhaps not a good idea to park it there in such an obvious state of disrepair since the police station is directly opposite the Prefectural building.
When the photographer was finally ready, I must say that I was disappointed that he didn't introduce himself to me directly and one of the officials there just introduced us quickly, perfunctory and without any ceremony at all, I just went straight into my work. I smiled and posed with Sento-kun and with leaflets and with a model deer. I had no direction from my photographer at all. I guess he was worried about his car. Afterwards I was thanked and Mr Toyota driver called me a taxi to take me to the Nara hotel. I had a shoot Saturday morning and so I was staying overnight.
After a nice relaxing shower I had a few drinks in the hotel bar and played on the internet before retiring early!

I can only say how thankful I was that the photographer on the Saturday morning shoot was not the same as the wreck driver of the previous day. We had a session in the park by the hotel and then in the city itself by the fountains. It was a lovely day and had I had more time I would have loved to see a couple of the shrines there and see the shops. After lunch I headed back home.
I received a text on the train home saying she was going out with her sister.
Couldn't she call me and say so?
No, she was already in a karaoke bar.