The Tale Of An Ignorant World Traveller Lost In Nikko

It was midnight when we were finally released into Tokyo’s cold winter air after being held hostage for hours. I was tired, hungry and pissed. In short, I was hangry. Fafa offered to get ramen to warm us up. After all, it was Tokyo, the city that never sleeps, always ready to feed us at any time. I considered it for a second before returning to the hotel. I had no energy to deal with the world that day.

While soaking in the kid-sized plastic tub in the hotel bathroom, my mind drifted back to this morning, t the first time I noticed the lady who sat across us on the tour bus. She brought a book which she kept opening and closing (on the same page) to say something to her travel companion or to clap (yes, clap) whenever the tour guide said something about our trip for the day, Nikko.

“She is annoying!” I whispered to Fafa. He acknowledged it with a shrug. He was pretty accustomed to my judgmental character.

Fast forward to Nikko, which turned out to be better than I imagined, with a frozen waterfall and a breathtaking shrine with snow as the backdrop. It’s worth the trip from Tokyo when you are visiting Japan.

After a hearty meal and a prayer written on the Ema board, I was later ready to leave because as much as my wanderlust soul loves to take selfies in front of the falling snow, my tropical body wasn’t used to below-minus-degree weather.

The bus, waiting for us at Toshogu Shrine car park ground, was still empty when I arrived. I checked my watch. We still have over a half-hour before the agreed time to return. I closed my eyes briefly, only to open them back when Fafa informed me that someone from our bus was missing and that it had been more than one hour past our departure time.

The annoying book lady talking to no one and everyone filled me with the rest of the information. The gist is the same: a guy from our tour bus went missing, and we needed to find him. When someone suggested he might have taken the wrong tour bus, she said it was impossible because he still had his things on the bus. “Also, he is a seasoned world traveller” were her exact words. They became friends in the short hours of the day trip, and annoying-book-lady was convinced that her world traveller best friend was stuck somewhere in the snowy forest or had slipped and fallen on the icy temple ground with no access to his phone.

At first, all the guys, except for the two teenagers who were engrossed with their game-boys, left to find the missing world traveller. They returned soon after as it was too slippery, cold and dark to see or do anything.

After that, the hotel was called, police were summoned, the temple was unlocked, the forest was searched, and the embassy was notified. But, unfortunately, there was no sign of the world traveller.

This frustrated the annoying book lady even more, who managed to recruit a couple of other travellers to continually yell at the tour guide, accusing them and the Japanese systems of all sorts of things. The same country we spent hours, even days, to travel to, the same place and culture we were mesmerized by only hours ago, suddenly has become slow, unreliable and oh-so-unprofessional. “If only this is our home country” were thrown freely during the yelling session.

The tour guide, who remained calm, suggested that we return to Tokyo while the police continued the search. She was cursed for offering such a solution before these people declared to the rest of us that we had to stay put here, in the cold, in the middle of nowhere, until they found him. At this point, the annoying book lady has turned into a hysterical crying lady. And I might have been mistaken, but I thought I heard her murmur “taken by Japanese forest ghosts” in between wiping her tears.

I tried to read my fellow travellers’ faces. Some were genuinely concerned; some looked confused, and the rest couldn’t care less. So I guess we were staying; it’s not like we have an option anyway.

A couple more hours later, we heard from the world traveller. Yes, he took the wrong bus. And yes, he was back in Tokyo. Not so responsible world traveller, after all. Also, it took him a while to reach the hotel and inform us because he went for dinner first (I bet it was a hot bowl of ramen!). And with that, we finally started our three-hour trip back to Tokyo.

Follow me on Instagram @KultureKween for more recent updates.