Although I spent most of the day sitting on a park bench reading Dostoyevski’s Crime and Punishment, this entry has nothing to do with the book.  It has to do with an incident in February 2006 which resulted in my missing an evening with friends because instead of taking the train from Gifu to Nagoya, I took my boss and me for a ride up to the hot spring resort of Gero, way off in the mountains.  I had never been able to explain why I’d managed to do something as stupid as take a completely wrong train, especially when the one I’d taken was the only one leaving the station at the time our hosts at Nagase Integrex had researched, 15:22. 

Until now. 

I suppose it was because we had a JR pass back then that the thought had never crossed my mind, but there are two train stations in Gifu not 300 meters walking distance from each other.  There’s Gifu, and there’s Meitetsu Gifu – the first is the JR station and the second the station for the Meitetsu line.  I had an idea yesterday that i checked today, and sure enough, a Meitetsu line train leaves the Meitetsu Gifu station for Nagoya at 15:22. 

Knowing this in no way restores the forfeited evening with friends, but a mistake rationalised feels a lot better than the apparent stark stupidity of an unexplainable mistake. 

If you think that’s anal retentive, then it won’t surprise you that I sometimes go back and edit or augment blog entries after posting them.  I know it makes reading the blog a non-linear experience, but then, so is life. 

In response to my friend’s praises of Japanese cherries I bought a box of them today.  I can understand why they taste more refreshing than regular dark cherries, because they’re more sour.  Admittedly, I went cheap and got Yamanashi cherries, not the top-notch Yamagata cherries.  For all I know, they’ll taste like lemons.