When you are based in the Japanese countryside and you don’t have a car you can have a hard time. Your world shrinks. It is like being a kid again… except now you are not a kid, and now you are in the middle of nowhere in Japan. I rely on cycling and on the infrequent buses around here. When I first arrived I used buses a lot. Despite their frustrating rarity, I noticed one thing that gave them a certain charm...
The bus drivers. The bus drivers in Japan, or at least in my little corner of Japan, all seem to have different quirks. It is a kind of phenomenon. One example of a quirk is that while riding into Kawaramachi station I had a driver who would announce the stops at the same time the automated voice would. No harm in this but it really didn't seem necessary.
In Autumn, another driver had kitted out his bus with bits of seasonal foliage. Orange leaves were poking out of any available space in the vehicle. Tied onto handrails and bunched up around the ticket machine. He seemed a lovely guy - as I left he struck up a conversation with me. There were no other passengers and only one final stop after mine so it didn't feel rushed. Speaking in English, he asked where I was from. It was a pleasant little interaction.
I really enjoy these people showing off their personality. It can break through the mundanity of taking public transport. There is one driver I have seen quite often, he is easy to recognise. These bus drivers dress very smartly, in suits and caps. Apart from seeing one wear his hat skewed to the side - a style I would sport as a nine year old wearing my baseball cap (this seemed to be the natural way it sat on my head). The feature that makes this driver recognisable is his long straight hair that comes down from under his cap. The kind of hairstyle that would be seen on young sad boys in 2007 or perhaps at a Japanese host club. Instead of black it is dyed an orangey brown colour. This man looks in his forties (despite the hairstyle) and has a stocky build. I wonder if it is a wig. Sometimes when I look at it, I half expect it to come off with his cap.
Again, I want to reiterate that I like this. He’s just out here being himself. It is infinitely more interesting than another guy with close cropped black hair (not that there’s anything wrong with that either). I do have a weird annoyance with what I perceive as boring so I appreciate this man.
What I get from all these people and from their announcements, their fashion choices, the little ticks and noises they make when they close the doors to set off from a stop, is that they are having fun. They exude this impression that being a bus driver is what they’ve always wanted to do. That perhaps they would spend all their time at Namco playing on the bus driving simulator. So riding the bus, despite the cost and the infrequency they come by can often give you a lift in more ways than one.
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