The Golden Week: A Fab Adventure (3rd-7th May)

Well, it all started with one very drunken night.
Not really.
A fellow `hospitality` friend came down from the Nagano mountains to experience a bit of civilization over at Fukuchiyama, the city, and he brought a 無添加 (organic, for that is all I`m allowed these days for about the next year) wine, delicious by the way, and so it was THE occassion indeed, to open my well-cared-for slivovica. Which at the time seemed to be perfectly reasonable, though after throwing my dinner up out of the second floor window of my room I started reconsidering, as soon as I got my straight thinking back on the board, the correctness of the decision.
Anyway, that was the time we sealed the hitchikers` deal and two days after we were off, generally going the same direction, me again heading for Nagoya, THE hitchikers` destination according to my frequency record, and Satoshi continuing up, all the way to Nagano. (Talking of Nagano reminds me, The Earth Celebration is on again in August this year, yay yay yay! Not that it`s in Nagano or anything, you just pass it on the way:-))
Anyway, (I have to say here that Satoshi is considered by most and many to be a professional hitchhiker), setting off at 6:30 am, being late only half an hour according to the re-arranged schedule and one whole hour according to the original schedule, we managed to get a lift at the traffic lights by the Fukuchiyama Ramen shop (learned a new trick of how to change peoples` minds about taking you places) and this nice lady dropped us off at Kyoto where we took the public transportation to the Kyoto Station and from there we took a train (as good hitchhikers should) to the next station Yamashina where we got off and searched for the highway entrance. Found it and after lengthy discussions, partially including a random guy with bad teeth and a purple tracksuit, we walked to the toll gate and got a lift by a guy who was really nice, seemed very happy to help and in order to do so he seemed to have slightly ignored the road rules, or whatever it is that makes drivers moreless civilized.
He dropped us off at the nearest services, which were absolutely packed packed packed with adults, children, geriatrics, dogs, tour guides, etc., it being the absolute first day of the Golden Week, and there we peed, drank water and waited for not too long for another ride.
Though it was then, when the real waiting started. It being an absolute first day of the Golden Week, despite the fees, the highways were packed everywhere, and according to the red blicking info boards above the highway, a 25km distance was covered in about70 minutes. After another rather lengthy discussion with Satoshi and the map, the map told us to get off at the next junction (no one ever does that, mind you! It was also Satoshi`s first time, which kind of make me feel rather important to help him get rid off his junction-getting-off-a-given-ride virginity), and we walked by the queuing cars down the junction arm, over to the toll booths, through the toll booths, climbed over two locked gates and we were in the city of Ritto (only God and the map knew where we really were). But as we saw Family Mart and other marks of human life and peaceful existence, I simply knew there must be a train stationsomewhere there too and indeed it was.
Thus we got on a train to Maibara and then on another one to Ogaki with final destination Nagoya, yay yay, and even finaler destination for me was the Second ExitEntrance of ShinSakaeMachi and a reward was a kiss.
Satoshi decided to become a materialist for this short amount of time and took a night bus over to Nagano.
And this is where one adventure ends only to be followed by another one, a new one, The One Where We All Helped Hide Paint His Room (and Got to See the Hysterical Slovak in Love).