QUOTE : Perhaps I would have to walk — an unattractive prospect. Thirty minutes on the bus was a good number of miles; and I had not been planning to begin my walk around the north country at Shirakawa, which could, after all, hardly be called the north country at all, really just a distant suburb of Tokyo. The pair looked at me apologetically. I thought a little. Was there perhaps a train? The old man’s face brightened and he waved a stubby finger at me. Yes, of course! How could he have failed to think of that? From under the heap of papers on his desk he extracted a volume the size of a telephone directory and began to thumb methodically through, muttering as he ran his finger slowly down the lines of tiny figures. I waited patiently. Finally he looked up, beaming triumphantly and stabbing the page with his finger. ‘Here, here — here’s a train for you. 15.37 next one.’ ‘But that’s nearly four hours from now!