Travel conversations you don't want to have:
Kushiro Station Master: "All Limited Express train cancel today."
You: "How about tomorrow?"
Station Master: "Tomorrow don't know yet. Sumimasen. Typhoon, sumimasen."
Can't argue with that, really.
The fastest way to learn to be adaptable in your travels: travel during a May Day protest riot (Istanbul) travel during a freak snow storm (Kagoshima where it rarely snows), and travel during a week three tropical systems converge (Japan).
I have done all three.
I have since learned to shrug it off. As long as one is safe, everything else can be adjusted.
Incidentally, "sumimasen" (すみません) is an awesomely useful word. I use it all the time to say "sorry" or "excuse me".
Sumimasen, I'm going to soak in the 13th floor onsen of my hotel now. It's windy, raining and nothing in town is open anyway. Tomorrow I will figure out where I can go next.
