Greetings, everyone. I am kicking alive! Today, I would like to share my daily trivialities in a narrative essay style to practice my writing skills.
Contents
Educated Japanese Local Bus Conductors
On September 16th, the weather in Sapporo was clear. In Odori Park, the center of Sapporo, many visitors can enjoy the Autumn Fest. During this festival, most participants indulge in tasty food in the middle of September.
Shinichi suddenly felt the urge to go somewhere on a short trip. However, he has a keen sound sensitivity due to ASD and ADHD. Additionally, his mature mind developed through his middle-aged life experiences. Consequently, Shinichi tends to feel overwhelmed during a trip to a crowded place without proper mental preparation and good looking. For this reason, he decided to take on the Bankei Bus to explore mountain areas.
First, Shinichi aimed for Makomanai Station (N16, Namboku Subway Line). Although travellers can reach this station by subway, he chose to take the Jotetsu Bus (じょうてつバス), a local bus that covers the southern area of Sapporo.
Shinichi has a keen, sensitive, and mature mind. He caught all bus announcements in his ears. While taking on/off the bus, most passengers tapped their IC card, similar to Suica (JR East Japan), to pay for their bus fare. Additionally, Shinichi always admires most Japanese local bus conductors who have educated announcing important information to passengers. For example, conductors say as follows:
“We have sudden stops occur due to safety reasons. Please hold onto the straps or poles.”
Arriving at the Makomanai Station (N16), Shinichi thanked the conductor. In Sapporo, he often sees passengers expressing gratitude to conductors. He has already learned such behaviour from local passengers. Such education is a positive practice that helps ensure passenger safety.
Green Small Bus
Shinichi changed buses from Jotetsu-Bus(じょうてつバス) to Bankei Bus(ばんけいバス, ban. K). This bus was a small green, it departed out of the bus terminal. This route is one of the Bankei bus routes that connects Makomanai Station (N16) and Hassamu-Minami Station (T02, Tozai Subway Line). One bus operates per hour.
In most local buses, passengers are available with IC cards. However, this bus is not an available IC card. In addition, novice passengers usually can recognize their destinations by the destination number (行先番号) or the route number (系統番号). However, Bankei Bus operates only two bus routes. Therefore, bus users and travellers would find that designated bus easily.
Finding Another Route
After approximately 20 minutes, the bus arrived at the bus stop, Sapporo Bankei Ski Slope (さっぽろばんけいスキー場). This slope is one of the famous Hokkaido Ski resort areas, located closest to upscale Sapporo residential areas, Maruyama (円山) district. Bankei Bus has two routes, both routes across through this bus stop. Shinichi realized travellers may be able to aim for the Maruyama-Koen Station (T06, Tozai Subway Line) directory. For this reason, he thought of changing his planning course. Shinichi got off the bus stop at the Sapporo Bankei Ski Slope, and he changed from the main route of the Bankei bus.
Shinichi has a welfare pass (福祉乗車証) in Sapporo City for disabled individuals due to ASD, ADHD, and epilepsy. Such a pass is available to get on the bus. Most local buses installed a tapping machine for paying bus fare. However, the Bankei bus is not installed. For this reason, passengers should show the welfare pass to the conductor.
Today, Shinichi enjoyed it and was glad to find a new bus route. He is looking forward to exploring this route on his next short trip. If you would like to search for more information, Bankei (ban. K) Bus. However, if you’re a non-Japanese speaker and can not speak well, please choose your best options as follows.
- 1. Attend some guide who can speak Japanese
- 2. Utilize Google or some translating smartphone application
- 3. Before our contact form.
Thank you for reading, have a great day!