Got Locked in the Train Station last night

Went out drinking with my future co-workers last night, and came back a little tipsy on one of the last trains to Fukuoka. I arrived at Hakata Station, the big central train station in the middle of the city. Hakata is connected to an underground network of malls, the subway, etc...its a pretty complex affair with multiple exits. I was going through my customary exit at around midnight, which passes by an in-station bakery and various other random stuff. There are toilets there, and I really had to go. The lights were off but I could see from the light coming from outside of the room, and like I said, I really had to go. I was in there maybe 2 or 3 minutes.

So I go out and head to the exit, only to find it locked. I turn back to return from the hall I came from to get back to the main train station, only to find it...locked. Big aluminum shutters sealing it off.

I was trapped in the train station!

Apparently I had gone in the toilet at precisely midnight, when they close down, and this being Japan, they didn't waste a second. I called 911 (well, 119 over here) and said, "uh, this probably isn't the number I should be calling, and I'm not sure how to put this, but I'm kind of trapped in the train station right now." The operator was kind of annoyed (understandably, considering the real emergencies he has to be ready for). He told me to give him my number so the train station could contact me.

So a train station guy called me, but he couldn't figure out what exit I was locked in at. As it turned out I was technically in a connected mall, even though it was on the first floor and generally considered to be a train exit by laypeople who don't understand the complex legal issues delineating one strip of hallway from another. I mean its just one huge complex and all looks basically the same wherever you go.

So he had to call the mall people and I had to wait like another 15 minutes. Eventually the caretaker and 2 train cops (real cops? I dunno) showed up magically from an locked stairway to let me out. The caretaker kept trying to cover himself by pointing out that he had turned off the lights in the bathroom, but the security guys just seemed pleasantly amused . Happy happy Fukuoka.

I was thinking after though...I didn't even know Japan's 911 number 119 here until last year when I went to driving school here and learned all that stuff. And if I didn't speak Japanese reasonably well, I never would have been able to explain over the phone what had happened, or where the hell I was, and they wouldn't have been able to find me. I would have had to have camped out there all night and waited til 6 or 7 AM when they re-open. Just goes to show how one person's funny brief little incident could be another person's hell if they didn't know the language or the everyday ins and outs of the country.

Going to an auto show now, should wind up with some pictures. Also have about two more posts to do about my Tokyo trip the other week, but it takes a while to upload stuff...