Bus 17

Following our evening of shopping and conveyor-belt sushi, we needed to take a bus out from central to Kyoto and back to our neighborhood. We knew that any of three buses would work for us, numbers 5, 17, or 32, so when a number 17 pulled up we jumped on.

Now I have had previous experiences of getting on the right numbered bus but going in the wrong direction (including here in Kyoto a couple of weeks ago), or of misreading the bus route map and mistakenly thinking that a certain bus route goes somewhere it doesn't. But in this case we were correct about the route number and correct about the direction, and yet still -- after some initial progress towards home -- the bus stops up ahead began to look unfamiliar. Our mistake, it turns out, was that we had got on a bus belong to the wrong bus company.

Picture this. Firstly, Kyoto has two bus companies, with confusingly similar names: "Kyoto Bus", and "Kyoto City Bus." Secondly, both companies run a number 17 bus that stops at the same place in the center of city. Thirdly, these two number 17 bus routes go to very different places. What we had done was inadvertently board a Kyoto Bus rather than a Kyoto City Bus.

Kyoto Bus number 17:  (what we actually took)

Kyoto City Bus number 17:  (what we wanted to take)

Fortunately we realized our mistake just before the two routes diverged irreversibly, and got off the number 17 Kyoto Bus at a place where we could then take a Kyoto City Bus to where we needed to go.