I don't really know if the story about kumiko is true. It looks like a joke but I colud imagine Kumiko very, very tired because of a very long trip from Japan to London by plane. That must be about 18 or 20 hours. If Kumiko took a train after this, it's possible he didn't know where he was nor where he was going and probably he didn't know how much time does the tain take to get into Turkey.
In my opinion the story should be true.