I decided I needed to get out of my apartment and let the people of Taiki-cho actually see me. And, you know, actually see Taiki-cho. Plus I was almost out of cereal. So I decided that today after work I would ride my bike to the store. That way I get out of the apartment, see a bit of town, get some groceries, get some exercise, and not bother anybody at work. A perfect plan!
Except I forgot to factor in the fact that I'm inherently lazy. Supremely so.
Today I kept hearing how it was 暑い, atsui, or hot. And I kept thinking to myself, it's maybe eighty degrees, if that. But my inner couch potato (or floor-in-front-of-the-couch potato, as it were) seized on the opportunity when my coworker Komori-san dropped me off at my apartment after work.
See, my inner whiner said, it's so hot outside! Maybe I should go tomorrow.
But tomorrow's Obon, and I'll be busy in the evening. And after that it's supposed to rain all week.
But I get the car next week. Then it'll be so much easier...
However, I'll be long out of cereal before that. So no breakfast. Unless I wanna, you know, cook. And I don't. And it really is nice outside, I really should go out.
Fine. I'll go take pictures of those pretty flowers next door.
While I'm outside, I may as well walk around a bit.
While I'm walking around a bit, I may as well take the bike. It'll be faster. But I won't go to the store--that's actually kind of far away. Ish.
It is hot outside, after all.
So I put on some shorts, tied my hair up, and rounded up my electronics. I got my camera, my almost dead iPod (which I need to recharge, thanks for reminding me), and my almost dead cell phone (I'm banking on the fact that Taiki is so small it'd be really difficult for me to get lost. Maybe.), filled up a bottle of water, slipped on my sneakers and out the door I went!
Well, actually, it was more like, Fill up the water bottle, wash the dishes, decide I don't want to wash the dishes, try to re-fill the bottle because I forgot I filled it, wait, I have to go to the bathroom, didn't I get a bottle of water, I could totally go tomorrow or Thursday, where did I put my phone, I hope it's not too humid, okay fine let's go.
But I digress.
My first obstacle was the bike itself. I got the lock undone easily enough once I located it, but I couldn't get the kickstand up. To save. My life.
I tried pushing it towards the handlebars. Away from the handlebars. In. Out. I relocked the bike. I unlocked the bike. Nothing worked. This was about to get extremely silly, extremely fast. I was going to have to knock on somebody's door and have them tell me how to work the kickstand. Good grief. That's a hell of a way to meet the neighbors.
(Yes, I still have not met my neighbors. I may or may not freeze in place whenever one walks past the window, hoping they don't notice me and try to eat me--worse, talk to me. I do alright if they speak slowly or even normal-ish speed, but some people speak WAY too fast and don't get it when I get lost after about 0.185739854 seconds.)
Turns out you have to push that metal thing in against the kickstand and push it back away from the handlebars. I had to do this with my hands. Dear lord, riding this thing is going to be embarrassing, isn't it. Stupid foreigner can't even work a 自転車. (jitensha, bicycle)
You're gonna love this next part.
I got the bike out of the entryway and tried to get on it. Now, I noticed when I was in Kyoto that the Japanese (at least in Kyoto) get on and off bicycles WAY differently than I, and every other American I know pr have ever seen, do. We tilt the bike slightly to the side, swing our leg over the back to the other side, and take off. Some people are slick and step on one pedal, get the bike going, then swing over. I don't do that. I have the coordination of a seizing duck. The Japanese, however, do the bike-motioney-thing, but then sorta bend their knee and swing their leg over between the seat and the handlebars. That's how they get off, too. I swear to you, I've seen it done countless times but I have yet to work out the mechanics of that particular maneuver. They just sort of seem to float onto and off of the bike.
I tried to try that once. I almost fell of the bike.
Anyway. Like I said, I tried to get on the bike. And sorta hopped around awkwardly like a penguin on hot coals until I got to the end of the little temporary parking spot. Why so awkward? Because the seat was so high that I couldn't reach the pedals if I was sitting on the bike. Which made hopping onto the seat and going a little difficult.
So I kinda stood there staring that the bike for a few minutes. I could see where to adjust the seat, I just couldn't quite figure out how to get it to work. There was a lever that swung around, which I thought might loosen the joint where the seat goes into the bike--but the pole of the seat was in the way. What the hell. Now would be a good time for a little ojiisan to come help me with my bike, stupid foreigner be damned. Now that I was outside I wanted to actually do something.
I figured it out after a moment. Turns out the whole knob that the little lever was attached to twisted around the other way to loosen the joint. I got the bike seat down and off I went, watch me go!
I rode around on the road for a while, then found a bike or walking path behind the road that followed the river. It went up to the main bridge in the town and came out right at the little patisserie I'd seen but wanted to try. I decided I'd stop on my way back home and get cake--I earned it for going out, after all.
I noticed, riding around, that though the front wheel was straight, the handlebars were turned slightly to the right. And yet, it wasn't terribly unnatural to ride that way. I'll get used to it.
All in all I rode my bike around for about forty-five minutes or so on this side of the bridge. I found a temple I wanted to go up to, but I wasn't sure if I could park my bike at the foot of the stairs or not and nobody was around to ask. I decided to try again another time.
You can sorta see the stairs, way back in the back there.
Eventually I came back to the bridge and the patisserie. But it was so lovely out, and I wasn't even tired from biking yet (which surprises nobody more than me, let me tell you), so I decided to head across the bridge. I wouldn't go so far as the supermarket, that was too far away. After all, it was hot. So I perused around "downtown," which is all set up along the main street.
Hm. Some pictures of this would've been nice, huh? Sorry, I was enjoying my ride. And saying hello to everyone. Even the stuffy-looking guy determined to ignore me as he rode his bike in the opposite direction suddenly smiled when I said hello to him in Japanese.
And suddenly--there was the super market.
Again. No picture. Maybe another time. Or on facebook eventually.
Hey, since I was here.
It took me a moment to find the space for bicycle parking, since the parking lot was actually full of cars. It's so odd sometimes to see everyone driving, since I'm used to most people biking or taking public transit. But there is no real public transit in Taiki. The nearest train is in Obihiro, I think, which is an hour away by car. There's a bus, but it runs about once an hour and I've never seen it. But find the parking spaces I did and in I went.
Maybe I shouldn't have worn shorts. They're pretty short. Like, halfway up my thighs. Which, granted, I've seen Japanese girls wear--and shorter--but I'm a foreigner, and quite a bit...softer...than most Japanese girls.
Ah well.
I browsed up and down the aisles getting just a few things. I didn't want to overload the bike basket. So I got things like face soap, salt and cinnamon, cereal, tomatoes (for tomato sammiches, if I ever get off here and feed myself before bed. According to my usual schedule I should've eaten about an hour or two ago, watched an hour or two of Big Bang Theory, and be taking a shower in about fifteen minutes. I've not eaten yet and I've been on the computer since I got home), and candy. Lots of candy. In my defense, it's almost all for the Bestie. However, nobody here knows that. They must think I plan to send myself into a diabetic coma. Really, only one box of pocky and two bags of hard candy were for me. The rest of it was for her--I swear!
Does nobody believe me?
Haters.
Anyway. I checked out, loaded up, and back across the bridge I went!
Isn't the river pretty? Kayaking is pretty popular here. But it gets shallow in some places. I actually saw two kayaks at the edge of the river, along with a tent under the bridge. Camping is popular, too. I'm not sure whether this is some sort of semi-urban camping trend or a homeless person, tho.
Anyway.
I passed a garden of a house that I swear belongs to a landscaper or bonzai aficionado. Or this town is half-full of aficionados, since I passed about six gardens that looked like this one during my ride.
Halfway across the bridge Komori-san stopped and said hello. He asked if I'd fixed my bike--I'm assuming that's what he asked, anyway, he's one of the ones who clocks in at somewhere around the speed of light. And, since it's reflex now, I nodded and said yes.
Wait.
My bike is broken?
Where?
I noticed the handlebars, which were initially misaligned, were properly aligned.
Uh....
But of course he'd kept talking. I don't even remember what about, I was so worried about my bike suddenly falling to pieces under me and squishing my tomatoes. And scraping my knee. Japanese people are pretty odd about blood.
Then he drove off and I went on to the patisserie. I got a piece of chocolate cake--just one, thank you. I wish they'd had earl gray cake like the Lipton in Kyoto Station--but ah well, I should be glad I have a place that sells cake, which as it turns out is just right up the street from my apartment. Score! This could be dangerous.
New rule: One must bike to the patisserie. Or walk. No driving.
Until it snows.
While I was paying, in walks Komori-san! Again! Is he following me?! He's picking me up for Obon tomorrow, you see, and he said since I was riding my bike around, how about he pick me up by the liquor store tomorrow at around 530?
分かりました。I understand.
.....
Wait.
What am I supposed to do with my bike, then?
But I'd left by then.
I'm smart.
So I got my cake and went home. I missed my turn and wound up going around the block. Oh well.
And those pretty flowers that were my excuse for going out?
I'll get pictures of them next time. o.~
No comments:
Post a Comment