End-of-school holidays, or, the bicycle post

In December I was given a bicycle by one of my Japanese teachers, and I rode it every day for a week. Then one of the tires blew out and I was told that it was pointless to fix because it was so old. Ever since then I've been planning to get a bicycle, but I've waited because my coworker told me that she would give me her bicycle. Bicycles are really common in Japan, especially a kind of cheap bicycle (usually about $100-$150) called a mama-chari (mother's vehicle), which apparently is called a city bike in English. It always has a front basket and often a luggage rack or a child seat in the back. This is the kind that I had, and the kind that my co-worker was going to give me, but she bought hers last year and mine was at least 15 years old.

Two weeks ago, a week before I would be given the bike, my co-worker forgot to lock it and, despite it being parked right outside her apartment, it was stolen. It wasn't a great loss to be honest. She had to walk for the remaining one week she was here, and I had to look into buying a more expensive bike which I wanted in the first place but my thriftiness wouldn't permit without giving the other bike a try.

I decided that I would like to go on longer trips with a bicycle, maybe even overnight (called bike-packing). This would be quite difficult on a mama-chari, which is heavy and has no gears, so I decided to look into a hybrid bike. Hybrid bikes don't have wheels as thick as city bikes or mountain bikes, but they're not as thin as a road bike either, which means they reach a happy medium between speed and an ability to deal with most road conditions. Hybrid bikes (and actually, most bikes that aren't city bikes) are pretty expensive, with the cheapest being around $400, so I researched really hard considering I would be spending a lot of money.

A new teacher for my school arrived in Shiojiri on Friday. On Saturday we had one last hang-out at my coworker's flat before she left, and I invited the new teacher. It turned out that he was really into bikes and had planned to buy one. So the next day we met up and each bought a bicycle. Mine was a bit less than I had expected to pay, but it was easy to make up the difference with accessories like a lock, front lights, back lights, a helmet, a water bottle, etc. So on Monday and Tuesday the new teacher and I spent our mornings cycling and shopping, which was fun. I also showed him around the supermarket, and took him to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant.

On Wednesday I had plans to go with a friend to Naraijuku by hiking up from the next station down. It was a beautiful day, but ended up the hottest day of the month so we were both a bit uncomfortable because of that.  Also, we had both stayed up late the night before and weren't in peak condition. Then I forgot to check the directions and we ended up walking about 30 minutes northwest instead of northeast. This road wasn't too bad because there were mountains and a beautiful river for some of the time, but it wasn't as nice as the route I had planned to take. Since there was a mountain and train tracks between our location and my intended route, we had to go all the way back to 15 minutes from our starting point. By this time my friend was definitely tired and she voted to go back home the way we came. In the end I felt like it was a small disaster, but hopefully I learned something from it.

Thursday I cycled to Matsumoto castle, a distance of about 30 km (18.5 miles), but stopped several times along the way for shopping. It was a really nice ride that ended up taking me about one hour of travel time for one way. Previously when I rode my bicycle in this direction to go to church, I found the sidewalk to be narrow, bumpy, and hilly--a terrifying combination to someone not very comfortable with bikes. Since then I have discovered that the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street is much more accommodating. If I want to, I can take the sidewalk all the way to Matsumoto, at which point there is a very nice bike lane. Japan is really a nice place to cycle.

Yesterday I went with another friend to Azumino, a town famous for its scenery, soba noodles, and wasabi. First we tried a local specialty dish for lunch called shinshuu salmon. It was basically just salmon sashimi with miso soup, rice, and pickles, but it seemed high quality, and was delicious as well as inexpensive. Then we went to the wasabi farm, which was beautiful but is most famous for having special food. I tried wasabi ice cream (which was barely distinctive from vanilla) and wasabi beer (again, the wasabi flavor was weak). I bought some delicious wasabi seaweed. Finally we went to a kind of strange art museum. I think the best part of that was probably the buildings. We cycled to get to all of these places, but we used an electronic-assist bicycle so it wasn't very taxing. Even so, I was pretty tired when I got home, and went to sleep quickly.

Pictures from Azumino:

Today I'm expecting a package with a luggage rack for my bicycle. After it comes, or if it hasn't come by about 1, I'm going to cycle to Suwa lake. The distance is similar to going to Matsumoto, but I suspect that the elevation might make this ride more difficult. If I'm not too worried about that, I can cycle around the lake, which would probably double the distance of my trip. Work starts again on Monday, so this will be my last hurrah for the end-of-school holidays.

The new year and other changes

I didn't quite finish my Christmas break in my last post. After coming back from Tokyo, I relaxed for almost a full week--meaning I was mostly unproductive. I did go with a Japanese friend to Naraijuku, a famous street about half an hour away. Apparently it looks very similar to how it used to look 400 years ago. The buildings are old and conform to that image of traditional Japan--pretty neat.

That weekend I went skiing in Hakuba, on some of the same slopes that were used in the 1998 winter olympics. I hadn't skied since high school, so at first skiing was quite a challenge. I couldn't find a bunny slope and had to make due with an intermediate slope. Fortunately I had a friend looking out for me and encouraging me. By the end of the first day I was tackling the black diamonds, only struggling when I hit moguls. These slopes were very heavy on the moguls--it was difficult to avoid them altogether if you wanted to make a run of several slopes at once.

That night we went out for dinner and then to a bar. We were on our last drink of the night when my friend thought up a way to approach other people--with an accent challenge, in which we competed in trying to imitate accents. In this bar, incidentally, probably 85% of the customers were Australian. It was a fun challenge which I lost, but at the second table we got caught up in the party atmosphere and ended up staying very late, talking to everyone in the bar indiscriminately. It was a fun experience, but not one I'd like to have regularly.

The next day we were both suffering from sleep deprivation and very sore from the previous day's skiing. After lunch we started a long run, but after the first slope I said, "My knees won't bend anymore." We finished the run and then went home. I was sore for a solid week. Overall, skiing was an okay experience. It was worthwhile, but it's not something I'm looking forward to doing again. In high school I switched to snowboarding because I felt that skiing wasn't exciting enough. Now I feel that skiing is a little too exciting. I guess I'm getting old.

In February one of my co-workers broke some bones while snowboarding and couldn't work at all for two weeks. He is only back to his normal schedule as of this week, and I had to take some of his classes while he was out, so I was busier than usual. As a result, I wasn't able to attend Japanese class for 5 weeks. I could have gone last week, but it's the end of the school year so I'm not sure that the class is even meeting. My Japanese has suffered a bit as a result, but I still get lots of practice at church. In related news, I finished learning the 2042 kanji (Chinese characters) for general use. At least, as they were before 2010. They've since added about 100 more, so I have to learn those, but for now I'm taking a break.

On Friday I took tests for a Japanese driving license. The written test was really easy. It had 10 questions with pretty clear pictures and the answers were true or false. The actual English on the test was pretty confusing sometimes, but it wasn't really necessary to understand the question. The driving test, on the other hand, was really difficult. You have to drive a course that includes a very narrow s-curve and crank as well as visual obstructions and pedestrian walkways. I failed, primarily because I ran over the curb (just a little bit!) as I was coming out of the s-curve. I also didn't slow down at an intersection with some high bushes, and didn't stay on the left side of the road when I was turning left (to prevent bicycles from trying to pass me). Yesterday I took the test again and passed! So now I have a Japanese driver's license.

I needed to get this licence because my international license expires in September. I've decided to stay until next March, but my position will change. Starting in April, I will be working in public elementary and junior high schools. I'm excited about this for several reasons. First, I'll have normal working hours--from 8:30 to 4:30, Monday through Friday. I hope this means I'll have a little more opportunity for social interaction. Furthermore, I'll be interacting with Japanese people in a work environment on a daily basis, at least partly in Japanese. This should improve my Japanese skills and teach me more about Japanese culture. It should also help prepare me for working in a Japanese company. Because work is so important in Japanese culture, there are a lot of social events at work, and I hope to take part in these.

There's no work next week because it's the end of the school year, but I don't know what I will do yet.