somehow still alive
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somehow still alive Tuesday June 25
my previous post was both correct and incorrect: correct, it is possible for me to ride a bicycle that bicycle about ninety kilometers; incorrect, it is more than ninety kilometers to asahi-machi, toyama-ken. so, after two 8 hour biking trips, 3 short hitchhiking jaunts, and a few train rides, i am back in kanazawa. only my camera witnessed what i saw, and i shall set up a seperate page for all the pictures when i scan them this week. therefore, all you have to know is that i am back and i am safe. and both my lower back and my bicycle are seemingly broken.
however, because i feel that every post should be content-worth (not strictly informative), i feel obligated to give you at least one antecdote: when i was returning from the onsen, or hot springs, i fell asleep on the train and almost overslept my stop. the train halted, and i woke up disoriented. i jumped to my feet, ran to the door, and looked at the platform. i decided that this was similar to tomari-eki, the asahi-machi station, but it was not. i claim ignorance due to sleep. at the next station, i decide to walk back instead of waiting 35 minutes for the next train. i walked along the ocean, and it started to rain (what else?). my umbrella is functional, but markedly of the "travel" size. most of the way back to town, a late-model black sedan pulled up along side me.
"doko ikimasuka?", or, "where are you going?", the young, beautiful woman inside asked me. definitely a time to try to sound proficient in japanese. i explained my situation, and, after nodding, she added that it was strange to see me walking in the rain on the side of the road: foreigners don't come here often, especially without a vehicle. that comment, however, was no longer in japanese: it was excellently-accented english; it was followed by an invitation for me to get out of the rain and into her car. yeah.
after getting out of the car, i contemplated dinner for about fifteen seconds before i mentally slapped myself on the forehead. when she asked where i was going, why did i not say, "to find something to eat"? living nearby, she definitely knows what is good -- and probably hadn't eaten yet either. moreover, the reason chikumi was speaking english to me was not because i could not understand her: it was because she truly wanted to practice with a native speaker (she mentioned this). chikumi teaches young children english for a living, but she couldn't have been a day over twenty-three. and i got right out of the car without even realizing what i was doing.
a classic mark scenario: opportunity knocked, but i was not paying attention.
