2010/03/22

Following the Road Ahead

I had to take a break from blogging and find a new inspiration. Besides, I didn't want to write only about rain. So, the weather got nicer and I got a bicycle !!!!!!!!!!!!. Yeah I found it on so-called 'sayonara sale’. It was quite cheap and not in its best shape....
There's rust on the pedals, brakes squeak, but it has a basket and the best part is…. that it's MINE. In almost every country I live a have a bike and a bike has it's name. Ladies and Gents meet Suzuki! No more walking. Freedom on the streets!!! But (there is always but when something goes too smoothly) riding a bike is a bit difficult in Japan. First of all in Japan there's left side road system so all day long I had that voice in my head 'to the left .. To the left ... To the left... Fuck almost died again... To the left you morron' Ok I don't call myself a morron in my head but sometimes it was really scary as the Japanese really drive fast. Another thing is that the rear brake is on the left side of the handlebars and even though I'm a lefty I got used to braking with a right brake. So once I almost catapulted myself trough the handlebars. Last thing is that in the suburbs you cannot find a proper bike lane nor a sidewalk so everyone uses the same road as they want (including cars). 


I saw people riding on the wrong side of the road or pedestrians jump away to avoid a collison... My favorite part is however the street signs ... NO ENGLISH, no international signs! This for example STOP .... 



If you don't know Japanese I wish you good luck on the road.I survived my first day on the Japanese road... (I've lost a lock key once but now I attached this maneki cat (more about cats later) so now it's protected by a Shinto deity). Japan be scared I ride to conquer you!

PS. The word 'bike' is an example of words borrowed from English, which changed a meaning. So it was really confusing when I asked in English 'How long does it take to go there by bike’ and the answer was that it's faster than by car. I was shocked but then when I said that my 'jitensha' is not that fast because it's old. Then the speaker said that I mentioned 'bike'. So finally aftershort pun game I found out that Japanese 'bike' is a motorcycle. And another Japenese mystery was solved, my dear Watson!

No comments:

Post a Comment