Japan Rider: The Blog

For the first time in…. huh, probably for the first time since I left Japan, I actually hit the road for a jog as early as 5:30 this morning.

Running is good. Morning runs are better. Whether in the city or the mountains, early mornings have a special quality, a kind of peace.

Though running through flat, city streets and around flat, city blocks lacks inspiration, I still enjoyed hitting the pavement before much of the city was even awake.  I did cut through a couple of parks, and I did alternate walking and jogging since my fitness level is not what it used to be. But all in all  – running at 5:30, before going to work, is refreshing and invigorating.

Starting yesterday, I am now working days rather than evenings. While at first I had been a bit disappointed at the idea, as I had really been enjoying the evening shift and found that I was, overall, much more energetic and productive in my personal life, already, only on day two, I am happy with the day shift, happy being back to normal.
What is normal? Well, for one thing, I am up today, with no alarm, at 5:20 a.m. And one thing Montreal and my Japan city have in common is that they are both ethereally quiet at this time of the morning. There is a kind of peace over the land that makes this time of day special for me.
Other normalities that have already returned include being active in the evenings rather than the day time.

Yesterday after work, I sat in the yard and read my book, I went roller-blading for an hour, ate a good dinner and prepared a good lunch. This evening I’ve got plans to see friends and be social. So – maybe the day shift is a good shift!

Some things you start to take for granted once you settle in somewhere. For example, I had begun to take car ownership for granted since I’d had a car for most of my Japan years. Moving back to Montreal, I had been car-free for several months, and finally gave into the need for wheels.

The car is something that was in my power to remedy. Other things are out of my hands, however. Other things, such as the dire lack of vending machines. Yes – I who may once have thought the ubiquitous “jidou-hanbaiki” (vending machine) a blight in nature, found even at the peak of Mt. Fuji, had certainly grown dependent on and appreciative of their presence. And now, with summer and humidity finally here in Montreal, I rue the loss of the “ji-han-ki” (short for jidouhanbaiki, aka vending machine).

As I walked to a workshop downtown this morning, I quickly became parched, having forgotten to bring my bottle of water. I found myself casting hopeful -even expectant – glances around street corners, having to remind myself several times that, no, I would not find any vending machines here. I would have to wait until I hit the city centre, and then I would have to join the hordes of trendy city-ites in long lines at Tim Horton’s…

Perhaps this is not out of my hands…perhaps I can start a petition. Would anyone consider signing a plea to have vending machines places every few hundred feet across the country??

Next post – Lack of any 24 hour convenience stores. This may be a Canadian or a Quebec phenomena, but there are no 7-11′s, no Circle Ks, no Family Marts… A person could starve or die of dehydration right here in the middle of so-called civilization, just for the want of vending machines and convenience stores!

I’ve been away from Japan for eight months now and for longer than that, I have been living a car-free (and a care-free!) life. Because I’m living just minutes from the hustle and bustle of downtown, and can pretty much walk, or bike, anywhere trendy that I want to go, I often want to go somewhere not so central. Also, having to rely on the kindness of others was less than ideal, and I have truly missed the independence that comes with having one’s own car.

While I really did want a clone of my Pajero Mini – a cute, sturdy, 4 wheel drive, manual miniature SUV, those are hard to find here, and are out of my (still unemployed) price range. But I browsed some online classifieds, and found a car that met at least a few of my criteria.It’s no Pajero Mini, but my 2002 Hyundai Accent looks good, drives great and has a manual transmission. I picked up my new baby today.

Once again, we are very fortunate here at Japanrider.com, because, as web authors, we have qualified for another year of free access to Britannica Encyclopedia online. Our free subscription includes the ability to share full articles with our readers. So, for today’s perusal, you can check out Britannica’s information on the earth quake and tsunami of 2011…

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1761942/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011

As a fun project, I decided to try to fine-tune my bike’s power curve while keeping an ear out for change or improvement in the tone and timber.

With less than $2 in hardware, I put together an adjustable lollipop baffle, and now have a wide range of tunability:

For tight mountain rides, a 45 degree angle is ideal as the torque noticeably increases allowing fewer shifts with stout pull under steep but relatively short sections.

Turning the baffle to 180 degrees still creates some back pressure and improved torque, while allowing the engine to spool up quickly in longer sections of road and straightaways.

The sound is improved, a little lower tone over the rpm range and a little quieter, too. Still wakes the neighbors tho!

Although I’ve sworn off rice and other seed-based foods, there is no doubt that Japanese society has necessarily relied on wet paddy agriculture to sustain its population on an otherwise mountainous island, lacking non-seafood game.

The resulting planting traditions continue today, and in my area it is now time to plant the most common rice varieties. While this can be mechanized, many farmers rely on family and friends’ manpower to plant.

I caught this scene behind my apartment yesterday morning, including the flooded paddies, hardworking planters, and even an egret. (The egrets and ducks flock to the newly flooded fields for the frogs, fish, leeches and bugs that suddenly abound when warm and wet!)