Third day of the new year and the second in which I haven't opened my front door.
Not a very social start to 2010. Oh well, at least the blog is developing nicely...
In positive news, C returned from her travels in Hong Kong and Macau this evening. It's good to have my closest friend in Japan back in the city. It's been a lonely few weeks...
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Another brilliant plan gone awry
I'm an idiot.
Although this is well-established, here's another case for the file...
C&D's house, where I went for New Year's Eve, is WAYYYY down in the southern bit of Sendai, one stop from the end of the line on the subway. In any other city, on a night of revelry, it would have made sense to have taken said subway, right?
Well, this is Japan, and the Western rules of logic Do Not Apply.
See, New Year's Eve is a holiday here, so the subway operates on the Limited Holiday Schedule. Which means that the last train is at 11:49 PM. I kid you not. You'd think that on a holiday famous for Waiting for Midnight, they'd have one last train. Even if it was at like 12:15... I'd sprint for that.
But no, New Year's Eve is clearly a Holiday, therefore the Limited Holiday Schedule is in effect. Not some kind of special holiday schedule. That would be Breaking Tradition, and as we all know, Breaking Tradition is Very Bad. It causes things like, oh I don't know... hairy palms? Goiters? The Emancipation of Oppressed Minorities?
Anyway, here's where I get bold and stupid. I decide I will bike it down to C&D's house... Yeah, it's a 45 minute ride, it's below freezing, and I'll have to ride BACK, but it will give me the freedom to return home whenever I please.
So, on New Year's Eve, I stepped outside... and the first flakes of snow were already falling. Undeterred, in my stubborn-ass way, I started to ride. I'm not 10 minutes from my house when it is clear that this isn't a dusting. It's already starting to accumulate and gust.
But, like I said, I'm a stubborn-ass, so I ride on.
I do make it to C&D's house, sweaty as a teen on his first date and looking just as bad. The party is fun, a good time had by all, but by the time it lets out, the snow is a few inches deep and has grown itself a lovely covering of ice.
D is kind enough to drive home the three of us stranded by the weather and the Limited Holiday Schedule.
That meant that my poor bike spent the first day and a half of the New Year sitting in front of a Family Mart, covered in snow. I figured I had a free pass to leave it there unmolested on the 1st, as everyone was too hung-over to remember where they had left their pants, let alone for cops to impound abandoned vehicles. But by mid-day today I was getting antsy that my bike was being carted off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished.
So, I hopped on the subway, thankfully no longer on its Limited Holiday Schedule and now full of its normal Saturday contingent of vacant-faced women riding to The Mall (and here, the use of capital letters is neither for emphasis or irony... it really is called The Mall), and rode down too fetch my bike.
There it was, blown over by the high winds, but otherwise just where I left it.
Now all I had to do was ride back the 45-minutes of frequently uphill, and now icy, sidewalks and roads to get back to Sendai proper.
Now that I think about it, I should have pulled "An American" and brought my bike on the subway.
"What's that, officer? What do you mean I can't bring my bike on the train?"
But then they probably would have hauled my bike off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished and I would have wasted my subway fare, so it's probably best that I cycled back...
Although this is well-established, here's another case for the file...
C&D's house, where I went for New Year's Eve, is WAYYYY down in the southern bit of Sendai, one stop from the end of the line on the subway. In any other city, on a night of revelry, it would have made sense to have taken said subway, right?
Well, this is Japan, and the Western rules of logic Do Not Apply.
See, New Year's Eve is a holiday here, so the subway operates on the Limited Holiday Schedule. Which means that the last train is at 11:49 PM. I kid you not. You'd think that on a holiday famous for Waiting for Midnight, they'd have one last train. Even if it was at like 12:15... I'd sprint for that.
But no, New Year's Eve is clearly a Holiday, therefore the Limited Holiday Schedule is in effect. Not some kind of special holiday schedule. That would be Breaking Tradition, and as we all know, Breaking Tradition is Very Bad. It causes things like, oh I don't know... hairy palms? Goiters? The Emancipation of Oppressed Minorities?
Anyway, here's where I get bold and stupid. I decide I will bike it down to C&D's house... Yeah, it's a 45 minute ride, it's below freezing, and I'll have to ride BACK, but it will give me the freedom to return home whenever I please.
So, on New Year's Eve, I stepped outside... and the first flakes of snow were already falling. Undeterred, in my stubborn-ass way, I started to ride. I'm not 10 minutes from my house when it is clear that this isn't a dusting. It's already starting to accumulate and gust.
But, like I said, I'm a stubborn-ass, so I ride on.
I do make it to C&D's house, sweaty as a teen on his first date and looking just as bad. The party is fun, a good time had by all, but by the time it lets out, the snow is a few inches deep and has grown itself a lovely covering of ice.
D is kind enough to drive home the three of us stranded by the weather and the Limited Holiday Schedule.
That meant that my poor bike spent the first day and a half of the New Year sitting in front of a Family Mart, covered in snow. I figured I had a free pass to leave it there unmolested on the 1st, as everyone was too hung-over to remember where they had left their pants, let alone for cops to impound abandoned vehicles. But by mid-day today I was getting antsy that my bike was being carted off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished.
So, I hopped on the subway, thankfully no longer on its Limited Holiday Schedule and now full of its normal Saturday contingent of vacant-faced women riding to The Mall (and here, the use of capital letters is neither for emphasis or irony... it really is called The Mall), and rode down too fetch my bike.
There it was, blown over by the high winds, but otherwise just where I left it.
Now all I had to do was ride back the 45-minutes of frequently uphill, and now icy, sidewalks and roads to get back to Sendai proper.
Now that I think about it, I should have pulled "An American" and brought my bike on the subway.
"What's that, officer? What do you mean I can't bring my bike on the train?"
But then they probably would have hauled my bike off to Where Bad Bikes Go To Be Punished and I would have wasted my subway fare, so it's probably best that I cycled back...
Friday, January 1, 2010
How'd it get to be the future already?
Here's a quirk of geography that had my head spinning: For 14 to 17 hours, I was living in a different year than my loved ones back home. Weird.
After last night's late night, I slept through the first half of the first day of the new year (which is as much of a New Year's tradition as champagne and fireworks, now that I think about it...), rousing myself just in time to call the US and wish folks there a Happy New Year. It was nice to be able to report from the future that 2010 was thus far uneventful.
By mid-afternoon, I was sufficiently awake to begin this blog, part of my resolution for the new year. Begin, you ask? Aren't there entries going all the way back to August?? All written after-the-fact: although I left the US on September 1st, I began this blog on January 1st...
It's amazing how fast these four months have gone by and my memories are already getting hazy and begin to bleed together. I kept a journal for every day I was in the Peace Corps. I'm glad I did... This being the 21st century, I figured I should take advantage of technology... Besides, if I blog about my experiences, that's fewer photos and notebooks that I need to lug around when I inevitably move again!
I still don't intend to join Myspace or Facebook, but I do want to make it easier for loved ones to keep tabs on me... I know I can be elusive. As the months progress, and as my photos pile up and intended emails to loved ones go unwritten, I finally had to admit to myself that a blog was the easiest way to share all my thoughts and images of living here in Japan.
And if anyone else stops by? Hello! Hope you read a thing or two that you like.
Happy New Year to all. 2009 was a little too full of Fear for my taste... Let's work for a little more joy.
After last night's late night, I slept through the first half of the first day of the new year (which is as much of a New Year's tradition as champagne and fireworks, now that I think about it...), rousing myself just in time to call the US and wish folks there a Happy New Year. It was nice to be able to report from the future that 2010 was thus far uneventful.
By mid-afternoon, I was sufficiently awake to begin this blog, part of my resolution for the new year. Begin, you ask? Aren't there entries going all the way back to August?? All written after-the-fact: although I left the US on September 1st, I began this blog on January 1st...
It's amazing how fast these four months have gone by and my memories are already getting hazy and begin to bleed together. I kept a journal for every day I was in the Peace Corps. I'm glad I did... This being the 21st century, I figured I should take advantage of technology... Besides, if I blog about my experiences, that's fewer photos and notebooks that I need to lug around when I inevitably move again!
I still don't intend to join Myspace or Facebook, but I do want to make it easier for loved ones to keep tabs on me... I know I can be elusive. As the months progress, and as my photos pile up and intended emails to loved ones go unwritten, I finally had to admit to myself that a blog was the easiest way to share all my thoughts and images of living here in Japan.
And if anyone else stops by? Hello! Hope you read a thing or two that you like.
Happy New Year to all. 2009 was a little too full of Fear for my taste... Let's work for a little more joy.
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