Entries this day: AM Final_leg Made_it!! anne

AM

8:07am JST Sunday 09 April 2006 (day 13164)

That break last night lasted until 5:30am, when I woke up just after the sun had come over the horizon, but not even above the power lines in the distance.

Got up and moving and now I'm in McDonald's (in つし, 津市), using electricity for the price of a egg-sausage-cheese-muffin (200 yen).

Final leg

4:18pm JST Sunday 09 April 2006 (day 13164)

At one point, highway 23 made a bigtime right turn that I didn't think I should take. Found no one to ask, rang a buzzer, and a woman came out and confirmed I had missed my exit on 167 (because it's only labeled 42), so I was going to head back, but her father came out and was like, "keep going this way, turn right on 32 and cross the mountain and then zoooooooooooommm down the other side and it will be great," in Japanese as best I could understand, and I was like, "can I do it on my bicycle?" ("heh heh, you said do it") and he was like, "no problem; I've done it before!!"

So I did it. Really nice hill.

I would love to zooom down it again, but this time with my helmet on more securely; I had to slow myself down to keep the wind from blowing it back like a parachute attached to my neck. I had had the straps looser because I had been wearing it over my hat and hoodie hood.

Zooom. Really nice run.

Made it!!

3:54pm JST Sunday 09 April 2006 (day 13164)

I've made it to Koji's place! It took well over an hour to navigate the final 2 kilometers, given the ridiculous system of addresses that Japan still uses; I called Koji from a major intersection about 1.5 miles from here and he didn't know where it was. I'm sure he does, but just not by the road numbers used on the map I had. Highways 32 and 167. After he couldn't help me, I confirmed with 3 people that I was in the right area, but none of them knew where his address was. The third person was a woman tending a field; she took me down the slope to perhaps her son, and they jabbered for several minutes over the map I had, looking for clues as to where I needed to go. I asked if they would call the number on the map (after my first attempt of telling them that I had called the number but was unable to communicate with Koji where I was when he asked me (perhaps I used the wrong verb tense so they didn't understand; I had been like, 電話をして、彼は「今どこにいますか」って、 私はわからなかった。) didn't prompt them to try and call again) saying, "電話をした、彼は「どこにいますか」って、私はわからなかった。" and they were like, "oh!" and the guy went inside and called Koji, then came out a minute later and gave me directions to an intersection where Koji met me.

Fan tastic.

I was surprised to see him walking up the road; I didn't actually understand Koji would meet me; I thought I was supposed to find a place to turn, but Koji rocked up; led me the final 50 meters to his house and helped me get all my shiznit inside.

Met his wife (actually I don't know how to address her), and was surprised when an English speaker popped her head out the door, "you made it!"

Her name is Ann (sp); she's from the US, north central or north east, judging from her accent. She's been helping on Koji's farm for the past couple of days, and she leaves tomorrow.

Ann and Koji's wife went (grocery?) shopping while I led Koji back to the place where I had been helped; I understood he wanted to thank the guy who had called for me. We arrived within 50 feet of the house and saw the woman (person number 3, above) and her friend, and I was like, "ありがとうございました！" to her, and Koji looked confused, and then I said to him "she helped me" and he said "ありがと うございました！" as well, and we left.

That seemed really strange, so I tried to ask him if he was satisfied with not having actually talked to the guy he had talked to, but I couldn't communicate my question to Koji, so I dropped it.

Back to his place for a lovely shower (though I didn't have my scrubby thing); I used my fingernails to scrape off horrific layers of muck, enough to win a mudball fight, and write this.

But no way to get online, yet. They've got dial-up internet access, but I dunno if it costs them per use or per month or what.

anne

10:51pm JST Sunday 09 April 2006 (day 13164)

Anne, whose name includes an e, is pretty cool.

• Lived in India for a year.

  Can speak Telegu (spoken in Andhra Pradesh (middle of India))

• Can make yogurt(!) (oh my god!!)

  Claims making yogurt is easy enough that even I could do it! ("Just type in 'make yogurt' online and probably 10 sites will come up.")

  She told me lots of detail about how to make yogurt to the point that I imagine I could actually do it!

• Is going to learn about bee keeping (if she's able to find bees near her new home).

• Knows of more than two types of tomatoes!!! (I'm like, "there's cherry and big tomatoes.." She's like "Oh my God, there are thousands of types of tomatoes!") Her favorites are black prince and striped german.

She's been very patient letting me yammer for hours about PB and Palestine and stuff, but I just wanted to capture a few bits...

1:06am JST Monday 10 April 2006

Really good times talking to Anne; I enjoyed being able to perapera with a native English speaker; it was so unexpected and a nice suprise, though I've just had perapera on PB, it was neat to find someone so recently from the US, and I just didn't want to stop talking to her knowing how much I won't be able to really communicate in English for a while...

told me about Flea for Pope and times in Maine with freezing weather and wasps in her front door

her time in India, and how a year was easier to enjoy the country than just staying for a month and onlly getting the chaos of India and not the goodness, but not really understanding people who *love* India.

Talking about trains (good train system in Tokyo/Japan vs no trains in Houston) and her trip to Beijing, where she experienced a huge mob of people with no lines and no English direction (including no arabic numbers) on the huge signboard of train times, and what a crazy ordeal that was.

She's going back to Maine tomorrow and will have basically 30 hours of travel before she gets back. I'll send happy thoughts.

Once she gets back she'll be chillin' for a bit, then living this summer in a place with no electricity and no running water and no internet on this farm like 2 hours away from the town and library

Actually she said she'd be unable to do anything but pet the cat, Flea (for Pope) when she gets back, so maybe she'll be going directly to this farm place..

Showed me video of this CRAZY huge worm that her friend said is the norm in Japan. It looked like a garter snake!! So big that it would be the state mascot if it lived in Texas, where they claim everything is bigger (except the worms, apparently!) I shoulda copied the video to my computer...

Showed her far tooo many pictures from Palestine and PB and my bike journey here... just didn't want to waste the chance to blabber about everything and nothing... So sad we only got 10 hours to hang out.. didn't feel like that long (a lot was spent eating, waiting for me to chew)

Did you hear the Pope died???? Flea for Pope! And the dog can be his helper!

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I was just giddy listening to her list the things she had done in Japan: Kyoto, Nikko, Hakone, Kamakura, Akihabara, Asakusa, Ueno, WWOOF (here at Koji's),

Don't know if I will wake up in time to see her off tomorrow. Hope so.