Entries this day: Dreams Exiting_bed Farm Fellowship_Of_The_Ring Shower-n-thoughts What_I_want bike_route

Dreams

6:10am JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

Laura and family enjoying watching my trip play itself out on maps over their kitchen table..

don't remember any detail on that one.

- - - -

Outside in a wooded area, chilling and waiting for my friend's friends to arrive, one of whom had a bag of mine that I had forgotten. The Delorian drove up and I jokingly sat down in the passenger's seat. I was like, "ha; just kidding!" and he smiled carefully as if trying to look like he understood the humor of it.

I was like, "thank you for bringing my bag!" and he then cheered up a bit more, realizing I was a friend of a friend; I popped over to grab the bag as soon as he pointed it out, then went to put it in Mr Van, who was my mode of transportation on my TJ Bike trip.

He pulled out the stuff to take skiing, including a multi-game pinball thing; he had dragged it out of his Delorian, and I had never seen one before, but I recognized what it must be, given the different faces I could see. It had pinball, beanbag toss, darts, pachinko, and a car racing game all built into different boards, each of which could be (un)folded / rearranged to be on top for playing. The pinball game had different maze-like paths, so at different times the ball would vanish and go who-knows-where, and then reappear in different places, or just be gone. I was definitely not going to play, as my budget was quite low, but my friend was happy to keep pumping in the quarters. I was surprised that a cat with a Delorian hadn't made the game free to play.

The next morning came and they had all gone skiing; I left my bags about, knowing that the likelihood of anyone taking them was rather small, given we were in the proverbial middle of nowhwere, and went into the cabin designated as restroom, where I found a huge toilet that I had to use one arm to prop myself from falling into; I couldn't reach across to use both arms at once.

I almost peed, but woke up in time.

8:23am JST Wednesday 19 April 2006

Watching TV to see if there were any interesting channels and came across some soft porn that was really bizarre, with various gropings, but all with people and large stuffed animals. I switched the channel, but the next channel was the same, and the next, and the next, until I realized that the channel changer was just switching between 34 and 35, no matter if I went channel up or down, just those two channels. I pressed some other buttons on the control, and found one that changed the hundred's place on the channel, but even as I rolled up to channels 1500, the images were the same. During the whole time a telltale heart staticky thud repeated itself indefinitely.

Exiting bed

8:32am JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

I guess I should get out of bed to see the family away; I won't see them for two days, and they have given me run of the house.

(though yesterday, Masako noted that she didn't have unlimited hours on internet; she never surfs the web, but just checks email. Shit; I won't be using the internet any more here at all. I'll go try and scope email at the library (where it specifically says "NO EMAIL and NO CHAT" in Japanese.))

Farm

9:33am JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

I get another day (or few hours?) at the farm today; I hope this will help me feel like I've given fairly for the free room and board I've gotten here. On their way out of town, they'll drop me off at the farm and Masako will give me some direction: probably weeding this and that. If I feel up to it, I'll cut the bamboo into pieces short enough to fit into the fire pit.

We'll leave in 30 minutes.

11:53am JST Wednesday 19 April 2006

Worked for a bit, then came back for a snack, jack! And Fellowship Of The Ring

Fellowship Of The Ring

4:58pm JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

Been chewing through the book today, while chewing through some snacks after chewing through some weeds in the lot and flower beds on the farm. I'm up to Book 2 of Book I, where they finally reach Rivendell and Gandalf is there waiting after being absent many weeks.

Shower n thoughts

7:05pm JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

Took a nice warm shower this afternoon (during which I rested my foot on the side of the tub to wash my leg and thereby stepped on my glasses, which, fortunately, sprung back without more harm than I could bend back into shape) and an idea came: what about "settling down" again in Japan?

I could/should do some research on which city is best.... and as I thought about what a difficult search that might be, and semi-pointless to ask strangers' opinions of such personal taste, I wondered about settling in Kyoto.

Kyoto... the ex-capital of Japan, where many tourists flock each year because of its beauty, and by living there, I could say, "yeah, I live(d) in Kyoto..." and tell about its wonderous sites.

Or what about Nara, a city I liked even more than Kyoto when janette and I visited the area. Nara has the big honkin' (*) Buddha, and some interesting performance artists, including those ブット artists that were so interestingly weird.

(*) actually it's quite silent

Hmmmm.. Nara.

Though I shouldn't make any decisions until after/during my meditation...

But I can make a written statement of what I want my future to be.

Also, it's raining outside.

What I want

7:15pm JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

What I Want In The Next Five Years

1. I want to live in a safe area that I don't need a car. A bicycle is great. Trains are great. Buses are .. okay.

2. I want a job that will require/encourage me to use a spoken language other than English. Japanese is great. Mandarin is great. Spanish, ASL, Arabic are great.

3. I want a job that allows me to bring benefit to the world. A cool NGO, or a physical body therapist (massage, reiki, shitsu, cranio-sacral, etc), or psychotherapist type job is great.

4. I want to live where friends are abundant and free to come, visit, and go as they please.

5. I want fast, inexpensive access to the internet (TCP/IP for my computer).

6. I want a new Macintosh laptop or a battery that will last a decent time on this one.

It sounds like I should live in a hostel and go to school for massage/body therapy. Perhaps in Kyoto or Nara.

I will go to the library tomorrow and look for schools in Japan, and hostels nearby.

bike route

7:35pm JST Wednesday 19 April 2006 (day 13174)

I think now I will begin carefully scoping a route to the meditation center west of Kyoto, basically assuming I will not be able to couchsurf with anyone in Kyoto beforehand.

8:24pm

Aight; got it pretty well mapped out. And at the very end, about 1 kilometer from the temple, there's a rather large park where I can camp out if I arrive far too early.

Tomorrow I need to get a text copy of the directions to the temple, and do a final match to double make sure I've got the location right (though I'm sure I got it right while at Jesse's), and check to see if any of the Kyoto couches came through.

- - - -

Because I would eventually like to have my path mapped out online, and I don't forsee getting a map set up on my site before I forget my route, I'm going to spell out the route that I took from Tokyo to ere, and then the planned route from here to Kyoto:

3:30pm(? I think) 3 May 2006 (page 39 of Touring Mapple 3 [TM3:p39]): From Takadanobaba (let's say from the station, but really the PB office) 25 east to 305 south, down basically along the east side of the Yamanote line to Shibuya, and then right (southwest) along 246.

[TM3:p26] 246 back past Jesse's house and the little southern jog at Tamagawa station, then right angle right turn back to the main 246 just past the Tamagawa [river], then continue on 246 for a ways and then a McDonald's stop on 246 just south of すずかけだい station where I got a free ice coffee. Was there from about 19:30 to 20:30

Then along 246 a little ways more till [TM3:p18] crossed a southbound river (while 246 was directly E/W bound) between 51 and 129/601. I can't read the kanji of the river. The first kanji is 木へ ん, then 目. The second kanji is 木へん again, then a stack of three radicals: grass, 日 and 大.

The night of May 3rd, I slept in my tent just inside the west bank of that river, about 400 meters south of 246.

April 4th, I was basically on 246 the whole time, and basically following the path of a big tollway named 東名高[]道路. I don't know how to pronounce it, but I know ways to produce all but the one [missing] kanji.

Just after crossing under it the first time was where I watched the old folks play croquet for a while. That's where I was warned about rain scheduled for the next day.

That night (April 4th), after a brief jaunt along 76 to escape a treacherous part of 146, I slept under a bridge with almost this kanji: 青水橋(except the 青 has the radical for water on the left), just before a big tunnel, the kanji for which I cannot read (two kanji: []間). Approximately 39.1 degrees East longitude and 35.22 degrees North latitude.

It did rain the next day, and I stayed put, eating the rest of Carl's donated Power Bars. Also helped a guy finish a fence under the bridge.

That night (April 5th) was colder than the previous night, but I still just slept in my sleepin' bag, and no tent.

The next day (April 6th), I started at 2:30am and took 246 down south a ways until veering souther on little 394 for safety in the dark. By the time it was light, I was riding basically around the southeast side of Mt Fuji [TM3:p17], and it was certainly beautiful. Rode past another mountain [TM3:p10] then got a bit lost trying to turn East on Route 1. Hit a McDonald's at 22 and 246 around 9am, which I noted to be about 3km east of Mishima, where I had taken the shinkansen to meet Rie and her parents a couple years earlier.

Tried to take 22 east, but ended up on Route 1, which turned out to be great because along 1 there is a lovely lovely long bike path that was sprinkled with cherry blossoms and shaded by cherry blossom trees there were still coated in blossoms.

After a bit, though (if I recall correctly), 1 became impossible for bikes, and I was forced off, and ended up on 396, I think via 76 south to 163 then east and it turned into 396.

On 396, I crossed a long bridge over a wide river (富士川（ふじがわ）) that flowed dramatically over some interestingly shaped concrete tetrahedrons that I definitely want to climb some day when it is warmer and less windy. It reminded me a great deal of White Rock Lake (is that the name?) in Dallas, where it goes over that spillway near the small island covered in trees.

Then 396 and 10 and 1 and the tollway all converge by the sea [TM3:p9]. Then down south and right where 1 splits into a big 1 and a little 1, I met Shunji and Kaori around 4pm (guesstimate), then rode maybe 10 more km [TM3:p6] (during which I got a bit stuck on the wrong side of the tracks near しまず or しんしまず, but finally made it to a sports park on 407/354 as it heads southwest, parallel to Route 1 (and some train lines), in a V formed by 74 and a bypass, where I was so exhausted that I planned to stay, but then felt good enough to go after eating a lot of granola cereal, and immediately found a big internet cafe, but ended up looking for a different internet cafe after the guy told me the other cafe had showers.

Didn't find it, and just plodded on to 84, getting lost a bit between 74 (going south) and 84 (going northwest), but getting finally to Route 1 again, and going basically southwest, then west, then southwest until I was just exhausted and ended up finding a perfect-enough spot outside by a rest area along the freeway to sleep on my 4th night (April 6th) [TM3:p6].

10:25pm

This is taking longer than I expected, and I'm tired.. Going to floss and brush and see how I feel. Probably like sleeping, but I think I'll sleep down here where it's warmer than in my room. (Tonight is the night I'm sleeping alone in Koji and Masako's house as they and Tony are gone to Nagoya for the evening for various reasons.)

7:43am JST Thursday 20 April 2006

Okay, back to work:

I didn't write much that day, but I was at Hamamatsu station at 5:30pm

I think I took Route 1 east and then went straight on 381 as Route 1 turned right/north [TM3:p5,6]. On 381 was a monster hill that I didn't make it up in one shot, but had some granola along the side, and watched heat waves on the street, and wondered about their nature.

Back onto Route 1 and down past the big tollway [TM3:p2] and then got excited about how far I thought I was and took a wrong turn north for about 1.2km before reaching 86. Back to 1, then into Hamamatsu [TM3:p1,121], then pretty sure I took 152 and came to Hamamatsu station from the north, where I called Naoko, but found she was still in Nagoya. Bounced north off the station and around via a little green westbound road and then left/south onto 257 and stopped at McDonald's from 7 to 8pm on 7 April 2006 [TM3:p1]

Took 1 east, then just before it turned right/north, I snuck around the big interchange on 173, then back to 1 and northwest until I was exhausted and found Toyohashi Park where I slept on the night of April 7th ("in sleeping bag at 12:22am [April 8th]"). [TM3:p1]

7am start on April 8th [TM3:p1] northwest for a km but it started to sprinkle, so I stopped and put on rain-slicker. Northwest a bit on Route 1 then [TM3:p4] crossed over to Touring Mapple 5 and went about 15km northwest before stopping to pee and eat for the first time that day [TM5:p49]. Northwest along 1, within 10km of Kaz's house [TM5:p59] in Nagoya (d'oh!), stopped at 1:48pm on Route 1 near ちゅうきょうけいばじょうまえ station [TM5:p59]. Made it 8km in 1.5 hours due to brutal headwind. [TM5:p58] Made it 15km in 2.5 hours due to amazing headwind.

Made it to [TM5:p48] just beyond とみだ station on Route 1 at 7:22pm, where I crossed over to Route 23 and went with the wind down south where I simply couldn't make it up this hill and slept next to 23 at 553, starting at 9:35pm [TM5:p48].

Awake with the sun in the AM April 9th, swoop SxSW to [TM5:p37][TM5:p38] lunch from 10:15 to 10:51 at 23 and 706. Took 23 a bit farther than I intended, but a guy was like, "it's all good" and suggested I take 32 over the mountain, which I did, and it was hard going up, but hella fun going down, then got a bit lost getting actually to Koji's but made the last 2km in 1 hour, and arrived at 2:30pm [TM5:p29].