Entries this day: Beach_bum Chillin_day amanohashidate computer_stuff finances night_rider tunnel_crasher tunnel_sleeper

Beach bum

11:20am JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

(transcribed 1:41pm JST Monday 15 May 2006)

Have been chillin' for a few hours at Yura Garden and Sea, writing computer code and wanting to photograph the single-car "trains" that occassionally go by. The hazy misty weather has turned to partly overcast and foggy on one side, clear on the other. Bust mostly: wow! I bicycled to the Japan Sea! Meditated from 5:31 to 6:31am with 2 peeks at clock on camera.

Chillin day

3:00pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

Super chillin' day today; I've ridden not really that far, but have seen some pretty cool stuff.

Woke up a bit after 5am and meditated from 5:31 to 6:31am, with two peeks at my camera clock to see how the hour was progressing. Fell asleep a bit during that time, but each clock check woke me up, so it was a good balance.

The chorus of frogs that had been a symphony the previous night had apparently dwindled to only the most hardcore of party animals.

Rode the rest of the way to the Sea of Japan (gulf between Japan and China)!! Stopped by Yura Beach (actually Yura Garden and Sea, but I had also seen a sign for Yura Beach) and chilled there for a few hours, watching the little waves and the tide slowly come in, and the little trains on the single track line. For rush hour they came sorta frequently, but then when I wanted to take a picture of one, the time between each one had gotten really long.

Got a pic of a 2-car train, but no single car trains.

Spent quite some time writing my S00p3r s33cr3t security thing (which is one thing I wanted to write during the 10 day deal), and a couple of people greeted me as they went by - something that basically never happens down in Tokyo / Yokohama.

(never)

Rode on a bit more, and used a construction zone with 1 direction at-a-time traffic to allow myself untrafficked zooom time down the hill. Wasn't the bestest hill I've done in Japan, but probably the safest, given the lack of trucks and such.

The highway took the high way with a sign that said no bicycles, so I got veered off and found a small road crossing the railroad, with crossing guard arms, so a perfect place to get a photo of the train! The crossing guard arms would give plenty plenty of time to get my camera ready, so I chilled out there a bit with the intention of waiting for the next BING BING BING BING BING BING BING indication of a train coming for a photo op.

A woman happened by soon thereafter and asked how I was doing and I told her fine and added what I was doing, and she was like, aight, then went inside, came back out with the train schedule and noted I had just missed two train crossings (one each direction) and the next would be in an hour.

She pointed out the nearby beach might be more interesting, so I calibrated my camera clock and brain and headed to the beach.

The waves were super small, but it was definitely a beach with water and sand, and large lines of large tetrahedron wave-blockers. I began to code more code and soon enough a train went by, well ahead of schedule from what I understood.

I shrugged it off, and continued to code until the time I had planned, then headed back to the spot and was a bit 'spooked' when some guys were working on the tracks; I didn't know if they would disallow me from loitering around the tracks, etc.

But they were friendly and everything was all good, and I got the perfect picture including Francois.

The woman who had shown me the schedule came back out with three (3) large and perfect strawberries for me, and reminded me there would be one more train coming the other way shortly. I thanked her, enjoyed the strawberries and photographed the second train from a different angle. (It was a two-car train, though, so not as cute.)

More ridin' then through a tunnel (with a dump truck behind me (oops!!)) and then arrived in a small town where I saw a conveyor belt dumping skinny metal bars silently into a hopper... what??? I looked again and the metal bars were fish (of course!) and I was mesmerized with how disgusting it was to think they were going to be on the shelves and in people's bellies sooner than later.. Some of the fish didn't make it into the hopper and lay on the concrete for a while. Some of those got scooped up and put into the food bins (unless there was some indicator that I didn't see.. "NOT FOOD")

Then the coolest thing: all these big ass birds knew cleanup time was feeding time and they started swooping down for tasty snacks. Some bickering, but mostly just silent swooping and snacking.

Found a cool sailboat shaped bridge, with a sign that said Library near it, so I went in search of internet. Found it, but we can only click, not search nor use the location bar nor anything. Super locked out. But free electricity to write this journal entry.

amanohashidate

5:43pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

天橋立サクス。

Amanohashidate sucks.

Maybe it shouldn't be experienced alone. or with high expectations. (I said T2 sucked because it had been hyped up so much before I saw it.) or close to closing time.

Maybe if the ski lift had still been running instead of just the funicular, it would have been enough fun going up the hill that I would have liked the overall experience.

Or maybe if I had gone up that extra flight of steps (as Karina (from Argentina) suggested), the view would have changed so dramatically as to be amazingly amazing.

But, I didn't go up the steps; I was so anti-impressed with what I saw at the main area that I couldn't wait to go back down to TJ Bike and start scrounging for free food samples in the overpriced souvenir shops.

- - - -

I did find a shop with a great number of samples, several of which were still loaded despite all the crowds having passed. Chowed until I could feel a dent in my hunger, then asked what time they closed, and at that time would they have any un-needed food? 6pm. Nope.

bah. Oh well.

computer stuff

5:51pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

So I'm rewarding myself with free electricity at McDonald's, a Big Mac and 400ml of vanilla shake. (2 small shakes for 200 yen are 400ml, but 1 med shake for 200 yen is 350ml. I'm glad I asked.)

Gonna import some pictures and such.

finances

6:02pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

I think I've kept every receipt since I started keeping them a month ago. (A MONTH???) Holy shit I've been on this trip for over a month!

From April 21st (just before leaving Koji and Masako's farm):

things I bought with my 20,000 yen:

<snip>

I started with 20,000 (and some loose change floating around in my
bags, where it remains), and right now I have in my wallet 12,369
yen.

That means I've spent 7,631 yen (62.3% of that on food). Total
above = 5,189 yen, so 2,442 yen unaccounted, but that is easily
explained in that I didn't keep all of my receipts; I know I ate a
McD's several times.

For the 6 days' travel time, I spent 4,751 yen on food: about 792
yen per day.  Big savings thanks to Carl's generous donation of
Powerbars. :-)

- - - -

21 April 2006:

1. Gyutora grocery (3:28pm?):

   • Fresh Granola @ 188 * 2 = 376

   • Pocari Sweat drink mix @ 105 * 6 = 630

     (105 is 10 yen lower than usual)

   • bulk granola 3 @ 1000 * 3 = 1000

   total 2006

2. McDonald's (5:08pm)

   • Big Mac @ 250 * 1 = 250

   total 250

3. Family Mart (10:11pm)

   • chocolatey peanut blobs @ 105 * 1 = 105

   Total 105

Total 2361

22 April 2006:

1. Lawson 8:15pm

   • chocolatey peanut blobs @ 105 * 1 = 105

2. Lawson 11:29pm

   • fried chicken @ 155 * 1 = 155

total 260

22 April 2006

1. Club Monbran internet cafe

   • orange juice

   • hot cocoa

   • soft serve vanilla ice cream

   All I could eat/drink/snarf while surfing online for 1 hour 20 minutes

total 590 yen

Total so far: 3211

Upon arrival in Kobe, Richard gave me 1000 yen to get a drink or a snack. I bought a fried chicken, but don't have the receipt. Probably the same as above: 155

 out     in
3366   1000

Richard bought me dinner at Royal Host. Delicioso!

Richard gave me 20,000 yen!!! Doubled my original budget!!

 out      in
3366   21000

23 April 2006 in Kobe:

1. bike repair 1000 yen (to fix brakes)

2. new camera battery charger because I left mine at Jesse's and my battery was dead, and plenty plenty plenty more pictures to take and now plenty of money.

1. St Marc Cafe

   • ビーフシチューパン 200

   • ブルーベリーヨーグ 250

   • クロワッサンフラン 180

2. Yigrekplus (pastry shop)

   • 3 things @ 240 + tax = 252

5720 yen for non-food items
556 yen for food items and tax

food   other      in
4174    5720   21000

Richard gave me 1000 yen to buy bread for dinner at Pia's on the 24th, but I went 50 yen over budget and paid for that myself

24 April 2006

1. Pia's house with Valerie, Richard and Hide

   • Fantastic dinner 50 yen

total 50

food   other      in
4224    5720   21000

25 April 2006: Kobe to Vipassana center

1. Nafco

   • allen wrench for my left pedal @ 105 * 1 = 105

2. McDonald's 8:30am

   • sausage egg muffin @ 200 * 1 = 200

3. 7-11 9:16am

   • chocolatey peanut blobs @ 105 * 1 = 105

4. Lawson

   • chocolatey peanut blobs @ 105 * 1 = 105

   • chocolate bread thing @ 100 * 1 = 100

   total 205

5. Daiei

   • Granola 2 * 398 = 796

   total 796

6. MiniStop

   • chocolatey peanut blobs @ 100 * 1 = 100

total 100

total 1406

total 105 (non food)

Ten days free room and board at Vipassana meditation center

food   other      in
5630    5825   21000

6 May 2006

Donation to Vipassana center: 2000

food   other      in
5630    7825   21000

2 more nights free room and board at meditation center

8 May 2006

1. MiniStop 5:03pm

   • little cookies 100

   • little cheese pizza 128

total 228

9 May 2006

1. MiniStop 8:06am

   • cheese sausage 158

2. MiniStop 8:06am

   • cheese something 128

   • chocolatey peanut blobs 100

total 228

3. Amanohashidate funicular 640

4. McDonald's 5:40pm

   • Big Mac 250

   • two small shakes 200

total 450

total food 836

total waste 640

food   other      in
6694    8465   21000

SO

That has me up to date: let's see if it basically balances.

          IN      OUT    TOTAL
Start   12,369          12,369
Richard 21,000          33,369
Food            6,694   26,675
Other           8,465   18,210

Actual in wallet: 18,296

Magical!! I've actually created money during my month adventure. Plus I found 62 yen in the bottom of my backpack.

7:35pm JST Tuesday 9 May 2006

Official total funds as of now: 18,358 (*).

PLUS, I just remembered that I still have an uneaten bag of granola (398), and 4 pocari sweat packets 420, so total cash and food assets = 19,176 yen.

I'm down only 824 yen from when I started over a month ago!

This calls for a vanilla shake celebration! (*)

Huge thanks to Richard for such a generous donation and for the bulk of my income in the past 2 months!

Big thanks to Dave Gillespie of synaptics.com for GNU Emacs Calculator making all these calculations a breeeze!!

7:54pm JST Tuesday 9 May 2006

(*) Official total funds as of now: 18,158.

night rider

8:27pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

Aight; I've been in the McD's for a while; my computer is charged; I'm full (and overfull with shake); my camera battery is fuller than it was..... and I would like to call my next intended indoor stop before it gets too late. Hisataka (from the meditation center) gave me his parent's digits and said I should call them a day or 2 in advance of when I can swoop by. They live near the north side of 琵琶 湖 (Biwako) the biggest lake in Japan, a place recommended by Anne at Koji and Masako's.

I'm a bit nervous calling them, afraid of a miscommunication due to language barriers, plus not knowing them, etc.

So, I'm heading out in search of a payphone.

8:56pm

That was easier than I expected! I'm to arrive on the 11th between noon and 7pm. Gotta get going!

Should be no problem.

tunnel crasher

9:28pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

Holy shit, I almost ate it bigtime in a tunnel. Super narrow pedestrian/bike path, and I was scared and nervous in the dark, going a bit uphill, with cars and trucks zooming past, and I hit the side of the tunnel and bounce/reacted back toward the road, and just had to stop for a bit to let cars go by and get myself started again.

tunnel sleeper

11:20pm JST Tuesday 09 May 2006 (day 13194)

What's funnier than sleeping outside without a tent?

Sleeping under a tunnel with a tent!!

I'm in my tent now, set up inside a tunnel under the train tracks. It's a dark and spooky tunnel without lights, but with my handy head light (not TJ Bike headlight), I was able to walk through without a problem. The tunnel is just wide enough for my tent to be set up next to the stream that's flowing through the tunnel. I'm in the tent because the tunnel is dripping with condensation / water seeping through the rocks.

TJ bike is under the bike bag that I got from the BEE Bicycle for Everyone's Earth guy (forgot his name); I used it for the first time today. Twice. Once when I went up to Amanohashidate, and the second time now.

Instead of frogs, the babbling stream is my lullaby tonight.

(oh, I stopped in a little alcove (?) thing to meditate, but was just flat falling asleep, and almost falling into the stream, and only made it 45 minutes. Note to self: don't wait so long to meditate in the evening.