A Tisket a Tasket, I Got a Basket!

Went back to the bike shop because the chain wouldn’t move when I tried to change gears.  The ajeossi fixed the problem.  Then I bought a basket.  Since the handlebars had to be raised in order to fit the basket (which was necessary anyway because they were too low), I also had him raise the seat.  It was so much more comfortable! 

And I was thrilled to death with the basket (₩10,000).  I’ve always wanted one for my bicycle and now I finally do.  I put my backpack in it and rode back to the village feeling fee.  Otherwise, my Chuseok break (all two days of it) was wasted.  Well, I did cook, but I didn’t do most of the things on my to-do list.  Who knows when I’ll have another long weekend. 

September 8, 2014

Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute

The ride to School B, after passing the residential area is mostly rice fields on one side and highway on the other.  The amount of trash motorists throw out of their windows is astounding.  Apparently Japanese people are only clean and tidy when others are watching.  Here’s a list of some of the litter I pass by every day on my rides to and from work:

plastic bottles

broken china sets

plastic bags

empty cigarette boxes

tofu container

cigarette lighters  

a futon  

cup ramen cups

face masks

beer cans

The worst is when they fling glass bottles, and the break on the sidewalk, because then I have to be extra careful not to ride over any of the shards. 

In the cities people either have small pets or none at all.  In the countryside there’s more space, so people have larger dogs.  This becomes a problem because when they take them out for walks, they don’t curb them.  Owners just let them relieve themselves wherever.  And big dogs have huge turds.  That leaves something else for me to have to circumvent on my rides to and from school.   

Ride my Bicycle

Purchasing a bicycle has been the best thing I’ve done since moving to Saitama. 

-The weekly savings on public transport is ¥3600 or ¥14400 monthly.  Even with holidays and rainy days, the bike paid for itself in less than two months. 

-I get exercise without taking extra time for it.  It works out to be about three hours and fifteen minutes of exercise per week.  And that doesn’t count weekends. 

-Biking has helped me get to know my city.  For a month, every week I’d get lost going home from Japanese class, but that was helping me learn the streets and where they lead to and what they connect with.  After a while I stopped getting lost and started figuring out the best routes to different places around town. 

Cycling Mystery

How is it that, in the afternoons when I ride home, I go up and over hills like they’re nothing, but in the mornings, just pedaling on flat land is a struggle as if the bicycle chain rusted and I gained 50 kilos overnight?  I never skip breakfast, so it isn’t that I’m out of fuel. 

My friend, John, said that throughout the day, body movements allow your muscle to become warm and flexible. So that, even though you're tired, you do physical things easier than when you’re just starting to move around for the day.  That makes sense! It occurred to me then that I don't do any stretching before I hop on the bike for my 35-minute ride. I decided to try that and see if there was any difference. 

I kept forgetting to do stretching exercises in the mornings until the week before spring break, but the mornings were super-windy that entire week.  And the wind was blowing at me sideways, so riding to work was a struggle of a different sort.  I was at risk of being blown into traffic on one side or into the rice fields on the other side of the bicycle path.  So I still don’t know if stretching is what I needed to be doing in order to have a smoother time in the mornings. 

March 27, 2020