June 2010
The right path
How do you know that what you're doing is right? And how do you decide which way is right and which way is wrong? Do you base it on logic, feeling or both? These questions have been the main motivation for my cycling trip, and I've met a lot of people on the way who are, like me, traveling to find the answer (an answer?) to these questions.
There's two people: Frank and Harry. Frank is a young guy, fairly energetic, intelligent and he likes to travel. He makes his decisions based mostly on logic. His underlying purpose is to save money, so he will go wherever the winds of fortune take him, accepting anything that comes in his way. His lifestyle may seem erratic at first glance, but if you consider his underlying reasons it makes a lot of sense. Then there's Harry. Harry is always in a hurry. He travels with a bit more luxury but still manages to maintain the 'traveling spirit' of adventure and going where other people usually don't go by means that other people don't use. His traveling style is eccentric. He doesn't usually take the time to stand still and enjoy the moment. There's always another goal ahead. If there is no more goal ahead he will create a goal immediately, right there on the spot. He avoids those empty moments where his life has no meaning, no goal to work towards. Harry is very different from Frank. Frank takes his time and cherishes the moments of having no goal. He's waiting for his compass to recenter so that he can proceed in the right direction. Harry does not wait for those moments, he just picks a direction and goes for it, for better or worse. So what happens when Frank and Harry meet?
Well, surprisingly, the two get along quite well. Initially the goal-centeredness of Harry overwhelms Frank, but eventually Frank's compass resets and he realizes whether he's going in the right direction or not. Until his compass resets he's just tagging along for the ride. Eventually things settle down, moments of clarity and logic appear, and the right direction becomes clear to both of them. Things that they might never have realized if they were alone can become clear in an instant when they are together. It's a great help to view things from a different perspective. What will eventually happen to Harry and Frank, I don't know. They're still waiting for their compasses to resettle.
As for me, I'm kind of a mix of both, but probably more of a Frank-type. I like to take my time to decide my direction, but sometimes I get impatient and just barge off in a random direction, hoping it'll turn out alright. It usually turns out alright. When I decide things, I ultimately use logic to make my decisions, but I do take my feelings into account when making my decisions. If something decided on pure logic alone will seem like it will make me unhappy, then I will take that into account and try to make a different decision. It's all a matter of putting the right weight on your feelings. Some feelings are best left ignored, while others should get a high priority even if it doesn't make immediate logical sense. I guess for me, I place weights on my feelings based on instinct or my gut feeling, so I'm really quite in the middle between logic and feelings, between Harry and Frank.
During the course of my trip I created many hypothetical situations for myself, and asked myself "Is this the path that I should take?". My gut feeling always said no. Eventually I decided on a path that seems logically the 'best' path, but still, when I ask my gut feeling it doesn't reply. Maybe I've reached a point where deciding my life based on a gut feeling is no longer feasible, or maybe I haven't reached the right path yet. My gut feeling tells me it's the latter :D Although the trip did not provide me with the answer that I was looking for, at least I am confident now that I will recognize the right path when I see it. I am happy with that.
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Thoughts
Note to self
When not drinking alcohol for six weeks it still takes the same amount of drinks to get drunk, but the recovery time becomes longer.
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Reflection
Now that I'm back in Atsugi I'm suddenly quite busy. All the things that I needed or wanted to do before leaving Japan I have to do now, in the timespan of one week. I can't leave things half-finished because I won't be coming back to this place. To have some fun while I'm here I arranged routes for four different day trips, but it looks like I might not have time to finish even one of them. It's quite a different feeling from being on the road with an unlimited amount of time to cycle anywhere you like. I'm time-restricted now, and every appointment I make with my friends eliminates another stress-relieving cycling trip. There's just no time. I find myself longing back to the days where the only things to worry about were the weather and where to sleep tomorrow. But at some point I have to resume my normal life.
I sent back some of my belongings today. The fee was astounding: 32.000 yen for two boxes, and that's via one of the cheaper methods of transportation. I still have a huge suitcase in my hotel room which will cost even more to ship back. I'm lightening my cycling load again, getting rid of stuff I don't need, like superfluous clothes that I never use and my DSLR, which is finally going back to Holland. Cycling will be a lot easier after I get rid of that. I'm really wondering why I have all this stuff with me. I don't think I really need it.
People here are rude and unhappy. I've seen a lot of people in the countryside who were smiling, or focusing on something in a positive way. Here in the Tokyo area the people are sad. I have not seen a single businessman/salaryman who looked happy. They all look annoyed or pissed off. They're probably so used to being unhappy that they think it's normal. Maybe it's the same for myself.
Before I started my trip I waited for about two weeks for the weather to improve (which it never really did). I wandered around in the city having nothing to do, and felt really unsatisfied. That particular feeling is a feeling I really didn't like, and I'm starting to feel the same way again just hanging around in the same city right now. As much as I used to like it here, I'll be glad to get out of here. Sitting on my bicycle driving to a destination feels a hundred times better than sitting in a hotel room feeling lazy.
Departure status: I changed brake blocks today, and the new ones feel very strong! I'm ready for mountains again. I also did my laundry so luggage-wise I'm ready to depart. One big issue right now: the bicycle. I went to my usual bike shop to get the gears overhauled, but it will take a while for the parts to arrive. Should be done this week though.
Lastly, this is what the wheel-mounted magnet for the bicycle computer looks like after 3000 kilometers.
Metal attracting device
Gaah the post office stresses me out!
How am I supposed to remember exactly what I put in those boxes two months ago?!?! Besides, the field on the form is too small to write everything down anyway.. so dont tell me to be specific! And why must the value of each item be larger than zero yen? And why must it be the price of the item when I bought it? What if it was a gift and you dont know the value? And finally, why does the annoying post office lady keep on pressuring me to send by EMS which is way more expensive? I already told her that I wont go back for at least 3 weeks, so whats the point of my stuff arriving home in 1 week?!
Argh! Screw you, civilization! I`m going back to my tent.
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Be wary of daily life
I'm back in Atsugi, and normality is flowing back into my life, despite my best efforts to resist it. Talking to friends and making plans to meet up have basically bound me to this place for at least a week, and I am slowly coming to terms with that. My instinct is telling me to get the hell out of here and go camping in the mountains, but then I realize that I really should take a short break, give my leg some rest and take care of all the loose ends that I have left here. The next time I leave Atsugi, I won't come back.
I went shopping today. During the journey some of my clothes got very dirty and I threw them away, so I needed some replacements. I also went to Yodobashi camera, expecting to enjoy myself in the presence of so much cool technology, but I found that there was nothing there that I really needed, so I quickly left again.
Later that day I contemplated camping under a bridge, but decided to take it easy for a couple of days. I found an even cheaper hotel and went there to check in. It's usually the policy in Japan (and in the rest of the world I guess) to make a reservation before you arrive at a hotel, but I've rarely been rejected without a reservation. There were some cases where the hotel was fully booked, but that only happens on festival days and weekends. This time was no different, and there were rooms available. When I asked about the rates, the receptionist presented me with a price that was about 2000 yen higher than was advertised on the website!
The receptionist explain to me that the cheaper price is only for online bookings, and that I had to pay more because I came to the reception in person. I told her that I had a laptop in my backpack and could take it out and book it online right there at the spot, hoping that she would see the insanity, but no. She told me to please book it online, so I took out my laptop, stood at the reception, and made a reservation online. She then proceeded to check her computer, printed out my reservation, and let me pay for the room. How retarded is that?
Anyway, from here on out I'm turning things down a notch. To prevent myself from becoming utterly bored (and fat) I'm going to do day trips with my bicycle, so I'll keep on blogging about that. There might be another surprise this month, but you'll find out about that later. ;)
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Home but not home
The route from Yokohama to Kamakura turned out to be an interesting one. It was much more mountainous than I expected, and without a map, many bending roads and no point of reference I soon began to wonder if I was going in the right direction. I climbed up a huge hill and descended into a densely populated but deadly quiet valley and was suddenly surrounded by mountains. A quick ask-for-directions at a nearby gas station helped me out though, and I managed to find my way onto a big road.
Kamakura is a great place to cycle! There's a lot of temples, shrines and other old buildings everywhere, and there's a lot of green at the side of the road. It's hard to believe that such a beautiful place is right next to big ugly cities like Yokohama and Tokyo. I was a little disappointed at Yokohama actually. I used to think it was a very beautiful city, but as soon as you leave the area between Yokohama station and Minato Mirai it quickly becomes just an ordinary, slightly dirty Japanese city, with a lot of homeless people.
My beach
I'd never cycled between Kamakura and Enoshima before, but I knew I was back home. One left-right, one uphill-downhill and I was at Enoshima. This was the road that I've traveled so many times I've lost count. Sometimes for training, sometimes to take photos, sometimes to go on a trip with friends. It definitely felt like home. I cycled to Hiratsuka, took a break at the beach at my usual place, cursed my leg which still hurts when walking on the soft sand, and then continued onward to Atsugi. Returning to my home base.
Who could possibly forget this street?
Or this one?
But it isn't really my home base any more, and there is really nothing binding me to this city right now, besides wanting to see my friends. As I got closer and closer to Atsugi I felt more and more as if I was not returning home, but just visiting another city, a city where my old friends just happened to live in, but nothing more than that. I realized that I could just as easily stay at a neighboring town instead, or camp in the somewhat-nearby mountains. I might do that later on, but not today. I need to give my knee some rest, so I checked into the cheapest business hotel I could find and am now in a hotel room near Hon Atsugi station. Returning to this place made me realize for the first time that I no longer belong here, and that I am free to go wherever I please. I will never again cycle the same route from my apartment to work every morning, and I will never cycle back and forth between my apartment and the station in various states of drunkenness. I feel less sad about that than I thought I would.
I'm traveling onwards! Atsugi is not my final destination. It's just a temporary resting place until I find the next challenge. As for how long I will stay here, who knows? I might keep that a secret for a little while ;)
Home
(Side note: the bloody coin laundry here costs 700 yen!?!?! Looks like I'll be visiting the youth heim once more before I leave..)
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Escape from Tokyo
Great, I'm in Tokyo. Now how the hell do I get out of here?!
That's how I felt a couple of hours ago. I just got off the ferry at Odaiba and had to make my way out of there. I tried to get on the rainbow bridge but when I arrived at the entrance there was a big sign saying BICYCLES NOT ALLOWED. The security guy there was very friendly and explained to me why bicycles are not allowed: it seems that the walkway is only 1.5 meters wide, so it's dangerous. I tried to persuade him by looking very tired, very foreign, very confused, but even begging didn't help. I had to go the long way round, which took over an hour. Even before the hour had passed I was already fed up with cycling in Tokyo. I have to admit that this unexpected event could easily have been avoided if I had checked the internet before getting on my bicycle..
Since the ferry only arrived one hour late instead of the expected four hours late, I still had some daylight left, but I wasted it by waiting for traffic lights in Tokyo. Since I didn't have any maps of the area I followed my compass+common sense again, which turned out quite well. Avoiding small roads and following big roads in a generally south-west-ish direction got me on the right road to Yokohama, and after I got out of the center of Tokyo things sped up quite a bit. I zoofed past Kawasaki and soon made my way into Yokohama, where the Landmark Tower server as my lighthouse and guided me to my destination. Cycling at night is definitely the way to go when you're in the city: less traffic and less daylight wasted on ugly boring roads.
Yokohama pissed me off quite a bit. I had decided to sleep at a manga cafe tonight, and the highest probability of finding one of those is near Yokohama station. Since the area is quite crowded, especially on a Saturday night, I wanted to park my bicycle someplace safe. I cycled around the station for about an hour trying to find, but there wasn't any. When I was in Hiroshima there was a beautiful underground bicycle parking area that was secured by surveillance cameras, but in Yokohama there is nothing? That's just shit. I was considering giving up and cycling another 30km's to the seaside to plant my tent when I found a manga cafe and a bicycle parking place along the roadside. I'm taking a chance here because the parking place does not seem very safe at all to me. I'll find out tomorrow if all of my luggage is still there.
Tomorrow I'll be back in Atsugi! I'm planning to take it easy for a couple of days and take care of some business, but I'm not really intent on sitting still. Now that I've decided not to stay in Japan for too long, I want to go around more, and it's likely that I'll be going around by bicycle a bit to maybe find some interesting places to camp. That way I'll save some money too. Anyway, first I'd better get some rest, then tomorrow morning I can escape from Yokohama. Good night!
While I'm still in range..
I'm on board now. Some observations: there are only four guests on the entire ship. It's dead quiet. I have my own room with my own bed, which is a lot better than the huge nasty sleeping room on the ferry to Okinawa three years ago. More later!
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