Lotusblog

There are so many inevitable things in life. Somehow, we deal with the majority of them without any fuss.

Given that I ride (my bicycle) everyday; to work, to play, everywhere, I guess I have to face the fact that my having a crash from time to time is going to be inevitable. So far I have had several- none terrible, but all quite annoying and unnecessary. Slipping on a road wet from heavy rain. Sliding out on a corner due to excessive speed. HItting a pedestrian who jumped out of a bus without looking.
But last week (on Thursday morning) was the worst. A fool (although at the time I had a much more vivid term at hand to describe him) on a bike thought that since there was no possibility that another bicycle could ever be behind him, rationalised the fact that spontaneously turning right and going onto a pedestrian crossing would be a wise thing to do.

Anyway, you don’t need to know the details- I did the slow-motion “fuck, I have come off my bike and I am upside down” thing, landed on my backpack (containing my iBook) and rolled. My bike was OK. My iBook was OK. My knee was not- but since I was wearing tights it ended up just being a graze that looked worse than it was. It is however still bruised, and I am still out of the saddle- and if anything, that hurts the most. He seemed to be OK. I have a feeling his bike may have been slightly damaged- he deserved a hell of a lot more than that though.

But I guess he didn’t deliberately do it. I suppose we can cut him some slack for that. I just hope we don’t cross paths again.

A very small bicycle

I just got back from Tokyo.

It’s Wednesday morning, 2:30am. Actually, this is what happened. I went to Tokyo on Sunday. Checked into my apartment, did some work, saw satellite TV for the first time in years and became entranced by BBC World. For about an hour. Met Sally and Taka for dinner. Went back to my apartment (Taka had parked his car in the underground garage) and before he left, produced an incredibly small bicycle. We rode it around the car park. Had a laugh, and he went home.
Monday morning I went to the office of one of my clients in Roppongi and exchanged New Year’s greetings. Then I headed to our (graf’s) new office. Had lunch with our new partners. Had a meeting with a client. Got ready for the party. Mingled with 400 people. Exchanged dozens of business cards. Got the night bus back to Osaka. Arrived at 8:00am on Tuesday morning. Had breakfast. Went to work. Finished work at 10:00pm. Met some friends for drinks. And I just got home. Checked my email, and found that Taka had sent me the picture posted above (taken with his FOMA ‘phone).
And now I need a bath.

So on that note.

Good-bye.

Well, not quite nearly the middle, but nonetheless time continues it relentless breakneck forward dash. I did something with my hands for the first time in ages today- changed my tires. It was great to sit out in the cold, getting oil and grease and city-dirt all over my hands as I transformed my Mongoose from a svelte city cruiser to a monster urban-buggy. The tires are only little bit wider but they totally change the bike’s dynamics. Can’t wait to get on and go for a ride. As soon as this ridiculous cough (that I am currently burdened with) clears up I will be back in the saddle before you can say “re-pressurize my shock absorbers”.

Crikey, I completely forgot to wish you all a Happy New Year! It’s been about 10 days since I last posted to this blog. Osaka had a bit of snow on New Year’s Day but otherwise has just been bitterly cold.

I spent New Year’s Eve at the cabaret-lounge “Universe” in Osaka’s Sennichimae area. It was fantastic- we saw a live band to count in 2005 and then the rest of the night was spent bar-hopping in the adjacent Misono Building. Kariente, Black Panther, Macau, Hong Kong- they were just a handful of the places in which we found ourselves.

So 2005 is a year of exciting possibilities- judging at least by the last week. I have met so many new people I am having trouble keeping up. I thought I already knew everyone worth knowing in Osaka- it seems not.

… the newest member of the family.

Mongoose Fairlane

Woah.

To celebrate my acquisition of a Mongoose Fairlane , I decided to head down to my local First Kitchen and try their “The Hamburger”. It was big. Impressive, and another salvo in the current Japanese burger wars. After the beef scares of the last couple of years, all of the major burger chains now offer a huge, luxurious, beefy burger.

But I wasn’t convinced. I don’t think I will be heading down there to try it again. It just lacked something. The beef wasn’t beefy enough, either. It had all the right ingredients, the proportions were great and the presentation was fantastic; sadly, they just couldn’t pull it off.

It’s pouring with rain now in Osaka. It’s about 11pm, Wednesday, and I guess it must have started around 6pm. It’s nice to have a torrential downpour after so many days of relentless heat.
It’s also cool and exciting to ride home in heavy rain. The trade-off of course is that some surfaces become incredibly slippery; not that I didn’t know, but the slipperiness far exceeded my expectations.
The Japanese have a thing for tiles. While pavements and boulevards in my home town are either slabs of concrete or red brick, paths in Japan tend to be tiled. So many apartment buildings are tiled too. The amount of tile has to be seen to be believed (actually, I just remembered, I even went to a tile museum earlier this year! It was actually very interesting).
Anyway, the tiles, as you can imagine, get pretty slippery, and I ended up having my first crash of the year. Luckily I was moving at pretty low speed, and all I was doing was turning while going down a slight incline and BANG! I hit the ground. My left elbow and knee were scraped on the footpath as I slid along, but I was OK. Now however, my knee stings like hell, and my elbow has started to swell.
Hope I can still ride tomorrow.

Thursday afternoon. 34 degrees. A blue-skied rainy season afternoon. Osaka in summer. I once again successfully got up early enough to be able to ride to work and enjoy some quality jacuzzi time. However there were a few moments when I didn’t think I would make it.
Last night’s restaurant opening was fun- the champagne and beer flowed freely, pizzas were in abundance and I left around 1am. Since I was near a friend’s bar, I figured I should drop in and say hi, which I did, and then left around 02:30. Emboldened by the alcohol, and unhindered by traffic, I managed to make the 13 km journey home in 25 minutes.
I didn’t end up getting to bed until after 03:30, which meant getting up and hitting the saddle for another 30 minute morning bike ride didn’t seem too appealing. I forced myself to do it however, and boy am I glad I did.

Can’t wait for the ride home.

It’s already after 8pm on Saturday evening. What did I do today?

I slept in. I had a leisurely brunch. I read Adbusters in bed. I had a shower, stretched, put on some dirty clothes and rode my bike 10km to the gym. Took a one hour jacuzzi. Sauna, bath, shower and all that. Drank some protein jelly. Rode 10km back home. Cursed the fools who walk their dogs in the bicycle lane. Bought an enormous biscotti, a beef curry donut and a cheese-sausage roll from a tasty, yet tired and old, bakery called “Montpassant”. The bread was only 240 yen.

Speaking of money, that tired old report came up again the other day in which the most expensive cities in the world are ranked. How on earth could Osaka be the second most expensive city (after Tokyo)? What the hell are the criteria for this ranking? I guess if the criteria are things like the cost of energy, the cost of expat housing, and the cost of 5 star hotel French restaurant dinners, then, yeah, Osaka is pretty expensive. But for ordinary people, and ordinary living, Osaka (and Japan for that matter) is not such an expensive place to live. The last time I was in the UK I nearly had a heart attack when I saw how much the cost of transport, food, accommodation and utilities were. How people survive over there I will never know.

And I will leave you with this. Get hold of the “Welcome Back Kotter” theme song. You’ll be glad you did.