Day 14 cont’d July 15, 2002

So I keep finding American change in my pockets, and I don’t think I brought it with me. Maybe Japanese coin-operated devices sometimes get american change from the absentminded tourist and mistake it for Japanese coinage? Seems a little weird since the sizes aren’t all that close, but oh well.

Day 15 July 16, 2002

More of the same at work today, testing power supplies. Miyamae-san kindly let me borrow a chair from the office and gave me a ride home to drop it off and then to Machida, where I was going ot try and buy that bike. Unfortunately, the shop had just closed by the time we arrived, and won’t open again until Thursday, so I think I’ll wait until the weekend and go to Shinjuku, where there are supposedly a couple of shops. For some reason my email forwarding from UGCS has stopped working – I can still get the messages, but for some reason it doesn’t want to pass them on to my Schlumberger account. Very odd.

Day 16, July 17, 2002

Alright, so I’m almost one-tenth into my time here. Friday will be the marker, I think. Incidentally, this has been my first full five-day work week here. 40 hours a week is a lot of hours. Wednesdays are cheaper movie theater nights, so perhaps I’ll try to catch a movie this evening. Not really sure whatall is playing that I want to see, but you never know. Episode 2, perhaps. Nah. Only if they have it dubbed ;) That would by hi-larious.

I think I’ll take some more pictures at work today so’s y’all can get a better idea of what everyone here looks like.

More testing at work. I now have a sort of real design problem to solve, which is good. Today’s asian-italian fusion afterthought: I have a lot of assorted japanese noodles around, so I’m experimenting with italian-style treatments of them.

Hot udon + 4X as much olive oil as you want to use simmered with two cloves of finely chopped garlic until slightly brown + a cubic inch or so of finely shredded gruyere. Then you’ll have some tasty garlic olive oil left over for toast or whathaveyou. A bit of salt, a bit more cheese, and it’s actually pretty good. Still, it would go much better on spaghetti, which can be had quite cheaply here. I picked up some Bonito flakes at the store yesterday, so I’ll be starting in on the broth experimentation soon.

The verdict on Japanese chocolate (Lindt can be had here, but it’s a lot more expensive):

Meh. Nothing special. About on par with hershey’s regular milk chocolate, but a bit less sweet. Definitely cannot step to Hershey’s Special Dark.

I watched my first ever international rugby match on TV last night – New Zealand beat Australia 12-6, which I think means two scores to one, judging by how bloody hard it is to score. That is truly a manly sport. The thought of Japanese rugby players crossed my mind briefly. <hysterical laughter> J-league soccer is on now, along with about 40 different baseball games. All of this sports announcing has made me start to wonder what american announcers must sound like to everyone else. Japanese is really pretty goofy. Sooo desu neeeeeeeeee! Ii desu neeeeeeeeeeee! Chance ga arimasu neeeeeeeeeeee!

The temptation to totally nerd out on the bicycle tip has really taken hold of me now. Reading reviews all over the place. The curse of the Responsible American Consumer. Who would’ve thought there was a site called www.mtbreview.com. Yep, it’s just what it sounds like.

Day 17, July 18, 2002

Work today was absolutely torturous. Had to show up at 8am for a meeting via speakerphone with the Houston product group. Let me tell you, meetings with precisely one native english speaker (me), who doesn’t really participate and has little prior knowledge of the subject matter, are so painful as to be almost unbearable. SOOOOOOO slow. But everyone’s english is just good enough that correcting things won’t help. Ugh. I was really anxious to get to Shinjuku to check out the bike shop, too, so that only made it worse. Got some work done, though – you guessed it, more baking components to see how badly they fail at high temperatures. Fortunately, I survived, and split at 4:30 (no matter how hard they try, they will never convince me that I should work unpaid overtime for an multinational corporation. I’m just a wee bit too American to be willing to slave for a company I’m not really all that personally interested in, y’know?). Unfortunately, the bike shop was way pricier than the close one in Machida, so fuhgeddaboutit. I’m going to go back to Machida probably tomorrow night to maybe actually buy a bike. Fortunately, I accosted a group of youngish kids with one american among them (who as it turned out spoke basically no Japanese), and ended up going with them to a 300 yen restaurant -- “ooru 300en” “all 300 yen” -- sense a pattern here? Anyway, I had a BLAST chatting with them, and eating, too. This is what is lacking at Schlumberger. Youthful vivaciousness. They ranged in age from around 17 to 20, I think. Hopefully I’ll see some of them again – the girl I was talking with about (take a wild guess) punk rock lives in Machida, and Takuma, the guy who is hosting the American guy, Curtis, with whom he stayed a year in South Dakota, lives in Kawasaki city, which figures prominently in my Ethnic Restaurant Map, sooo…..

Tomorrow is Friday, thank god, and no, goddamnit, I’m not going to go to TGIF in Machida EVER. Interesting note – japanese kids, when they’re under the drinking age, *don’t drink*. At least much more reliably so than any other young people I’ve met. Far out. I need sleep. I think tomorrow will be better at work since I met some fun people in the outside world, but I’m still gonna be bicycle-angst-ridden. Punpunpun. Oh, and I took pictures. They’ll be up a bit later on.

Day 18, July 19, 2002

So I went ahead and bought a bike. It’s beautiful, although the different geometry is giong to take a bit of getting used to, and it lacks a few little creature comforts from my beloved Trek. Still, it’s fast and light, which is the important part. The total was about $530. Not so terrible. I should be able to sell it, if I sell it, for easily $300, so the difference would be about the cost of a throwaway mountain bike anyhow. Wheee. I rode home from Machida, and it took not very long at all, although I didn’t time it. I think the guys at the store who told me it was 6 to 8 miles (in km) were out of their minds, it couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5, and the GPS said straightline was about 3.7. There’s a riverside bike trail that goes all the way to machida from about a km north of my house. It goes further in both directions, too, and it’s nicely paved, so it could be a really useful thoroughfare for me. In daylight or with a headlight I could’ve pretty easily done about 20mph most of the way. That’s gonna be one of the first accessories I pick up.

It also has a weird little squeak on the front when the bike is pitched way left under heavy pedaling. Odd. Probably something misaligned. Maybe the front hub? Ack. Perish the thought.

The bike: 2002 Specialized Rockhopper A1FS, LX rear derailleur, Deore everything else, Manitou Six Elite Luxe fork (a wee bit soft), and the hardest stock seat you’ve ever felt. We shall see how it breaks in. Anyhow, now I need to get a good lock, cuz I don’t want to have to keep it indoors like I am tonight.

Day 19, July 20, 2002

Watched Lance Armstrong win the heck out of yesterday’s Tour de France stage. Wow. That dude can RIDE. Anyhow, I went to Machida to get some bike accessories, and at the end of the ride there I just *knew* I’d have to get a different saddle. Gawd that thing was uncomfortable. Thought about trying to get my Trek saddle shipped out here, but it’d probably cost about the same, and then if I bring this bike home I’ll only have one good seat for two bikes… Now that I’ve got a more comfy seat – a bit too comfy, actually – and the front brake is no longer rubbing against the tire under left-leaning strain, she is one bad bitch of a bike. Weighs in probably around 26 pounds, maybe 27 with the new seat and headlight. Even has highlights in my preferred day-glo orange shade, for those of you who’ve seen my Trek 6K... For all the specs check out: http://www.specialized.com/SBCBkModel.jsp?san=02RockhopperA1FS&bl=mountain

It’s a little strange getting used to the new geometry, though – the seat is significantly farther forward, making for a more upright and less aero-efficient position. I’m going to put some monstrous bar ends on it so as to get down a little better, but for the moment I’m just trying to adjust to a more honest-to-goodness off-road riding style. The weight is fantastic – I think my Trek actually weighs about the same if I take all the crap off of it, but the new one has a different weight distribution, and is definitely beefier – the frame thickness at the front end is MUCH bigger, as with all current production mountain bikes… The tires are the worst part of the bike – at least so far. They’re at probably60 -70 psi now, which is almost the max of 85, and while it’s very smooth on concrete it feels downright deadly on gravel or rough stuff. The tread pattern leaves something to be desired. It seems to be a common complaint among reviewers. Meh. Tires are cheap, and I’m not going crazy downhilling just yet anyhow. I also bought a lock – a mid-size cable, since the fixed size u-locks are very impractical in a country that has no parking meters or standard pole sizes.

Jennifer finally managed to acquire a cellphone, so I may follow suit since she explained how she went about getting service agreements described in english. For about 3500yen ($30) a month, you get unlimited incoming calls, outgoing calls for about 50 minutes plus some rate after that, email messaging, and, dig this, built-in digicam picture sending capability. The phones all have little color screens and built-in lo-rez cameras. Pretty crazy. I’ll probably get one as soon as my bank account is all ready this Tuesday. That’ll be a big step for me :)

Remaining things to acquire: helmet, bar ends