Day 26,
Got up at
Day 27,
Okay, so I fully expected to get my ass kicked on this ride. It’s been a long time since I went on a serious climbing bike ride, let alone in the mountains and largely on dirt, but even so, I was amazed at just how INCREDIBLY hard it got kicked. The first 10km or so is on roads, all up into the mountains, grades ranging from 1% to 10%, increasing steadily till the end. By maybe the first half of the way up that road I was starting to have asthma problems, so I stopped and waited for another guy that we were going to be meeting up top. When he arrived we set off again, but I ended up walking a lot of the steep parts because everytime I got on and started pedaling my heart rate shot back up to like 160 and the breathing trouble started again… Anyhow, there’s another 5 k or so on a dirt single-track that has some very steep (all still up) parts and the most absurdly shaped roots I’ve ever seen. They’re all really skinny little walls that stick up vertically 3 inches or more. Basically the most obnoxious thing you could design for riding over. By the time we got to the top, maybe 3 hours after setting out, I was tired and dehydrated (having not eaten much before leaving the house, and despite starting with a full Camelbak) to the point where it seemed pretty likely that I would put a wheel wrong and seriously die on the very steep downhill section that goes almost straight back to the train station, so I decided to wait until I’m in better shape, and went back the way we had come up. Asthma is a bitch. It was a good opportunity to practice a bit more on dirt, though, since the guys who are doing this ride regularly are mostly downhill racers. One of them was doing this all only two weeks after suffering a punctured lung. Hard core.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I had to carry my bike on the train in a bag – which requires removing both wheels. In the interests of saving some hassle, I packed it the night before and carried it by hand to the train station in the morning. Big mistake. That 1km walk with the ultimate anti-ergonomic package just about killed me. Then it was an hour and half on trains just ot get to the meeting place. That said, it was incredibly beautiful – real japanese mountains, the big skinny ridge kind that you see in the old paintings. And that’s what we were riding up. No pictures of the actual ride just yet, I was too busy dying. Next time.
On the way back down, once I had reached the paved road, I
stopped at the
Did I forget to mention this was all in 90+ degree heat?
When I got home, around 5 liters of water/peaches/other drinks later and 4 o’clock (I was back at the station about 2:30, hard to believe you can be that finished that early in the day), I put the peaches in the fridge, took a shower, a short bath, and went straight to sleep. I had some really intense dreams. Actually, I’ve been having those every night for the last week, all kinds of weird stuff, but I’ve been getting up early for work so they keep getting interrupted. I slept for, hmm, let’s see here, about 16 hours. That may be a new record for me, excluding the time when I was sick as a little kid and slept off a cold or the flu or something for about 24.
I’ve got to find somewhere closer and less tall to practice dirt riding. I’m sure there is somewhere, but I think I need to ride to the west instead of the SE, where Zama is. Probably not today, though. Tonight there’s a party in Zama with the Aussies. Gonna go check that out, but I think I’ll take the train :)
Go check out the few pictures of stuff from the train trip back.
Day 28,
Just got home from eating/drinking with Pavel, Yuri (two russian interns), Gina, and Kaori (two other schlumberger
ladies, Gina is the one who helped me with all the visa stuff.) A fun time was had by all. I went biking this evening to the south and
managed to reach some real hills, although it took about 45 minutes or so to
get there. Probably half an hour by a
direct route, we shall see. Yesterday I
went to
Day 29,
Finished the last of the silly little power supply/reset circuit stuff today.
I was going to ride back down to the river to watch some
fireworks that were apparently happening tonight, but got caught up in
listening to some This American Life, and then decided to make it a shopping
night instead. Picked up yet more
kitchen stuff – garam masala, rice vinegar, worcestershire,
baking powder, cake flour, milk, etc. Plus some more veggies.
I made some simple salmon-roe sushi rolls (no attention to presentation,
of course), and scarfed it all. I think
vinegared sushi rice is just better in general than plain rice for a lot of
things. More zing. Kind of a Thai cucumber
salad sensibility for a Japanese motif.
I just finished listening to my third or fourth TAL of the day –
Sissies. Previously today:
http://www.kcrw.com/show/ta or www.thisamericanlife.com
The KCRW stream is no slouch either – LA community radio anywhere in the world. The absolute best part is that I don’t see any need to ration my consumption because they’ve got every TAL show going back almost 4 years online. And then there’s the actual broadcast every week, plus the rest of NPR.
I’ve got a new project to work on at work, an adapter for a chip programmer. Roughly equivalent to making a headphone plug adapter times 85. Very roughly. Good trudging work. I’m really feeling the Kevin Spacey American Beauty work ethic right about now. Still figuring out the cellphone functions, it’s got more menus than there are bad samurai movies. I haven’t actually received a phone call on it yet (except my own test), just emails.
Day 30,
Dinner for today – I cooked the important part of Julia
Childs’ salmon with cream sauce – nope, not the salmon or the cream sauce, the
tasty mixture of celery, onions and carrots in equal proportion chopped to small
bits and sauteed untill tender in butter.
Made a tasty sandwich with some toasted white bread. Experiments with little spoonfuls led me to
the conclusion that such a combination is really best suited for mild flavors
as an emulsifier, sort of like MSG.
Honestly, though, I think I’m reaching the point where the
sheer novelty of being here is pretty much worn off, and I’m left to start
figuring out what sustainable/repeatable activities there are to keep me
entertained here. Item one,
paragliding. Maybe I’ll go to Asagiri
this Sunday or something to see what’s up with that. It may well be that this is just the late
stages of flying withdrawal. Either way,
I need to find more places to hang out. Item two, writing/listening/musicing. My motivation to study Japanese is very
low. Given the opportunity to use it
socially I’m glad to, but at work it just seems forced and inefficient. I’m a little worried about that, really. It might help for me to stop cooking dinner
and go eat in restaurants either here or elsewhere in
The cookies. Failure. Abject failure. I think the oven is the weakest link here, although the butter and baking powder are possible culprits. I need my old Cookie Book recipe. Oh well.
Day 31,
1) They have Botz Dots with solar cells and LEDs in them. They charge during the day, and flash during the night. How cool is that?
2) A RICE vending machine. It was about the size of a small school bus. Whoa.
3) A very run-of-the-mill looking clothing store called:
WEARHOUSE
SEXY CRAMP
These people are weird.
I spilled some potsticker sauce on my keyboard cooking dinner a few days ago, and washed it off with water. Even after very thorough drying, including using pressurized air, it has a weird problem. Whenever I hit the shift keys or the number pad enter key, the computer beeps. Everything else seems to work fine. ?
Had another sandwich of the veggie mix, this time with the veggies cold (bread still toasted). Tasty once again.