Ode to the 自転車

One of the luxuries of living in Japan is the abundance of bike paths and pedestrian friendly streets. Being able to just hop on your bike and get from one destination to the next? Awesome stuff. Riding along the river in the late afternoon was so therapeutic for me. It was very calming and it really brings me back to being a kid again and not having to worry about anything. The smell of the grass and the buzzing of insects, agh! I miss it.

I always tried to get as many people to come biking whenever possible, the more the merrier right? Oh man, the lines I would use in order to sucker people into coming along. I think my personal favorite was “oh it’s really close, only 10 minutes away” sure yea it’s only 10 minutes away if you bike at 80mph, so technically it’s not a lie.

Sometimes when I woke up late and had to bike extra fast to school, I would pretend I was being chased by zombies in order to go faster. I’d always get to school drenched in sweat from head to toe so I eventually learned to keep an extra pair of clean clothes in my backpack.

Biking back from school was always a joy though haha! If you’re fortunate enough to attend Oita University you know exactly what I mean. There’s a HUGE hill leading out of the university and it’s such an adrenaline rush to ride down it after a long day of class. I dreaded biking up that hill every morning but loved seeing it in the afternoon, definitely a love-hate relationship there – Rihanna needs to write a song about that! Instead of “Love the way you lie” she should call it “Love the way you ride” hah! get it!? Oh I’m soooooo clever…