Mid-April snow!

This year is proving to be more incredibly odd in terms of weather than ever before! Not only is the temperature yoyo-ing daily by an average of about about 10C, but I also work up this morning to snow and had to pick my way through slush to the station. Hard to believe that it was 21C on Tuesday!

Bicycle lights and locks

Finally I've remembered to write about this. In Japan, everyone seems to cycle.  You see more bicycles in Japan than any other country except perhaps Holland!  When I first visited Japan, I was surprised by how many people cycled everywhere, and that cyclists can use the pavement - not sure if it's strictly legal to do so, but everyone does with the exception of racing cyclists. 

I was also surprised that Japanese cyclists always use an umbrella when it's raining.  I've never seen that in any other country.  I'm sure it's not really safe, but perhaps that's one of the reasons why people tend to cycle on the pavements.  Me, I'm more of a fair weather cyclist!

Basic bicycles with 5 gears are cheap in Japan, maybe about 40-50 GBP.  I bought mine about 3 years ago and recently have found that it has really come into its own, now that I've moved and live further from everything.  I use it to go to the supermarket  (always plenty of bicycle parking), but also sometimes use it to go to one of my schools on fine days - it takes me about 25 minutes. 

In Japan, it doesn't stay light that late in the evenings, even during summer.  So when I leave work it is always dark.  Fortunately in Japan it is very common to cycle on the pavement, so I feel very safe, but even so sometimes the pavements are a bit uneven and I have to slow down. 

Anyway, this post was intended primarily about bicycle lights and locks.  All bikes in Japan seem to come with pedal powered LED front lights, which work pretty well and don't seem to get pinched.  This of course means no more carrying your bicycle lights with you when you get off.  Not sure if this is just a feature of the honesty in Japan, or just that everyone's cheap bicycle already has a front light.  Also, bicycles come with an integrated back wheel lock, so (unless you have an expensive bike) no more carting around a chain lock. 

Using your bicycle is much much easier than in Britain.  I keep mine outside under the front porch to get rusty, but it is just ready to go!

First week of the new school year

The first week of the new school year in Japan doesn't make much difference to me, but became evident yesterday evening when I was coming back from work.  I was going up the stairs at the station behind a group of junior high school girls, who were practising the little bit of English they knew, "Nice to meet you!".  One of them, plainly embarassed about speaking English, turned to check no one was listening, and saw me!  A knudge and a whisper to her friend followed, and when they got to the top of the stairs, one of them said to me "Nice to meet you", so of course I gave the stock reply "Nice to meet you too!", which got a hand punched into the air with a "Yes!" from the girl! 

I followed up with a "How are you?", one of them just repeated "How are you?" back, but her friend said "Chigau (that's wrong) I'm fine".  We then exchanged "See you"s, an amusing little encounter at the start of April!

It's actually not just the new school year.  Many of the new graduates also start their new jobs in Japan - April is the time for starting new jobs too.  So there are lots of young Japanese in evidently shiny new suits as well...

Cherry blossom

These are pictures that I took the other week of Sakura Road in Tokiwadaira, Chiba. I went to a really nice restaurant there with some friends (delicious meal and as many different varieties of bread as you can eat!), but honestly the smell of grilled chicken from some of the stalls almost stopped us getting there!