My First Earthquake, and a Dangerous Tour by Bike
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2009
1
6
41
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
My New Apartment
Toyone-mura, Aichi, Japan
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
So grabbing my trusty wendy-basket mickey-mouse-locked Jidensha (Bicycle), I took off on what was a downhill journey one way...and a terrible return trip up the steep road that leads to my mountain apartment. In Japanese, they say Iki yoi yoi, Kaeri koway (The way there is good, good, but coming back is scary).
What is interesting about this day, and probably one of the main reasons why I got out of the house, was because I woke up earlier that morning, around 5AM, to what I thought was a vibrating bed. Well, the bed was vibrating, but so was everything else. Because I had been lying in bed for about 30 minutes drifting in and out, I was wide awake when the place started shaking. It was a weird kind of shake. Like there was no regularity with which direction and the frequency or intensity of the shakes. It's like when your rumble pack is low on battery (good ol' 64), things just feel weird.
What I did next was very awkward. I stood up next to my bed in a semi-crouch, and with my arms out like I was surfing, I just sort of rode the floor wondering what I should do. The only thought that went through my head was: "If I go outside like this, they'll see my tattoo." I realize that there are more important things in life, but something told me (maybe it was laziness) that I shouldn't worry. So I just went back to bed and sort of forgot what happened until my co-worker e-mailed me that day and asked me how my first Jishin was.
So, back to the bike-ride. I went riding on a later date where I took many more photos, which I'm also including in this mix as a sort of introduction to Toyone. I had a sandwich overlooking the village, that's nicely nestled in between the river and the mountain. Leading up along the mountain is the road I take to get to Tomiyama, the smallest village in Japan and my other school that I teach at. This road is SCARY. They are narrow, and constantly winding around the mountain and river edge, offering side-mirrors to give you hints about the oncoming trucks carrying lumber, or the speedy k-cars/trucks timing how fast they can reach their destination on these death-bends. Recently, this road was just re-opened because of a recent land-slide they had before I arrived. The older road as about 40 minutes longer, and almost as scary. In contrast, this road offers some beautiful views. In a later entry (maybe today), I'll include the videos of me attempting to navigate safely through them.
A beautiful area, Toyone and Tomiyama. The next entry on Tomiyama will be well worth the visit, as this is probably the most beautiful place I've seen in Japan thus far. I almost can't wait for Fall, if it wouldn't get so cold.
