Today was still a much needed rest day. Yesterday’s short cycle trip and roaming around the place told me I wasn’t ready for serious mileage yet. My lower back and thighs are pretty sore still.
I got up around 7.30, had a shower and got a coffee. Wrote yesterday’s blog and then went exploring. There is the current Sapporo Autumn Festival in Odori Park, the long stretches out city park. It’s got loads of food stalls pretty much. My plan was to go and see the botanical gardens which were pretty awesome (7/10) with 2 museums inside. One on Ainu (native/ aboriginal/ indigenous) people of Russia and Japan and their culture, cultural artefacts and ethnographic material. The other was on the botanical gardens and it’s history, including a lot of stuffed animals. Gosh, it had a brown beat and still, I do not want to meet one in real life. The references to beware the bears are everywhere. So camping wild can mean having a chance encounter with wildlife.
The gardens are easily accessible and only cost ¥450 (£3) and there’s also a rose garden, medicinal play garden and again an ethnographic plant garden of what plants the Ainu used. Many of them can also be found in Europe. Thankfully, google translate has the picture function which lets you see text in English just by looking at it with the phone. It’s not perfect but always good enough to get the gist. I used it extensively today as not many signs were in English.
After the gardens was lunch in Odori Park, just fish was on my menu. I sat in the sun and enjoyed myself among all the other picknicers. After that, back to the hotel, charge my tech quickly and then go and see the famous Hokkaido Shrine in Mariuama Park. I saw people getting married, people doing the hand washing ritual before going into the shrine and people praying or wishing things. I’ve seen it all before but somehow it is still intimidating. So many rules on what to do and how to do it. Making a mistake quickly brandishes you as not doing the correct thing, which is forgiven being a gaikokujin but regardless. I’m trying to fit in as best as i can.
Before getting there, i took a detour trying to get into the actual park but I couldn’t. There wasn’t an entrance so I cycled around the whole thing and visited a Japanese cemetery. Interesting as to who is buried where and at what height on the mount. At the top we’re all traditional Japanese graves whereas at the bottom were Christian stones, and sometimes just plastic signs, not well kept. I couldn’t quite not cycle...I probably did another 10Km today just because.
After the Shrine I remembered that I needed to get new break pads as I inspected my whole bike again yesterday. The front pads were pretty much gone. On my way back to the hotel I saw a bike shop (more like a repair shop) and stopped. I could see my desired objects laying there on the counter and asked the shopkeeper that I need new ones. He insisted to check my bike first. He noticed one of my break levers weren’t aligned. He took it upon itself to take it off, adjust it, then for it and put the new pads in. I could ah e totally done this myself but he wasn’t having it. After he was done I asked how much but he said not to worry. I was worried and wanted to pay, wallet in hand. He said “it’s ok, it’s ok” before hurrying back into his shop. Damn, why??? People are so nice here!
After that, back to the hotel, pack my bags for tomorrow and reconfirm the route. I’m going to try Google’s “Walking” function when picking the route as opposed to taking the “car” function. I do not fancy another motorway if possible. I may not be able to completely avoid it but it’s reduced to around 10-15% of tomorrow’s journey which can be as long as 112KM, if I want to make it all the way to Furano, deep in the heartland of central Hokkaido. Sure enough there will be an onsen at the end of the day but I’ll see if I really want to do 100+ KM, or whether to take it easy.
I went back to the Buddha bar where I had become friendly with the owner and bar staff. The owner asked my to write something on his door (the whole place is covered in people’s thoughts and scribbles). The one thing I put there was what a lawyer/ entrepreneur told me in 2007 as her life motto. I kind of really like it. I also had some food and then went back to the hotel. A final bath and charging all my tech and lights (3x). I did some journaling but felt pretty empty. The only thing I came up with was a list of adjectives or sentences describing those people and their behaviour who do things differently, people who may not always fit in. The rebels, the experimenters, the mistake makers, the fixer uppers, the square pegs in round holes.
Being in Japan and generally, there is a real always tension between fitting in and doing things differently (and maybe not fitting in). I had lots of conversations with people here in the last few days who did their thing, most within very set boundaries of Japanese society. Hey a job, work overtime, work for pride but don’t take risks, stay safe. I couldn’t do that. Life is about the journey, about trying things out, tearing stuff, experimenting, failing too. What does it take to become someone who takes (calculated) risks, experiments and tries things out? How hard would it be to teach or inspire someone who’s in such a regimented and highly controlled society like Japan? Many people I spoke to want things to be different but they cannot see a way out of their situation, being just comfortable but at a high (time) cost, hence personal and opportunity cost.
In Japan, team effort and collaboration are highly valued. Some jobs are done in groups whereas in Europe / western world it would be the responsibility (and cost) of a single person. But what about safety, or when something goes wrong? The response to the recent earthquake and tsunami was unparalleled, everyone helps and the government also sent some 25,000 troops to help with the clean up after the earthquake. Then there are my encounters with people who take such pride in their jobs that they couldnt and won’t charge me? Why?
Lots of questions remain. Tomorrow, big cycle day
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