Yesterday, after having spent the previous day and a half cooped up at home with the flu, developing a severe case of cabin fever in the process, I awoke to a beautiful clear blue sky.
I headed out the door to catch the train to the office as always, but for some reason Fred, my trusty bicycle, caught my eye. Looking sad and neglected, he seemed to scream “Take me! It’s been far too long!” Well, both Fred and the beautiful weather were beckoning, so I really had no choice but to duck back inside to grab my helmet and cycling gloves.
Thank you, Fred! The short 6.8-km ride into the office helped me remember the things I’d forgotten… It helped me remember the little merchant streets, with thousand-year-old shops run by million-year-old men, selling fish and flowers and books and stationery, the vendors selling grilled yams from the backs of trucks (you can smell the smoke for miles), the old ladies out doing their grocery shopping and looking for a bargain, and the young mothers pushing kids around in strollers to enjoy the weather. It reminded me of the dingy little street-level train stations, where a train pulling in or out disrupts street trafic for 5 minutes. I got reacquainted with the delivery trucks, no bigger than a station wagon, making deliveries of fresh meat and produce to the little mom-and-pop supermarkets around.
Essentially, this bike ride helped me rediscover a lot of things that I love about Tokyo; the sort of things that it’s easy to forget when I spend too much time getting onto the subway and popping back out through a hole in the ground at my office, or at some client in a corporate center downtown, or at some big polished shopping area.
I’ve got to do it again soon!
Maybe next time I’ll take the long way around.
Entries (RSS)