Jes Visits! - Monkey Park - Forgotten Pano

Somehow, I forgot to post the pano shot I took that shows the view of Kyoto from the monkey park. Here it is.

No More Kitten...

Well, I saw Jes off at the airport today. We ended up eating out a lot and doing a lot of sightseeing and travel and stuff, and on my way back to Kyoto today, I noticed I was down to using the $20 I keep in reserve, and that I should go pull some cash. And then I realized that I don't really have money left in the bank.

I'm usually fairly careful with money, so it was kind of strange to realize that I was running so close to the line... for the third time since I got here. Fortunately, the reason I'm low on cash is because I did all that Jes-is-visiting stuff on top of paying my phone bills up to date and buying a new bag of rice, so I'm fine in terms of food and whatnot. I should also have some money coming in from the people I share my Internet connection with, which will really help.

I'm really behind on posting stuff about all these travels and whatnot, and I'm hoping to get some of that stuff through post-processing and get some of it posted here. Probably tomorrow. Certainly not now, as it's nearly 4AM.

My screen isn't usually thisi blurry...

Non-Helmet Society, and Life is Like a Box of Chocolates

I'm not sure why I haven't mentioned this before, but it's definitely something that bears it.

You do not wear a helmet when riding a bicycle in Japan. I'm not saying "It's even dorkier here than in the States." I'm saying you just don't. When I got here, I looked for one, but I could only find them in kids' sizes. I've looked in a number of different cycle shops, and I have not a seen a single adult-sized bicycle helmet.

Now, I know they exist somewhere. While hiking, we saw two sets of three mountain bikers who were all wearing helmets. And on two other occasions, I've seen men riding bicycles in heavy traffic with helmets, but they were the kind of guys who wear the tight cycling pants and the bright yellow spandex T-shirts. All children up to the age of about six or seven wear them, but they suddenly disappear around that time.

In some ways, I can understand the sentiment; a helmet is a big thing to lug around, even if it's light, and adds to the massive pile of crap I might otherwise be accoutered with at the moment. In addition, fashion here is much more important than I've noticed before. This could either be an expansion in my awareness of it, or an actual change, but it's hard to tell either way.
Don't worry, I still pick my clothes based on how many pockets they have and blindly mix and match colors.

Now, with all of that said, some kinds of helmets do exist here, and you see anybody on a motorcycle or scooter wearing one. Now, whether them wearing it is any help to them or not, I'll never know, since half the time the things aren't even strapped on. I have to assume enforcement of some helmet law (which I also must assume exists) is pretty strict here, which would also explain the munchkins.

I know it won't help in terms of stopping concussive impact, but I do my best to wear my hat and cycling gloves every time I go out.
It sounds stupid - because it is, I know - but I figure a new hat or pair of gloves beats reconstructive scalp surgery or permanent scarring, and will also help to keep little bits of road from getting embedded in the bits of me that jut out. Like my head. And hands.
I dunno, it makes me feel better about not wearing a helmet, though.

To temper that, I should point out that been involved in four different collisions since I got here, but none of them have been serious, and one should hardly count. Here we go:

1. With a random mother and her kid strapped in a rear rack seat. I was dodging people near the Shijo-Kamagawa bridge and she was, as well, and we dodged into each other. Fortunately, the baskets on the front of most bikes are made of a pretty pliable (and very rust-prone!) kind of metal, probably iron, and make great crumple zones. And they usually deform just a little, but it sure helps and isn't hard to fix.
   A quick "Are you okay?" from both of us and we were off.
   
2. With a guy who decided it would be a good time to go through a red "Don't cross the street right now" light. I was turning the corner and neither of us stopped, so we sort of bodychecked each other. I got a bit of a rugburn on my inner thigh, which was less than comfortable, but I think we were both okay outside of that. Quick "Okay?" from each of us and it was over.
   
3. With a car, while coming out of my apartment one day.
   Usually, when I leave, I glide downhill into the road and merge happily in, but there's a wall that prevents me from seeing to the left until I'm actually in the road. Fortunately, Japan is a drive-on-the-left country, so I can see oncoming traffic plenty early enough.
   This time, though, the guy was on the wrong side of the road and only inches from the retaining wall. Combine that with the fact that I was turning left this time, and stupidly didn't stop to check left, neither of us could have known about the other due to the wall. Fortunately, I just barely heard his engine noise and was able to slam on my brakes. He hit his brakes, too, but too late and slammed into my front tire. Fortunately, it turns.
   I don't know if this is normal, but our conversation went like this:
   Car-Man and I simultaneously: "Excuse me!"
   Car-Man: "Are you alright?"
   Me: I glance at myself, look at the bike tire. "Yeah, I'm okay. ... Well..."
   And we head off.
4. This was just yesterday, on my way back from getting fried rice cakes filled with course red bean paste (tsubuan yakimochi). I saw the train going overhead and tried to get out from under the overpass before it got there. There was a junior high school kid coming the other direction and we both tried to go to my left to go around each other. If hadn't been rushing, it would've been fine, but I was, so neither of us had enough time to negotiate. We both hit our brakes and I came to a stop with my foot on his front tire. My 90kg (~200 pounds) is plenty to stop a small Japanese kid of probably 1/3 the weight, it would seem.

And that's about all I have to say about that.

Harvesting All You Can Eat Strawberries

So I went to a strawberry farm during the trip, and I finally got around to putting my two chibi-pano shots together. I like the composite at right, personally, and think it works fairly well.
Anyway, when we went to the strawberry farm, they gave of us these little paper cups that we could put strawberries in. They were your standard paper cups capable of holding about 5 ounces of water, so they filled up pretty quick given the place.
As it so happens, I had a bandanna in my pants pocket. As it so happens, two knots transformed it into a bag.
As it so happens, I was standing in about an acre of densely-packed, ripe, delicious strawberries. Some were so moist and delicious that they exploded when I tried to pull them off the... vine? Anyway, I ate a bunch of strawberries, and brought out this bag.

As I we were driving away, I found out that that we weren't allowed to bring any strawberries out of the greenhouse. They enforced this to the extent that someone tried to walk out with three or four and they wouldn't let her go until she ate them.

The bag weighed three to four pounds, just so you know. Also, as far as I know, there were no signs indicating that you were not to harvest the delicious fruits contained in this greenhouse for purposes other than immediate consumption.

To make me feel better, me and some friends finished them off the next day.

Surprisingly enough, as far as I know, nobody in our whole group got sick.