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I rode my bike to Ikebukuro and boy is my butt tired
So, this afternoon I finally went to Heiroku sushi, and got NO reaction from the staff there. I'm not even sure they realize they haven't seen me in 3 months. Seriously. The old guy Saitoh was behind the counter and was doing his usual schtick of trying to make stuff he thinks I like, that I don't like, only this time he was also like "we have clam chowder now! CLAM CHOWDER!" Yeah.
Stopped in Daiso, and on my way out I ran into Sam! (My landlord Sam that is. Boy, that seems weird to type.) Which was actually good because I'd been meaning to email him anyway, about trying to figure out what's up with the kitchen pipes, and I owe him rent, and Reese's peanut butter cups, and stuff like that.
Anyway, as I mentioned, I talked my way into some interviews, and it seems I need to perhaps print out my resume for one, and I don't have a printer or really any clue how to get access to a printer, so I looked up the nearest Kinko's, which is in Ikebukuro, and decided... why take the train down there when I HAS A BICYCLE? I hadn't actually ridden my bike at all since coming back, and the weather was nice, so it seemed like a good opportunity to pump up the tires and go for a spin. Although if I'd thought about it, perhaps I would have realized that riding 5-6 miles for my first time on a bike in 3 months might not be the most brilliant idea...
I didn't want to go up and down the huge hill to Akabane Station and try to follow the Saikyo line down, so instead, I went west out to Road 17, which I had ridden to last fall when I found Motohasunuma station the first time. I followed that down to Highway 5 and through to Road 317. I noticed on the map that it'd go to Kanamecho, so I thought that'd be a good stopping point to go to the Book-Off there.
HOLD ON I THINK IT IS TIME FOR THE RETURN OF DEANNA DRAWS FUNNY PICTURES ON GOOGLE MAPS!
I can't actually get a browser window vertically high enough to get Akabane Station and my house in as well as Ikebukuro Station, with any real detail, so bear with this. The Saikyo line is off to the right and that would be the train line that one would normally take from Akabane to Ikebukuro. It takes about 8 minutes.
Motohasunuma station is about 1 kilometer away from my house, which is not actually on this map. That's on the subway line that goes to the Tokyo Dome and Jimbocho. So this starts from there instead. I easily rode down Road 17 for a while, when it united with the highway... there was a lot of confusion about how to cross some major roads, and there were a bunch of hills to go up and down, mostly about bridges, but I actually got to Kanamecho while it was still daylight. I just forgot to actually time everything. It was really neat seeing the "Toshima-ku" sign on the highway, and to actually be at the Kanamecho Book-Off with my bicycle! Wow!
Didn't really get much at the Book-Off, just the CD single of Katase Nana's single "Galaxy"... they did have the Shinjo DVD but I couldn't quite justify it yet, heh. Once I get a job I'll go back there and get it.
Rode to Kinko's! It was so wacky actually riding my bike to Ikebukuro! I mean, I got all the way to the station pretty much and then found the Kinko's by the Nishiguchi Koen! Woooo. I went in and asked them about how stuff works there -- it's 24/7 and they have "self-serve" stations for printing, so if I bring in a USB stick or whatnot with my resume, preferably PDF/Word, I can just print it myself. Sounds good. The guys were kind of confused/bemused by me -- since I was like "no, I don't have anything to print RIGHT NOW, I am just finding out information, I have to make my resume this weekend". At least they didn't do any sort of "NO ENGLISH GO AWAY" at me or anything, and just spoke Japanese.
So the funny part is, there I was in Ikebukuro with my bicycle, and it was 6pm on a Friday night, and quite crowded, and... and all I really wanted to do was go home. It was kind of too early to eat, and I had no other agenda besides "find Kinko's and get a nice bike ride in".
I left Kinko's at 18:00 and started making my way home. The pace was going really well until I reached this one really well-lit street and was like "oo! Street mall!" I thought I would just go in for a block or two and see what was there, but it turned out that this thing went for about a kilometer! Seriously! Oyama station on the Tobu Tojo line is in the middle of it, but it continues on both sides, and has EVERYTHING! There's like three grocery stores, three arcades, several pachinko parlors, TONS of eateries, bakeries, hair salons, clothing stores, you name it. It's like Lala Garden only better, because it has Coco Ichibanya (Curry House) and another Heiroku and Mos Burger and so on.
So after riding all the way to the end of the thing and back, I went to Coco Ichibanya, because goddamn had I been craving curry, and we don't have any places in Akabane.
The special curry right now is something that in Japanese is called グランド・マザー・カレー, which I read as being "Ground Maza". And being that this is Japan, that could be just about anything, so I asked the staff guy what the hell it is, and he starts explaining, "Well the CEO's mother made a special recipe and..." and I realized that it was supposed to be "Grandmother Curry". Yeah. Anyway, I got a plate of it with katsu and rice, and IT WAS REALLY YUMMY!
Then I stopped in the Big A supermarket to see if, like the one near where I lived in Warabi, this one also had instant moyashi soba, which is hard for me to find. And they did! Bonus!
I decided to ride home after that.
It was 23 minutes from Ikebukuro to the entrance to this Oyama street mall, and I left at 19:37 to go home, and getting home was actually fairly easy, now that I knew how to get around the highway combination transfer (you just want to be on the right side of the street at the right time). I rode past some jogging athletes by the National Sports Training Center -- I always wonder if I'm going to pass someone famous there -- and was back at my house at 19:58!
So in other words... I could ride to Ikebukuro in 45 minutes on my bicycle, or I could just take a train and spend like 10 minutes. Well, I guess in theory it's more like 25 minutes total with the station time mixed in, but still. The benefit of riding my bike is that I'd get tons of exercise and then could stay as late or early as I want without being beholden to Last Train Home. The bad part, of course, is that riding along the highway is kind of annoying for air quality, and I'm not sure I really CAN ride along the train tracks.
I feel really badass for being able to just get up and ride 6 miles without even thinking about it.
But on the other hand, I also think my ass feels kind of bad. I'm really not used to the bike seat again yet.
And guess what? In the meantime while I was out, another company I'd tried to contact for an interview with emailed me back! So I may have two interviews next week! Things are looking up!
Stopped in Daiso, and on my way out I ran into Sam! (My landlord Sam that is. Boy, that seems weird to type.) Which was actually good because I'd been meaning to email him anyway, about trying to figure out what's up with the kitchen pipes, and I owe him rent, and Reese's peanut butter cups, and stuff like that.
Anyway, as I mentioned, I talked my way into some interviews, and it seems I need to perhaps print out my resume for one, and I don't have a printer or really any clue how to get access to a printer, so I looked up the nearest Kinko's, which is in Ikebukuro, and decided... why take the train down there when I HAS A BICYCLE? I hadn't actually ridden my bike at all since coming back, and the weather was nice, so it seemed like a good opportunity to pump up the tires and go for a spin. Although if I'd thought about it, perhaps I would have realized that riding 5-6 miles for my first time on a bike in 3 months might not be the most brilliant idea...
I didn't want to go up and down the huge hill to Akabane Station and try to follow the Saikyo line down, so instead, I went west out to Road 17, which I had ridden to last fall when I found Motohasunuma station the first time. I followed that down to Highway 5 and through to Road 317. I noticed on the map that it'd go to Kanamecho, so I thought that'd be a good stopping point to go to the Book-Off there.
HOLD ON I THINK IT IS TIME FOR THE RETURN OF DEANNA DRAWS FUNNY PICTURES ON GOOGLE MAPS!
I can't actually get a browser window vertically high enough to get Akabane Station and my house in as well as Ikebukuro Station, with any real detail, so bear with this. The Saikyo line is off to the right and that would be the train line that one would normally take from Akabane to Ikebukuro. It takes about 8 minutes.
Motohasunuma station is about 1 kilometer away from my house, which is not actually on this map. That's on the subway line that goes to the Tokyo Dome and Jimbocho. So this starts from there instead. I easily rode down Road 17 for a while, when it united with the highway... there was a lot of confusion about how to cross some major roads, and there were a bunch of hills to go up and down, mostly about bridges, but I actually got to Kanamecho while it was still daylight. I just forgot to actually time everything. It was really neat seeing the "Toshima-ku" sign on the highway, and to actually be at the Kanamecho Book-Off with my bicycle! Wow!
Didn't really get much at the Book-Off, just the CD single of Katase Nana's single "Galaxy"... they did have the Shinjo DVD but I couldn't quite justify it yet, heh. Once I get a job I'll go back there and get it.
Rode to Kinko's! It was so wacky actually riding my bike to Ikebukuro! I mean, I got all the way to the station pretty much and then found the Kinko's by the Nishiguchi Koen! Woooo. I went in and asked them about how stuff works there -- it's 24/7 and they have "self-serve" stations for printing, so if I bring in a USB stick or whatnot with my resume, preferably PDF/Word, I can just print it myself. Sounds good. The guys were kind of confused/bemused by me -- since I was like "no, I don't have anything to print RIGHT NOW, I am just finding out information, I have to make my resume this weekend". At least they didn't do any sort of "NO ENGLISH GO AWAY" at me or anything, and just spoke Japanese.
So the funny part is, there I was in Ikebukuro with my bicycle, and it was 6pm on a Friday night, and quite crowded, and... and all I really wanted to do was go home. It was kind of too early to eat, and I had no other agenda besides "find Kinko's and get a nice bike ride in".
I left Kinko's at 18:00 and started making my way home. The pace was going really well until I reached this one really well-lit street and was like "oo! Street mall!" I thought I would just go in for a block or two and see what was there, but it turned out that this thing went for about a kilometer! Seriously! Oyama station on the Tobu Tojo line is in the middle of it, but it continues on both sides, and has EVERYTHING! There's like three grocery stores, three arcades, several pachinko parlors, TONS of eateries, bakeries, hair salons, clothing stores, you name it. It's like Lala Garden only better, because it has Coco Ichibanya (Curry House) and another Heiroku and Mos Burger and so on.
So after riding all the way to the end of the thing and back, I went to Coco Ichibanya, because goddamn had I been craving curry, and we don't have any places in Akabane.
The special curry right now is something that in Japanese is called グランド・マザー・カレー, which I read as being "Ground Maza". And being that this is Japan, that could be just about anything, so I asked the staff guy what the hell it is, and he starts explaining, "Well the CEO's mother made a special recipe and..." and I realized that it was supposed to be "Grandmother Curry". Yeah. Anyway, I got a plate of it with katsu and rice, and IT WAS REALLY YUMMY!
Then I stopped in the Big A supermarket to see if, like the one near where I lived in Warabi, this one also had instant moyashi soba, which is hard for me to find. And they did! Bonus!
I decided to ride home after that.
It was 23 minutes from Ikebukuro to the entrance to this Oyama street mall, and I left at 19:37 to go home, and getting home was actually fairly easy, now that I knew how to get around the highway combination transfer (you just want to be on the right side of the street at the right time). I rode past some jogging athletes by the National Sports Training Center -- I always wonder if I'm going to pass someone famous there -- and was back at my house at 19:58!
So in other words... I could ride to Ikebukuro in 45 minutes on my bicycle, or I could just take a train and spend like 10 minutes. Well, I guess in theory it's more like 25 minutes total with the station time mixed in, but still. The benefit of riding my bike is that I'd get tons of exercise and then could stay as late or early as I want without being beholden to Last Train Home. The bad part, of course, is that riding along the highway is kind of annoying for air quality, and I'm not sure I really CAN ride along the train tracks.
I feel really badass for being able to just get up and ride 6 miles without even thinking about it.
But on the other hand, I also think my ass feels kind of bad. I'm really not used to the bike seat again yet.
And guess what? In the meantime while I was out, another company I'd tried to contact for an interview with emailed me back! So I may have two interviews next week! Things are looking up!
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