Rasro-san the Gaijin in Japan

Hello

This one will be relatively lay back.

I will show you what its like for me to ride my bike to one of my schools.
Namely, Iri Junior High School.
It is about 5km from my house. I only started riding my bike there around March of this year. Prior to this I would ride to Hinase train station (10 minutes) and catch a 5 minute ride to the next station, then walk for 10 minutes to school. It worked OK, but it always meant I was a slave to a train schedule.

Riding the bike direct to work takes about 20 minutes and I get to catch some nice scenery.

See for yourself. Click on any picture for a larger view of the details.

First I leave the confines of my apartment house parking lot on my trusty bike and ride past the elementary school next door. Usually it is packed with a multitude of kids with backpacks and yellow baseball caps, walking to school in a large group. So I avoid them now by leaving early. But a very great experience for anyone to be swamped with little kids all excited and keen to encounter a foreigner. Makes you feel good and special all over. Sometimes when I'm feeling down, I purposefully ride my bike through a throng of school kids and emerge the other side feeling that all is good in the world.

After the school. the slog uphill begins. First, past some neighbouring abodes to the main road.

Then uphill on the main road, following the fragile safety of the white line on the road. Notice the lack of sidewalks here.

Near the top, though, you get to rest and indulge in some vending machine recuperation.

Then it is downhill for the next stage of the journey. Here I just let gravity take over and I get up to about 30 km/hr I reckon without even pedalling. Notice also the large mirror on the pole. It aids drivers coming from the side streets to the main road. Obviously with such small roads, sticking the nose of your car into an intersection to view the road is a recipe for disaster. So these mirrors are at most corners....most.

The road leads down to a plain, where I can see the local golf driving range on the left. With its characteristic huge netting, it can be seen for miles. I can get there quite easily, but the trek back uphill on the bike after a golf session is not that appealing. Still, its a useful having one so near.

By the driving range is a bus stop used by the elementary school kids in Iri. Volunteer mothers from the PTA oversee their welfare at these areas. As usual, you get a series of waving and eager, accented calls of "Hello" and "Good morning" from them. Very uplifting.

Then its off to the bay area which leads into the Iri district proper. Here we get a nice view of the bay, some oyster rafts and islands in the sea. It is here I took a nice sunset shot in my last Blog.

Past the bus stop and over the bridge of a canal, and I am in Iri itself.

Then its onto the farmers area. Rice paddies abound here, with the occasional patch of vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, lettuces, etc intermixed.

But I guess some of the farmers are doing alright. Just look at this car parked casually near the rice paddy.

After this, its onto a bikeway/walkway which runs along a large canal area. This waterway takes water from the hills down to Iri where it irrigates the farm areas. The excess goes into the Bay.

Soon I get to the train station, where I am greeted by one of the PTA Dad's.
Then the local police station....a one man show. Looks like he's asleep this morning.
And then some more PTA members on a street corner.

Past the local Karate Dojo and vending machine, I usually spot some primary school kids with their backpacks and yellow hats.

I usually say hello and keep riding.

They cross the road at a bridge and head to the primary school across the waterway.....next to the National Panasonic factory.

Then, my Junior High School appears. The huge nets encompass the sports field. The baseball pitch is in sight and the sandy ground beckons the youngsters to come play.

Then I get to the school itself, and park my bike in the school bike sheds, dodging late students as they get into school themsleves.

I then proceed to the main entrance. I am usually met by the school groundskeeper. A pretty cool guy who speaks alright English. He is 60 years old, and spent the last 40 years in the JapaneseArmy. A great guy, who could probably kill me with two fingers to the throat while still pruning the bushes.