Constant Trouble:
The weather is perfect and the roads are flat, but lady luck has other plans for me. This day is everything but good. Every 5 minutes, something happens, no kidding. Rubbing sound on tires, funky brakes, crooked handlebar, I get my tools out, and so on. I eventually make it and fix all my problems but at this point it is noon and I only have six kilometers to my name (for those of you who failed math, very slow).
Yui:
Leaving all that behind, I decide to turn on some music as the road ahead is all straight. Listening to music is the most enjoyable treat when one lacks electricity all the frigging time. Anyways, I am merrily pedaling along when I see in the distance another bike traveler. A girl....hmm hmmmmm! So I wave, and she waves back. We stop and she says: "hey are u the Italian guy?" I pause, thinking if the Japanese receive south Florida'S channel 5 or 6... and why would they be watching it? I quickly find out that old man who troubled me earlier told this girl about me.
My latest encounter turns out to be awesome. Yui is really nice as we share stories of our adventures, spending at least a half hour talking and laughing. Yui is like me in a way, adventurous, and a bit crazy....except she is a girl. Which is hot. Very hot considering I've met girls who were terrified of crashing in a motel. Yeah yeah, status and all that, I get it too, I like fancy hotels just like anyone else. But alone crossing an entire country on bike AND you are not a hairy smelly dude no one would dare touch (obviously referring to myself - currently in a very musky state of being) THAT....that deserves credit. So anyways, Yui and I depart in separate ways, vowing to see each other in Kyoto where she lives.
A Whole Lot of Nothing:
Hours of more field here.... nothing to see. Bored. Alone. Eat snacks, take care of business. I'm talking about doing some blogging, concentrate.
Tomamae, Horii's Town:
I reach my destination.....well the one I chose after having given up on Rumoi. I go to the local onsen and find Atsi, the jerk, ehm kid who led me to nowhere in Wakkanai the first day and left me there. I say hi, we are both surprised.....I leave without saying hi. I find a camping site and pitch my tent in front of a gorgeous view, as well as the accompanying swarm of large Japanese mosquitos. I leave and go to a restaurant nearby.
The Seagull Restaurant:
As I enter, I begin eating alone, but I am quickly invited to sit with the owner and his friends. Horii is a 56 year old man, smoking his cigarette as he and his friends joke around with me at the troubles of understanding someone who understands NOTHING of what you are saying. The dinner was awesome. Freshly caught sakana, (fish), as well as miso...the real deal with clams from the beach downstairs and other delicacies. But that's not why Tomamae is Horii's town. When I go back to the campu-jo (camp) I find the restaurant owner asking me to go out for drinks.....I boldly accept.
Bar Hopping in a Town of 3000:
First bar, drink, drink, drink, random lady out of nowhere beings to sing, drink again, leave. We joke about the names of things like days of the week, then Horii tries to sing me an Italian song he knows, in the hopes that I will recognize it. Josepe josepe josepeeeeee. Not a a clue what song it is. Bar #2, more drinks and more jokes, now involving dressing up in silly costumes that for some reason are readily available on a table. Chin chin, pipi, choucho, jiji, obaba, haha, keitaidenwa and more related jokes. We have no clue half of the time, but we are having a blast. Finally, the third bar. Drinks till the locals draw inappropriate anime pictures as well as pondering life's big questions. The second topic mostly induced by me while the first by the perverted bartender, although I thoroughly enjoyed the shenanigans as much as anyone else. Finally, my night ends with Horii and I stumbling out of the bar as he calls a cab.....so that he can drop ne off three streets down. He says to me, the man who treated me all night, "you are good man. Am I good man?" And I answer him "In this world there are very few who are really good inside. You are very good Horii-san" I say as he tells me that he hopes. I bid farewell, understanding throught the thick feeling of drunkness that fills me that life is both meant to be bitter as well as sweet. You make a friend only so that you can soon after say goodbye, probably forever. Cest la vie would say one. È la vita caro mio, would say another. Life is a miracle. Not because of magic or whatever else, but because it is so rare and so singular that it can only be classified among things of magic. So....if you got a little something under your pillow.....say......a dream, I advise you to do, before there is no more time to do anymore, as Horii might have put it.
Lesson Learned:
I have been quite bothered for the first few days here. Bothered at the Japanese's mentality toward gaijin (foreigners). Closed, shy, even at times annoyingly rude as they make it seems as if your mere presence disturbed the perfection of it all. But it is true not to judge a book by its cover. The Japanese have trouble, real trouble breaking the ice. You would basically need to ram the Titanic into the Arctic ice shelf, just to get them to accept you. However, once that ice is opened up, there is a vastness of kindness and friendship.
Tired, drunk, in a bathroon charging my phone. Goodnight.
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