Frank Bennett 🇯🇵

Moving along … at an expressway junction, an elderly man with a road bike was shuffling through a U-turn in the underpass as I flew past. I stopped the bike and walked back to check on him. 大丈夫? (Are you OK?) and he says yes, OK, then indicating himself, 私のこと気にしている? (Are you worried about *me*?) with an expression that spoke of gratitude. Then he explained that he would ride a little and walk a little (sensible, given his shuffling gait). I said I often did the same, and we parted with smiles.

First a tiny item: Pulling the gloves off on arrival home, it seems I have a blister on the heel of one hand. I haven't had a friction blister in ages and ages. Fascinating.

Home again. More little interactions on the road than I expected this time. A few rough notes to follow, just as aide-mémoire.

Probably not gonna be able to patch this one.

Biking to Sakushima again today, I met a Kuroneko van at a blind corner near the ferry terminal that I approached too quickly. Stopped just fine, but I locked the back wheel and blew out a tire. I laughed and waved the all-clear to the driver, who seemed utterly disinterested and trundled on his way. A sew-up puncture sounds like a shot, and a couple came out of their house to see what was up. Had a nice chat with the husband while setting a spare, and made the ferry on time!
#Japan #bikeTooter

Does it strike anyone else as weird, cringe, and somehow telling that most members of the US Congress incessantly claim to speak for "the American people," and almost never for "my constituents?"
#USpol

The sun set as I was traversing a low plateau of agricultural land between Anjo and Miyoshi (just south of home).

At the Lalaport mall in Anjo, I secured the bike with my newly acquired tiny lock, and took a stroll around. Malls feel to me like hub airport shopping (Incheon, Chūbu, Taipei, Bangkok) and I was no longer hungry, so it was a short stroll. A teen girl toppled her bike just as I got back. I helped lift it, and her bag and phone tumbled out of the basket. No damage done tho, whew.

Separately, I saw a vending machine with a sign on it that a friend later pegged as an instance of green washing.

I'd left on this trip without a lock (!), and I wanted to check out a Lalaport along the way, so I stopped at a cycle shop just past a bridge over the river Yahagi. When I told the elder owner I wanted a 最低限 (just-enough) lock, he rose from his chair and fished out a tiny cable lock. I asked how much, and he waved dismissively: オマケにするもんだから. Then he laid eyes on my bike outside, and we had a fun time reminiscing about lugged steel frames, Campagnolo gear, and much else. 👍
https://maps.app.goo.gl/xjtxSgNH9bJc29917

As I entered Nishio City on the way back, I passed a familiar tai-yaki place (Zen), promising taiyaki and cafe fare. This time I stopped to eat, and had a chat with the owner. She has quite strict standards for various aspects of cooking, and does hands-on training sessions for overseas tourists staying at a nearby hotel, featuring taiyaki and teppan dishes. She emphasized her university background in nutrition and use of non-allergenic and non-gluten recipes as required.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/5BD9k1YWRjzExNJYA

After boarding the ferry for the return, the steward (dressed in workman's dungarees like the pilot/captain) asked me what the green bottles on the bike were for. I told him they were for water, and he came back with the obvious question: water for you to drink? I said, um, yes, and that in the heat, water is more precious than gasoline (the best I could do with that curve ball). And we shared a laugh.

Ferrying across to the island, one of my go-to places (Oregale) was closed. That's the second time in a row, I hope the owner's okay. At my other hangout (Monpemaruke), I had (lunch on the treadle-machine table and) a nice long chat with the owner. I showed a picture of the "habucha" I'm growing from seed I got from her at Christmas, and learned about making tokoroten from scratch as she worked at cleaning batches of tengusa seaweed for it. Kurosuke the Cat was of course in attendance.