Three Coin Tosses
Hello from Osaka! (almost) I enjoyed over two weeks at Koji and Masako's farmhouse, with three meals a day and relatively fun work on the farm, that included weeding (from weeds to dead bamboo and trees), cutting and burning dead bamboo and trees, planting blueberries, and turning over compost. Some of the work was heavy duty, but overall, quite a great bargain for me, currently a bum! I left their house by bicycle yesterday, headed for Kobe to meet my friend Richard. After about 60km traveled, I stopped at McDonald's and ordered a cheap high calorie meal. On my way to sit down, a high school girl was like, "excuse me" in Japanese, and asked something about where I had started. She told me she had seen me earlier!! Wow! I had my mapbook handy, and asked her to show me where. (this is the amazing part:) She hadn't seen me earlier that day; she had seen me two weeks ago on my way to Koji's!!!!!!! I was utterly shocked at the coincidence, and amazed she remembered! She and her friends bought me three (3) sandwiches (2 cheeseburgers and 1 chicken) and an orange juice..... Oh my gosh what an incredible blessing!! I asked their names and sat with them a while, working across the language barrier to communicate. They gave their nicknames: Mamirun, Ne-san, and Mayapon. I gave them each a card featuring Francois (made by Hitomi (with whom I have now 100% broken up, for those keeping track)) and wrote on the back where the pictures had been taken. Quite quite quite an incredible meeting! I rode well into the night, for going was slow and I wanted to get to Kobe by today. Slept just off the side of the road from 2:30am and got started again this morning at 7:30am. More slow going up hills and some super super fast going down down down the other side. My most recent was most exhilarating (mom, don't read this:) I was zooming down with traffic on city-type highway going basically 50km / hour (given that was the speed limit, and that's how fast traffic was going).. Got to some lights and had to squeeze the brakes fully *and* drag my shoe to stop in time. Totally Fantastic. (I should get my brakes fixed; they don't work as well as new) - - - - Before going up a hill, I found the sidewalk turned into its own little street and broke away from the main road. I followed it, enjoying a little break from traffic, and assuming it would rejoin the road shortly. I saw a squirrel, and a fowl, both running across the road, and heard countless birds in the trees and bamboo forest all around. Such a beautiful area! The little road didn't go anywhere near the big road, and soon turned into a gravely muddy road. I decided to flip a coin to see if I go on or not. "Should I go ahead (or should I go back?)" Flip: Tails. Go back. I went back and found the main road wasn't a hard climb at all, and included a great long downhill on the other side (nothing like as dangerous as the one described above!) - - - - Having not yet made it even to Osaka, and being late to meet Richard, I looked for an internet cafe, where I hoped to get his phone number. Found a cafe, but it cost 350 yen just for the Member Card, which included no internet access. Found another cafe, and almost didn't go in. But did a coin toss, just in case. "Should I go in?" Heads. "Should I pay for internet here?" Heads. Went in. 290 yen includes membership, 30 minutes of internet, AND includes the drink bar. And the drink bar includes Soft Serve Ice Cream!!!! I may be here all night!!