So today, I did stuff!
The university orientation was mainly to help us fill the papers to give the city hall. We had to write our names 15 times.
15 fucking times.
I have 5 names.
I had to write 5 names 15 times in tiny boxes. And let’s not talk about katakana, where they ended up by telling me « sorry, we cannot put the sound -vé- so we’ll write your name -bé-. » I mean, okay, if that’s what life is gonna be like, then okay.
This fun part aside, I didn’t get to see the others exchange students really. We were assigned Japanese mentors (mine is 18 years old and since I already went through the city hall procedure three years ago, there wasn’t much to do) and I stayed with her for most of the day. We ate lunch together (after 20mn to take a decision on where to eat, whyyyyyyyyy) and she was kind enough to accompany check a bike store 30mn away from the university!
which was closed.
on a tuesday.
after a three day week-end.
why, nagasaki, why.
So we went back and did our little one-hour promenade under a blue sky, the classical after-typhoon weather. I love it. If I could, I would just roll into the atmosphere out of happiness for no rain/okay temperature. She had to take a bus to go home (her family lives in Saga prefecture, below Fukuoka) so we parted, and I made my way downtown to look for a bike.
Because this became my obsession: get a way to never use any type of transportation ever again. Netherlands, what have you done to me? 🙂
So I walked to a bike store where he had three poor, almost broken bikes too big for me. He told me to check Don Quijote (because OF COURSE they sell bikes, I mean they sell food/free-tax perfume/sex-toys/toys for children, why not bikes?). So yep, they had them but pretty crappy ones. I kept it in a corner of my mind and continued my quest to other big malls where they have sport sections. At the last one, I was told to check a discount store, not ‘far’ from here. I stopped for a Starbucks because I wanted to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte (congrats Simone, I got so curious with your posts about it ahah) but I discovered that they only offered mapple syrup latte 😦 -because nagasaki ain’t taking any of dat spice business-
After absorbing the iced latte in one gulp (it was tiny), I walked around the harbour because I needed some vitamin D after yesterday. Damn, it felt so peaceful. And warmer than last year in November.
And then, I walked. I walked. I walked.
I was already done with walking when I reached the 10km mark and sore feet but I continued to climb up the hill the discount store was on. The view from up there at that time of the day was pretty awesome and it felt like a great reward. All these hills and the last light of the sun touching the peaks… It’s hard to feel anything else than pure awe (maybe the adrenaline helped, but damn, I loved it.)
I reached the discount store and found some interesting bikes. After a compromise (because I wasn’t gonna find a race bike in Japan for a reasonable price, may it be new or used), I went for a light city bike that wasn’t too expensive and benefited from a free-tax purchase.
It’s with a lot of pride that I went down the hill with my bike, hoping that the breaks would work and they did like a charm. Tested and approved. (nothing better than a steep hill at night to try a new bike 😀 #safetyfirst)
And since I was feeling a little euphoric, I decided to take small and little ways. So cute, with nice views and all that.
Ending in stairs, of course. And since I didn’t want to go back up, I just thought « it’s fine, I’ll carry it down these 4 floors of stairs, it’s fine, it’s a workout! ».
Then I tried to lift the bike and all the weight of my decisions came and crushed my enthusiasm. It’s with grunts and a mental face palm that I went down the endless stairs. Once done, I quickly got back up and biked away as if nothing happened. No one saw, nothing happened.
Got home and went to put my groceries away (because I was also carrying 1kg of groceries on my back during this trip 😀 #travellightly #minimalism). Decided to go to the beach tomorrow and I have some cooking session in the evening with Mitsuki, and I’m def looking forward to that hehe! (my, I got influenced by Ibone’s slang, arg)
See ya peeps’!
The Long Cape - 長崎 