Second Month in Japan

Ah, yes this is my second post here. Hemm, not really. Nah, I don't care. Not so much happening up until now, so, basically nothing much happened. Okay, let's begin from May.

So the first week of May is called Golden week, and I spent my precious holiday to clean up the bike and fine tune everything. The rear tire is damn worn but usable though so I don't want to change it yet. The chain is all rusty, oiled it up, used it for several days, and degrease the drivetrain completely. One thing that I messed up with is the front derailleur. Tighten the screw too much and ended up breaking it in half. I tried to remove the other half but had no luck doing that. My solution is just using zip ties from Daiso. It was dirt cheap and works well. The next thing is to change the front derailleur shifter cable because it is old and broke easily while getting tightened. It costed me about 800 yen.

The nest thing I accidentally did was going to Nara Park by bike. Honestly speaking, the original plan was going to aeon to get my rear tire fixed because it didn't spin freely. I went to the aeon and in the middle of the way I realized that the problem just fixed. so I took my bike further to reassure myself. Suddenly I realized that I am already near Nara Park, and just went there unplanned. I only wore my training pants and a simple T-shirt.

In the way back, I went a little bit further in order to find the most flat terrain possible because I was a little bit tired and need to conserve as much energy as possible. But I got lost in the middle of residential area. I prayed for that I could go back to the dorm before it gets too dark. And I finally entered my room around 7.30PM.

In total, it took me around 1.5 hours from campus to the Nara Park, and around 2.5 hours to go back including finding my way back. The total trip I took was ~32KM and I was really surprised to see the number. Seriously I never went with bike anywhere that far. But my city has so much nature and I like to enjoy it on my bike.

The next week I went to Osaka to find a new pair of shoes because I have no idea how to find a shoe my size in Japan. My feet size is 29.5 while in Japan, the biggest size shoes sized 28 at most. Finally got one around 8000 yen. Well, I hope this last for a long time. I wish I can find a pair of crocs my size for summer and rainy seasons.

In the last week of May I tried to go to Yatadera to see hydrangeas in the end of the month. It was a steep downhill on the way there and my rear tire hit a sharp edged road block, got a snake bite, and bent my rear rim. My bike is still using a V-brake system, so the rear brake is still useable but not that good anymore. The worst thing was I had to walk around 11KM from the point I got the flat.

Ok. That's it from last month...