I want to ride my bicycle

Since I don't have a car, I've been rediscovering the "joys" of bike riding. I had only been here a couple of weeks when I realized I would need a kid seat for Bonnie. Only in Asia can you get something like this! Here's a picture of a bike that I found on the internet. It has a kid seat like Bonnie's. If I had a digital camera, I'd take a picture of ours, but this is close enough. The first time Bonnie rode in it she said she felt like a princess getting into a carriage. And I guess I felt like the horse!

Seriously, it's not that bad. I hardly feel her weight at all. When she's not with me, I use her little seat to carry groceries and stuff. Some people have another seat on the front of the bike that they use if they have two kids. Even though it's illegal, if you're a mom with no car, what else can you do? Most families can afford two cars, but they can't afford two parking places! So many young mothers (not as many nowadays as a few years ago) have to tote the kids on a bike with a seat on the front and on the back.

I have another bike that's parked at the other school I teach at. It belongs to the company we have a contract with and that's the bike I use to go to an English lesson at a car research and design company every Monday. (More on that another time). I love riding the bike in the middle of the afternoon to the lesson. It's a really nice break in the day and gives me time to transition from teaching the kids to teaching adults.

Riding back in the dark, though, is not so fun! The roads in the area meander around a river and there are several intersections where five or more streets meet. It's hard to know which way I should go since there is really not a "straight ahead" choice and the streets in Japan have no names. The first night Yumiko and I rode back from the school we got lost several times. At one point we were riding on a sidewalk that was overgrown with leaves from trees lining the side. I had to ride along, whipping them back with my head as I navigated in the dark (with no light on my bike). I couldn't help calling out, "abunai" (danger) as I macheeted my way though the urban jungle. At the same time, I was laughing at how silly it all would look to an American -- and probably most Japanese people, too. I have since found a better way to get back and memorized where to turn, but I'm not looking forward to this 15 minute bike ride at night in the winter. :( When I lived in Japan before, I got a car before my first winter, so I've never had a to ride a bike or even walk very far in the cold. Should be interesting.