Note: For those of you who are here because of my previous blog post A Sister’s Reaction to My Brother’s Bullying Case and you’re looking for an update, well, I am working on one. But since the post turned out to have a bigger impact that anyone expected, my parents are asking me to hold off on posting an update until more-or-less everything has been settled. So, we will now return to the regular light-hearted content.
Have you heard of the expression “just like riding a bike”? It means that you won’t forget what you’ve learnt, just like riding a bicycle. Well, I had to put this phrase to the test, literally, when I got on a bicycle after about seven years (well, at least five years, my intelligent guess is seven years).
On a random side note, in Japanese “bike” refers to a motorcycle, while bicycle is called 自転車 (jitensha) or チャリ (chari), which meant that there were a lot of people who initially thought that I could ride a motorcycle ._.
Aaaanyway, back to topic. I bought my bicycle at Don Quixote, near the Hakozaki campus. After being torn between a few options, I decided to forgo bicycle gears since the terrain between school and the driving range (where I’ll be riding my bicycle to) is supposed to be flat and got this stainless steel one. Thankfully, it’s for my height too.
The bicycles at Don Quixote are actually outside the store. There’s a button to press, but no one came and I had to go in to flag down an employee.
Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my bicycle!
And I’m happy to report that my return to bicycling was injury free. Well, there were a few incidents, but no injuries!
You see, after I bought my bike at Don Quixote, I rode it all the way to the driving range, which was 15 minutes away and cut across a highway.
On the way there, the bicycle fell, but I managed to jump of it before I hit the ground. And thankfully, there were no cars there to run over my new bicycle or my school bag.
On the way back, I almost ran into another cyclist. Twice I think. And then almost fell. I would make this into an amusing story, but it seems like my mind decided to block the memories.
There was an excellent sunset on the way back. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get any photos, since I had my phone in the zipped compartment of my bag, and even if it was in easy access, there is no way that I’m taking my hands off the bike.
So if you are in the Hakozaki area that day and see a girl on a bicycle with a terrified look on her face (This will probably continue for a few more rides), that’s probably me. I’ll tell you to say hi, but that might make me fall.