Honda Festival

We have a friend who works for Honda, in a research and development subsidiary. He invited us to attend the company summer festival, which I think was mainly for the families of employees (a lot of Japanese companies host similar events). Our friend competes in triathlons and is a paralympic swimmer while I regularly trip over my own feet and have to stop for a breather climbing stairs, so I’ve never given all that much thought to the fact that he is a person with a disability until we got to the festival and realised that all of the staff were also. The facility itself was amazing, from wheelchair accessible desks in the offices right through to hands-down the most accessible toilet I’ve ever seen. 

Seriously, check this baby out

In a society where differently able people are in many ways segregated (kids who use wheelchairs attend a separate school, for example) it was encouraging to experience an environment where the value of someone’s work was not being prejudged by the limitations of their body. 

On the other hand, this stunt rider from the festival is clearly TWELVE YEARS OLD!! Someone get him off that bike before he misses his cartoons!

I’ve always liked Honda bikes; I’ve found them economical, reliable and nicely styled but I’ve never felt any particular “brand loyalty”. That changed, after the festival. I’m now a dedicated Honda fan.

Plus, Honda make Kamen Rider's bikes! Source: http://syclecom.blogspot.jp/2012/06/moviemega-max.html

 PS I think it should be obvious, but just to be sure, this is in no way a sponsored post or in any other way connected to the Honda corporation other than the subject matter.

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Dazzling Brightness and High Velocity

[Sponsored Post]

Ouch

The first sunny day I donned my hat and went out to the playground with my students, I had to beat a hasty retreat to the staffroom with tears streaming from my eyes. The intense glare reflecting off the pale packed dirt rendered my hat completely useless as far as eye protection goes. For the next few years I caused much amusement among my kids by religiously wearing sunglasses. They found it hilarious, for reasons you will understand if you’ve watched much anime; sunglasses seem to be either for fashionable purposes or as a disguise, not everyday sun protection.

Athrun Zala

Totally unrecognisable body-guard

Unfortunately years of dodgeballs to the face, being dropped or sat on and in one case falling overboard into the ocean (the glasses, not me) have taken their toll on the glasses I brought over from Australia. It’s not that I have anything against Japanese sunglasses, it’s just that they all say “UV cut” and nothing else, which tells me exactly nothing about how much protection my eyes are actually getting. It’s even worse when it comes to motorcycle glasses. Australia has safety standards to rate how shatter-proof riding glasses are. There’s no point in wearing a shatter-proof helmet if inside it your eyes are being cut to ribbons by a cheap pair of regular sunnies. While I am sure one can obtain safe sports eye-wear in Japan I just don’t have the language ability to figure out what ratings to look at or what brands to trust. I’ve been suffering recently with glare while riding (as well as in the playground) and frankly driving in Japan is scary enough when I can see for me to want to attempt it squinting. 

Luckily for me, an online discount eye-wear outlet site called Smartbuyglasses not only stocks high velocity rated sunglasses in amongst the Ray-Bans and Juicy Couture but also were kind enough to give me a pair in exchange for me introducing their site. I’m not personally interested in fashion or brand names; I always bought my sunglasses from the Cancer Council in Australia. If fashion is your thing, the 50 % off price tags will probably be appealing. For me the advantages of the site are two-fold. First, I can google the models in English to get an SPF for sunglasses, and second, they have motorcycle and other sports glasses (PAINTBALL GLASSES!!!) with durability and safety ratings I can trust and understand.

The fact of the matter is, I can be a bit of a dick on the road. I follow the rules as much as I can, no one else does, and there are never any police there to protect me. Australians who complain that traffic policing is all about revenue raising, please try riding two wheels in Japan and then see how you feel. I've had lit cigarettes and cans thrown at me for daring to drive only seven or eight kilometres over the speed limit instead of twenty like everyone else. So, I have been known to take my revenge on people who overtake me dangerously by waiting until they get stopped at the next set of traffic lights, coolly and calmly making my way up to the head of the queue (legal in Japan) and then taking off at exactly the speed limit. It drives them crazy, they do another insane over-take on a blind corner, burn off into the distance, get stuck at traffic lights, rinse, repeat. I know it is evil but sometimes I just need to make myself feel better (for the record, I started doing this after having things thrown at me, it has not been the cause of any projectiles yet). After confessing this naughty habit to my dear husband he mildly suggested that I should "ride safely now that we are starting a family..." XD So, long story short, I am happy to be adding some high velocity glasses to my collection of safety gear. Thanks Smartbuyglasses.

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Hairy Caterpillars

Cute, right?

Last year I mentioned 毛虫 in the orientation lecture I did for the ALTs coming into my prefecture. It was part of a section on annoyances and dangers, and I told them all to stay away from the hairy caterpillars. I’d never seen one, so it was pretty hypothetical. In English 毛虫 seems to translate as either Pine Processionary Caterpillars or Oak Processionary Caterpillars (closely related).

Fast forward to last week, and the hedge beside my carport was crawling with the cute but scary little buggers  (sorry, I can’t resist EVERY pun!).

Forgive the blur, I was in a hurry to get away from them... but see how close they are to my bike?!

At first I thought that they wouldn’t be an issue if we stayed away from them and didn’t provoke their defensive mechanism. I started to get more worried after the vice principal at one of my schools told me to stop parking Rothbart under the trees because 毛虫 might fall on the seat. He said that if they left hairs on the seat and I sat on in, the effects would hit me while I was on the road and “terrible things will happen”. I didn’t know they could penetrate clothing. Then the next day at another school, the garden area was closed off with a big “Danger! 毛虫!” sign and exterminators were called in.

They were everywhere

“Right” I thought, “I need to refresh myself on what the deal is with these guys.” I did a quick google and found story after story of dogs dying in Spain and Portugal after getting the hairs in their mouths and throats. It sends the tongue narcotic and closes the airways. The man person suggested that the European ones might be more dangerous, but the pictures looked the same.

So little, but I hear that terrible things will happen

Then I found one on my bike seat, and the same day a whole bunch of them started having a little procession (processing? processionaling?) across the front door. I went out and bought some pesticide.

My decision may have come too late for this poor bush, sadly

Good bye, hairy little caterpillars.

Can anyone tell me, are the Japanese ones REALLY that dangerous?   

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A Raptor on the Road

I live on the edge of the suburbs. My home is decidedly suburban, but walk for five minutes and all you can see are rice fields and bamboo groves. Walk another ten minutes and you will be in a protected forest, what in Australia we call a National Park. This means that the road I ride to work on has a mix of the ubiquitous dead cats and some more rural victims of the traffic, such as squirrels and tanuki and the odd snake. There are signs warning of wild boar and monkeys, but I’ve never seen either. This morning there was a hawk on the road. It was on the small side, quite young I would guess, probably killed while enjoying some carrion. It’s never nice to see road kill, but sight of what was left of the hawk seemed particularly sad to me. They are such perfect creatures of the air, so light, agile, and effortless in the sky. For such a creature to be crushed against the hard ground, made into a weighty, damp clump that will only be pressed further and further into the road as each subsequent car rolls over it, seems a cruelly unfitting death.

So here are some weightless hawks, as they should be. 

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Bus or Steam Room?

It wasn't raining. Those drops of water are inside the bus, not outside

After being sick for such a long time, I decided to take the bus the work for a while until I felt stronger. It didn’t take long for me to remember why, although driving in Japan is scary, my PCX is my best friend. Japanese buses and department stores are ridiculously overheated in winter and overcooled in summer. Apparently Sweden is the same. If you have to wait at a bus stop in winter of course you’re going to rug up, right? Then the bus arrives and you get on with your coat, beanie, gloves, scarf… and the heater is pumping forty degree air and the windows (here in my little corner of the world, not all over Japan) are all rusted shut. The windows inside become so steamed up that if you sit on the window side your shoulder and scarf become damp. The heat intensifies the smells of the elderly, who seem to make up a majority of bus passengers around here. It's a combination of artificial perfumes, baby powder and that internationally ubiquitous potpourri old lady scent with an undertone of something metallic. It isn't that it is a bad smell exactly; I assume that if you had a close relationship with a grandparent it might even be a nostalgic smell. The problem for me is that you can’t escape from the steamy oppressive air by opening a window and there’s never enough room to get your coat off. You emerge sweaty and red faced, stepping out into the freezing air that turns your wet scarf into an icicle around your neck. I think I’d rather just snot inside my helmet after-all.

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