aaaaand I hit a curb...

This is what happens to your bike when you try to battle a curb
(And no this is not my bike I know some of you are wondering)

No, I didn't fall off of my bike again, but I definitely hit a curb...too fast. One teeny tiny small fact about Japan that I did not know before arriving. Japanese curbs are pretty high. They aren't so high as to make you fall forward on your bike (unless you are really just GUNNING it), but they are high enough that if you do not have a mountain bike and you try to have a one-on-one duel with the curb VS. your bike tire at high speeds, the curb will win my friend, the curb will win.

Last night on the way home from dancing I was going pretty fast. I had my bike in third gear and I was blazing down the deep dark sidewalks of Tottori Japan. Suddenly I realized I was going a bit too fast as I approached *DUN DUN DUUUUNN* The Curb!!! I couldn't slow down fast enough and I went over the curb pretty hard. I managed to stay on my bike, but something was different. Something that wasn't happening before I hit the curb was now happening. At first I tried to ignore it, then it started to make itself known more and more and more to the point where I actually had to stop my bike to check and make sure it wasn't what I thought and knew that it was. Yup, my tire is flat. Specifically my front tire had gone flat.

I thought to myself, "Maybe this had just been happening over time and the curb took the last bit of air out of the tire". Yeah, that was a stupid idea because that is obviously not what happens. To put it simply, I got in a battle with a curb and the curb won. Flawless. Victory. (For those of you that don't know that's a Mortal Kombat reference, I was watching it last night). This afternoon when I woke up I decided to go to the store and buy a pump in the hopes that it was just a flat tire that needed to be pumped back up. As I was trying to pump up the tire nothing was happening. It just seemed to stay flat. I thought I might have been doing something wrong when I finally decided to believe that, yes, my inner tube had a hole in it because of the battle with the curb the night before.

As I am obviously getting nowhere in pumping up my tire, a Japanese man, whom I believe lives in my building, came up to me and started speaking Japanese while pointing at my bike. From what I gathered, and from what little Japanese I spoke and understand and what little English he spoke and understands, there was a bike shop RIGHT across the street from where I live. This I did not know. Only one problem, he told me it was closed today, but he told me there is another bike store very close that could fix my inner tube. The guy was so awesome, he drew me a map and I knew exactly where it was. As I thanked him, he literally ran off because it seemed as if he was late for something, even though while he was helping me he did not seem anxious at all.

I took my bike over to the shop and got it fixed. I wasn't sure if I was in the right spot so in my broken Japanese I tried to ask "Where is the bike shop?", but stupidly, I was standing in it, haha. After I failed to communicate anything to the man working at the store, he decided to just come out and look at the bike. He saw that the front tire was flat and I did some gestures that let him know I tried to pump it up, but it wouldn't pump up. I kept telling him "Wakari masen, goemnai sai" which means, "I don't understand, I'm sorry". And from what TEENY bit of Japanese I know, he kind of smiled and said "Ah, he doesn't know Japanese." And kind of chuckled about it. But either way, he patched up my inner tube and I was able to get riding within fifteen minutes. It was amazing because I thought I would have to leave my bike overnight somewhere and he just dropped what he was doing to fix my inner tube. That was great!

So, to date, I have had to have my bike fixed three times.

1) Back tire was flat and innertube seemed to be messed up, I got a new tire.
2) My seat was out of WHACK and wouldn't go back down into the bike because the rod was bent on the end and it slowly started to lean back so far it looked as if I was low-riding everywhere on my bike. Got a new seat and a new rod.
3) My front inner tube got a hole in it because it lost a bout with a curb, got my inner tube patched.

I've only been with Andre a couple of months and already I've had to fix her up a bit. Andrea is the name of my bike for those of you who are a bit confused.

Things are still going swimmingly in Japan. I got a gym membership and I am getting back on my workout grind. Gotta look good for the summer. Oh, and I bought Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete on Blu-Ray disc the other day along with a ton of other Final Fantasy VII stuff. I love that this country has everything that makes me ecstatic!! I gotta give props to Armella that statement because she IMed me saying, "I love how Japan has everything that makes you ecstatic!" It's so true! JERPAN yay!!

-Jeremy aka If I have to get my bike fixed one more time...