Some petrol stations were interesting – they often didn’t have pumps, just hoses hanging from the roof with the corresponding pump number and amount on an LED screen above the door into the garage.
Cars were mostly white grey, beige and sometimes black. Only about 1 in 50 was a bright colour.
Bike riding was chaotic and loose. Only young children wore helmets and there didn’t seem to be a ‘cool’ factor. Maybe it was a case of bike schmike – purely functional. Most of them were Nana bikes.
Road rage seemed non-existent – I hadn’t even witnessed road annoyance. The patience of drivers and bikers was Buddha like.
The day before I had seen an old man having to pull his bike out from a row that had fallen over and he didn’t seem particularly bothered.
MayhemA few days earlier, one of the bus Henro was wearing traditional henro white ‘cloven hoove’ shoes. I asked Nakano San about them. She told me they were called Jikatabi and that I would find some at Temples 45 and 77. I couldn’t help but lust after them and kept thinking about my friend RT who had a unique taste in footwear and how much she would love them.
After I found out about them, I saw workmen on roads and bridges wearing them too.
I was missing Europeans. In two weeks of constant travel, I had only seen 20 at the most, 10 of those in Tokyo on the first day here and not one other Henro. I hadn’t seen any at all for about a week.
Sometimes I got a bit hurt when people pointed and laughed at me. I was laughed at, or about everyday, which I didn’t usually mind but I didn’t like it when it was disrespectful.
HAH! I just saw a blonde/red head European biking past. Yay!
1 comment:
That does hurt getting laughed at, but I guess it says more about their culture than it has anything to do with you. I struggle with how to respond. Stare back? Laugh back? Maybe the best thing is to just bow slightly and smile?
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