After buying our bikes, we bought some lunches at Aeon. The prepared meals in the grocery store section are, in my opinion, all tasty looking. They had vegetable sushi rolls, and inarizushi. Inarizushi is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is so delicious. I've actually eaten it for a number of dinners now, because I love it so much. I had my second lecture course that afternoon at 4:30PM titled Field Bioscience. It is located in a building at the other end of the university. However, now that I have my bike it took only a few minutes to reach. This time I found the classroom with no trouble. I should mention that these courses are taught by multiple professors, and so there will be a new lecturer almost every week.
Today, in the morning I took my Japanese Placement Test. It was a little bit frustrating, because it was a computerized test, and fill in the blank. There were 100 questions to be completed in 50 minutes. I unfortunately was too laid back during the first half of the test, focusing a lot on each question, and so I was not able to make it through all of the questions in time. I am not too concerned, though, because I think I will (hopefully) still be placed in the Intermediate level which is likely where I fit best. I sure dislike computerized tests, although I am glad for the paper that they save. After my test, I stopped by the Agriculture building Student Affairs Office to see if my student ID card was ready. It was, and I was instructed to head to the Agriculture library next to apply for a library card. In the early afternoon I went for a run around the perimeter of the university. It was a good way for me to see what all of the outside of the campus looks like. I still feel as though I receive more stares than are necessary, though. I often have the feeling, based on everyone's faces, that I am breaking some sort of rules. But as far as I can tell, everyone else runs in these places too! Recently I have found myself a little bit frustrated that as a foreigner it appears that no matter what I do, I am wrong. I try to always be polite and respectful, but believe it or not, from many strangers I have felt somewhat rudely treated. That may have more to do with my self-consciousness than reality. Those who I have genuine interactions with, or who have assisted me, have all generally been very kind.
After my run, I prepared to set out on my bike excursion for the day. The past few nights, I have been mapping out potential routes. I found from maps that if I follow the little stream that I reach on my runs by heading due north from my dorm, the little stream eventually turns into a man-made river that empties into the ocean! There is a sidewalk that follows the river all the way there in a very simple straight line. So as it turns out, the ocean is only 8 miles away! I was excited for this, both because I have only seen the ocean a few times, and also because it would be simple to navigate. I took off on my new bike. One of the downsides of Sapporo is that there is a ridiculous amount of traffic. The roads alongside the river were very noisy and busy, and if there's one sound that I dislike and that stresses me out, it is fast traffic. However, it gradually calmed down the farther I went. I was so relieved once the traffic was less noisy. From outside my dorm room, I am able to see the outlines of tall hills, and my eyes have always been drawn there. The farther I went, the closer these appeared, and they were no longer so hidden by the cityscape. It was a beautiful sunny day, and this made everything even more pleasant. I passed what appeared to be a couple of community gardens, a golf course, and smaller, calmer homes. One remaining frustration was that--and I do not mean any offense--but folks here don't know how to bike in a safe, orderly manner. It feels like there are no rules! Of course, because I am a foreigner, that means that if something goes wrong, it is my fault. I found that to be the case many times when, although I was biking in a straight line without weaving on what is supposed to be the correct side of the road (I have been told left side), I often had to swerve around others who for no reason whatsoever were on the wrong side, or chose to drift whichever which way. Some folks even almost caused me to run into sign posts, just because they weren't paying attention or didn't feel like sharing the road even when there was space. I'm not sure what is going on. But I will do my best to stay safe, and stay polite. Anyways, that is a smaller matter for now, and did not manage to outshine the lovely river. The road all the way there is called Shinkawa, meaning "new river." I believe that it was redirected and straightened through construction. Its dead-straight course is certainly not that of a free river, and there are landscaped, cement walls along its side. It probably carries excess water out of the city. There were a few interesting bridges that I passed as well--one was called Tengubashi and had a carving of a tengu. Tengu are a sort of Japanese goblin, and so the name means Tengu bridge. In the end, I came to a gravel road that I was a little too nervous to take on my own, especially with my thin tires. I could smell the ocean, though, and it was not more than 800 meters away. Looking back at a map, I was nearly there and so next time I will know exactly where to go to reach the shore. The river was so beautiful though, and the soft breeze, mild temperature, and golden light. There and back it was only a 16 mile ride, which is just 2 hours total. How wonderful! This adventure gave me more confidence that I can reach the places I hope to see.
P.S. I should mention that I gave my bike the name Akaji, based on my ride today. I had originally come to this name using the 'ji' 自from 'jitensha' (自転車) meaning bicycle, combined with the color red, Aka to give 'Akaji'. Therefore, it would be short for Aka Jitensha (red bike). Curiously, Akaji is another word for Akachan, which means baby/infant as well as the name of a well-known Japanese actor, Akaji Maro. However, I wanted to use special kanji (chinese characters) to fit the pronunciation. 'Aka' as I mentioned means red, and my bike is bright red. To contrast my friend the Red Death, I chose a happier reading for 'ji.' There are a number of options for kanji that use the sound 'ji' in Japanese. I spent awhile thinking about what would be best. Some of the ideas I had included earth (ground) 地, road 路, briar 茨, and calm 次--all of which use the pronunciation 'ji' and I thought might be acceptable. One kanji stuck out to me in particular. It comes from the word 'haseru', meaning to run, gallop, sail, or to direct a wagon and luckily is read as 'ji' in combination with other kanji. Therefore, my bike's name came together as Red Runner/Galloper (赤馳), implying a fast moving red object, much like a fast red horse. And for short, on slow days I may call him 'jiji', meaning 'old man.'