Have Bike, Will Slog

Something possesed me last night:

"Here is an idea, Maria - ride your bike to Kitano-sensei's (my koto teacher) house! It's ok if its south of Kyoto Station and is going to be 46 degrees out!"

Maybe it was the fact that I am going over budget recently, and I needed to save the bus money. Maybe it was also that after several days of incessant rain (and it rained last night too!) I was itching to enjoy the (cold) sunshine.

So, I hoofed it. On bike.

Oh but wait, the story gets better.

Higashi-oji Dori has narrow sidewalks at one point or another - so narrow in fact that there is only room for one person. It can be a bit risky at times; for the first time in my life I actually rode my bike on the street for several lengths of time. Of course I went slow. I always get to Kitano-sensei's house rather early, and I didn't want to sweat alot with the going-up-the-mini-hills brou-haha. Didn't the city works committees way back in the day when they paved the roads hear of LEVELLING it? Oh well.

At least there are only two big hills (Shijo and Gojo), as opposed to too many little hills on Kawabata/along the Kamogawa. I still had to take my sweater off. When I wear my navy blue plaid peacoat (many of you have seen this peacoat) I wear this gray, zippered cardigan from J.Crew. It's friggin' cold out, man!

It's important to mention this sweater right now. Most of you probably know that I am a very big devotee to that store (and that is still an understatement). All that aside, there is a nice memory associated with the sweater:

When I was 15, I got some birthday money from my Nouna (godmother) and my dad took me to the J.Crew store on Prince Street in SoHo - WAY before it decided that $158 cashmere sweaters were the norm as opposed to $48 merino wool sweaters (basic wool sweaters are now $68 - I wait till stuff goes on sale, as I always have). We were looking around trying to figure out what I could get with my birthday money, when my dad picked up a gray, zippered cardigan with pockets and a drawstring:

"Ah, I had a sweater like this when I was your age, but with buttons. This is a good sweater."

My dad used to work in the garment district as a furrier, making mink coats for designers like Oscar de la Renta, Calvin Klein, Valentino, etc. He once made one specifically for Vera Wang (the person). So when I go shopping, I go either usually with my dad, or ask him what he thinks either before I get it (online) or after, when I buy it.

I knew then that that was a good sweater. So, I got it.

Seven years (and many wears and trips to the dry cleaners) later, and I still have the sweater. There is not one hole in it. So I usually wear it in the winter when I wear short sleeved stuff, or as an extra layer. I was getting hot as I rode to Kitano-sensei's house so I took it off and shoved it in my bike basket. Never thought to put it in my bag.

Plink, plink, PLONK (my right hand is really not used to all the grunt work) and an hour later, I am making the reverse trip back up Higashi-oji. I had an errand to run - I needed to get my re-entry permit, since I am going abroad for Christmas. The subject of re-entry permits and my beef with them are the subject of a later post.

On the way, I remember that there was a shop I wanted to go to but it wasn't open yet. I keep forgetting that shops here open at 11, not 10 am. I go to a cafe and sit there for the next 45 minutes, drinking a weak and expensive (500 yen!) Cafe Au Lait. Coffee and Japan - another post. 11:15 am rolls around and the shop is still not open. Bah! I then head onto my errand for the morning: Kyoto Immigration Office.

I go to Immigration and fill out the application. In order to get the revenue stamp that says you paid the money for the permit in order to get the permit, you need to go outside the building, walk around the corner to another building and go to the Revenue Stamp Office. Japanese bureaucracy and my beef with that will be another post as well. Stay tuned.

I go to the office and get my stamp; I was in a bit of a rush. I had a craving for nabe-yaki udon from the cafeteria and I wanted to see if Chen was around for the usual time of lunch at 12pm. It was now 11:45am. I am biking back up to my house to get my books and laptop before I head to Rune (the cafeteria) when I realized something. I actually exclaimed aloud:

"WHERE IS MY SWEATER?"

I practically brake so hard that my bike squealed in protest. Good thing I parked it under the shelter last night - as I mentioned before, it rained AGAIN. I turn around, and go to the Immigration Office.

Not there.

I go back to the cafe where I had my coffee.

Not there.

The shop that I was waiting for earlier was actually open by now so I decided I might as well check it out. The minute I parked my bike, it hit me:

I left my sweater at the REVENUE STAMP OFFICE, not the Immigration Office. I was so tired at this point, I had no choice but to continue my morning slog. I leave the shop, head back to the Revenue Stamp Office. It was closed. I had forgotten that Japanese offices actually have a set lunch hour, usually from 12 to 1. I actually bang on the door, praying that someone was there. Luckily, someone heard my banging and when I said I regrettably forgot a greay sweater (as that was the direct translation) she handed it to me.

O thank god. My sweater has been restored.

Unfortunately, no nabe-yaki udon. It was already 12:45 by the time I got back to my apartment so I went for the next best thing:

Piza-man and Bifu-karee-man from the Clocktower coop shop.