Good news and bad news.
Good news is I got my biked fixed. Bad news is I had a pretty bad wreak on it yesterday.
Amy and I walked my bike to the bike store, which took about 40 minutes, and I showed the guy the broken chain and somehow got my point across that I wanted it fixed. So he got the idea and asked me if I wanted to buy a new chain to which I answered in the affirmative. So while he was fixing it Amy and I looked at some of the bikes there and ended up getting her one. It's a granny bike and all, but it's pretty nice. I'll have to put a picture of it up at some point. So between the new bike, fixing my chain and buying a new lock we spent about $240. Cheap if you ask me because it also buys me the luxury of not having to listen to Amy complain about the crap bike she has to ride when we go places. She's going to leave the bike here at my place due to the fact that here is where it is most needed. Her town is small and she can walk everywhere while Kofu is quite large and having a bike here is nearly a necessity. So now I have three bikes here with me.
So anyway, later in the day we went to Starbucks for a small JET thing and then Amy had to go the international center for some work she had to do and I rode home by myself. As I often do when I'm not loaded down with bags or groceries I was going fast. For some reason I just can't bike slow. Unless I'm with Amy or carrying something, I tend to ride quite quickly. So I was riding along and approaching an S-turn that I've gone through many many times before. Problem with this S-turn is that it is quite blind, but if you stay to your side of the road you can make it through quite easily even though it is kinda narrow. So I was about halfway through it when a car suddenly appears coming at me and right in my path. Now I'm not blaming her as I admit I was going too fast, but she was a bit too far over on my side of the road. So I slam on my brakes and swerve to miss her and promptly fall to my left side sliding down the road a bit. I remember quite well (slow motion and all that) that I hit my head on the pavement (no, I don't wear a helmet) and somehow got my left foot tangled up in the straps on the pedals. All of this hurt quite nicely and I lied there for about five seconds before I got up. When I did finally peel myself off the road, the lady rolled down her window and said, "Daijobu des ka?" (are you ok?) to which I said "Yeah, yeah, daijobu." She then apologized in both Japanese and English and I tried to indicate to her that it was alright and my fault. She had a look of horror on her face and was probably thinking something along the lines of "Holy shit! I just killed a foreigner!" So I got back on the bike after looking it over and rode the rest of the way home. During my ride my left foot was killing me and I just knew that I had nearly amputated my toes and that they must be bleeding but I figured I just get home and check myself out there. But to my surprise I was not bleeding from my toes at all. Quite amazing considering how they felt. But I did manage to scrap up my foot, my knee, and got a pretty bad looking road rash thing on my left hip. All of this looks quite bad but none of it is very deep. My arms, chest and back are all ok as it was a little chilly yesterday and I had two long sleeve shirts on.
The rest of the day yesterday I felt ok, but today my neck is truly killing me. I guess I must have pulled something. It's been gradually feeling worse and worse all day and right now it is quite tight. Amazingly, though, my head feels fine and can still put words together to form sentences (you can read this, right?). Anyway, needless to say, I will now be slowing down for that particular turn. I really don't want to have to have the Japanese hospital experience. I think I'll try to avoid that one.
So that's my story on a Sunday evening. Tomorrow is another Kencho day and perhaps I'll write something more. Goodnight.