Gee Whiz

One of the things I get to do living out in the country - far away from Tokyo... like about 200 kilometres away... I'm afforded the luxury of getting away from people.

Despite my reckless abandon and wild persona, I'm actually kind of shy and prefer the shadows to the limelight. It means I value my privacy.

Sounds like complete bullcrap, doesn't it? I mean, here I am baring myself to you, oh gentle reader, with nary a though for my own ego.

The way I figure it, it happened. Learn from it. Let's move on. It's also kind of funny, eh?

Ohtawara-shi is a city. There were about 50,000 people in this smallish burg, in the province of Tochigi-ken. Sounds like a lot, but the city was spread out over quite a large area.

Anyhow... I get to ride my over-sized (by Japanese standards) blue bicycle, that was cobbled together by one of the hundreds of bicycle shop owners that populate my city.

I have a lock for it, and because I'm from Canada, I actually use it - old habits die hard, I suppose. From what  I could see - Japanese folks are by and by the large part very trustworthy. Okay... that's only sort of true - at least as far as bicycles go.

In Tokyo, I did observe a lot of locked bicycles - but then again, there are a lot more gaijin (foreigners/outsiders) around. As well, at the local Nishinasuno eki (train station) that's about a 20-minute ride to the northwest - there are a lot of bicycles locked up.

But at my schools, no one locks their bikes. And, I can honestly tell you, not once did I hear about anyone having their bike stolen.

But trust and bicycles are not what this episode is about.

While riding my bicycle through the roads disguised as pathways that cut between the rice paddies here in Ohtawara, I have noticed that during every single trip, there are rice farmers--Japanese gentlemen--relieving themselves right there in the paddies.

I'm unsure if this is part of Japanese irrigation techniques, or if this actually part of Japanese farming techniques. I mean really... have you ever tasted Japanese rice? It has a very unique flavour.

Somewhere relieved this blog is over,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title was brought to you by me. But was sung by: Carla Thomas
She's Number One in my books: HERE
Pee Ess: I've sometimes found Japanese rice to have a nice warm sake (Japanese rice wine) flavour, though that could just be my warped imagination.