So for the second time, my rear bike tire got a flat, leaving me very annoyed and a very long way away from the Jusco repair center.
Being a lazy person that didn’t want to walk the damn bike the whole probably 1-2 hour trip there, I instead decided to google map “bicycle” and see what I could find. There was actually a fairly close place about a ten minute walk from my dorm, so today I went out to find it. I am soooooooo glad I looked up the words for “repair” and “flat tire” because I had to use them both in the conversation.
Then came the scary part.
I was just kinda watching the guy do his thing, taking out the inner tube to replace it, when the older woman inside called for me to come in and have tea.
Those of you with no experience in such matters, this is akin to being invited to high tea with the queen. The Japanese are increeeediblyyyyy formal with giving and accepting food/tea, and comes with all sorts of little formalities and sayings that, if omitted, can cause tremendous unvoiced hostility.
I have never been more thankful in my life for the tradition of “aisatsu”, which basically tells people you’re listening without having to add anything to the conversation. I smiled and nodded and occasionally took sips of tea, all the while kinda zoning out on what she was saying (she had an accent I couldn’t really understand, but it was something about her son, I think) and hoping that the other guy would finish with my bike soon.
Also, I suck at peeling oranges. I hope there isn’t some sort of formality with peeling those because otherwise I broke it.
Regardless, at the end of maybe 10 minutes (it felt longer), I was called out to the front to get my bike, which he fixed beautifully, pumped air into my other tire as well, and it only cost 10 bucks. I’ll probably go there if this happens again, but damn was that scary.
On the bright side, there was a small nursery close by, so I’ll probably head there sooner or later to get some sort of plant to take care of. I kinda miss my huge coleus from last year (which has probably died by now…)
Went to an Indian restaurant for dinner with the Japanese speaking group. Yumm, tandoori chicken, garlic naan and mango lassi. Spicy without being overbearingly so. A couple of the Japanese were dying of the heat of the curry XD Can’t take real curry, only their Japanese imitation.
