Kawasaki and the Jolly Orange Giant

I biked to Kawasaki a few weeks back. Its a fair distance - 45 km roughly. Of course, it would have been easier if it wasn't biking upwind the whole way and raining. I'm still not entirely sure how, but I think I've angered one of the motorcycle gods. Maybe it's just that I've visited far too many shrines, and I'm now starting to get a smidge superstitious, but I think it was all trying to tell me something.

I biked toward Kawasaki, and it started raining. I get to the outskirts of Yokohama, and I'm forced on to the sidewalk. The streets are just too crowded, and there's no room to squeeze by on a bike. The sidewalks aren't much safer but are instead plagued with slow-moving clusters of little old ladies. I swerve around a small flock of them and on to the driveway of a fire station. I hit a small, very wet metal grate the spans the entire driveway, and my wheels immediately flew out to the side, me going the other direction. I gracefully caught myself with my knee on the concrete, followed by half my body.

I was going very slow, so nothing seemed seriously damaged. My new gloves were a bit chewed up, but there was nothing I'd have to put in a sandwich bag and take to the nearest emergency room. I quickly explained to a group of firemen who were sitting in their car watching the whole time that I was indeed alright. I then said the same to the little old ladies. I got on my bike and headed off again, with a new fear for metal grates.

I arrived in Kawasaki, I found that the right pedal on my bike was broken from the fall. A jagged piece of aluminum alloy rose from the pedal and had pierced through most of the sole of my shoe. A tinge of blood had seeped through my jeans on my knee. Maybe the fall would leave a few marks, but there was nothing I could do now, soaking in the rain about two hours from home. I continued on to the shrine I was going to visit.

I met up with Nana, visited the shrine, and tool a stroll around Kawasaki. The evening set in, and it was time to head home, shivering, wet, and partially limping. It was too late, too cold, and too long to worry about biking home. I'd just take the train back and pick up my bike the next day. As I was walking down the poorly-lit sidewalk toward the train station. My right foot went down toward the concrete but found something part-way between. It slipped out from under me, bringing me hard down on my left knee.

It felt like I stepped on ice.

It was cold, but we were still a bit above freezing. I squinted in the dark to try to find what took me down. I didn't have to look hard. Still stuck under my foot, I found the culprit: a tiny, overturned plastic hubcap. It was only five inches across, reason enough to not be seen at night. The inside was black, helping it disappear in the darkness. The other side was convex, making it like a tiny, plastic sled. It was most likely for one of the rear wheels of a three wheeled scooter. I pushed my self back up. I knew I was already bleeding from this one. I steadied myself, unsure of what leg to now limp on.

Ok, lets recap: in Yokohama, I slipped and hurt my right knee. In Kawasaki, I slipped on a hubcap and hurt my left knee even worse. The hub cap bore the brand name Suzuki, and I was only a block away from the Suzuki-chou station.

I'm not sure which of the motorcycle gods I've angered, but someone is sharpening sticks with me in mind.

As for the shrine, a photo is worth a thousand words. I'll tell you all about the shrine when I go there for a festival on April first and second.