So far, I think my Doc Martens have been the worst decision concerning the items that I packed for Japan.
It is customary to take off your shoes when you enter somebody’s home and some other indoor spaces. I went to see a dermatologist and was required to remove my boots as I went into the building. The first thing I saw when I entered my new apartment was a red sign on the floor near the door that said SHOES OFF! Apparently, it is demanded of me that I remove my shoes in my own home. So as you can imagine, boots above the ankle are extremely impractical if you’re planning to go indoors more than once a day. All that shimmying on, and lacing, and unlacing, and shimmying off gets pretty tedious.
I don’t fit any of the bikes in Maebashi. The woman assigned to help me get settled let me borrow one of her old ones while I look for a bike big enough for me to want to spend money on. Like almost all the bikes in Japan, it’s a cruiser (they call them “city bikes”) with no gears. It’s also a bit rusted because it’s old and not well cared for. It was probably a bit cheap to begin with. The breaks don’t work that well, but there’s no way to go fast enough for this to really matter. Despite that it’s one of the larger sizes of bikes in Japan, it’s also considerably too small for me. You can jack the seat up as much as possible but there’s no way to make the bike any longer. The handle bars crash into my knees everytime I try to turn. I ride down the streets of suburban Maebashi with my blonde hair and my silly Caucasian face and my ridiculously tall body on this little cruiser and I can hear circus music playing. I feel like a trained monkey on a bike. A side show spectacle. Step right up! See the gaijin ride a bike!