Restless 10 - Goodbye Nishiki
2002 - Arriving in Kasugai after cycling from Tokushima (with no bike computer, smartphone, or navigation whatsoever).
20 years ago, on August 27th 2001, I moved to Japan. Before leaving I realised I had a small stash of money leftover from a post-graduate overdraft and decided to use it to buy a mountain bike. I shouldn’t have bought it, I should have paid back some of my student loan. But I didn’t. And as I’d only ever seen mamacharis in Japan I fooled myself into thinking that mountain bikes were hard to come by. Ridiculous, I know.
This was two weeks before 9/11 so I simply turned up at Heathrow with the bike crammed into the back of a friend’s tiny Ford Fiesta, pedals off and the tyres deflated. It was checked in with ANA, no questions asked for the flight to Osaka. Two weeks later the whole world shut down and flying with a bicycle would never be the same again.
Somewhere in the mountains somewhere, sometime long before now.
The mountain bike was a 1999/2000 Nishiki Kodiak, on sale for £900 or so because the brand had been discontinued. It seemed like a bargain and in hindsight buying it was a brilliant move. It was just what I needed for exploring my new adopted country.
Fast forward 20 years (20 years!) and I finally said goodbye and retired it last week. It took me no more than 30 minutes or so to dismantle and sell it as scrap at a local metal recycler. Total value - ¥570 (£3.79 excluding inflation) along with another frame and a few other bits and pieces. Surprisingly I was fairly ambivalent about saying goodbye. As the parts lay around me in pieces on the floor, it revealed itself to be nothing more than a jumble of greasy worn bicycle parts fastened together to create a clunky old, but wonderfully practical mode of transport. All the fond memories lie elsewhere.
I had ridden it almost daily until 2013 or so and then gradually less and less as I became more obsessed with long distances on road bikes. I cycled all over Tokushima prefecture, from Tokushima city to Aichi via Wakayama in late August 2002 (during a typhoon) - my first ‘big’ ride - I rode it up Mt. Bizan in central Tokushima most weekends, on daily commutes, and it wasn’t until 2017 that I finally bought myself a new Ritchey 650b to replace it. From then on the Nishiki was relegated to occasional trips into Nagoya because I was afraid of any of my other bikes getting stolen.
Why am I writing this? Well, two reasons.
One: I thought I’d miss it but I don’t. Getting rid of it was easy and I’m happy that I was far less attached to it than I realised. That is a good thing. We should never be defined by our possessions, ever. It played a valuable part in my life but now it’s gone and that’s fine.
Two: In this day and age when every damn year we are increasingly pressured into buying the latest and greatest smartphone, mirrorless camera, or whatever, it’s important to understand that if you take care of things (you know, like our grandparents did), then possessions can actually last a lifetime. Film cameras - my 1990 M6 Leica in particular - and of course bicycles come to mind.
Anyway:
September has been a quiet month spent mostly with family in and around Kasugai. I also spent time going through photos dating back to 1995. I wrote about it in my only post for September, but with autumn finally here and the temperatures dropping the plan is to pick up where I left off on the Kiso-ji/Nakasendo and get some overdue walking done.
Posts this month
Archiving Memories - Contact Prints in a Digital World - SeanBreslin.net
Making a simple case for printing photos in a digital age and archiving memories of a life lived.
Books read
Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino
A Field Guide to Getting Lost - Rebecca Solnit (reread)
Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations - Thomas L. Friedman (reread) Never ever allow your smartphone to automatically connect to unknown wifi sources. Ever.
Music
Revolver - The Beatles
Is This It - The Strokes
Blackest Blue - Morcheeba
I’ve Been Trying to Tell You - Saint Ettiene
Have anything to say? Feel free to email me.