Of Trains and Bikes

Despite being resident for quite some time now, I have come to realize that you can never really get to understand a city from the inside of a train. I don't know what it is, but they seem to nurture a very surreal travel experience, as how you get there seizes to be an issue. Simply pick a node off a network diagram, pass through the ticket gate, and you magically appear at your destination some minutes later. What transpires during those minutes is all but forgotten the moment you pass back through the ticket gate and return to the real world. Despite the convenience, it is a waste of time in a very literal sense of the word. It also encourages the belief that every station is its own island, trains being the only means by which you can get from one to another.

I don't think anybody actually believes that, but at times it's very easy to forget that it isn't the case. All too often I would wander miles from a station, and naturally assume that at some point I must return to that same station, without it even occurring to me that there are probably a dozen other stations much closer. The words "waste of time" come to mind again.

This was one of many reasons I was eager to get a bike back on the road; wanting to see the real city beyond the artificial time and space warping rail network, and seeing how all these towns are actually linked together, and I must say the past couple of weeks have been quite enlightening. For example, I was checking the route to get to the Asmic Ace Entertainment offices (in preparation for my meeting Wedneday) which are in the immediate vicinity of the Almond Café, and low and behold a single road connects it to the town I live in. I mean, that's just insane! The same journey would require I change trains twice, the second time being to a completely different network meaning I get stiffed on the ticket price twice. A single road, 11 kilometers, less than half a litre of petrol, about 60 Yen tops. A return trip would cost the same amount as a canned softdrink from a vending machine. And having now run the route I see for the first time how my small flat in whatever town it is I live connects to the wider city whole. Tokyo just got bigger.

There are two things however that I failed to anticipate, and curiously they both relate directly to traffic lights. First off, they're everywhere! Every major road has a set of signals about every 50 yards or so, slowing progress to an absolute crawl 24/7. In this regard, I have to say that bikes don't appear to offer a significant advantage over cars. I may be able to filter to the front of traffic queues, and leave other vehicles in my exhaust fumes on take off, but they'll soon catch up in plenty of time before the next set of lights turns green. And the lights take so long to change I'm wondering if the bike offers a significant advantage over walking, or even just staying at home and enjoying a cup of tea. You'd get there just as fast. Secondly, and this may just be me… a disproportionate number of traffic light junctions offer no indication whatsoever as to where any of the routes lead. It's bad enough that I have no sense of direction (I was instead gifted with a fairly photographic memory and Star Wars Pitch™ - similar to perfect pitch, but only works when identifying the opening note of the Star Wars theme tune) but this lack of information ensures that what should be a simple trip into town becomes a logistical nightmare. Let's see, I wish to get to Yotsuya. I don't know what it looks like. Most junctions have no signs. Those that do don't seem to be sending me anywhere useful. If I were on the train, I'd change at Shinjuku, so maybe I should go via there. Oh bugger, that didn't work. What direction am I heading? Help! You get the idea.

That's where this rather handy device comes in useful. It's a Mio 168RS Pocket PC with a built in GPS and navigational software. This is not my first experience with a GPS navigational system as my mobile phone has the same function. I'm pleased to report however that the Mio 168RS, unlike EZ Navi, actually works, and pretty well too. The interface is a tad clumsy, which I'm no longer used to since I purged my house of Microsoft products, but once it gets going it does the job of telling me where I am and what I am doing efficiently enough that I can just pick a place to go and no longer have to think about how to get there. And as an added bonus, it's a pocket device so when I do use the train, I can follow the journey on the map in real time, which I can never do while driving! It's quite enlightening watching the little arrow float over fields and across rivers where no vehicle or pedestrian may tread, and then stop right in the centre of all the action. Yeah, trains are pretty sweet!