It began to sink in on this morning’s ride along the Tama River that this aspect of my life, such a crucial activity over the years of the covid pandemic, is drawing to a close.
Many people are fixtures along the river, just as I suppose I must be for them.
Over the years we have become familiar and share greetings, as well as inspiration, and sometimes even the occasional conversation and, dare I say it, friendship.
Next week, I begin a new job and will commute into central Tokyo once again.
My commute will, unfortunately, be by train, and not by bicycle as it was for many years with my previous job in the center of the capital.
I will miss a lot of the people who had been a part of my daily life, even if our acquaintance was never more than fleeting. And it struck me today that I may never see many of them again. It’s a little sad, as for a long time they were my sole source of physical interaction with the outside world.
My poignancy was heightened by the glorious conditions, with a full moon glowing resplendently as I set off and a glorious sunrise greeting me as I headed back home down river. The ride was really delightful, even if I wasn’t able to build up the speeds I would have liked.
It was also nice that a new section of track has opened beneath Hino Bridge. I wonder if the contractors knew they had destroyed the habitat of a Japanese pheasant that lived in the area?
Today will be a day of study, preparation and a short trip to get a haircut. Tomorrow is set to be a long day on the bike as I go off to collect a variety of items we’ve recently found on secondhand sales sites on Facebook.
All that was wrong with this morning’s ride was the bloody tetsuo, who swarmed to the railway bridge to take their train photos on a morning that presented us with what I refer to as our Apocalypse Now sunrise, where the sun appears like a huge orb shuttered by wispy clouds. The trainspotters took all the good photo spots. Mind you, I didn’t have a camera good enough to capture the image anyhow.
