Wits and Guts...

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Since the "death" of my bike last week, I have been forced to take extreme measures to ensure that I go to work on time and get home in 1 piece. So without any means of transport, living 8 km from the work place and 1 hour walking distance from any main districts with a house located deep in the forest, what will you do?

Well, presented with a clear and present situation above right in my face, I sorted out realistic and realisable options and weigh the risk and return factors...I finally settled with only 2 feasible options...

1. Suffer at my own expense and try to pull through without losing a limb or two.

2. Suffer at other people`s expense and never stop believing.

Given that I tend to take risk more often than usual, I took the second option...So instead of walking 8 km thru the forest with God knows what kind of animals residing in it and awaiting a high cholesterol meal like me, I hijack innocent passing vehicles...hahaha

Well literally the word is hitchhike, which till date I have yet managed to actually solicit any passing vehicles in Singapore. So with my poor bike busted, I have no other options available so hitchhiking is the only way to get a free ride. So as of today, I have successfully hitch a ride to work every morning without fail to a close proximity of around 1 to 2 km from my school. Given that I have only started this insane stint last week with respect to my entire years of existence, it`s still a hell of an experience. All the drivers are male by the way, which makes perfect sense since no sane female would expose themselves to such risks and given that a huge percentage of Japanese females are pretty shy.

Most of the time, I am pretty lucky to get a ride within like 15 mins of walking from my house and it does really help if you can speak Japanese. Chances are that if they can`t understand where you are going, you ain`t getting on board. Yesterday nite was probably the most memorable journey till now. I went to Nagano City to get some paperwork done for my VISA, and got back to Komoro Station by train at around 1800 hrs which the skies were already stripped of any light with only a very faint glimpse of barely visable golden streaks lurking on the horizon. From there, I had to ask my way around to catch a bus back to Mochizuki town where I reside as there are like 4 bus stops instantly outside Komoro`s station.

As usual I did managed to find my way back by bus by politely striking informal and unrehearsed conversations with sweet high school students in their unbelievably short skirts. Alrite, I confessed I did looked at how darn short their skirts are but that`s about it...haha.

So the bus ride was about 50 minutes and when I got to Mochizuki, I still had to walk like almost an hour thru the complete pitch black forest path as there are absolutely no street lamps. And so after walking like almost 30 minutes with no success in hitching a ride, my hopes began to whimper and the image of resting on my comfy bed seems to fade. As I begin to climb the ardous slope up the forest path, I gritted my teeth and told myself never to stop beliving while secretly plotting insane tricks to get a ride home in the corner of my mind. Feigning to be injured looks pretty tempting as the virtual imagery plays in my head.

And then a mini Kei-truck pulls up beside me after seeing my hitchhike sign...I am saved! The driver was a young Japanese dude affectionately names Terry, which I am still trying to figure out the original motive for acquiring that name. So the much scary thought of walking thru the almost impossible pitch black forest vanished instantly...

There there there...it ain`t so bad after all, a few phrases of Japanese, wits and tons of courage will solve minor issues temporary I guess...so until I get my transport, I will enjoy these insane hitchhikes...haha