Today I Did

One of the things I love about motorcycle riding, besides the plain visceral exhilaration of the wind and acceleration and being totally exposed to the world you're traveling through, is the erasure of all thought.

I've never rock-climbed or defused a bomb, but I imagine it's similar in terms of focus. You can't think about anything other than the thing you are doing. Literally. Your mind is forced into only the present moment as a survival instinct I suppose. On a motorcycle, whether on a busy downtown boulevard or a curvy coastal highway, if your mind wanders, the very best you can hope for is an ambulance ride and some broken bones.

I ride my bike for certain practicalities; trips to the office, errands that I can't walk to, and quick joyrides when time allows.  It's been a while since I rode for six hours straight, even longer since I ventured into completely unknown territory and felt the liberation of not having a destination and that carefree sense of vulnerability. There were a few roads I ventured down today that made me genuinely nervous in the best way; dark old tunnels, steep inclines, blind curves.

The occasional song pops into my head when I'm riding, but that might just be a reflex from the act of operating a motor vehicle. I always have music on in the car. Also I love music. Today I had Oira no Uchi Made by Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi pop into the brain rotation a few times. Other than that there is nothing in my brain when I'm out there. Just the road. The cars in front me. Glances at the rearview mirrors. Checking the surroundings. A cat could run out from the grass on the side of the road. When big trucks pass by going the opposite direction there's a gust of wind that is arresting. Tunnels can get super dark and hypnotizing.  So much. But it's all centered on this moment in time and absolutely nothing else.

The value of this is that, while I ride, my mind becomes free of all the things in this world that are weighing on me, that give me anxiety, that cause stress. It all just has to stop, and the relaxation that this induces is something I need to tap into more often.

More or less today's route. 

The city of Ishinomaki has this little downtown area that I want to visit properly one day. When I was stopped at a light I looked over and made eye contact with a lady sitting on a balcony at a cafe. She was by herself enjoying the morning just sipping coffee and seemed to be thinking about something not too serious. I want to sit on that balcony with a book and a coffee and no plans.

Past Ishinomaki is Onagawa, and if you turn off the main road you'll be pleasantly surprised and also more than a bit curious about who the heck lives in such a place. The road that goes out to Kodakehama is dotted with tiny fishing villages and is like a roller coaster. It winds and goes up and down and there are no guard rails. The cliffs are mighty steep. I was too busy maneuvering, but at one point I did pause and take this one photo that doesn't begin to capture what it's like. Man, the ocean.

I did take a few coffee breaks. No lunch though. I didn't feel hungry. Maybe I was getting a different kind of nourishment. I love coffee breaks. At one place this super huge crazy guy chatted me up, asking me where I came from and told me he was once at a sumo match in Tokyo and people thought he was a sumo wrestler because he's so fat. He pulled his phone out to show me pictures but then apologized and said you best be on your way.

Eri called me but I wasn't answering. Apparently she wanted to know if I'd be into barbecue when I got back. She assumed correctly and brought home some meat from the supermarket.

Yeah, it's Wednesday. I keep saying to myself that I need to take a little time off now and then to maintain some mental balance, but I never do. Today, I did.