And it had all been going so well. So much has happened in the last few hours that I haven't had a moment to write. To explain: I set off from Aomori, but when I'd only ridden 10 km, the bike broke again. The moment I heard a squeal as I was riding, I thought, oh no. A supporting spoke had snapped. The luggage was too heavy after all. Without the luggage I might have been able to ride, but if I'd carried on like that, I think the rear wheel would definitely have given out. I didn't want to pay the same repair bill again, and even if I did, there's no guarantee the same thing wouldn't happen. I'd also achieved my original goal (riding to Aomori), so I was satisfied enough. Even so, I was at a loss. I was ten kilometres from Aomori, and the bike was broken. There was still a week left until I'd meet Bates in Tokyo. I couldn't calm down at all. I phoned my parents and Yuma and felt a little calmer, but I still had to get back to Aomori, or I'd end up living in the countryside with a broken bike forever. I somehow made it back to Aomori at around 7, but the anxiety was still there. I know the next development is unexpected, but I'm an unexpected person. I went to a kickboxing gym. Let me explain first. I did kickboxing and Muay Thai for three years, but I got injured last year and hadn't been able to train since. I really wanted to train, but the tour was my top priority. I thought that if I got injured again I wouldn't be able to do the tour and it would all be wasted, so I rested the whole time. Now that I'd finally completed the tour, I suddenly couldn't resist the urge to do kickboxing. I'd especially missed sparring. So I found a gym and trained for the first time in ages.

The gym is a mixed martial arts gym, but it was a dedicated kickboxing class. The fighters were good, and their technique was flawless. It was pretty interesting. I fight in a Muay Thai style, and my opponents were all using Japan's fast K-1 style. It was so much fun. The sparring was full-on too, and it felt great! The fighters were kind as well and listened to lots of my stories. A mixed martial artist called Takuya-san runs the gym. I could tell from the start that he was strong, and his aura was unreal. Even so, over the course of the session I gradually earned some respect, and by the end Takuya-san and I were properly trading blows. He was only going at 40 percent, of course. Not to brag, but I landed a clean feint high kick on a different opponent. There was also a fighter called Daisuke-san, and when someone said he's like a zombie, I could see why: he really was scary and looked like he'd never give up. Apparently he turns into a zombie once he takes a hit 🧟‍♂️. Scary. He's good at jiu-jitsu too. Way too scary. There was a funny guy as well, and we talked a lot. He taught me words from the dialects of Aomori and the surrounding area. He tried speaking English too, but used Japanese when he didn't know a word. While polishing the mirrors, he said, "mirror with boss is very very inochigake (life-or-death)," and everyone cracked up. From now on I'll be cheering on the gym's fighters, and if I can, I'd like to go and watch Takuya-san fight in Tokyo too.