happylife

More about the Segway

The Segway experience was so interesting and exciting for me that I can't yet forget the control feeling. What makes this lawn mower like vehicle innovative is that it is mainly controlled by a computer and all the riders have to do is leaning to their heading. Sure, there are lots of computer assisted vehicles such as airplanes, trains, cars and so on, but they are all controlled mainly by human and primitive physical law and computers only work as assistants; the so called hi-tech airplanes actually can be flown without pilots, but they are indispensable as a back-up and the person in charge, and some ways are always left in which they can fly them without computers. As far as I know, all the vehicles can be controlled by human at least at the last moment in case of emergency. Only the exception is state-of-the-art jet fighters which have swing wings and cannot fly without computer controls. As I mentioned before, I hope someday Segway can run on the public roads in Japan, but I think it's natural that Japan's government is prudent to permit it because no one can assure that it is always safe. Computers and software are not so reliable that we can't commit ourselves to this vehicle.

Segway tour

I woke up early in the morning after a long break. It was to participate in Segway tour in Tokachi forest. As you might know, Segway is an innovative vehicle with two wheels driven by batteries. Though I sometimes saw it running in the U.S. and Canada, it is still banned to run on public roads in Japan. Therefore we can't get it for personal use and only companies with a spacious land such as golf course or factory can purchase it. Tokachi forest is a private forest which is 60 times as large as Tokyo Dome and is owned by a newspaper publishing company. The Segway tour is a popular program held daily in the forest and as far as I know, it is the only for usual people to experience Segway in Japan. It was so easy to ride it that all the tour members were riding it as they liked after 30 minute practice and we started the tour on it. The tour course was really great; running through a ranch, climbing up and down a hill and moving slowly on the rough road in the forest. The maximum speed, which is 20 km/h, may not seem fast comparing with any other vehicles, but it was fast enough to enjoy moving around the vast area in a limited time. I hope this vehicle is someday permitted in Japan and it becomes as popular as mini bikes.

A phantom bridge

Japan is a mountainous country and we have a lot of dams all around the islands. Hokkaido is not the exception. I think dam is a great invention because it can be used both for power generation and impoundment. Sure it is largely affected by weather, it is way more safer than nuclear power plants and cleaner than thermal power stations. In many cases, there are some villages submerged by a dammed-up river and when the river is dried up, they sometimes appear with abandon buildings and roads. This bridge is one of them. It used to be a railroad bridge more than fifty years ago and it is now called a phantom bridge because it is usually under water. Fortunately or unfortunately, we can see it more often these days because of the less precipitation maybe related to the global warming weather. When I visited, it was standing heavily weathered and it looked like ancient Roman ruins.

Rider's high

The state of euphoria while running is called runner's high. It is said that the longer they run, the happier they become while the longer the more painful in my case. It might be one of the reasons why so many runners are running all around the world. I have never had the opportunity to experience runner's high, but I can easily imagine how it feels. Actually I felt it today. It was such a fine day that I rode my motorcycle and ran around the forest in the suburbs of Obihiro. A straight gravel rode was running through the forest which was filled with fresh air and the sunlight filtering down through the leaves. There were no cars and motorcycles except for me. It was so pleasant that I soon fell in the state of euphoria which can be called "rider's high." It was such a feeling as my legs and the tires were directly connected and I could feel any small gravels on the road. After enjoying riding though the tube of forests sometimes with foxes and birds, I found the fuel was almost empty and came back reluctantly to the city. I'm thinking about carrying a sub fuel tank next time so that I can enjoy riding for longer hours.