Friday Joy: Riding Bikes

On looking for what I left in Japan, an awkward British comedy & the recipe that got me a Paul Hollywood handshake

Welcome to the first Friday Joy post! This will be a weekly short piece on something that is making me happy, and a few recommendations for TV shows, books, and articles to check out. I hope it brings something good into the end of your week.

Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash

When I moved to Japan to teach English when I was 26 years old, one of the best parts of the move was that my main mode of transportation became my bicycle. It was a three-speed blue mamachari ("grandma bicycle") with a basket and a bell, perfectly suitable for the very flat, small city I lived in. I rode my bike every day to work and on errands around town, through rice fields that changed through the seasons, past elderly women working in their enormous vegetable gardens, under cherry trees tipping gently over the city's canals. I even learned how to ride one-handed in the rain, an umbrella clutched in my other hand, the way that many Japanese people do. Riding my mamachari, I felt connected to everything, and safe–my city was small and cars were few on the back roads I usually traveled.

I lived there for just two years, but since then I've kept trying to recapture that feeling. It didn't happen in L.A. (the cars, the exhaust, the steep hills of my old neighborhood, no thanks) and it didn't happen in New Orleans (it's very flat, but have you seen the streets?), but I was hopeful when we moved to Denver last summer. Denver! Where the city's e-bike rebate program is so popular, the last round of 600 vouchers was claimed in less than 10 minutes. Where there is probably a three-year-old child named Aspen somewhere in the city learning how to shred on a mountain bike as we speak.

In the tumult of moving, it didn't happen last year, but this year, finally: I am biking again! And it's so great.

The world just feels different on a bicycle: closer and slower than from inside a car, a little more fun than the world on foot. In Japan, my favorite time on the bike was nighttime rides to the DVD store¹, dark and quiet along the canal, past a lumber factory that filled the night air with the scent of Japanese pine. Here, I love the ride home in the morning after dropping off my eight-year-old at school, the curving road past the green park, the sunlight, the cool morning air. I feel connected to the world and this place, and it's the very best way to start the day.

Where are you finding joy these days?

What I’m into this week

Watching

Stath Lets Flats on HBO Max. Super weird name if you don't speak British English, but a hilarious show in the vein of the British version of The Office (far superior to the American version, fight me), about an awkward and clueless apartment rental agent working at his dad's company. It was created by and stars Jamie Demetriou, and his sister is played by his real-life sister, Natasia Demetriou, a.k.a. Nadja in What We Do in the Shadows, which you should also be watching if you don't already.

Reading

Girls They Write Songs About. Late-1990s music scene in New York City? Intense 20s female friendship headed toward implosion? The unexpected and disappointing-to-our-younger-selves way our desires change as we age? Yes please. I just started this, but am deeply into it.

Cooking

Sheet-Pan Gochujang Chicken and Roasted Vegetables. I made this earlier this week and although the two-year-old pronounced it "a yittle too 'picy," I found it delicious and easy. Rob called it "restaurant quality" and gave me a Paul Hollywood handshake, which is what we do in our family when someone makes something really good. I did that annoying thing where I tweaked it a bunch, but I do think it would be great as written. However let the record show: I subbed about half a small purple cabbage cut into wedges for the turnips, I used 2 tablespoons gochujang + 1 tablespoon miso instead of all gochujang to tone down the 'picy, and instead of doing the quick-pickle thing at the end (don't make me do a quick pickle for a weeknight dinner!), I added 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar and a couple teaspoons of sugar to the marinade. I used peeled kabocha squash, which I highly highly recommend. The recipe comments also mention successfully subbing extra-firm tofu for the chicken.

Thinking about

What We Talk About When We Talk About “White People Food” by Jenny G. Zhang. Zhang corrects the meme about "white people food's" lack of seasoning and points out that the cuisines of people of color are varied and variously spiced. I found this through a post on Facebook, which had a comment from a (white) person who said, "I'm Cajun, I don't understand this meme." Ha! Here in Denver, I've noticed that Thai restaurants give you the option of super-spicing every dish on the menu, which is odd and not at all how actual Thai people eat. I wonder if it's related to the same kind of reductive thinking (Thai food=spicy) from mostly white diners in the region and has become the expectation here?

What are you watching/reading/cooking/thinking about?

1. Please don't tell me if you don't remember DVD rental places. I'm already assuming that many of you don't remember VHS rental places and I have made peace with it.