Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Super Cub Volume 1 Chapter 26 - Picnic

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As soon as she left her apartment on her Cub, she realized that she shouldn’t ride without a destination in mind. 


Koguma decided to go out on her Cub during her day off for her summer job, and she parked the Cub in front of Hinoharu Station, a little more than five minutes away from her home.


Thinking about where to go while you were riding could make you unsure of whether to turn or go straight at an intersection, or whether to continue on a straight road, making your riding unstable.


It was fine if you were walking or riding a bicycle, but when you were riding a Cub going at the same speed as a car, you were unnecessarily disrupting the flow of the road.


Thinking of going for a ride anywhere and having her lunch somewhere, Koguma looked at the information board in front of the station to decide where to go.


Hinoharu Station on the Chuo Line, a station she hadn’t used much because she never had any opportunities to go far. There were only a few old stores in front of the station, not the type of places where Koguma would go and buy things she needed in her daily life.


When she looked at the sightseeing map signboard, which she had passed by without seeing in the few times she had used the station, she found out that there were several places near Hinoharu Station that could be called tourist destinations.


Jisso-ji Temple was famous for the jindai-zakura tree.1 The Omurasaki Nature Park was located right across the station. The folk museum near the high school she always went to. There were also several campgrounds.




None of those places attracted Koguma’s interest. She had gone there for school events, and there was nothing in particular she wanted to see.


There was a soft drink factory in Hakushuu, just a short walk away. It was known as a place where school classes could visit and sample a taste for free, but she didn’t find it particularly appealing to be lectured like she was in school on her day off, or to taste the spring water produced there.


For the people living in the southern alps, spring water was readily available just by turning on the taps of the water wells located throughout the streets.


Koguma was staring at the map in front of the station like a tourist from the city when she spotted the name of a place.


Kiyosato Highland.


It was located in Hokuto City, the same city as the area around Hinoharu Station where Koguma lived, and it was a famous sightseeing spot. She had never gone to Kiyosato since she came to this city, and it didn’t look so far away on this map.


Astride her Cub, Koguma stepped down on the kick lever and started the engine. Her destination had been decided. She was going to Kiyosato.


She might see something different from the streets of Koufu and Nirasaki she had grown used to visiting in her daily work.




It took about forty minutes to get to the vicinity of the station in Kiyosato, where she was going for the first time.


Departing from Hinoharu Station, she followed the railroad tracks, went on Prefectural Road 62, rode for a while, turned north on National Road 141, which intersected the prefectural road, and went straight. The distance was a little less than twenty kilometers.


Kiyosato was a little closer than Koufu, where she usually made round-trips to, and it was a town of a kind Koguma had never seen before.


European-styled buildings were lined up around the white reinforced concrete station building. They were in white and pastel colors and had imitation wood grain patterns. Koguma’s first impression was that it was a festive city.


There were cafes, bistros, boardinghouses, churches, souvenir shops, and everything a city person would expect to find in a southern alps resort.


Koguma, who was riding a Cub in her denim jacket that looked like work clothes from a distance, began to wonder if she was out of place.


It was a Sunday during summer vacation, and there were a good number of people walking around the beautifully decorated station, including parents with their children and couples.


After finding a place where she could park her Cub, while still sitting on the seat, Koguma began to eat the onigiri from the bento she had taken out of the rear box.


The people passing in front of her didn’t pay attention to her. A nondescript Cub with a plain steel box in the back and a plain girl in denim.


Rather than coming to a tourist spot to have fun, she looked more like an employee skipping work. Or maybe the way she was eating onigiri out of an olive-green cloth bag made her look like a Southeast Asian guerilla.


She ate the onigiri and bit into her green apple, without thinking that the air was particularly good or that the city or the people passing by were particularly interesting. After drinking some tea from the plastic bottle, she started the Cub’s engine.


She drove her Cub for a bit through the shopping district, which seemed to be built for people from other places, not locals, and then right after feeling strangely frustrated that she was being pressured by the town, she stopped and bought some soft serve ice cream.


Sitting on a bench in front of the shop, Koguma remembered that she hadn’t listened to the radio she had brought with her, so she connected her earphones to the radio and ate the ice cream as she listened to FM radio, just like she did at home.


The ice cream, which was said to be flavored with Katsunuma grapes, a local specialty, was about the price of two ready-made food packs that she usually ate. She wasn’t sure if it was worth it, but at least she wouldn’t feel like she was missing out if she thought that she was experiencing this town and enjoying her day off.


After finishing the ice cream, Koguma got on her Cub and went home without seeing anyone else.




After returning to her apartment, Koguma looked at the distance meter. The round trip was less than fifty kilometers. If she calculated the cost of gas, it would be about a hundred yen. And there was the ice cream.


The day off felt both fulfilling and unfulfilling. Even so, Koguma kept thinking about one thing on her way home. Where would she go on her next day off?




When asked what they did on their days off, a surprisingly large number of motorcycle delivery persons, competitive racers, test riders for manufacturers, and others who rode motorcycles all day for their jobs answered, “I guess I ride my bike a lot?” 


Koguma wasn’t sure if she was the same kind of person as those people, but she chose to spend her next day off with her Cub, and she thought that she would continue to do so.



1 Jisso-ji Temple is famous for its zindai-zakura, a cherry tree that is believed to be the oldest in the world, estimated at 1,800 to 2,000 years old.


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