October 23, 1989
“Are you free today?”
“We haven’t hung out in a while, so let’s do something.”
“Alright, let’s meet at 1 PM in Kaminagaya.”
I arranged to meet Kobayashi in Kaminagaya. He had a haircut appointment at noon, so we decided to meet once he was done. It had been a while since I spent a day just hanging out with Kobayashi.
Since I had recently let go of my motorcycle, I took the subway to Kaminagaya. From there, I walked to Kobayashi’s house, borrowed a helmet and gloves, and spent the day riding his bike. When Kobayashi and I rode together, I was the one in control of the bike, and he rode on the back.
We didn’t have any particular plans, so we wandered around, first heading to a CD shop in Kannai. Then we went to Yokohama, stopping by the Eunos dealership on the first floor of Vivre, where I got a quote for a Eunos Roadster. I hadn’t really planned on giving up motorcycles, but I had started thinking it might be nice to own a car as well. I was torn between the Eunos Roadster or a Nissan truck imported from overseas.
As evening fell, we decided to head to the Shonan coast. We stopped by my house to grab my riding jacket. We cruised along the coast, enjoying the handling of Kobayashi’s RGV-Γ, which he had personally tuned, along with the feel of the engine and the exhaust sound coming from the chamber.
We stopped for a late dinner at a Denny’s near the Zushi coast, where we shared funny stories about what had happened during the time we hadn’t seen each other. We talked about motorcycles, work, and our girlfriends. When it was time to go, just before midnight, we took the bill and headed to the register.
At the register, we ran into a group of kids, the kind with a rowdy attitude. We paid right after them and made our way to the parking lot.
“Ugh, I don’t like this,” I muttered.
Normally, we wouldn’t have paid them any mind. We’d either overtake them quickly or follow closely behind, taunting them as we sped off. But for some reason, that night, we decided to let them pass. Maybe it was because I wanted to enjoy the pleasant, long autumn night without those annoying guys in my line of sight. Or maybe it was because, under the beautiful starry sky, I wanted to take my time and savor the deepening autumn air as I rode.
Whatever the reason, we waited, warming up the engine enough before letting them go ahead. We didn’t start riding until they were long gone. We pulled out of the Denny’s parking lot and stopped at the first traffic light. We waited for the light to turn green, then slowly started riding again.