Preparation Takes Juggling

Jan 28 • Blog, Pre trip • 1157 Views • No Comments

The moment you decide to do something new in life, the doors you didn’t know existed start to open. Through the doors, you find a whole new world and friends awaiting on the other side. That is what’s happening right now to me, right here at my parents’ house in Japan.

Last week, a cyclist has arrived in our house in Fukuoka, Japan. He has cycled all the way from Spain on a bike like a war tank, with 80kg of stuff in his panniers. He’s been cycling for 6 years through Africa, Middle East, India, China, Mongolia… 61 countries to be exact, 86,023km so far. On top of that, he’s a clown. A clown is in da house!!!

His name is Alvaro Neil, aka Biciclown. He’s a clown cyclist on a world tour project, “Miles of Smiles Around the World.” He has been making thousands and thousands of people smile, by performing his juggling and magic to the most humble around the world for free.

I didn’t know him until my friend Lander told me about him while I was living in the UK. Lander loves cycling (he’s also a super fast runner with deer-like legs), and he follows many cyclists’ blogs. We watched a funny video of Biciclown together one evening, which made us both smile and laugh, but that was it then.

At the beginning of this month, Lander found out that Biciclown was arriving to Japan from Shanghai, and that he was looking for contacts. I told him he could pass on my info. I convinced my family to have the clown cyclist from Spain stay at our house for a month, in order for him to have a place to finish writing his book. I was so extremely excited like a little kid, jumping up and down in front of my parents, in anticipation for this clown’s arrival.

Not only has Alvaro made us all smile upon arrival a week ago, the whole family started juggling with him after dinner last night with mikan (tangerines). We dropped and burst open so many mikans on the floor, my mom was busy eating while the rest of us were trying to juggle.

It’s a funny thing that he has arrived at this timing, when I’m preparing for my upcoming cycling trip in Japan. He’s arrived here just when I’m trying to get a bike. How is this happening, a teacher, a really funny one too, has just arrived out of nowhere (so it feels). Now I’m busy juggling, literally, in preparation for my adventure project.

It is a risk, quite a big one too, to quit your job and go cycling. It is also a risk, to invite a stranger into your house. But when you have a dream and believe in something inside your heart, all those risks seem small, and they all start to turn into big infectious smiles in life.

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