I attended a cycling event this weekend that was really fun, even though I didn't ride in it.

The Suzuka Circuit, best known for hosting F1 and motorcycle grands prix, also sometimes hosts bike racing. The entire event is officially called "The Suzuka 8-Hour Enduro", though currently races are only three, four, and six hours.

It's really more of an "event" than a "race", where you can challenge yourself to do as many laps as possible within the allotted time. Those trying for more laps than anyone else are racing, but it's perfectly okay to just plod along and have [...]

This photo is from a blog post seven years ago, "Exposing for Single-Shot HDR (Sort Of)", using photos from a special visit to a newly-built about-to-open wedding venue in Kyoto. (Photos from that visit also appeared on "Heian Shrine Gate From a New Perspective".)

As lovely as the new venue was, it seems that they weren't able to make it as a wedding venue; they stopped doing business a few years ago (prior to COVID). The lovely building in the super-amazing location has been vacant since.

But the building won't be vacant for much longer, because the building won't be [...]

I recently heard about a very hard climb -- over 3km/2mi at an average of almost 16% -- not too far away. Many cyclists could not climb for 50m at 15%, much less do it for 3,000m. It's just ridiculously steep. This climb sounded to rival one the most difficult climbs in Japan, Kuragari West, which clocks in at 2.3km/1.7mi @ 17.3%.

Of course, I had to go check it out. It was quite the adventure.

The start of the climb was about 30km north of Kyoto, along the shore of Lake Biwa. To save energy for the hard climb, [...]

So, the idea for the day was simple: join Antti's farewell ride until they hit gravel, then go off on my own to find a spot to set up a hammock and relax with a book for a while.

It didn't work out that way.

Antti is returning to Finland after many years in Kyoto. He's left his mark on the Strava leaderboards, and on his friends' hearts. His farewell ride was to be a gravel affair; I have no interest in riding on gravel, but I thought I'd join for the road part, bringing along my hammock to set [...]

I got a surprise today while walking in the underground arcade north out of Kyoto Station, when I noticed on the wall some photographs that I took eight years ago.

I did the photography for Alice's article as a fun project, as described in two blog posts at the time, "Japanese Candles" and "Japanese Candles, Followup".

The article is still on the Japan Times web site, here, and originally looked like this:

The two candle photos bookmarking this post are the originals for those used in the article.

I was in the area to renew my driver's license, which went [...]