I'm coming out of blogging hibernation to write about a bicycle ride I did yesterday. I'm pretty happy with myself for it, so in keeping with using my blog as a diary, I'm putting the story here.

There aren't many photos, both because I had only my cellphone and wasn't stopping a lot, and because the stupid iOS app I was using (Halide) decided to not actually save all but one of the photos that I took in the first eight hours. )-:

So, having seen friend Vincent's ride to Ise City last month, I thought I'd give it a [...]
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I made a few outings to photograph the fall colors in and around Kyoto this year. On the way to our first main destination, we made an impromptu stop at this little-known, out-of-the-way Kotokuji Temple. It turns out that the maple have only just started to turn, but it's still a quiet, lovely place to visit.

I'd discovered this temple a couple of years ago while on a bike ride to explore the general area, a couple of hours away by bicycle from my home in Kyoto. The 1km-long driveway to the temple is notable for its steepness; the average [...]

Considering that my last blog post was more than five months ago, I guess it's safe to say that for the most part I'm taking a break from blogging. But having recently came across photos from a last-year outing to temples in Shiga, Japan, I thought I'd post a few.

I haven't done a whole lot of riding since last fall, and in particular over the last month or so have been beset on and off by a persistent throat infection, so I probably bit off more than I could chew with a 300km ride with Gorm, but while he's in town I want to take the opportunity for such epic adventures.

The ostensible goal of the ride was to visit a mountain area of Gifu Prefecture known as "Machu Picchu of Gifu", due to a view of it that calls to mind the famous Machu Picchu of Peru.

(I [...]

The Rugby World Cup will be held in Japan for the first time later this fall, an event of much pride and excitement for the Japanese rugby enthusiast. One of the biggest such enthusiasts is a friend who as a side job sometimes does play-by-play commentary for national television, but whose main job is as an alcoholic-beverage wholesaler here in Kyoto.

The two spheres of his life combine to create a pair of commemorative saké (Japanese rice wine) products. I and some friends helped him with the English on the label.

Besides helping to make the English natural, we had [...]