I'd heard that the Kurama Temple (鞍馬寺), nestled on the side of a mountain in a northern suburb of Kyoto, made for a nice visit, but despite riding past it dozens of times since I got into cycling, I'd never actually entered it. This week I finally did.

The main part of this post is about this week's visit, but first let me recount my prior experiences with this temple...

Normally I just ride past and perhaps snap a photo along the way, such as the following shot from my first "real" bike ride 2½ years ago:

Sometimes I [...]

We had an eclectic little ride the other day to celebrate Joshua's birthday. Unlike a common ride that makes a big loop through some gorgeous mountains, this ride stayed closer to home, hopping from interesting point to interesting point, at a slow, fun pace.

It was my 16th time to ride with Joshua, since joining him on a NORU bike tour two and a half years ago.

It turns out that one can use this dirt trail to get around having to descent the "Nasty" 21% slope. Personally, I'd rather just descend on the road because neither my bike nor [...]

Where does the time go? I'm finally following up to "Minh and Nghia Photoshoot Preview" about two weeks later than I expected.

After having a coffee and chat to get to know them a bit, we headed toward the always-photogenic Heian Shrine. I wore Nghia's backpack so it wouldn't bother the photos, and we got down to it...

I never really expect anything to come of the first shots, since we're just starting to get comfortable with each other and with the situation, but what came immediately after the shot above pretty much foreshadowed the entire day:

I don't recall [...]

Alexis, a cycling Frenchman living in England, contacted NORU for a private bike tour around the far-flung mountains of Kyoto. Joshua set him up with a bike and took him around, while I tagged along for photos.

Right after this photo is the first real test of cycling ability, a short, steep climb that averages 10% over 760m (half a mile), but has some 17% sections.

When you're contacted out of the blue by someone for a bike ride, you're not really sure of their level and what would be appropriate/fun/challenging/daunting for them, so this initial climb would be a [...]

I did a fun photoshoot today with Minh and Nghia, vacationing from San Jose, CA.

We're all American, but they had almost as much trouble with my German-ancestry name as I did with their Vietnamese-ancestry names. Her name is pronounced "min", like the start of "Minnie Mouse". His sounds like "knee-ah".

I literally haven't seen more than a smattering of the photos I took, but throwing a few darts at my Lightroom catalog brought up a few I can share right away.

They started their vacation as a celebration of five years together, but Nghia had loftier plans...

Continued here...