Having done a short excursion riding while clipped to the pedals, yesterday I set off on a longer mountain ride to really give them a workout.

昨日のサイクリングは、特別靴を使って、靴とペダルは繋がったままに乗りました。

I didn't have any trouble at the beginning, except at the very beginning when it took me about 10 seconds of trying to clip in before I realized that I hadn't taken the cleat covers (to make walking down to the bike easier) off. Doh!

The ride ended up being 54km (33mi) with 1,190m (3,900') of elevation gain. This is pretty mild for me, but it was my first real ride in more [...]

今日は初めてちゃんとしたサイクリング用の靴を使って、美味く出来ました。倒れる心配は有りましたが、今日は倒れなかった。

After posting "Trepidation and Anticipation: Moving Up to Cycling Shoes" yesterday, I put the pedals on my bike and today I went out for a short test ride with them.

It was much easier than I had feared.

After putting the pedals on yesterday, I tried mounting the bike stationary in my house, and I had a lot of difficulty unclipping the shoes from the pedals, so my fear of falling over went way up. But then it was suggested that perhaps the bolts weren't tight enough, and indeed that was the problem. Once I tightented things properly, it [...]

Since getting bit by the cycling bug earlier in the year, I've been slowly inching my way deeper into it. I took the opportunity of my recent trip back to The States to buy some "real" cycling clothes in my hard-to-find-anywhere-but-particularly-in-Japan size, and this includes for the first time real cycling shoes that firmly attach to the pedals.

Not many shoes come in European size 48 or 49 (cycling shoes seem to use the same scale worldwide, which is really convenient), but I found and ordered three pair at Zappos.com (which I'm always pleased with) from three companies in sizes [...]

My three weeks in The States visiting my folks is about to end, so I thought I'd post some photos from the previous trip in March, where we drove around the American southwest in a camper. It was a bit overwhelming, and I've barely looked at the photos yet.

今日の記事は今回のアメリカへの旅行の事じゃなくて、三月の旅からの写真です。 その時にはキャップカーでアメリカ合衆国南西部にうるうろ行きました。写真写るが良い所が多いですが、一番良いのは アンテロープ・キャニオンでした。

One of the most photogenic places on earth is Antelope Canyon, near Page Arizona. I posted one photo from it at the time, here.

At first it doesn't seem promising, as the whole area is bleak and desolate...

Visits to the canyon are via tour only. We went [...]

Today we stopped by to play ping pong again with Vernon Weingart, now 91 years 1 day old, to make good on my promised rematch from his beating me the other day.

今日も91歳の卓球チャンピオンと遊びませてもらいました。今回はやっと勝った！最初のマッチは完全に負けましたけれども、二回目はぎりぎり勝ちました。勝たれましたかな〜？:-)

After knocking the ball around for a while with Anthony and me, Vernon and I played our first best-of-three match, and he easily beat me in two games. He was much stronger than the last time.

We all knocked the ball around again for a while, and we then played another match. This time I won the first game after having gone to deuce a dozen times.... [...]