I haven't posted anything in a week, or even read email in a week, because I've been working on some new software projects.

The lack of externally-visible productivity (sorry if you've written and I've not responded) is not because I bought a new bicycle, but while we're on the subject, BTW, I did buy a new bicycle. 🙂

This is a long article written mostly for my own memory. I won't feel bad if you don't read it all

The Old Bike

If you've seen any of my many cycling posts, you'll know that since I started cycling earlier [...]

Finally getting around to finishing Day 1 of "Bridget and Sarah's Tour-de-Kyoto", after Part 1 and Part 2 last week.

After many flats and a nice visit to a rural temple, we headed south toward Kyoto...

My favorite little secret restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Clicking on "nearby photos" above shows the many times I've posted from here.

The girls were starving and were finished with their curry before the photo above had finished writing to the camera memory card.

On the way home after lunch, we stopped by Kyoto’s Nasty 21% city-bike hill climb, which Bridget hit with [...]

I stopped by NORU Kyoto today, which reopened after a summer hiatus. I'd mentioned them last May in "Discovering Kyoto’s Wonderful Toji-in Temple on a Tour with NORU".

I picked up a nice quick-dry T-shirt from Morvélo, a British cycling brand.

I think that NORU is the only place to get them in Japan, though I suppose you could get them directly from the company if you didn't mind paying more plus shipping.

It's much more expensive than the 500-yen Uniqlo T's that I wrote about three years ago, but also much more comfortable and stylish. The price is on [...]

Fumie had her annual fall ballet recital yesterday, and it was amazing. Sadly, no video was allowed this time, but she's really progressed in technique and presentation. She is a real ballerina.

She did the technically-demanding "Swanilda" variation from Coppélia's act three, wearing this:

この記事は長いですが、簡単な要約すると、新しいサイクリング用の靴を慣れてきました。

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted "Trepidation and Anticipation: Moving Up to Cycling Shoes", which opens with the same photo seen above, and in which I admit my anxiety of riding with shoes that physically clip to the bike's pedals. The fear arose from not being able to put my food down in an emergency, thereby causing me to fall over, perhaps on nasty rocks or at high speed, or, even worse, in front of friends.

Prior to this change, since I first got bitten by the cycling bug in January, I'd ridden 2,978km (1,850 mi) [...]