As I wrote the other day in "Test Ride to Osaka Airport", I planned to ride to the airport for a trip to Okinawa. I'm happy to say that I made it without mishap.

Then it was time to step into a bathroom to transform myself from stinky cyclist, to something minimally-appropriate for flight.

At the security station prior to checkin, where they X-ray checked luggage, the lady manning the station wasn't sure what to do with such a large thing as the bikebag. She asked whether there was only a bike, and I said that there was also my [...]

I haven't done much cycling this winter, so I've become slow and lazy and fat, but I'm hoping to kickstart a recovery by heading next week to warmer climates, to Okinawa (the southernmost prefecture of Japan), to spend a few days riding with Jason Eisenmenger. Jason was up in Kyoto earlier in the month (seen here), but a cold kept me from joining him for any rides.

If I were to bring my bicycle on an international flight, I'd have to get a special built-like-a-tank hard case that the disassembled bike could fit in. It's a huge hassle, but at [...]

As I mentioned in a recent post, the local cyclocross circuit came to Kyoto last week. In the photo above, Jason Eisenmenger is yelling encouragement(?) to rider Yukikaze Ishiyama.

I'd met Yukikaze earlier in the week when Jason and Joey, during their visit to Kyoto, had paid him a visit at his work while we were out and about.

This is the same race that I wrote about two years ago, in a series of posts starting with "Watching My First Cyclocross Bike Race". I'd intended to blog about it right away, but got overwhelmed by the 1,400 photos I [...]

In the 12 years I've been blogging, I don't think I've ever gone two weeks without posting something new, but today's post is the first in almost a month, the first this year. The break wasn't intentional... I just haven't felt like writing, I guess. But today I visited a cafe with coffee so unique -- I'd never had anything like it -- that it deserved to roust me from my blogging lethargy.

I've been feeling lethargic about cycling as well, not having done many rides since autumn. For months I'd been planning to ride an hour south to visit [...]

The fall-foliage season is mostly over in Kyoto. During this season I re-discovered and explored some wonderful areas within walking distance from my house.

It started when a friend suggested that I visit a temple nearby, sending a map link, so I headed off towards it.

The map link brought me to one of the entrances to a big graveyard behind the Konkaikomyou-ji Temple, an area with a lot of visual richness. I went in to explore.

Despite the English word "gravestone", there are no bodies buried here, just little fragments of bone in a cavity under the stone, as [...]