Ryoba Opens in Susono

We're getting a new izakaya! Ryoba, part of a chain, is a 10-minute walk from home and is set to open for business on Wednesday...While this is not exactly big news for most people, here in little Susono city with a lack of attractions, we are delighted to welcome this new highlight.

Custom 29" - Three Rides and Counting

It's hard to believe that the weekend is already almost over - it just went so fast!

We spent part of the time on our bikes; though yesterday was rather cloudy and threatened rain, we did one of our favourite weekend rides up to "the fireroad", then down a great off-road trail. This was only Brian's second ride since taking a break to let his knee heal, and it was also only the second ride for his new custom bike.


Off-road:







Brian went for another good ride today while I got in a good work-out at our local gym.

Overall a weekend well-spent.

Ruby!

Although this blog was conceived in large part to share our love of biking in Japan, I have sadly not been able to keep up my end of the legwork. Our original posts celebrated the arrival of my at that time new bike, my Rig.

While my enthusiasm remains unchanged, the simultaneous overexertion / cold weather / numerically smaller gear ratio pushing really took the fun out of using my knee. After now eight weeks of stretching but otherwise complete couch-potato-ing, the pain is 95% gone; I'm ready to exercise again, but I'll follow the free advise from the 'net and ease back into riding.

Back in September I contacted a custom bicycle frame builder in the USA about making an SS 29'er (a non-geared mountain bike with bigger than usual wheels, at 29") for my proportions. The deal was struck, and I have kept up with the assembly by e-mail and occasional photo of the progress.

Things happened fast at the end, and with express postal service, the finished product arrived here on Sunday morning, at 9am. Whew!


















With a few hours of sunshine (9 to noon) available, I sloshed a blend of linseed oil and mineral spirits through all the tubes, and let it drain and dry. This should minimize chances of internal corrosion down the road. It was messy / stinky, but better safe than sorry. By the way, the Framebuilder's company name is 'Clockwork'.


























The internal preservative coating mostly cured, I couldn't wait to begin assembly. Tracy had given me a special tool for installing headsets (to end my days of using patience and a hammer), and it helped me press in the black Chris King headset that had been waiting for this day. (I snapped this pic before coating the skirts with anti-sieze...)



















No test ride yet (rain, work, etc.) but I might give it a try tomorrow morning, weather permitting. Here is the completed package, ready to go!















These pics are actually pretty crummy, due to my camera's unfortunate performance in low light (and the unfortunate low light). I'll capture better images when the sun shines, and the bike is on the trails!

TGIF!

It's been a short week, but still taxing. So - we're pretty pleased to welcome Friday evening!

I've spent my week writing reports, sending reports and reading reports...which makes this Friday evening of a big, booming Shiraz and tasty phone-ordered pizza that much more pleasant.

A run/ride tomorrow will fix the pizza problem, then some time spent behind the keyboard working on personal PC projects.

Meanwhile - Brian has been taking glucosomine and his knee seems quite a bit better; this is especially good as his brand new custom 29er SS frame has just cleared Japanese customs and should likely arrive tomorrow...

Pandora and Other Cool Websites

Thanks to an informed websurfer, I've found some very cool sites that are worth checking out.

Pandora - a streaming audio site that lets you create and define your own stations to play music similar to whatever artist or song you input.

TV Links - offers streaming TV shows of many varieties. Some of the links don't work, but a lot of them do. This site may be more cherished by folks like us living in a non-English environment and craving a little entertainment.

Keepvid - see a great video on Youtube that you'd like to keep? Input the URL into keepvid, and save it to your hard drive.

Kusatsu Onsen

We're back from our overnight stay in Kusatsu Onsen - it was our first time there, and I can't say how awesome it was. We went as part of our company's meeting/getaway, and we've already been talking about going back for a few days some time on a personal excursion. I can't believe we hadn't gone there before and now we have to make up for lost time!

Kusatsu Onsen is an onsen (hot spring) resort town in the mountains of land-locked Gunma Prefecture. Gunma is colder in winter than Shizuoka, and is famous for its many onsens with very hot natural water with a strong sulfur smell. Actually, the whole town smells of sulfur! There is nothing better than soaking in a super-hot outdoor bath in the brisk air in the snowy mountains.

We went there by chartered bus, and it took about six hours, including rest-stops. We stayed in the Hotel Ichii, which is in the heart of the town and overlooks the famous Yubatake - "hot water field". This is a photo of Yubatake (and the town) taken from my hotel room:



The white building is our hotel, and in the foreground is a footbath (with an early morning "bather"):


Another angle of our hotel and Yubatake:


The Hotel Ichii is a really nice hotel with it's own natural hot spring baths, of course. Before an amazing dinner served in a private "enkai jo" (large tatami room for parties and gatherings), several of us made sure to go to the hotel baths for a relaxing soak after the long bus ride. After dinner, we "hit the town" - which is actually very small!

Being an onsen resort, it is very natural to just walk around the town in the yukata provided by the hotels. Here are a few of my women co-workers as we are about to embark on an onsen adventure - extra lucky to enjoy a light snow:


The most awesome part of Kusatsu Onsen, at least for me, is the numerous free onsens that are scattered around the town. These look like plain wooden sheds, and you just go through the door marked with the appropriate kanji (女 for women, or 男 for men).



After finding a few free baths to enjoy, a few of us finished off our evening excursion by soaking our feet in a foot bath and a cool can of chu-hi.



The morning consisted of more baths, a great breakfast of grilled salmon with all the trimmings, and another brief stroll around town where we bought some Onsen Manju - the famous omiyage of the area - the bring back to the office for all to enjoy.

For more information about Kusatsu Onsen, visit these websites:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7400.html

http://www.kusatsu-onsen.ne.jp/eng/index.html

Away for a night or two

We're leaving today for a business trip/meeting; it is also a company getaway and we will be spending the night in the lovely town of Kusatsu Onsen, in Gunma Prefecture.

It will be our first time to that area, and we'll be sure to post about it upon our return tomorrow or Sunday.

A Cute Video

This video - Run Through LIfe - was featured on the front page of Yahoo.com.

It's kinda cute, and an interesting perspective of the life of the Japanese Salary man.

Morning Run, Evening Ride

Yesterday I woke up a bit earlier than usual, so I got out for an earlier but longer run than usual. The weather was warm even before dawn and I was working up a sweat even before starting uphill. A good run that led to a good day - somehow I'm always more alert and ready to meet challenges after some physical activity.

Because the weather was so good, my co-worker decided to head out for a ride after work. Well, though I had planned to go to the gym for a little weight training (I'm still welcome at the local Susono gym!), who can pass up the chance for a short but vigorous evening ride? We hooked up our lighting system and a few kilometers up to the Incinerator; even a short ride is a good workout when you're going uphill on a singlespeed!

The evening ride was great - but unfortunately got my adrenaline rushing and meant that I didn't get to sleep quite as early as usual.

Sawayaka Walking and the Old Tokaido Road

For the past few years, JR (Japan Rail) has been organizing hikes and walks around a variety of areas in Shizuoka Prefecture (that's us) on most weekends. They advertise their planned walks (and hikes for the more adventurous)　in a new flyer every two months. On the day of the walk there are JR people at a "registration desk" at or near the starting point to give you a map and a little pin (naturally depicting a cute little character); even if you can't read a map, though, you don't have to worry - JR marks the trail very clearly with arrows and "Sawayaka Walking" signs, so as long as you watch for the arrows, you can't really get lost.

Find a walk near you: http://walking.jr-central.co.jp/index.html

Brian and I participated in one such Sawakaya Walk on Sunday, with two co-workers whose idea it was to try the JR Sawayaka Walking. We started the walk from Abekawa station (about an hour and a half on the local train from our apartment, and very near Shizuoka city). We did a 10km walk along the river, where we bought some mikans to snack on mid-way. We wended our way along the old Tokaido road and ate some chestnuts at the station-cum-teahouse-cum-tourist attraction.

The teahouse on the (Old)Tokaido Road - 2006:



Tokaido translates as "East Sea Road", and the old road ran basically from Kyoto (the old capital of Japan) to Edo (Tokyo), the new capital, passing through many smaller towns along the way (such as Mishima and Numazu, which are just down the road from us). The Tokaido train line (and the Tomei highway) roughly follows the same route as the Old Tokaido Road (but it's much less bumpy now). Brian and I occasionally find ourselves walking on part of the old road when we take day trips to Hakone and other little places. Some parts of the road are just new highway, but other parts are old, slippery stone paths that wind through the woods. It's awesome to imagine the history of the old road...

Mariko Station (now the teahouse above) as Hiroshige saw it, c.1840:



Our walk also took us past the lovely Bai-en (梅園) or Plum Blossom Park; we stopped in the park to enjoy the plum blossoms and other lovely sights. This kimono-clad girl made us feel like we really were on the Old Tokaido Road!




We continued on the route for a while longer, passing other walkers on the way, and we finally reached the goal at 3:15 pm.When you reach the goal, you get a little stamp in your Sawayaka Walking card - when you get enough stamps you can redeem them for prizes, such as a towel.

The walk was very gentle, and though we generally prefer a more rigorous, off-road hike, this walk was perfect to enjoy the sunshine and give Brian's still-painful knee some easy exercise. Though it was not a strenuous walk, at the end, we were rather tired:




These outings are free, but you have to take the train to get there (they ARE organized by Japan Rail, after all!). If you're interested in the Sawayaka Walking (or more adventurous hiking), check out the JR site here (in Japanese):

http://www.jr-central.co.jp/station.nsf/doc/SawayakaWalkingMenu

Setsubun

Today, February 3rd, is Setsbun (節分）. Setsubun marks the beginning of spring in the Japanese calendar (apparently, tomorrow is Spring!). It is not a national holiday, but rather a festivity day much enjoyed by children (similar, I suppose, to how North Americans enjoy Halloween).

People buy their kids little devil masks, and they throw beans - at home or at a shrine. While throwing the beans, you are supposed to shout: "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!". This roughly translates to: Devil out! Happiness in!; this is a symbolic casting out of the demons and bad luck, and inviting good luck and happiness into our lives.

After throwing the beans, you are supposed to pick up and eat the number of beans that corresponds to your age (which is probably why the festivities are more palatable to kids:-)

More information about Setubun (and other aspects of Japan and Japanese culture) can be found here:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2285.html

(Un) Total Immersion

I had dinner last night with another English language instructor who works for my company. It was a very pleasant evening (despite being alcohol-free since I was driving); we talked about our progress in the Japanese language and strategies for improving. The guy I was talking to, a fellow Canadian from fairly close to Montreal, in fact - has been in Japan for three years and has developed superb language skills. Equal to and perhaps better than mine, though I've been here for nine years. Why?

Natural aptitude for language is of course a factor (I don't have it - even having grown up in Montreal, my French is still broken); but more than that - it's immersion. He functions almost completely in Japanese except when he's teaching. We (Brian and I), on the other hand, function almost completely in English except when performing survival functions, such as ordering a pizza!

I suppose we could speak Japanese to each other, only that would be really weird. I could also speak more Japanese in the office - but the people I work with speak English so well, it's much more time-efficient (and probably less prone to miscommunication) if we just speak English.

So --- I'll just keep going to my private lesson on Thursday evenings, doing my homework, and taking the Nihongo Shiken:-)