I like the way those words roll off the tongue, and sound in my ears. It conjures up images of Mysteries of Udolpho, and other early Gothic novels.
They are appropriate for this most sublime tsuyu we've been experiencing - cloudy, rainy, misty, foggy, humid weather that casts a pregnant lull over the city. And certainly 'a sublime malaise' best conveys my current state - one of general, but not necessarily unbeautiful, malaise.
So I'll embrace it, and hope spawns some creativity...
Friday, July 31, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Riding in the Rain
We spent this weekend mostly on the bikes - by which I mean motorbikes.
This year's rainy season has been persistent, insistent and consistent! Also, as we live at the base of Mt. Fuji, there is tons of fog hovering and obscuring visibility as soon as we get into the mountains; and of course, the mountain roads - though twisty, hilly, slippy, and foggy - are the best place for good riding, as it gets us out of the nasty city traffic. Which, by the way, is pretty intense with many insane drivers.
So, to put it simply, I'm learning to ride in some of the best conditions - conditions that will give me the skill to ride in anything!
The forecast on Saturday was calling for cloudy, with a bit of misty rain. That was not a problem, and looked like a good day to ride. We met our friend, another biker, at 8 a.m. and then went up to Kojiri Pass (see map below) and the Hakone Skyline. Usually the view from this point is gorgeous - Ashinoko lake, mountains, and the sprawling cities of Gotemba and Susono with Mt. Fuji in the background. This day, though, the forecast was (as it so often is) wrong. There was extremely heavy fog (no view) and medium heavy rain.
The plan had been to continue our ride through Hakone around the lake, then down Rt. 1 to Mishima, and home along the fireroad. The weather conditions made us change our mind, and head back down to the city. Brian suggested we go to Numazu and visit some bike shops, so that's what we did.
It was fun - but the return trip involved biking in extremely heavy traffic in extremely heavy rain.
On Sunday morning, I took the motorcycle out by myself just to get some practise and get comfortable with the bike on roads that I was already very familiar with. Of course, I managed to have a peaceful ride in the fog and (gentle) rain!
After these two days of riding, two more small problems emerged: my speedometer stopped working (likely a broken cable) and my brake like remains engaged even when I'm not braking. Instead of looking online, ordering parts, then doing the work ourselves, I decided to just bring the Estrella (my bike) into a nearby shop called BGM. The guy there said he could get the parts and finish the bike by Friday! I'm looking forward to picking it up.
So, now I know that I can: power up switch-back twists in the mountains, ride in the fog when I can't see 3 metres in front of me, brake quickly on wet pavement, and handle high-speed traffic in the drenching rain. I'm looking forward to my first ride in the dry!
This year's rainy season has been persistent, insistent and consistent! Also, as we live at the base of Mt. Fuji, there is tons of fog hovering and obscuring visibility as soon as we get into the mountains; and of course, the mountain roads - though twisty, hilly, slippy, and foggy - are the best place for good riding, as it gets us out of the nasty city traffic. Which, by the way, is pretty intense with many insane drivers.
So, to put it simply, I'm learning to ride in some of the best conditions - conditions that will give me the skill to ride in anything!
The forecast on Saturday was calling for cloudy, with a bit of misty rain. That was not a problem, and looked like a good day to ride. We met our friend, another biker, at 8 a.m. and then went up to Kojiri Pass (see map below) and the Hakone Skyline. Usually the view from this point is gorgeous - Ashinoko lake, mountains, and the sprawling cities of Gotemba and Susono with Mt. Fuji in the background. This day, though, the forecast was (as it so often is) wrong. There was extremely heavy fog (no view) and medium heavy rain.
The plan had been to continue our ride through Hakone around the lake, then down Rt. 1 to Mishima, and home along the fireroad. The weather conditions made us change our mind, and head back down to the city. Brian suggested we go to Numazu and visit some bike shops, so that's what we did.
It was fun - but the return trip involved biking in extremely heavy traffic in extremely heavy rain.
On Sunday morning, I took the motorcycle out by myself just to get some practise and get comfortable with the bike on roads that I was already very familiar with. Of course, I managed to have a peaceful ride in the fog and (gentle) rain!
After these two days of riding, two more small problems emerged: my speedometer stopped working (likely a broken cable) and my brake like remains engaged even when I'm not braking. Instead of looking online, ordering parts, then doing the work ourselves, I decided to just bring the Estrella (my bike) into a nearby shop called BGM. The guy there said he could get the parts and finish the bike by Friday! I'm looking forward to picking it up.
So, now I know that I can: power up switch-back twists in the mountains, ride in the fog when I can't see 3 metres in front of me, brake quickly on wet pavement, and handle high-speed traffic in the drenching rain. I'm looking forward to my first ride in the dry!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Solitary Running
Though we haven't been spending much time on our custom 29ers, we have still been getting a lot of good exercise through running.
I got out for a good solo run this morning. Not too far - only 8km - but it included a pretty steep hill.
Though we sometimes run together, I often opt to head out on my own, to seek the solace of solitude, to be alone with my thoughts and with my run. This is something that Murakami Haruki, the award-winning writer, talks about in his book What I Talk About when I Talk About Running. This is a slim but insightful novel, not only about running, but about writing and about living. I read it a few months ago, and thoroughly enjoyed his thoughts and experiences with the dual disciplines of running and writing - a perfect book for runners and writers, I suppose!
I got out for a good solo run this morning. Not too far - only 8km - but it included a pretty steep hill.
Though we sometimes run together, I often opt to head out on my own, to seek the solace of solitude, to be alone with my thoughts and with my run. This is something that Murakami Haruki, the award-winning writer, talks about in his book What I Talk About when I Talk About Running. This is a slim but insightful novel, not only about running, but about writing and about living. I read it a few months ago, and thoroughly enjoyed his thoughts and experiences with the dual disciplines of running and writing - a perfect book for runners and writers, I suppose!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Motorcycle Maintenance (and good rides)
This is a long weekend for us here as Monday is a national holiday- ????Umi-no-Hi?, which can be directly translated as 'Ocean Day', but is basically 'Let's go to the Beach' long weekend.
Typically by this time, Brian and I would have spent several weekends at the beach, but this year's rainy season has been aggressive and persistent. Add to that the fact that we recently received our new motorcycles, and the formula adds up to weekends spent riding our motorbikes wherever we decide to go.
Yesterday we racked up 72 kilometres, going through Gotemba, up to Hakone, around and through Hakone, and down through Mishima. Lots of fun, and good practise with: steep, switchback curves; wet, slick country roads; thick (THICK - as in nearly zero visability) fog; sharp, steep turns; heavy traffic (at times); and insane drivers. Good practise all around.
Today we'd decided to ride not too far, but still far enough, to Shira-ito-no-taki - a famous waterfall in Fujinomiya. We got started at about 9 a.m., and we were dressed and excited for the ride.
Still in the parking lot, but raring to go, I then tried to fire up my engine, but it didn't catch. Brian shouted to me to release the choke.
I did not release the choke, because, the minute I tried to start the engine and give it a little throttle, I felt the throttle 'let go'. I don't know how else to explain it, just that, suddenly, there was no throttle to give. First it felt fine, then there was nothing. So I shouted back to Brian, over the roar of his VRX, "I'm not even gonna release the choke because something is VERY wrong here."
It turned out that my throttle cable had broken. Brian could tell this from the feel, and we went back home and did a quick bit of research. We learned that we should remove the switch housing to see the cable 'root' beneath. We did this (the function and view of the cables is actually very similar to a mountain bike); we had both been expecting the problem to be at the source - where the little 'ball' holds the cable to the throttle. That seems the most breakable part, so we were surprised when it was intact. Then Brian pulled on the cable, and it came up...completely severed in the middle!
The problem was rust and corrosion. The bike that I bought is very old, and had likely been left in the rain a lot, and so the cable had rusted and rotted through in the middle, probably from sitting in a puddle of water in the cable housing.
Anyway, we called a couple of shops, and a Kawasaki dealer in Numazu had the cable we needed (but they didn't have the other,'close', cable, which we had also wanted to replace as a 'just in case' measure. I will buy this online, and we'll replace it at a later date).
After driving about an hour through traffic each way, we got back home and Brian broke out his tool box to replace the cable (I was there and did 'help'!). It didn't take too long, and soon the bike was working better than before!
So most of today was spent finding and fixing my broken cable. At about 3 p.m., though, we finally got out for a shortish ride, up along the ridge of Mt. Fuji.
Typically by this time, Brian and I would have spent several weekends at the beach, but this year's rainy season has been aggressive and persistent. Add to that the fact that we recently received our new motorcycles, and the formula adds up to weekends spent riding our motorbikes wherever we decide to go.
Yesterday we racked up 72 kilometres, going through Gotemba, up to Hakone, around and through Hakone, and down through Mishima. Lots of fun, and good practise with: steep, switchback curves; wet, slick country roads; thick (THICK - as in nearly zero visability) fog; sharp, steep turns; heavy traffic (at times); and insane drivers. Good practise all around.
Today we'd decided to ride not too far, but still far enough, to Shira-ito-no-taki - a famous waterfall in Fujinomiya. We got started at about 9 a.m., and we were dressed and excited for the ride.
Still in the parking lot, but raring to go, I then tried to fire up my engine, but it didn't catch. Brian shouted to me to release the choke.
I did not release the choke, because, the minute I tried to start the engine and give it a little throttle, I felt the throttle 'let go'. I don't know how else to explain it, just that, suddenly, there was no throttle to give. First it felt fine, then there was nothing. So I shouted back to Brian, over the roar of his VRX, "I'm not even gonna release the choke because something is VERY wrong here."
It turned out that my throttle cable had broken. Brian could tell this from the feel, and we went back home and did a quick bit of research. We learned that we should remove the switch housing to see the cable 'root' beneath. We did this (the function and view of the cables is actually very similar to a mountain bike); we had both been expecting the problem to be at the source - where the little 'ball' holds the cable to the throttle. That seems the most breakable part, so we were surprised when it was intact. Then Brian pulled on the cable, and it came up...completely severed in the middle!
The problem was rust and corrosion. The bike that I bought is very old, and had likely been left in the rain a lot, and so the cable had rusted and rotted through in the middle, probably from sitting in a puddle of water in the cable housing.
Anyway, we called a couple of shops, and a Kawasaki dealer in Numazu had the cable we needed (but they didn't have the other,'close', cable, which we had also wanted to replace as a 'just in case' measure. I will buy this online, and we'll replace it at a later date).
After driving about an hour through traffic each way, we got back home and Brian broke out his tool box to replace the cable (I was there and did 'help'!). It didn't take too long, and soon the bike was working better than before!
So most of today was spent finding and fixing my broken cable. At about 3 p.m., though, we finally got out for a shortish ride, up along the ridge of Mt. Fuji.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Hikari - fiber optic internet
My Internet Service Provider (ISP), which is Tokai, has been very good to me for the past six years or so as I took advantage of their broadband service. Recently, the higher speed fiber-optic internet service, "Hikari" was being strongly encouraged by the Tokai company.
However, because my apartment did not yet have the "koji" (construction) permission, someone had to take the first step and request it. In my building, after some good sales-pitches, that was me. I signed up for higher-speed net services about three weeks ago, and on Wednesday afternoon, two professional installation workers came and ran a fibre-optic cable into my apartment, set me up with a new modem, and I was surfing like a pro.
I checked out my speeds at www.speedtest.net; my 'from Yokohama' rating wasn't great, but I'm sort of satisfied with my reading from Seoul.
Here are my results (and you will notice that I'm much faster in Ubuntu than in Vista - same pc, different OS!):
I said I was "sort of" satisfied...really, I think I could be faster! If anyone knows how to tweak my Ubuntu, or, especially, my Vista OS to maximise the performance, I'd be pleased to hear it!
However, because my apartment did not yet have the "koji" (construction) permission, someone had to take the first step and request it. In my building, after some good sales-pitches, that was me. I signed up for higher-speed net services about three weeks ago, and on Wednesday afternoon, two professional installation workers came and ran a fibre-optic cable into my apartment, set me up with a new modem, and I was surfing like a pro.
I checked out my speeds at www.speedtest.net; my 'from Yokohama' rating wasn't great, but I'm sort of satisfied with my reading from Seoul.
Here are my results (and you will notice that I'm much faster in Ubuntu than in Vista - same pc, different OS!):
I said I was "sort of" satisfied...really, I think I could be faster! If anyone knows how to tweak my Ubuntu, or, especially, my Vista OS to maximise the performance, I'd be pleased to hear it!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A Night in a Capsule
This past weekend marked the last weekend in Japan for Van; Of course, we wanted to do something to make it special and memorable, so we got four of us together to spend the night in Asakusa at a capsule hotel.
Capsule hotels for those who don't know represent an intriguing concept in space-saving creativity. Rather than having a room, each person gets his/her own "capsule". The capsules are stacked side by side, and one on top of the other - as you can see from the photos below.
Most capsule hotels do not accept women, as they were originally intended for salary men who missed the last train home at night, and are therefore only equipped with one bath and one set of facilities. In recent years, though, more and more capsule hotels have adapted to accomodate women as well.
We stayed at the Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel (http://www.asakusa-capsule.jp/english/), which is also apparently popular with non-Japanese visitors. I was at first a little disappointed by the lack of many Japanese, by actually, the travellers were really fun to talk to, especially as we sat on the roof top, enjoying the night view, until the early morning hours.
Capsule hotels for those who don't know represent an intriguing concept in space-saving creativity. Rather than having a room, each person gets his/her own "capsule". The capsules are stacked side by side, and one on top of the other - as you can see from the photos below.
Most capsule hotels do not accept women, as they were originally intended for salary men who missed the last train home at night, and are therefore only equipped with one bath and one set of facilities. In recent years, though, more and more capsule hotels have adapted to accomodate women as well.
We stayed at the Asakusa Riverside Capsule Hotel (http://www.asakusa-capsule.jp/english/), which is also apparently popular with non-Japanese visitors. I was at first a little disappointed by the lack of many Japanese, by actually, the travellers were really fun to talk to, especially as we sat on the roof top, enjoying the night view, until the early morning hours.
Monday, July 13, 2009
?????Yamanami Rindou
Rainy season has been true to form this year, with hopefully just a week left. Yesterday showed a few hours of sun, and the temperature in Susono hit 30C, much different than the pretty constant foggy-cool 23C. Summer is coming!
Something I have wanted to do was to put together a guide for the local mountain biking trails, which are very difficult to describe, and most people have a favorite or two but assign them their own pet names. As Susono is in a Valley between the Ashitaka range and the Hakone volcano, there are good trails in either direction, East or West. Most of the safer trails are on the Hakone, or East, side, and there are many more to choose from in a smaller area, so I thought that would be the best area for beginners.
Recently, I had a reason to put a map together as a first step: Our company sponsored as a special project the production of a Susono-living guide, for use by our employees living or transferring to this area, and a trail guide fits in nicely. What I prepared shows the most easily reachable trailheads on the 'Yamanami Rindou', which we call the 'Fire Road'.
My map doesn't show each trails path down the mountain, or describe what one might encounter along the way. Each trail is unique, and the conditions change with the weather and seasons, plus post-typhoon landslides and downed trees. Each trail I've shown does eventually lead right back to town so there is no way to get lost or frustrated. (This is not true for riding up unpaved trails from the city; most are swallowed by jungle before reaching the Fire Road.)
The trailheads are best reached by climbing one of the two shown paved roads up to the Fire Road, and then checking distance to find the one you want:
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Recent Projects!
Despite the anticipated delivery of our motorbikes, I held a 'Rainy Season (Tsuyu) Bike Clinic' in my apartment on Saturday. A lot of friends and co-workers around here ride mountain bikes, but supportive shops and mechanics are pretty far away. I'd heard that some folk's bikes needed some attention to be trail-worthy again, and this gave me a great excuse to clean up the place and have some people over! I advertised thusly:
I had a few customers during the day, and hopefully helped them learn about maintenance and tuning first-hand!
I had a few customers during the day, and hopefully helped them learn about maintenance and tuning first-hand!
Monday, July 06, 2009
My Kawasaki Estrella and Brian's Honda VRX
Finally! After nearly a month of waiting (and waiting and waiting), our bikes were delivered yesterday morning at about 8:30 a.m.
Luckily, it was a Saturday. Not so luckily, we were both a tad hung over from a party on Friday:-)
However, we definitely knew we wanted to get the bikes out on the road, so we fired up our engines, did a few practise circles in a big parking lot, filled up our gas tanks, then hit the open road. Actually, we just went up to the Fire Road where we are very familiar with the route and there is very little traffic. This road is very curvy, has rolling hills, and no traffic. It was a great first ride.
Today, Sunday, we got out on the bikes again. We rode for about three hours, along the Fire Road again, and then up to the Kojiri Pass and the Hakone Skyline. After that, we continued on the Fire Road toward Gotemba. After so much riding, and still getting used to the bike, I felt my arms and shoulders get tired, and, though I really really did not want to stop riding, we finally did return home and dock our new babies.
For those who are interested, my bike is a 250cc, single cylinder, and Brian's Honda VRX is a 3-Valve, V-Twin 400 cc, and both have 5-speed gearboxes and disc brakes front and rear.
For real riders out there, these bikes sound super-tiny - but honestly, for these roads, and doing what we do, here in Japan, they are perfect starter bikes. Also, please remember, our initial motorcycle licenses only allow us to ride bikes up to 400cc. Brian would have gotten something bigger if he were licensed, but he's very happy with the VRX. I, even if I'd had a full, unlimited license, would have chosen the very bike that I did choose - my lovely Kawasaki.
Here are a couple of pics from yesterday (I know, the goggles look dumb, and I'm not using them anymore!)
Luckily, it was a Saturday. Not so luckily, we were both a tad hung over from a party on Friday:-)
However, we definitely knew we wanted to get the bikes out on the road, so we fired up our engines, did a few practise circles in a big parking lot, filled up our gas tanks, then hit the open road. Actually, we just went up to the Fire Road where we are very familiar with the route and there is very little traffic. This road is very curvy, has rolling hills, and no traffic. It was a great first ride.
Today, Sunday, we got out on the bikes again. We rode for about three hours, along the Fire Road again, and then up to the Kojiri Pass and the Hakone Skyline. After that, we continued on the Fire Road toward Gotemba. After so much riding, and still getting used to the bike, I felt my arms and shoulders get tired, and, though I really really did not want to stop riding, we finally did return home and dock our new babies.
For those who are interested, my bike is a 250cc, single cylinder, and Brian's Honda VRX is a 3-Valve, V-Twin 400 cc, and both have 5-speed gearboxes and disc brakes front and rear.
For real riders out there, these bikes sound super-tiny - but honestly, for these roads, and doing what we do, here in Japan, they are perfect starter bikes. Also, please remember, our initial motorcycle licenses only allow us to ride bikes up to 400cc. Brian would have gotten something bigger if he were licensed, but he's very happy with the VRX. I, even if I'd had a full, unlimited license, would have chosen the very bike that I did choose - my lovely Kawasaki.
Here are a couple of pics from yesterday (I know, the goggles look dumb, and I'm not using them anymore!)
Happy 4th of July
...or, as I like to tease my American friends, "Happy America Day!".
I hope everyone had a happy, healthy, fire-work-abundant weekend.
I hope everyone had a happy, healthy, fire-work-abundant weekend.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Happy Canada Day
I've been in Japan so long that it's very easy to forget Canadian holidays, like Labour day or, even, Easter. For some reason, though, I remember when it's Canada Day (July 1st). We don't celebrate it over here, of course, but I enjoy knowing that on the other side of the globe, my friends and family are relaxing, hopefully with a six-pack of cold Canadian beer, and anticipating the evening festivities!
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