Maibara to Omi Hachiman 米原から近江八幡へ

Bicycle: 45.6 km

Train: 520 km

Route: Tokyo - Maibara - Omi Hachiman - Shin Osaka

Total riding time: 3:08 h 

Total ascent:  88 m 

Average speed: 14.8 km/h

Weather: Sunny, a few clouds and nicely warm, 

Today I got up early to catch a Hikari shinkansen from Tokyo station to Maibara at 8:33. I had already sent my luggage to my new monthly apartment in Osaka yesterday (to be delivered tomorrow Monday) and was left only with my faithful (and dirty) brompton and the T-bag with two computers (work and private) and some cloths in it. With that I set out in the morning through relatively quiet Tokyo streets to Tokyo station. I had not reserved a seat before hand, but was still able to reserve when I arrived at the station and as I was first in line, it was no problem to find a "parking" space for my bike behind the last row of seats... From next May however this will need a reservation. 

I arrived in Maibara around 10:45 and started on the wrong side of the train station... but that showed me that there is a rental bicycle shop right in the station, which I hadn't known of the last time I was in Maibara. Actually a good part of the ride today was the same as Day 38 of my 2 months tour through Japan. However, this time I did NOT go to Hikone castle and when last time I turned inland, I stayed on the shore just a little bit longer and approached Omi Hachiman, where I had finished also back then my day from an other side. 

I did however pass again by this tree on the lake shore:

Tree in 2019

Lake shore tree in 2017

Last time I was there on a normal weekday... so there were not a lot of people. But this time the tree and the view from it, but actually more the picture spot was very popular. Specially with motorcyclists.

Thanks to so many other visitors, I managed to get myself a picture taken of me, the tree, the lake, my brompton and my skirt, which depicts the tree, the lake and my brompton:

After resting here a bit I continued my way along the lake. There is a cycling route, not really a cycling road though around the lake which is indicated by blue signs on the road:

Strangely enough the assumption is that everyone is riding around the lake in counter clockwise manner. I didn't, and it was definitely the better direction for today, which I found out when I turned around for a little bit to get to a conbini I had passed, and was faced with relatively strong headwinds (nothing to compare to the Netherlands, but still). 

Along the way there were nice landscapes...

... however also for some stretches the cycling path follows a street with quite some traffic (but one can cycle on a type of side walk). 

In Omi Hachiman last time I had not really seen a lot from the old city. I guess I wasn't really aware that it existed. I had visited however a temple on the lake shore. So this time my goal was the old city quarters of Omi Hachiman. Frankly I am not really sure if I made it to them this time either, as at some point I turned into a small street and found some art exhibitions in old houses and some nice elderly ladies in one of them, who persuaded me to get a ticket and see their art exhibitions. 

All the exhibition spaces were in old village houses, which was nice to see them from inside. The art itself was not terribly interesting to me, except some small sculptures carved out of wood by blink artist. One could touch them all, and some where in "black boxes" for one to guess what the form is. I only came close with one form, which I took for a horse or cow, but it turned out to be a giraffe. A fat one though. 

Btw, the slippers were not art... but probably the image that I liked most in this exhibition. 

A strange structure in this nice garden... in which I actually walked into a private gathering of people in kimono... which did result to not be part of the exhibition (who knows... could have been a performance). 

And the view from one of the exhibition houses over the roofs to the famous mountain in Omi Hachiman... Mountain I haven't conquered yet (there is a ropeway...), and with the museum ticket a discount ticket for the rope way was included and I decided to head back to Omi Hachiman the next weekend as well, to finally get on top of that mountain and hopefully also discover where and what the famous part of Omi Hachiman is. I think it involves channels...

But for today some pictures of the old houses need to suffice...

... including an old Taisho area post office:

I had comfortably the time to see the exhibitions in the central part of Omi Hachiman before catching a train at around 16:30 to Shin Osaka. I needed to be here at my new monthly apartment before 19:00, just in case I had some problems with the keys... but I had not. 

So once I had successfully occupied my apartment, I went to an onsen, Nania wa no yu. A super sento on the 8th floor of a pachinko & parking lot house, which however has a quite large out door part. I have been there already several times before, and always had some mixed feelings. Also today. The outside pools are actually very nice, also because there are some of those lying in the warm water "pools", however there are too many tourists and some of them have no idea about onsening. The very first time I saw a lady trying to get into the onsen with a swimming suit! and her child actually in the bath with a swimming suit... They were quickly convinced that this was not the right way to do it. It must anyway feel strange to be in a swimming suit if everyone else is naked... And an other lady with a tattoo! I think I am slowly but steadily becoming an elderly Japanese lady frowning upon the new customs. 

After the search for the bicycles yesterday at the end of the NPC ride, today it was my turn to no longer find my bicycle when it was finally time to head home. I had parked it in a roofed parking lot, which however turned out to be part of the pachinko parlour and not of the onsen. Luckily enough at the onsen they explained me that the pachinko caretaker puts all bicycles parked in their lot when it closes just outside... and there it was. Waiting for me. 

NPC Halloween Ride ハロウィンライド

Bicycle: 25.5 km

Route: Shinbashi - Shibuya - Tokyo Tower - Roppongi - Shibuya - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 2:30 h 

Total ascent:  143 m 

Average speed: 10.8 km/h

Weather: Dark... probably cloudy  19 C

Today was again one of the rides with the Night Pedal Cruising friends. As it is Halloween, it was a ride in costumes:

Before the ride I went to a Donki shop in Ginza to get my costume of the day. 

Surprisingly the horns did stick really well, but were also easy to remove at the end of the day, as was the face paint. 

Riding alone through Tokyo towards Shibuya as a oni was already funny, but meeting up with more people in Shibuya was nice. Just when we had gathered there was a rain shower, which however luckily passed quickly and by the time we started riding into the night, it was all over. 

We did ride through Roppongi to Shiba Koen (really close to my hotel) had a stop there, and some more pictures:

And then made our way back to Shibuya, riding through Shibuya scramble crossing. There was an incredible amount of policemen in action today, trying to regulate the flow of pedestrians. But frankly enough it didn't look much more crowded than on any other normal Saturday evening. The real Halloween is still a few days away, so there weren't that big of Halloween parties.

In Yoyogi park we had our official end of the ride, but most of us stayed on for dinner in a Ramen place in Harajuku. When we arrived the place was nearly empty and we got to sit all at one big table... within 15 minutes the place was full!

We had parked our bicycles outside a bit scattered but somewhat illegally and when we were going to leave, 2 bicycles had been removed... Luckily after looking around a little bit, we found them across the road in the parking space of an other house. My bicycle did not get removed, as I had fixed it to something...

Back to my hotel, I rode again through the same street in Roppongi, for the 3rd time today.

I also opened a new Meet-up group to try to attract more riders to this nice monthly event. Let's see how it goes: https://www.meetup.com/Tokyo-Night-Pedal-Cruising-NPC/

Enthronement ride 即位の礼ライド

Bicycle: 24.7 km

Route: Shinbashi - Oimachi - Tokyo Station - Ginza - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 2:00 h 

Total ascent:  98 m 

Average speed: 12 km/h

Weather: Dark... probably cloudy, but no rain anymore,  16 C


Today, on the day of the enthronement of the new Tenno, a mini Taifun swept through Tokyo. Actually it was so small that the weather apps deleted it sometime yesterday. But it did still bring rain with it. So well, a public holiday in the rain and tomorrow, as always after a taifun the sun will be shining... but we will be in the office.

Most of the day I spent in my hotel room, setting up my new iPhone and finally managing to connect it via bluetooth to Garmin! Yeah, 4 years later. Finally. And what an improvement. I was now able to download Komoot and Strava apps both on the garmin device, which means that routes planned on Strava or on the go on komoot can be easily transfered on Garmin. This is a real improvement, no more need for a computer for planning and as my garmin was always very picky with its USB cable connection, finally a stable connection between garmin and something else that can upload / download data.

So after a lazy day in my hotel room, I finally made it out around 19:30, with the idea to ride go to an exhibition of Shiota Chiharu in the Mori Art Museum. Well, I didn't make it very far. I simply after a few hundred meters on the bicycle lost all interest in art, and did only want to continue riding. Not before taking however my first proper picture with my new iPhone:

So I looked for an other "worthy" goal, and what better than an onsen. I knew a reasonable super-sento in Oimachi so while I was already out on the road, I took Komoot and let it replan a ride from "your current location" to Oimachi station. The route it planned was nearly perfect. Specially the smaller road that however rides more or less in a straight line out towards Shinagawa was ideal (I think I may have ridden it already once at the end of a NPC ride). Only the last stretch into Oimachi wasn't good. It went through an industrial area, which well, is a bit spooky alone at night... but well, this is Japan. But even at a certain point came to a road that very much seemed to be a private road of the railway company. So I turned back and found on the other side of the tracks an actually totally perfect small road that brought me right into Oimachi, also discovering that it is a place with a very vivid bar area. (Which I didn't visit though).

I parked where the onsen, but as I hadn't eaten a lot during the day, my first stop was in a fast food restaurant there to get me something, and then, with all my expectations I went upstairs to the onsen... but, alas it was closed due to refurbishment...

So yet an other chance for komoot to produce a new route, when I decided where to go next:

• To the emperors palace, Tokyo Station and Ginza! 

Planning the route on komoot was super easy, however getting it onto Garmin means that any ongoing activity needs to be ended first. I.e. not only stopped, but properly ended and saved. That's why the ride is broken down in two.

On my way back, once I came closer to the palace most streets were kind of half closed. Nothing (well, can't say that, but so it seemed) was completely closed, but many streets were kind of closed. At the first policeman I asked, he said that I count NOT continue straight... and he sent me to the right. But later on I tried again to turn into the direction of the palace and all other policemen, and there were many (and no policewoman as far as I remember), let me through. I even got right in front of the palace (where probably somewhere the gala dinner was still ongoing).

The streets in front were very empty, but also these, not completely close to traffic:

Then a right turn and towards Tokyo station:

... and finally a few more turns, and a scenic nightride on Ginza before returning back to my hotel in Shinbashi.

A weekend in Zushi - 逗子で週末を過ごす

Bicycle: 16 km 

Riding time: 2:03 h
Total ascent: 267 m
Avg speed: 7.7 km/h
Route: Zushi - Kamakura and back
Weather: Sunny and some clouds, quite humid but not too warm,  maybe 23 C

This weekend I went to visit friends in Zushi. On Saturday I had a quite slow start, after getting terribly drunk with colleagues the day before, even singing with the bar owner in a bar that was already closed... and missing our last trains home. But I still needed to get up relatively early on Saturday morning as I had decided to go and buy my new iPhone 11 Pro, which is still sitting here on my desk in its box, wrapped. Getting an iPhone isn't just going to an Apple shop and buying it, but queuing for about an hour to make the request and then getting later the same day an appointment to pick it up. Well I succeeded. 

Once that was done, I got into the train to Shin-Zushi, actually quite a good connection from Daimon, just one change of trains over the same platform. 

My friends picked me up at the station and on Saturday afternoon / evening we went to the beach to have a BBQ. Unfortunately the weather wasn't totally ideal for it, with some rain. Not really strong, but well, some rain, so we couldn't sit on the beach or the blanket. 

But we got rewarded with a nice sunset through the clouds. Only Fuji-san did not make an appearance. 

Today we then took their small foldable bicycles, I had left my brompton here as I really didn't want to log it around the entire trip for maybe only a short cycling trip and went over from Zushi towards Kamakura. To a zone of Kamakura that I had visited at least once already by bicycle, but maybe also once with my husband. But there were still new things to discover! Kamakura is really a place of endless discoveries. Even today we saw an entire other area that we didn't even touch, that seems to merit an other day of discoveries. And probably even farer from the tourist masses, although quite close to the centre of Kamakura... but that is going too far ahead... we stayed mainly in the west side of Kamakura. 

Our first sightseeing spot was a very nice garden, with a wonderful, natural river flowing through it. A real gem and with momiji it must become even nicer: 

In this park they even do sometimes classes for preparing Japanese sweets and other events. 

From there it was only a few meters down the road to Jomyoji temple. A nice temple... but also nothing overwhelming. 

What we did admire where the huge and colourful spiders that had erected everywhere their fabulously elaborated nets. Only, that I hadn't my iPhone Pro 11 with me... and the zoom picture with the iPhone 6 just isn't nice enough. We even saw a colibri at some point today, but taking a picture of those guys is close to impossible, so quickly they move around. 

Apart from all the "wildlife", there is also a nice Japanese tea house though from where one can gaze into this rock garden (we looked from outside):

Just over the street there is Hokokuji, yet an other temple, known for it's bamboo garden. I had visited it a few years ago and have a nice memory of it. I think there were even some couples taking their wedding pictures. However today it was clearly very full of tourists. When we arrived there was an entire group following their leader with a flag and other many tourists waited at the bus stop in line to get back to downtown Kamakura. Well, it is a nice temple (judging from my memory and the pictures on their web page... but if you start off the day with just small temples with only a few tourists going somewhere where their are hordes of them, just didn't sound attractive, so we continued on some small streets just a little bit further down the road to the oldest temple in Kamakura, which also it is the starting point of a 33 Kannon pilgrimage route in the wider Kanto area (actually the region is called Bando), it is a temple only visited by a few tourists but relatively (well, relatively) many worshippers. And is really nice. But don't tell anyone!

In the same area of the Hokokuji, there is also an other interesting building, a Japanese art deco building. Which today per Google maps was closed... and checking now it's web page, it seems it is only open on 4 days per year, 2 days in spring and two in October... but that October weekend is already over. Although the garden seems to be accessible more or less year around. 

From this temple we decided to give it a try at one more temple... and there are more!, so we continued to follow the street towards downtown Kamakura and then turned right again into small streets and at a crossing, where we needed to decide between two temples, both at about 800 m and both at the end of a road, we decided for the one on the right, which was probably the nicest temple of all we visited today: Zuisenji Probably it gets a bit more tourists than some of the others (at least we saw several taxis going or coming from the temple), but when we arrived there were only 30 min left to visit it (which was actually more than enough time), and we got it nearly to ourself. 

It must be specially spectacular in February with the ume (plum) blossoms. But also today it did have some flowers:

We stayed nearly until closure and then road home (to my friends). When deciding which road to take we took a different from the one we had come, and while the part going into Kamakura and down towards the seaside was fine (actually there seems to be yet another area of Kamakura waiting to be explored), the one going over to Zushi wasn't the best, with some quite huge tunnels for traffic (but we managed to cross them on a foot path. 

In the evening, as also yesterday, we went to a strange event/party in the garden of a central shrine in Zushi, where a pop-up bar was grilling and selling drinks, with a DJ and some strange art work, which finally even involved a Japanese belly dancer!

Rain in Tokyo

Bicycle: 26.6 km
Train: 26 km

Route: Shinjuku - Kichijoji - Toshimaen

Total riding time: 2:09 h 

Total ascent:  89 m 

Average speed: 12.4 km/h

Weather: Sunny (after the typhoon),  16 C


After the nice, sunny weather of yesterday... well today it wasn't nice nor sunny:

But I had planned a ride. Actually a far more ambitious ride... from Shinjuku to Lake Sayama and then back to Oedo line in Nerima to an onsen I knew about, but never visited... In totla 70 km... Well, I only managed to ride 26 km due to getting up late (not soo late, but too late to ride 70 km) and due to the weather... which really wasn't for riding a bicycle at all.

When I started it didn't rain, but it was clear that it would start raining pretty soon. For the rest of the day rain likelihood was at 50%... but that meant 100% in most of the places.

From Shinjuku (to where I took the Oedo line right here from Daimon) I went down to Kanda river and then followed it all the way to Kichijoji. A ride I have done hundreds (well, maybe less) times before when I was living in Tokyo... although then I started normally around Meidaimae.

The ride along the river normally is very nice... but already in Takaido the rain started more in serious. I found a disabled toilet and changed into rain gear. Very nice when you can do that in a dry place. Also I have to say that the rain cape is quite good, because it still allows the body to breath, so I did actually not get all wet. But it only works well, if you don't need to look at Garmin continuously, which luckily I didn't as I knew my way.

I briefly considered having lunch in Takaido... but I don't really know a good place there, and it was still a bit too early (well too soon after my breakfast) and once in rain gear getting on wasn't such a bad thing either. However continuing I decided to not ride until the point where I had planned the turn to the onsen (which would have lead to a 35 km ride) but to turn earlier, at Kichijoji.

In Kichijoji I took a bit of time to find the right way out towards the other river that would then bring me to the onsen of today. But I managed and at one point, where I needed to turn I was riding straight into an Italian fami-resu and without planning, I stopped there (in the rain) and had lunch. Noodles and a very nice cake. After that I was warmed up, although stopping on the bike was cold and arrived after a few more km to my onsen: http://www.niwanoyu.jp/niwa/

A quite expensive onsen, which however also has a swimsuit area including a garden. The swimsuit area doesn't seem to be for swimming either, but for spending time in non-onsen water (i.e. in normal water) together with the family. Maybe I need to come here again with my husband to also enjoy the garden, in which probably there are some sauna's or something like that. At least from the rest area I could see people in swimming suits in parts of the garden. Well, I only soaked in the onsen, which was okay, but nothing specially and definitely nothing to justify the price.

The onsen is also part of a sad looking amusement complex... although I guess anything looks sad in the rain:

Rokugien and flood of Arakawa

Bicycle: 37.4 km

Route: Shinbashi - Rokugien - Arakawa - Onsen - Shinbashi

Total riding time: 3:09 h 

Total ascent:  164 m 

Average speed: 11.9 km/h

Weather: Sunny (after the typhoon),  23 C

After the typhoon yesterday the weather today was perfect. Sunny, still a bit windy, but not too much (and no comparison to strong wind in the Netherlands), and quite warm, but not hot. 

My first objective was Koishikawa Botanical garden, a garden I already tried to visit in the past, but always something came between me and the garden... and today it was yesterdays typhoon. That typhoon had also cancelled a weekend trip to Matsuyama. It was on of the strongest typhoons in the Japan for maybe half a century, and although it seemed to hit Tokyo straight, actually the winds and rain in Tokyo (at least in Shinbashi) were not so strong. Nothing to compare to the typhoon Nr. 21 last year in Osaka, where my entire hotel room was shaking and sounding from the wind. 

This time however right in the middle of the typhoon there was even a (small) earthquake. But still it felt pretty safe. So I had an entire day yesterday to plan for today... and came up with the plan to get to see some gardens in Tokyo that I hadn't made it to in the past. 

I was much more lucky with Rokugien where I had passed this year in GW briefly after a very nice visit to Shibamata but hadn't had enough time to visit it then. Which was good, because today it was open, the weather was ideal, and this garden is GREAT! I don't know why it gets only 1 star on Japan-guide. It is definitely one of the great Japanese gardens, on not overflown by tourists. It has been built with the idea to represent 88 ideal landscapes from the more of less mythical Wakayama (well, Wakayama exists... but probably not all of these 88 ideal landscapes, which are cited in classical poetry).

And even my appetite was taken care of by a cold vegetable udon soup with view on the garden:

My further route foresaw a visit to an onsen, which however was very close from the garden, and as the botanical garden had been closed... it was still too early (and to warm) for me to go to the onsen. So after passing yet an other - closed - garden: Kyu Furukawa Garden, I continued on towards Sumida and Arakawa rivers for some disaster tourism. On the Japanese news it was quite clear that both rivers had gone over their restrictions, but stayed within their dikes. While on the BBC it sounded like Sumida river had properly overflown... however from the pictures that they were showing it was clear that it "only" had left it's normal riverbed, but was still very well within its dyke. 

When I first reached Sumida river, there was actually no sign at all that it may have had high water... but later on I found a part of it that clearly had high water, although it already receded and the river was back in its bed:

At the section of the river I was, there was also a DIY xylophone with instructions how to play it so that a specific song would emerge. I tried... it sounded nice enough, although I doubt I got the rhythm right. 

There were also two workers cleaning already up. From there I went a bit further to Arakawa river and was not the only disaster tourist. Actually one has to admit that the river got much nicer with the flood. Normally it is a very regulated river (as nearly all rivers in Japan) that flows in its concrete bed... but today there was a nice river landscape... only that those greenery are trees that normally stand between baseball fields and BBQ places and have covered completely the lower cycling path. But not the one on top of the dyke... otherwise large areas of Tokyo would have been flooded. 

I arrived to Arakawa right on the time of sunset... so nice light... but nothing can make the ugly buildings and highways go away. A much bigger typhoon would be needed for that.

Now it was finally late enough to get to my onsen of the day. I found it by chance looking on the internet... A new onsen, for me at least. And a very tasteful one, kind of wants to be high class Japanese while still being a super-sento as a matter of fact. It was however relatively full. Not terribly full, but still... 

After a long and relaxing soak, I had a good dinner... and then needed to ride back the last 10 km to Shinbashi. For that I had planned out a route through smaller streets but that would go straight for a long time, and this was a very good route, bringing me nearly from the onsen all the way to Kanda (and from there I know my way through small - and a few bigger - streets around Tokyo station to Shinbashi area). 

Tokyo 2020 Olympic games - construction sites 東京2020五輪工場

Bicycle: 67 km

Route: Tokyo 2020 Olympic games 

Total riding time: 5:15h

Total ascent: 311 m 

Average speed: 12.8 km/h

Weather: Fresh and for the first hours slight rain,  19 C

After a relatively hot day yesterday, today the temperature had dropped, clouds had come in and right by the time I was leaving my hotel it had started to drizzle. Not too bad actually. 

So I did set out to my discovery of Tokyo 2020 Olympic games construction sites. A ride inspired by this article on Japan-guide: https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/sam/190710.html

The map on that page isn't too detailed, but actually I was able to find nearly everything. Most of the venues are on Odaiba (or other nearby man-made islands), an area of Tokyo that is actually relatively central, but still very much in development. Do I like Odaiba area? Nope. Somehow Odaiba has made it on the list of touristic places of Tokyo... I still need to discover the attractiveness of that place. For me essentially it is a place with a lot of high rise buildings, all more or less the same, and without any soul. There isn't a single Izakaya, no hair dresser, no shops on the street (yes, there are some shopping centres), but just your normal grocery shop, something, anything... Just big roads, overhead subway line, highways, grey large buildings, enormous museums/shopping centres/TV stations... but no real life.

The houses of the Olympic village are a good example of this:

The future Olympic "village"

But also the actual Olympic venues on these islands. I would say that not even one of them had a marginally interesting architecture. But judge for yourself:

up right: Ariake Arena (Volleyball), up left: Ariake Tennis Park (Tennis), down: Ariake Gymnastics Centre (Gymnastics)

One good thing though, a new bridge from Tsukiji out to the islands has been build an all along with a (typically Japanese) cycling lane. So actually now these islands are quite close to the city centre, but they still feel lightyears away. 

Instead of being able to see the place where the Tokyo Olympics Triathlon will be... I was able to see an actual triathlon. So that was nice. Here where I took this picture, there weren't any fans, but in the area with the fans they were well organized teams of fans. One that even brought a few instructors along that always told the crowd who is the next who is coming that they need to cheer for. They only cheered for a selected number of athletes.  Probably the one sponsored by that bank. )
It was also quite nice to ride (on the side walk) in parallel to these cyclists who would pass me with high speed. 

At some point I left them behind and continued in the direction of Chuobohatei island, the farthest of all, where Equestrian, Canoe and Rowing events will be held... but without me, as there is only a tunnel between that island and the last one on Odaiba, which was off limits for cyclists. So this is the closest I got:

If I understood correctly, there is a bridge from the other end that now might have a cycling lane... but to get there I would have needed to ride through the entire harbour until Wakasu SeaSide park (where we finished some of our August NPC rides in the past) and then hope that the bridge from there is now really allowing cyclists... Well, I hadn't enough curiosity for that. 

I road back from there, saw some more Olympic buildings on Odaiba...

... and came to Shin Kiba. Where after trying to find my way, navigating these enormous streets, highways, blocked roads etc, I managed to get to Yumenoshima park, which will host the venue for archery. Today only this was visible:

It was also really windy today, and well, being in the bay of Tokyo didn't help, so I wonder if this is really a good place for archery...

At this point I was really hungry, remember there is nearly nothing on Odaiba itself, but luckily I was close to Shin Kiba station, which had a number of Japanese (fast food) restaurants, where I got myself a curry-noodle-soup with rice. Good enough to continue afterwards towards more explorations around Tatsumi. An other island with way too many place dedicated to traffic and transport. After riding around a bit I was finally able to find the arena for waterpolo ...

... and the one for swimming:

I'd say that the one for waterpolo was the only architectural highlight until here. But does it count? Maybe not really, because it wasn't built for these Olympic games but rather already existed: 
https://medium.com/@shotarohondamoore/tokyo-2020-venues-tokyo-tatsumi-international-swimming-center-8951569a2168

This concluded the exploration of the islands, where most of the venues are.

• Did I like them: no
• Did I like the area of Tokyo: no
• Did I like the ride here: not particularly
• Do I think it is a good place for the Olympic games: actually yes. All the venues are quite close to each other. One could easily walk from the Olympic village to nearly all of them. Maybe the ones a bit further flung a bicycle would be nice... So I think that is really a great  advantage of having so close to the centre of Tokyo a vast area that is still under development. Actually from the Tennis court to Ginza it is only 5 km! 

It would also seem that the venues will work. From outside most of them looked already quite close to completion (or they were actually already completed) and two were in "testing mode" today:

• Triathlon
• Tennis: https://www.rakutenopen.com/en/ (not surprisingly Novak Djokovic did win. I saw the list of all the other players... and I hadn't heard the name of a single one of them). 

Originally I had though to come back to my hotel walking over Rainbow bridge, but as the sky was so grey it didn't seem to be the best day for skyline photos, so evaluating my possibilities I decided to just continue on to a next venue: Ryogoku Kokugikan, the venue not for sumo (not olympic...) but for boxing.

The next decision was again, where to go next... and as I had an appointment with my hairdresser anyway... on the other side of the city, I decided that I could as well pass by the rest of the Olympic installations, mainly the stadium, on my way.

First the Nippon Budokan, the venue for judo and karate, very fittingly: 

Then the new stadium (athletics & football) under construction:

... and the Metropolitan Gymnasium (table tennis), just by its side (and an already existing building):

... and finally, finally the Yoyogi National Stadium (handball):

Once upon the time (i.e. at the 1964 Olympic games) it was used for swimming and basketball. And, this one really had some inspiring architecture. Not sure if any of those stadiums on Odaiba will leave a lasting impression on the world of architecture. 

From here, it wasn't too far to my hair dresser back in Shimokitazawa. I even did a quick reconnaissance round to our old house: Still there, only the plants in the garden are gone. 

After the haircut, some shopping, an electric cable in Shibuya... and groceries in a supermarket close to my hotel in Shinbashi. 

Now all set for my first week of work in Japan!