Bicycle: 8 km
Total Ascent: 51 m
Average Speed: 10.7 km/h
Riding Time: 46 min
Weather: grey, but it actually did not rain, 10 C
The weather forecast for today was rainy. So yesterday I decided to get a well deserved sleep in, something I do seldom lately as on the weekends if weather is good enough, and it often is, I am out and about with my bike. So after resting and then sulking a bit longer in bed (watching YouTube and the like) I finally got out there around noon. This time not dressing in cycling cloths, again something I relatively rarely do on days off and it is actually strange to sit on the road bike without the properly padded cycling shorts. I had a small shopping list of things I want to buy. I could buy them in Tokyo, but well, I am here and didn't have a ride plan for today. I went to a large shopping mall just South of the station where I had seen that there was an outdoor shop and many other shops, where I hoped to find a bath robe. I didn't find any bathrobe at all... but I found some new sturdy shoes. My current shoes I bought in 2018 when I moved to the Netherlands and since I have been wearing practically daily when weather isn't good enough for sandals. They are still okay... but I can see the day coming when they will fail, so I had decided to get a new pair. And so I did. I also got some New Years precooked dinner for later tonight.
I came back to my hotel dropped my shopping and after a while set out just over the river from here to Fushimi Inari. It is crazy how busy that area is, but only about 3, 4 streets. Everything between the 2 train stations close to the shrine and the Fushimi Inari shrine itself. Hordes of people, mostly tourists, on the streets. But be away one more block, and it is a perfectly boring, anonymous Japanese neighbourhood.
I just came to check out how Fushimi Inari is gearing up for the big hatsumode. And yes, it was gearing up. The presents to the shrine were already arranged ...
... and the food stalls up and cooking.
This ride concludes yet an other year on the bike. Considering that I practically don't cycle from June to August due to the heat in Japan, raking up over 8,000 km isn't bad. Nothing to compare to the 16,000 I did a few years ago in the Netherlands, but then I was cycling in the flat (and boring Netherlands) and went out there nearly every day for a quick spin after work. Now I am regularly riding to work (about 9 km each way) and in varied countryside on the weekends. And 8,000 km with nearly 70,000 m of climbing are also an other beast. In the Netherlands I did regularly rides of 140 km (e.g. riding from Leiden to Amsterdam, picking up people there for a ride, riding maybe 60 km with those guys, dropping them off in Amsterdam again and then back to Leiden... and 140 km were done. Easy peasy. This year, I think I did a 100 km ride at least every month (except probably June and August when it was too hot to get a lot of cycling done). (In July I was at a cycling event of my company in Europe, where it was hot... the hottest day of the year... but nothing compared to the humid heat of Japan).
Also riding over 500 h in a year means that I spent about 6% of my entire time this year cycling. If you add time with the bike but not cycling, e.g. taking pictures, stopping for lunch... it was probably close to 10% of my time that was spent close to a bicycle out there in the nature.
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