A few slideshows of Japan

•November 1, 2024 • 4 Comments

Below are 7 short slideshows that highlight different parts of our Japan travels during September and October this year.

This was on Sado Island which is off the west coast in the Niigata Prefecture…

  • Dance performance in our hotel lobby
  • Lots of gold was mined there.
  • These boats were used to fish in shallow waters

We rented a car and did a big loop from Nagano to Sado Island, to Tsuruoka (where the Art Fields are), then to Yamagata, and then back to Nagano…

  • Rice Fields
  • Roasting Chestnuts
  • A beautiful building that was an Oyaki factory (Japanese dumplings)
  • Fish shop store front
  • That car has less than inch clearance on each side
  • Fishing boats
  • Kudzu is everywhere
  • At a Silk Museum
  • the dining room in one of our hotels
  • A reading room in the hotel
  • slippers at the entrance of a Ryokan
  • On Alison’s birthday

Temples and Shrines…

  • A Sumo Wrestling event for kids.
  • LOTS of ceremony
  • incense outside a shrine
  • There were 2550 steps to the top..
  • Temples and Shrines along the way
  • This was another walk up 1100 steps

Various Museums we visited…

  • D.T. Suzuki Museum, Kanazawa
  • Yayoi Kasuma’s exhibit, Kanazawa
  • A Fog Art installation, Nagano
  • Outside Kanazawa Art Museum
  • An art Exhibit in Tsuruoka

An amazing display of Jellyfish at the Kamo Aquarium on the coast south of Sakata

Kanazawa and Tokyo

  • Imperial Palace Gardens
  • A very cool restaurant
  • Maiko dress-up
  • some of the English on shirts and bags can be amusing
  • Delicious sushi!

Some of my cycling…

  • Fortunately, this grade was short
  • you will NEVER go dry in Japan
  • Longest escilator I’ve ever seen
  • decisions, decisions…
  • On Sundays, this is a common site in small towns
  • I spend the night in Narai, and old Post-Town

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Onsen Towns

•October 26, 2024 • Leave a Comment

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Gardens

•October 26, 2024 • Leave a Comment
  • Hidden Gardeners in the trees

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Art Installations

•October 26, 2024 • 1 Comment
  • Part of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Installations
  • Kanazawa Exhibit

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Around Kyoto

•October 26, 2024 • Leave a Comment
  • American-themed flea market
  • Typical old-style coffee shop

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Photos of 7 Weeks in Japan, Sept-Oct 2024

•October 26, 2024 • 1 Comment

We started out with 2 weeks in Kyoto, cycling around town and just hanging out.

Then I did some cycling in the Japan Alps and Alison spent time around Nagano and visiting a friend at her temple.

Then we did a road trip for a few weeks ending with some time in Tokyo.

Photos in separate posts.

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Girona and Costa Brava

•May 23, 2024 • Leave a Comment
Great day sailing
Excellent cycling roads
View from our apartment in Llafranch
On our 24th Anniversary

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Some images of Malaga, Spain

•April 29, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Cycling and hanging out…. (click 1st image to scroll through)

We tried this
Big Ass Cruise Ships in Malaga
At Karma Guen
Stupa Karma Guen
Lots of great cycling roads
Cycling obstruction

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Only one way out…

•October 2, 2023 • Leave a Comment

…which is the way you entered.

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A few images of the Costa Brava, Spain

•October 1, 2023 • Leave a Comment

This has to be one of the most beautiful coastlines I’ve ever seen. And certainly the best one I’ve cycled.

The beach from our room in Llfranch, and the beach below the Parador we are staying at.
From our room at the Parador above Aiguablava. The color of the water is truly amazing.

The entrance to a winery. Lots of rusted metal used in this region.

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The Coast

•September 27, 2023 • 1 Comment
Some of the roads along the coast are insanely steep. And that was the uphill portion!

Went kayaking today at the central portion of the Costa Brava

Alison, in Llafranch

Follow this…..

Photo taken a few days ago (2023) at the Roman ruins in Empúries. Alison is standing on a mosaic (with permission) holding a photo I took of her at this spot in 2003, of her holding a photo of her here in 1965, holding a postcard of the mosaic she’s standing on.

Here is the photo from 2003, holding a photo of her on this spot in ~1965. This is the photo she’s holding in the 2023 photo.

This is Alison in about 1965, holding a card of the mosaic she’s standing on. This is the photo she’s holding in 2003.

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Images from in and around Girona

•September 25, 2023 • 1 Comment
Imagine living on that vertical cliff?
From our apartment window
LOTS of cyclists in Girona

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Girona Spain – the road cycling capital of Spain

•September 21, 2023 • 3 Comments

Amazing roads, fantastic routes, more bike shops than you can imagine, bike lanes all over the city, shockingly quiet rural roads, drivers that respect cyclists…no region in the US can even come close.

I cycled up to Mare de Déu del Mont. 54 mile ride with 5,400’ of gain. Like every other ride, more cyclists on the roads than cars, by far. There’s an old church at the top. That first image is what I saw on my approach, it’s the left pointy peak. Way up there!
Girona city. We’re staying in Bari Vell, which is Catalon for “Old Town”. Girona is about the size of Santa Fe, but is a university town, and apparently has a binary demographic: Gen Z’ers, and Boomers. Plus, about a zillion interesting restaurants.

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Pikes Peak: My 70th Birthday Climb

•August 17, 2023 • 5 Comments

This was my 7th accent of Pikes Peak. The Stats:

  • Distance up: 18 miles
  • Total Climb: 6,565 feet
  • Starting Elevation: 7,750 feet
  • Summit Elevation: 14,115 feet

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39 Foot Bridges in Japan

•June 2, 2023 • Leave a Comment

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Images of Japan: Sapporo, Hokkaido – the end of this trip

•May 25, 2023 • Leave a Comment
From our hotel room
An Art Park near Sapporo
That’s Alison sitting
A really cool slide designed by Isamu Noguchi in Sapporo

Tadao Ando’s Big Buddha at the Takino Cemetery

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Images of Japan – Part 4 – Awaji Island & Hokkaido

•May 22, 2023 • Leave a Comment

If there was ever proof that our oceans are a swirling cesspool of plastic waste, this is it. The day before this beach was spotless. The next morning: this. We asked the cleanup crew if this happens every day, it doesn’t. But last night the sea was rough and it was windy.

ABOVE: A very cool meditation center

BELOW: A strawberry greenhouse where you can pick strawberries and eat them picnic-style under the vines. Way over-priced. Milking it for more than it was worth. Best part was the photo opportunity.

Huge wisteria.
Huge crab
Huge wings

Noboribetsu, Hokkaido

Hell Valley
A geyser
Foot bath
The garden of our Ryokan

Otaru, Hokkaido

Being offered a fresh scallop
Scallop growing nets
Some of the old warehouses
An old bank turned into a cafe

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Images of Japan- Part Three

•May 13, 2023 • Leave a Comment

The bridge over the Naruto Straight linking Awaji Island to Honshu.

There is a pedestrian walkway under the bridge with clear panels in the floor to see the whirlpools and rapids 150 feet below.

Some random images…

Alison is in there somewhere
At an Indigo dyer we visited

These high school age kids were on a field trip to the Earthquake Memorial we visited. All wearing the ubiquitous black and white uniforms, all with jet-black hair, most all about the same height, most wearing masks…

I pulled our rental car into this parking garage. When I got out of the car, I looked up, and…

…this is what I saw above me. A Matrix-esque scene of stacked cars in this creepy automated parking garage.

Seaside along the Western coast of Awaji Island

The Honpukuji Water Temple, a Tadao Ando building.

You approach the temple by first seeing the Ando signature concrete walls (first 2 photos). Then you walk down underneath the shallow pools.

Then, below ground, you come to the temple

The Awaji Yumebutai

Next, another Ando project, the Awaji Yumebutai. The size and scope of this is hard to explain, and even harder to photograph. The Wikipedia page link below will explain.

Awaji Yumebutai
A switchback walkway
More concrete stuff
100 stepped gardens.
Workers addressing some problem.
Thousands of scallop shells (real, not fabricated) covered the acres of shallow pools.

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Images of Japan- Part 2

•May 10, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Tottori Sand Dunes

An Anime photo shoot

Shimane Art Museum, Matsue

A beach with tiny shells

Two nights in a temple at the base of Mt Daisen. In the woods.

Matsuyama castle

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Images of Japan – Part 1

•May 3, 2023 • Leave a Comment
Kyoto
Hyogo Prefectural Museum, Kobe
One of the many nicely designed public toilets
…another
Street food in Kobe
Lots of weddings in Kobe when we were there
The youngest kid I’ve ever seen on his cellphone.
In front of a video installation in a temple on Mt Shosha, above Himeji
Many Buddhas on Mt Shosha

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Japan Foot Bridges – Part One

•May 1, 2023 • Leave a Comment

These are some of the foot bridges I’ve seen. (Some have already been posted)

Covered with dirt
One big rock
An even bigger rock
A really crazy foot bridge

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Stuff

•April 29, 2023 • Leave a Comment

No discussion of traveling in Japan is complete without mentioning toilets. Even a train station can have an expensive Toto toilet, and there’s always a bidet. Very civilized.

Sometimes even an ordinary experience like stopping for coffee to get out of the rain can have a certain amount of simple elegance.

Not sure what the automatic feature is
Nice bridge to cycle over
Sometimes the architecture is incredibly awful.
A reminder to all men who can’t aim properly
Every hotel has a video temperature reading device. Most are the size of a large smartphone, some are TV’s. I was 97°!

Then there’s the whole Bike thing…..

The bike comes to Japan in this case, which is the maximum size for a standard checked piece of luggage.

Then, of course, it turns into this….

And sometimes it looks like this on a small commuter train…in the required bag. Speaking of the bag: to go on a train the bike must be in a bag. But most bike bags are big, bulky, and heavy. So, I made my own. I needed a material that was strong, lightweight, and that compressed into a small package, so I bought some parachute material and fabricated my own bag. It may not be pretty, but that wasn’t one of the criteria.

And then, in my last cycling hotel, it goes back into the case, and then I have a celebratory sake.

Continue reading ‘Stuff’

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Katsuura

•April 27, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Katsuura bills itself as the capital of maguro (tuna), and well, this claim may be true. The shashimi I’ve had has been amazing. This small port town has either fish stores, fish restaurants, fishing boats, or a seemingly endless number of sake shops.

This is a representation of an actual fish, 2.74 meters, 450kg (9’, just under 1,000 lbs)
Tacky tour boat
This image is supposed to represent a male figure. Hmmmm….

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Ride 11: Kawayu Onsen to Katsuura (the coast)

•April 25, 2023 • Leave a Comment

This was a hard day on the bike: 44 miles and 5,900’ of gain. 5-7% grade on a touring bike I can handle just fine. But when the grade gets up to 18%, we’ll, it’s absolutely brutal. There was a lot of the former, and way too much of the latter. However, I had an astounding downhill.

Then I ended up in Katsuura, on the coast, for a rest day. I walked a short part of the Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Trail and went to Nachi Falls.

Nachi Falls is the highest waterfall in Japan. There is a (virtual, of sorts) “shrine” at the base in the 3rd image.

The Falls “shrine”
For 100¥ you buy this beautiful little stick with some kanji on it saying “prayer”, and you toss it on the fire and make a wish. I got two, one to burn and one to take home.
Walking sticks along the trail

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Ride 10: Ryujin Onsen to Kawayu Onsen

•April 22, 2023 • 4 Comments

48 miles and 5,800’ of gain…And then there was this….

You don’t need to read Japanese to understand. It was time for a reroute!
Guard rail? Who needs a guard rail? And this drop off was not the deepest I saw without any barriers.
A really big Torii Gate.
These are the straightest pine trees I ever saw. They look like the power pole, until they fall and then look like match sticks.

I was on my very last sip of water, and then, around the next turn, in the middle of nowhere, was a vending machine. They are everywhere.
A large concrete wall.
Tea fields
Couldn’t resist walking out onto this bridge. But after a few steps, the shaking was too much.

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Rides 7,8,9

•April 21, 2023 • 1 Comment

And I thought Shikoku has steep hill climbs with deep, practically vertical valleys. Well, the Kii Peninsula, southern Wakayama Prefecture, has plenty.

The first ride went south from the city of Wakayama through Yuasa, home of Soy Sauce (I went through the small soy sauce museum) to a rural location where I stayed at a guest house. It was a converted fruit storage building. Nice renovation.

Then, it was a grueling climb up to Koyasan. The third day riding the Kii Peninsula was another big climbing day to Ryujin Onsen.

These last 3 rides were not huge in miles: only 111. But the total elevation gain was right at 15,000’. Pulling those damn panniers up the hills, was, well, a bit tiring.

These are some photos of a temple I visited that was having a Spring Festival. The second photo is the back of 9 female Pilgrims who were tapping a small bell, in unison, for at least a half hour. The bottom photo is where you buy a sticky golden piece of paper and write a “wish” (that’s the best word Google Translate came up with) and put it on the statue.
A crazy steep, wet, mountain “road” …… a very modern house…… a terraced rice field…… the ubiquitous hillside support which is everywhere. Gotta wonder if it would’ve been necessary if the trees weren’t cut…. And some small bridges.

The enormous cemetery in Koyasan…. And the bottom photo is from my window at Ryujin Onsen.

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Rides 4,5,6: sun, rain, hills, remote mountain roads

•April 17, 2023 • 2 Comments

The weather forecast has been accurate. It was supposed to rain all day riding out of the Iya Valley, and it did. A winding road through the beautiful steep canyon was even enjoyable in the light rain.

Apparently, it’s here to represent the children of the past that used to climb on this cliff and pee off the edge to show their bravado. Why they’re using the Brussels manikin pee for this without making a reference to Brussel is beyond me.
Apparently, the “Peeing Boy” (as they call it) represent the children of the past that used to climb on this cliff and pee off the edge to show their bravado. Of course, they are using the Brussels manikin pee for this, but there’s no reference.

Temple #12 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage. (henro)

Out my hotel room window. Lots of wisteria in this small town.
I took the ferry from Tokushima to Wakayama. They always take great care with bicycles.

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First few rides

•April 14, 2023 • Leave a Comment

It rains often in Japan. Shikoku is covered with steep mountains, and it’s really remote. And I missed the food. I know why this island is one of my favorite cycling destinations in Japan (though, I would prefer less rain).

The first day was short, Maragume to Kotohira, intended to make sure all was well with the bike, get used to the new navigation tools and the new electronic, wireless shifting. It rained off and on all day. Glad it was short.

The second day, Kotohira to Sadamitsu wasn’t too long but had some climbing. The downhill was a bit much: in 4.8 miles I dropped 2500’. Some of the grades exceeded 25%.

After my ride I walked up 1,379 stone steps to a series of temples. I counted them on the way down. The photo of the monk hitting the big drum was on the way down.

1379 steps

Day three was only 40 miles, Sadamitsu to Iya Valley, but I had to ride my touring bike with panniers up 5200’. Most of that gain was one 17 mile climb. The first 11 miles had only 1100’. But the last 6 had 2800’.

Tree planting time
Rice planting time
Vine bridge
The gaps are a bit big

It’s supposed to rain solid all day tomorrow. Oh boy.

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Back to Japan!

•April 10, 2023 • 3 Comments

This trip starts today with my first bike tour here since Japan closed its doors. While I’m doing that, Alison will be visiting friends, staying at a Zendo, and renting a house in Kyoto for a week. I’ll be doing a “Hills and Hot Springs” cycling trip.

First, I ride on Shikoku for 5 days doing 200 miles with 20,000′ of gain. Then I take the ferry from Tokushima to Wakayama, and on the Kii Peninsula I ride 8 days, doing 320 miles and 42,000′ of gain.

After that, I meet up with Alison and we we do a few road trips, spending 4 weeks traveling around Shikoku, Western Honshu, and Hokkaido.

Here’s the bike route:

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But First…

•April 10, 2023 • Leave a Comment

We spent 3 days in Tokyo before going our separate ways. Did some shopping, visited the Tokyo Photography Museum, wandered around, soaked in the hotel’s spa (Yu, ゆ).

A small lunch spot
A well disguised nightclub
Crazy expensive strawberries
What can I say…

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