Pizza....

The pizza at Costco is soooo good...

Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture

[Hikone Castle]

Where? The circumference of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, anticlockwise from Hikone.

Terrain? Hilly in the north, pretty flat with some soft inclines for the rest of it.

Distance/Duration? 56km + 184km / 8 + 12 hours (Day 1 + 2, respectively)

How? By mamachari aka. The Granny Bike with a 6kg pack riding in the front basket. My mamachari was a fixie i.e. 'no gears'.

 Not on a mamachari anyhow, and doubly so with a fixed gear one. I admit, I seriously considered saying "Stuff it" and taking the shortcut across Biwako Ohashi Bridge on Day 2 which would have cut 3-hours off of my journey back to Hikone, but perseverance won through, especially knowing that I would regret it and berate myself afterwards for giving up on completing the circuit.

Otherwise, the locals are really friendly, and if one would overlook the rubbish along some of the shores, it was a very beautiful and scenic route. And was quite easy to navigate, even when the route winded inland onto country roads and around expressways. GPS-less and making do with just a paper map, I managed to not get myself completely lost.

Meals were bought from Michi-no-Eki, stores which sell local produce. And for accommodation, I pitched tent on a nice green spot by the lake side. Public campgrounds charge 4000yen (about GBP20) for a night's use of a tent site which covers washing facilities, but not car parking, equipment rentals etc...

Arriving back at Hikone was a bit of a rush with a 15-minute visit to a sentou (public bathhouse), before grabbing a hoard of bread to munch on the shinkansen, which actually, also happened to be my first time riding a shinkansen, the station attendant had a face of amused bemusement when I couldn't figure out why my tickets wouldn't let me through the gates... Well, better late than never ;)

Cycling Along The Tama

My friend and I were cycling along the River Tama, when I saw this piece of architecture that kind of reminds me of a chicken house. It was a nice warm sunny day for cycling. We stopped and had lunch on the riverside, and played cards on meticulously mown grass.

Safety on the Roads

I haven't taken much notice of it before, possibly because of the fact that I am a careful pedestrian. Really.

I'm turning into a road, and these people with their kid, who was skipping ahead, continue to step off the pavement and cross the path in front of a moving vehicle. They were just chattering away, not bothering to keep a check on their surroundings.

Good thing I was just free-wheeling, or I would have ran over that kid, who didn't look both ways before crossing the road. It wasn't the first time either. Both of them were kids. I feel pretty pissed off, mainly at the schools and their parents for not ingraining such basic sense. When I get out there, you bet I'll be doing the ingraining.

Uni-Cycle

First day at the Uni went well. Today I found that cycling one-way takes about 75-90 minutes. It might have been the Tfl's suggested 35-minutes if the route had been flat, but it wasn't. Hills and uneven slopey roads make up the majority of the route. Well, it's good daily training, and soon I'll be climbing up those lumps of rock in no time ;)

Next July, I will be having two graduation ceremonies at two different universities. I just hope that they are not on the same day.