Well, I took Luke's advice and went for a ride today and brought my camera. As you can see from the collage of pictures it was an amazing day. My ride kept getting interrupted because everything looked so good under the blue sky and in the afternoon sun that I couldn't resist the temptation to stop and snap some pictures. But it was my first road ride in ages and I think my legs appreciated the breaks! Riding on the road is so different from riding on the trainer. I set the resistance high enough on the trainer that I have to work hard to keep the cadence up around ninety or a hundred. That way it's a good workout even in half an hour. But even when I'm working hard the computer only reads about 20 kilometers per hour. On the road with the same effort it's more like 26 or 30 km/h. But hills! Wind! Flappy windbreakers! Stinky trucks! All those things I don't have to worry about on the verandah. But then again, there's nothing like a gently curving road, wind at your back, blue sky above, and the simple mechanics of the bicyle, one of humankind's greatest inventions. Oh, and I made some new friends too! I found a note the other day, written in my handwriting, that I don't remember writing. It was an address, so I looked it up on google and it turned out to be for a bagmaker in Tsukuba. I went to the shop today and they really seemed like great people. It's a family business. The father's been making bags for thirty years. His daughter was in Canada and met and fell in love with and married a Canadian man and they came back to Japan together a year and a half ago. He had been a shoemaker and has transferred his skills to bag making and so now the business is set to carry on another generation. The whole family was very nice and I stayed and talked for nearly an hour. I am looking forward to seeing them again, and to buying a new bag!