Good April 7th

Somehow lost April 6th. Turns out all of today's activities happened on April 7th. 

So April 7th it was and I will move forward as if it was April 7th. 

April 7th was a good day.

Super duper early April 7th.

I got up super early on April 7th. Like 2am early. Spent some time staring at Google maps, as is my daily routine, and hit the road soon as the sun started coming up. The roads were still wet from the night before and devoid of any traffic. Early cyclist gets the open road.

There are many beautiful country roads once you get out of Tokyo, but it usually takes me a couple hours to even get to get there. I have a couple hour long loops I like to do that involve taking the cycling road along the Tama River. There's always a ton of people using the cycling road but it's better than mixing it up with car traffic. The cycling road runs east to west and today I headed west for a 30km loop.  

This hill is about 15km into the ride. Most of the hills I've found around here are super short and super steep. This hill is one of the only longish steepish hills I've been able to find. On weekends many cyclists come here to train. If I were in Spokane, this hill would be similar to Greenwood, just a bit shorter. But now that I think about it, If it's shorter I guess it wouldn't be Greenwood at all because for me what made Greenwood challenging was the last bit.

View from top of not Greenwood climb.

Yomiuri Land ferris wheel.

The climb takes you to an amusement park called Yomiuri Land. We've been here several times. It's a great park. They even have a water park in the summer time and hot springs next door. Not surprising because there are hot springs everywhere in Japan.

Yomiuri Land early birds. Not sure what they were waiting for.
It was 7am , so they were probably up to no good.

The second half of the ride takes me up a short steep climb to a shrine and by a freeway. Actually it's great riding along freeways because theres less traffic around it and much of the land right next to it is undeveloped. I've found some fun dirt trail options next to freeways.

Locking up the tandem. 

In the afternoon Miyo and I braved strong winds for a fun ride in the hood. This was taken in an underground bike parking lot. Free for three hours. Most places charge at least a dollar for parking your bike. Abandoned bikes are a huge problem around urban area train stations. 

Shopping spaces us out.

Precision packing. Fast too.

Then it was back to the grocery store for more edible goods. Tacos were on the menu.

It was a great morning of bike fun. Thank you.

Mojo mojo.