Cycling in August

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Transcript

This summer I managed to do a lot of long-distance cycling, even though we had a lot of rain in July and early August. After the rainy season ended in August, I took several rides of about 100 kilometers each in Shiga and Mie Prefectures.

One nice thing about summer cycling is that I get to meet some interesting people. For example, in the mountains near Iga in Mie Prefecture I met a 62-year-old fellow cyclist from Yokkaiichi. I'd followed him up a fairly steep mountain pass. When we got to the top, we talked for a while, congratulating each other for having survived a long, non-stop climb at our ages [1].

One day as I was riding along Lake Biwa, I met a man who was flying a model glider. The glider had a wingspan of about 70 or 80 centimeters. The guy would spin and fling it into the wind and then grab his remote control. The glider would go out over the lake in a big circle, and then he'd fly it back and gently catch it by the tip of a wing [2].

A little later that same day I met a Canadian man in Hikone [3]. While we were chatting, I discovered that he was the father of a young woman who had worked for a while at my university. He lives in Toronto, and he was visiting relatives in Hikone that week. What a small world!

In summer it's really hot and humid here in Japan. It takes a lot of energy to ride a bicycle 100 kilometers in that kind of heat, but a day of cycling in August can be great fun as long as you get up early and drink a lot a water as you ride [4].

Notes

1. Map: Old Japan Route 25 in Mie Prefecture (Daiwa Kaido)
2. RC gliders. The man had a discus launch glider (DLG).
3. Map: Shiga Route 25 (Sazanami Kaido / Kogan Doro) in Hikone (Nagasone-cho)
4. Klean Kanteen™ 27oz. and 18oz. bottles are perfect for cycling.