2005 Japan Trip - Day 2 (Part 4)

Part 4 - Saturday (Doyoubi 土曜日) Oct. 29th 2005 -

It has been a while...continued from 2005 - Japan Trip Day 2 (Part 3)...

Jumping onto our bikes we pedaled away from Horyu-ji. Shizuka-san's route to Todai-ji was mainly via a damp and sometimes slippery bike path so I was glad I had fenders on my bike! I could tell that on a sunny day, it would have been a beautiful ride as we road along a scenic rain fed river and then uphill into a forest with persimmon trees scattered here and there. But for today, we were under cloudy skies and it was a bit chilly, but it was still nice anyway.

Loosing all sense of direction and riding "blind" (as I didn't have my bike computer), we rode at a brisk pace for what seemed to be a long time. I was getting just a little worried since the skies were getting darker, but Shizuka had everything under control.

Along the way, we got stopped at a real train crossing - with a real train crossing too! This was a first for me and I was lucky to get my camera out before the train actually came through.

After riding a while more, we soon reached the edge of Nara Koen which was just a short walk to Todai-ji. We locked our bikes onto a wooden fence right next to several of the MANY deer that are free to roam all over the place. The deer were tame and friendly that day, but, there were caution signs saying that duirng the mating season, the deer wouldn't be so "nice."

It was a later in the day now and you could feel the air had gotten cooler. At that point, I had to tell Shizuka what a GREAT bike rider she was. Just trying to stay on her wheel in those wet conditions was NOT easy for me as I was slipping-and-a-sliding all over the place! I actully checked to see what kind of tires she had since it seemed she had much more grip than me!

I could also tell she was a STRONG rider, as when we hit several uphill sections, her pace hardly dropped, I couldn't help smiling and being totally impressed. I let her know that there were lots of GUYS who would have a hard time riding at her speed - especially in those conditions! Shizuka-san said that she usually rides everyday and it really showed :-)

つづく...