Time to bring out the shorts and T-shirts for Half-Fast Riding
Having been remiss for the better part of a year in updating this humble blog, I want to try to make amends and catch up with at least a couple of things that I have wanted to put up in updated postings. 

Up up and away - hill climbing and rocket science compared

In some places rocket science is what simple-minded guys in the Street consider good math abilities, while skeptics who don't believe in stuff like statistical arbitrage look over the numbers and scornfully say this derivative stuff ain't rocket science, it's poker my friend. Been there, and the truth is it is all about liquidity and knowing how deep the pool is before you dive

In other countries of course rocket science is blind man's buff, or playing chicken with one hand tied to your steering wheel (Yes, that's you bozo, Kim Dong-Ill over there in Pyong young dong wung, you have to be the most retarded genius I have ever met). Crazy like a fox, but a bit low on cash now that the pachinko spigot has been shut.

Finally there is the land of the rising yen and this intrepid band from the Half-Fast Expeditionary Force which has proven beyonod reasonable doubt that ramen IS rocket-food. Just look at the results (with thanks to Cap'n Mike for leading the stalwarts into the lower stratosphere on Sunday) on the dizzying heights of Mt. Takao and into the oxygen-starved death zone of Mt. Jimba. The only question left: Why are these people smiling?

Cheers. Fleet Admiral Pieter von Spieglizt und Hohenzollern

 

Godaiba, Whoadaiba, Sodaiba, Woedaiba - Anydaiba you want!

The last effort to develop the Tokyo waterfront almost ruined the city and sent the country reeling into a 12 year recession during which ordinary people lost millions, some 35,000 people a year committed suicide, and the City administration with its friends in the Diet, began the slow but inexorable pouring of good money after bad once again.

But what they have built and are building out there is a story in itself. The relocation of the Tsukiji Fish Market to make way for more shoddy condo developments is but one aspect of the massive redevelopment of Chuo-ku on the Sumida. The landfill wasteland that became Odaiba of course is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce that is buried there with just about every other piece of trash not tossed into the friendly community incinerators that Gov. Ishihara planted in every 23 of the city's Wards. The old international fairgrounds at Harumi were turned into a scrapyard and incinerator for example.

But let's focus on the fun side, not the dark and unexamined side of things for a moment. What can you do on an idle afternoon or morning when you do what I did 2-3 days in a row and take the new Harunoumi Doori bridge shortcut. Observe what is under you when you cross but that is another story.

1) The fabulous miniaturization of the Japnaese dog world. Forget those Akitas and working dogs, go for the new world of Bonsai Bow-wows, tiny Chihuahuas, very very small indeed. One guy had 5 in his baby carriage, the smallest sitting in the ash tray. Why do Japanese baby carriages have ash trays that double as pooch pouches? As I said to Koichi Hama today, we won't sell many electroluminescent glow in the dark leads and collars if this minithing continues, people will let the bonsai pooches take bonsai poopoos and peepees in their bonsai balcony gardens.

2) Travel opportunity: More cool stuff on Odaiba. You can take a direct ferry to any of the 3 island. No. Not Oshima, Niijima or Miyakejima. Hokkaido, Shikoku or Kyushu. Awesome. I almost got on the nothern-bound one, just to hang with the truckers and freeters. Go to the end of the Ariake Pier. Absolutely no one there. You can even rent office space out there. Eerie.

3) Bizarre time-warps. That Old Lady of the Harbor, the statuesque Liberty standing there by the Aqua City shopping mall is simply so WRONG, so out of place that it is hallucinogenic. Tokyo since day one has never been an outward-bound outward-oriented open city, except a period from 1878 to 1898 when Tsukiji was gay Paree for gaijin, maybe the only visitors ever WELCOMED to Tokyo were John, Paul, Ringo and George. Mentally-crippled (but thankfully as of this writing lame-duck) Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara once told a group of foreign journalists: "Here is a way to keep you foreign residents happy - I read in Dickens the other day that you people like to eat "Crow Pie" so I am going to introduce a new Tokyo meibutsu - crow pie. Two stones in one bird as it were, fewer pesky crows and fewer pesky foreigners." I am not making this up by the way - I was there when he said it, and I swore one day to teach him the more pertinent English phrase - an arrogant man eating crow.



Ah well. A long day. Another manic Monday as Nirvana put it. Curt Kobain we miss you. You too Hunter S. Thompson. Savage biting wit is the best antidote to a trivialized existence. Ciao.

So go, have a good time. A crazy time. Like I did.

Hmmm. Don't take this too lightly. Or too seriously. Just another manic Monday in rainy season. Yowsa. PF


             
strange_days

Not just an urban myth: You CAN rent pets and boyfriends at Odaiba
A short lull in the rainy season showers and a case of early morning insomnia gave me a chance to pop across the Sumida River on the new Harumi Doori bridge to Odaiba - as far as the Evergreen container docks at the far end past the Maritime Museum. By chance I drove past the ground level of the Venus Fort shopping mall and was happy to confirm that, yes, indeed they do offer rental puppies with all kinds of goodies, including frequent-buddy miles and cake for both pet and person after the walk. Check it out if you haven't yet had a chance.

Foggy Bottom or "Don: Didn't you realize that it is rainy season?"
This photo pretty much speaks for itself. Look carefully and you can see the ghostly outlines of the tiny handful of Half-Fast riders who actually braved the torrential rains, turbulent winds, wickedly slippery tarmac, bellowing sulphur clouds on Mihara, and the English pea soup of a fog. Hello!! (From right to left: Brian, Naoko, Mike, Sumie, Peter - this picture is taken at the lava-flow emergency shelter at the highest point on the pass; these shelters do double duty as bus stops, as Mike was kind enough to explain to me later, that's Mike by the way in the middle in his cool "safety yellow" REI Goretex raingear)

                               
Wet Oshima

Bump and Grind on a sunny Sunday

Another not uneventful Arakawa Ride on a Sunday when the weather finally collaborated to make the ride more pleasant. A baker's dozen of us met at the Grand Hyatt and got on the road when the last of the laggards arrived - must have been close to 11:30 at that point - and made our way up to Ueno Park and the tightly knit back streets of Yanaka (watch out for the rooftop kangaroo ornaments!) and into Adachi-ku (let's see, Shibuya, Minato, Chiyoda, Chuo, one day I will get around to counting them all). The first pit stop turned into a wine stop for once, and the second at Kasai Rinkai Koen more of a refueling for the adventure that Ray and Don had proposed - a short loop just off the man-made golf course (no smoking, methane gas eruptions) leading out to the Tokyo Heliport at Yumenoshima. From there a fast run to Odaiba for lunch and a chance to watch the Dragon Boat racing and beach volleyball. (Thanks to Renald for taking the picture - he is the only rider not in the frame at this point).

Ray, fourth from the right, was the bump and grind guy for the day, having smashed the window of an unsuspecting Honda driver along the river, the driver realizing he could never explain what happened either to the Tokyo or to the Saitama cops who eventually showed up, or to his wife, and agreed as did Ray to leave it as "just one of those things." Pure hip-check and low-quality window glass.

Some more input on our Tateyama Ride

Sumie was kind enough to let him use some of her pictures from the Southern Boso expedition.

I managed to pick a few interesting snaps using the Grabber utility in iMac. Pretty smooth but you need iPhoto to turn Tiffs into JPGS and so on.

Sumie's pictures were added to the photo page /minami_boso/

Mystery shrine - who can identify this location?
Mood:  cheeky




While doing my daily rounds this afternoon - my rounds in this case having to do with the search for rare and unusual properties in the Tokyo area (contact me at CRI Japan Ltd. 090-6566-6700 by all means if you have any leads; finders fees negotiable), I came across this rather well hidden little shrine - of ancient vintage yet buried within the grounds of an otherwise far more prosaic commercial development. A small hint: an Embassy is no more than 50 meters away.

Also nearby is an old Taisho era estate that is now shuttered and up for sale - but local community activists are banding together to do something rare and almost unprecedented in Japan, namely prevent the sale of an old estate to condo developers who elsewhere in the city (and in this part of the city as well) have been allowed to chop and crop and flop all their piles of concrete with NO regard to the community other than the obligatory height and bulk restrictions. Zoning in Tokyo is almost a non-event beyond these largely technical "restraints." More power to the citizens, but rarely if ever are the bulldozers of Mitsui Fudosan or Mitsubishi Estate stayed from the "proper" course.

Hakkakuso Means Octagon




David Green welcomes bike riders and other visitors to his unique octagonal pension, just up from the long stretch of eminently surfable beach at Heisaura. The local architect figured only an octagonal building - if made of wood and three stories high - would be able to stand up to the pressure of the winter westerlies.

Click here for a Metropolis travel guide to Hakkakuso

Or try this one also in Metropolis (scroll down the page)

I have posted very useful maps hand-drawn by David at the photo album for this trip - the full-size magnification is sufficient to view all the relevant details. The pictures are at www.naruhodo1.com/minami_boso . You can also scroll down to an earlier posting on this blog.

Scroll to the last 2 images to view David's maps

David can be reached at dgreen@gol.com and there are number of reviews in Metropolis, Tokyo With Children, NY TImes and other publications easily found at Google by typing keywords "Hakkakuso David Green"

Sumie has also posted her photos from the trip at http:photos.yahoo.co.jp/sumiekawakami

Click here to see Sumie's photos - select the Chiba Trip folder

Love a beer buzz in the morning - Haneda version
Another Golden Week ride - this one ostensibly a beginner's ride, but some dozen showed and about nine made it to the Jambalaya and Frozen Daiquiri lunch at Iikurazaka Zest at 3pm.

The wind was brisk - white caps in the straight dividing the park from the Haneda runways, but plenty of families having their BBQs and other outings and plenty of maritime traffic as well.

This is a 30km dash through the harbor district which has a number of park like areas along the canals that are only accessible on bike and on foot if a local.

For more information on rides and upcoming events, email Don Morton at the following: dmorton@attglobal.net

And that said, without further applause, the photos:

YES THAT IS SCARY - YAKUZA TATTOOS AND ALL.

Here more user-friendly PG-rated photos:

Minami Boso Tateyama Exploration
More details to follow.

These are some of the trip photos.


                                           
Minami Boso

I THINK WE CAN SCALE BACK FROM CODE ORANGE ALERT
Well, the Tokyo cloud watching brigade can now lower the state of alert from Code Orange to Code Yellow. It is my belief that the Saturday quake in eastern China (see below) may have been the event that our local cloud formations were pointing at. Certainly the timing - the vertical cloud spotted in Ota-ku on Friday Nov. 25th suggested that an event was imminent within 24-48 hours - and the direction were in the ballpark; but of course the location was way off base.



Here is the news out of China:
BEIJING (CNN) -- At least 12 people were killed and 397 wounded, 20 seriously, Saturday when a 5.5-magnitude quake struck eastern China, according to Chinese officials and reports from state-run media.

The quake struck about 8:49 a.m. (7:49 p.m. Friday ET), according to China's Xinhua news agency and the U.S. Geological Survey. Its epicenter was on the Hubei-Jiangxi provincial border, about 15 miles west-southwest of the city of Jiujiang in Jiangxi province -- home to 361,000 people.

There were conflicting reports on the number of fatalities. Xinhua reported 14 deaths, while China's seismological bureau reported 12.

In Jiujiang county, more than 8,000 homes collapsed and 29,000 were damaged, according to Xinhua. In Ruichang, more than 500 houses collapsed and 100,000 were damaged. (Updated 4:13 a.m.)

Hopefully I can sleep better now, but just to be on the safe side, I will open a new blog called www.naruhodo1.com/Quake

OK you tell me I am wrong, I felt a weird vibe THREE weeks before Kobe

Fair enough. Now it is 2005, that was 1995.

But on Dec. 29 2004 a small quake shattered the roof of a pachinko parlor in Hokkaido, and the roof fell on two customers who were just relaxing ahead of New Year. BOOM! The only two fatalities.

         
Harbinger Clouds

A week later a couple of quakes in Tohoku, and I sensed they were moving closer. Spooky, bad intuition.

On about the 12th or 13th I wrote a Bloomberg email to my clients - Fidelity, GIC, Warburgs, telling them not to consider it official Morgan Stanley news, but my personal intution. I suggested they buy Osaka stock to guard against the quake I sensed would hit Tokyo next.

I was wrong. At 7:47am on Jan. 17, 2005 I woke up in my Hiroo living room (note, sleeping in the living room, not in the bedroom as our marriage was on the rocks) and the windchimes caught the ground motion and woke me up.

Since then I have learned that electronic disturbances can create odd cloud patterns in the ten days prior to a MAJOR quake. These horizontal lines of cloud are one of the 4-5 distinct patterns in the series, leading up to a thick mushroom cloud like vertical column, 24-48 hours before the quake.

These might just be jet contrails. But look at the density and the vertical lines. The time was about 345pm today, in a clear sky in East Shinagawa. I rushed to buy a "baka-chon" 35mm instant camera having left my cell phone at home. I was at Immmigration for 3 hours waiting to submmit my renewal application.

If a vertical column appears in 4-5 days, I am moving out of time with family and friends. Watch this space.

Cogito Ergomo Sum or the Sum of Some Parts

The German company behind the Ergomo power meter has really been working hard during the past year to get the updated hardware/software package to market. As of today, their website is still only partially finished, but dealers in the US are starting to get up-to-date information.


The word is that the system will go on sale in December or early 2006 and pricing has been announced for the system and main components.


Here is the text of an email I got from an American dealer this morning:


The new 2006 Ergomo Pro powermeter system is contracted for delivery in mid December. The initial shipments will not cover the demand, or the waiting list we currently have. In order to be fair to everyone, we are going to take deposits on systems and Pro computers for use with existing sensors beginning today. Please email me for further information.

This information just became available, and is not yet on the website. After our existing customers have an opportunity to respond, we will post this information to our site, along with more images of the new system and the price list. ISO square taper sensor sysytems for use with Campagnolo Record/Chorus cranks, or the new Ergomo Pro Carbon cranks are available. Octalink may also be reserved now to ensure fastest delivery. Copied below are some of the features of the new 2006 ergomo Pro.


Ergomo Pro system complete: $1,599
Ergomo Pro Carbon Crank $299
Ergomo Pro Carbon Compact $299

Ergomo Pro Computer $699
Ergomo Sensor Only $899

AND A COUPLE OF ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

Today the retail price has been announced from the manufacturer at $1,599 for the Ergomo Pro power system without crankset. Only ISO bb Ergomo will be available at this time for use with Campi Record/Chorus cranks, or the separate ISO compatible Ergomo Pro carbon cranks, price not yet announced. The Ergomo carbon crank is especially nice, and results in the lightest power system available. Check the website soon for exact weight chart, the carbon compact crankset is 560g, and the bb sensor is 270g and the computer is 80g.

There are extensive new features in the 2006 Ergomo Pro including altimiter,rate of climb, interval marking/averaging on board, switchable Eng/Metric units/multiple lanquages, adjustable recording time, Coggan TSS and Intensity Factor scoring built in, included cyclingpeakssoftware package, flash upgradeable microprocessor for instant online updates of new features, multiple bike/rider capability, and much more.

Ergomo Pro with Ergomo carbon cranks, or without cranks for Campi Record/Chorus in English bb will be available early December. Check out the new super stiff Ergomo carbon cranks in compact or standard chainrings online. Watch our new site for updates,pricing and complete images by the end of October.

Demand will outpace supply when these are first available, and we will take deposits as soon as price is set by the manufacturer. You will recieve email notice when we have an availability date, sometime in the next few weeks.

Contact Randy at the following:

They are taking deposits NOW

Finally, Ergomo has a nice English brochure that you can download as a .PDF file. Click on Service and then on Downloads for Product Manual.

Go to the ERGOMO site here

Too bad this cold knocked me out of the Yanagizawa-Okutama tour today
Well, it is flu season again, and perhaps it is good if we get one or two mild cases to load up our antibodies against the big one HN51. I was joking to Steve yesterday that he ought to be careful handling the chicks down in Shibuya. Anyway, while on the subject of birds and bikes, here is a photo that sort of captures the zani nature of life around here, almost like southern Cali at times, esp. when you think of the boardwalk down at Enoshima and Kugenuma Kaigan where I snapped this photo.

The reason I was there on my Specializd was not to scope the babes or the birds, though; as I had gone down to do some salt-water swimming in preparation for the 2km open-water swim at Sado. There were plenty of these people around that day, as on almost any day. More California culture, come to think of it.

Follow-on to Get Fit and Stay Fit
Earlier in this blog, I mentioned my interest in owning and riding a custom fit frame that is built locally here in Japan by craftsmen, instead of a mass-produced bike from a major imported brand. At the same time, I also wanted to give a little kudos to Tencho - Shoji Nakano of the Friend bike shop at Zenpukuji out on Ome Kaido past Ogikubo. He has won more medals in triathlon events than just about anyone in Japan and continues to make podium finish after podium finish, including Silver at the June 2005 Asia-Pacific Triathlon championship in Singapore and a repeat of his 2004 victory in the recent Sado half-Ironman event. These photos are dedicated to him and the great group of amateur riders who believe in his style of low-key guidance and training support.

Custom-Fit Bikes Are Worth It
Topic: Good gear bad gear
Bike shops are full of great equipment, mostly stuff from the BIG brands like Trek, Giant, Specialized. These are made by very large companies that compete intensely to make a sale, and as a rule the local bike shop has to keep his suppliers happy. One way they do that is buy inventory they don't need. Another way is to discount last year's bike to get rid of that inventory they don't need.

And so on ad nauseam. You get the picture. Fit the person to the bike by showing them the specs and the bits and pieces that are supposed to be so "cool."

But bikes like that are like notebook PCs. They keep adding faster drives and brighter screens, but that stuff all comes from the same component vendors, except in PCs there are few more than in the bike industry. But like Intel and MS, Shimano takes the lion's share of the value of your bike.

So why not consider the alternative: A craftman's bike, made locally in Tokyo, and fitted exactly to your shape and your needs? Get only the components you need, get some riding shoes with cleats, and learn to ride your new bike. It will fit like a custom made suit, and you will be so happy that you won't need to fool yourself by putting all those carbon components you don't need on it. It fits and that is 90% of the story. Put on a good suit and your shirt and tie will automatically look good. Swing the right golf club and your game will automatically get better.

So my advice is "get a fitting, and then get yourself fit - in shape on a bike that is like second skin."

Make it a mantra: Get fit!!


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