Kunozan Toshogu, though less famous than the Nikko Toshogu shrine, was built in 1617 (nearly two decades before the Nikko shrine) by Tokugawa Hidetada as per Tokugawa Ieyasu’s wishes, and was the first burial place of the great shogun. Ieyasu’s remains were later removed and transported to Nikko Toshogu, but the remains of his revered horse are still housed at Kunozan.

Like other Toshogu shrines, Kunozan is more colourful and elaborate than typical shrines of that period and combines styles of Budhist temples with shintoism. I would have loved to show awesome photos of an impressive place, but as often happens, the day did not lend itself to great shots, and other shots were just terrible. Others were not too bad:

About to walk up the 1159 steps:

Me, our colleague and her dad reading the ema wishes hung by other visitors to the shrine:

The koma-inu gaurding the gate to the shrine

We woke up to wind and rain this morning, and I was happy to stay in bed for a while, especially after last night’s party! But we finally decided to get up, and, I admit, I drove to our local Micky D’s to bring home a couple of sausage egg McMuffins – perfect post-drinking-night food!

Finally, the rain slowed, then stopped, and we were able to pursue our original plan of a longish trail run in Gotemba.

We drove up to the ‘trail head’ and ran mostly uphill for thirty minutes, then turned back, and ran mostly downhill for twenty five minutes. Though this involved less than an hour of running, it was still more than Brian has ever run, and more than I typically do. And we feel GOOD. Our legs are a bit achy, but all in all, our spirits are high and our minds at rest.

Oh, and on the way home, we made a few pit-stops, and I got a few photos, but like this one best. Taken with the Nikon D90, Sigma 30mm lens:

Another photo taken with the same camera/lens combo. I’m just pleased with the sharpness and low noise. (Taken last night from the ‘party apartment’)

The single-speed is simple and pure. There are no complications, no noise of a dérailleur rattling, no jumping chain. And the look, too, is pure and purely beautiful – no excess cables, no mess of wires. I even had Joel (from Clockwork Bikes) provide internal routing on my custom frame…

Check-out the internal routing:

The only thing more beautiful and pure than riding a single-speed is riding it alone. Two mornings in a row I got out for a solo ride, up into the mountains around Susono*.

On both rides, I realized that I may have lost my ‘riding legs’, since getting up a once-easy hill was agony. I also remembered what it was to be alone with the bike.

• You can get off and push the bike whenever you want to
• You don’t have to stop for a break if you don’t want to
• You hear the wind in the trees and your own heavy breathing, not that of your riding partner
• At the top of the hill, you are free to enjoy the victory, a solo victory, in peace and contentment
• Best of all, you just get to be. Just Be.

*Note: The kanji for Susono – 裾野- actually translates to “skirt” or “foothill” of the mountain. We are the foothill of Mt. Fuji.

It was great to hear from Steve, who doesn’t have a blog yet but who is also an avid bike rider. He even provided me with a whole new set of web links to browse in order to help my short attention span keep itself occupied. Happily for the bikers out there, this included a list of good biking links.

Here they are, directly from Steve (hope he doesn’t mind me giving him credit):
http://www.bikejournal.com/ – I [Steve] keep track of my cycling stats here. So far, I’ve done 2,089 km this year, all of it indoors. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some outside time tomorrow.

http://www.chainlove.com/ – some amazing deals on bike parts, typically 50% off regular cost, but the item is only offered for sale for a few hours. [International shipping is between 39 and 45 usd, but some of these deals look awesome and may be worth it...]

http://bluecollarmtb.com/ – I think you and Brian might like this one, lots of good MTB tips and so on.

http://www.thefredcast.com/ – cycling podcast, updated about weekly, sort of a bike magazine you can listen to and it’s free to listen to online or download the MP3.

Either way, I hope my Montreal friends are out and doing me proud!

Today, however, was absolutely beautiful, so we both got out to enjoy the blue sky and sunshine. We did a bit of a hill run, which left us both exhausted, but not so much so that we couldn’t drive up to the Hakone Skyline to enjoy some clear views of Mt. Fuji.

Our post-run hydration drink, in Brian’s truck:

The Scene:

The Photographer:

Ah, well. Though I love the book, I have to admit that I have found numerous ways to kill time; or, rather, to procrastinate!

• Digg – I surf the top stories, then read the comments, which either entertain or annoy me. I occasionally post a comment or two, as well.
• List Universe – I try to save this up for a few days, then spend an hour reading the lists, and then researching whatever gruesome detail gets my attention. Today I learned that there are twenty-eight families who suffer from Fatal Familial Insomnia. As the name of the disease suggests, it’s always fatal.
• Stumble Upon – I’ve of course installed the tool bar in my Firefox browser, and when at a loss for other things to do, I simply hit the “Stumble” button, which brings up a random page of something.
• Wikipedia – I just click “Random Article” (in the left-hand widget), reading the things that interest me, and often looking up other related items.

Just a few things I like to surf…

Here is the lake we’ll be running around – if the weather is good, we’ll be enticed by views of Mt. Fuji:

This is a map of our route:

View Larger Map

After such a ride, not long but quite vigorous, we chilled out for the day, and I invited my friend Van over so I could practice taking people/portrait shots with my new D90 camera. Here’s one of my favourite shots, post-processed in Lightroom: