Tagesarchiv: 10. Dezember 2007

You may have seen that I included a new box on the right side of the blog called TOGE BAKA. The idea is from a website Tom has a link to on his blog called „Wada Pass Hill Climb Time Trial„. It gives a description of some of the famous hill climbs in the vincinity of Tokyo such as Wada Toge and Yabitsu Toge with some basic informations such as :

Start Point
End Point
Distance
Difference in Altitude

And then one can register there with the achieved time and date. So it is very nice list to keep track of the developments during the season I thought. And of course to show off !

One of the climbs we do most often is the Otarumi Toge at the Takao-san where we ride almost every time when we cross over to Sagamiko. Normally we take a break at the 7-11 close to Takao Station which is the strating point of the climb. The end point is shortly after the toge on the left side where we take a break to wait for the slower riders (if any) in our group. The total distance is 7.6 km and the difference in altitude 210m. This would be an average slope of less than 3%, however the first part is almost horizontal and the real climb starts only later.

Tom and me did the climb this weekend and it took us a little bit less than 22 Minutes. I checked some previous records from this season and I believe I can do the climb in less than 20 Minutes and Tom will probably shave off another 2 minutes.

So let’s see, please feel free to include your times (no cheating please!!) and let me know if you would like to add any other toge

One day when I decide to leave Japan and go home to Germany or elsewhere, I will lament all the photos of the daily life in Japan I have not taken. For example I deeply regret not to have taken a single photo at a commuter train station in 90/92 when the station staff still punched the tickets with these handy tools and one could hear the sound of „tactactac tactactactactactac tactactac tac“ all over the area.

I always wanted to take pictures of garbage collectors and also of this soba/ramen/tempura/sushi delivery bikes with the elaborate suspension mechanism mounted behind the riders seat.

So I was particular happy when these days while driving my capitalist BMW to Odaiba and stopped at a red light at Nakahara Kaido, I found this good looking, sturdy collection cycyle packed to the rim with all kind of staff, navigated by this good looking guy with a windbreaker from the Elite model agency.

Please feel free to add the photos you will never have taken.