O BON

This is a follow-up to the Sunday-ride invitation from David below. Please continue to read if you are interested in Sunday rides (as opposed to weekday rides).

David had invited two friends to join a typical Positivo Tour from his house, something along the lines of going incredibly fast the first 10 km to erase all doubts who are the masters of the universe, then loose the newcomers somewhere in the mountains, find them eventually dehydrated in front of a convenience store, pass by without stopping and say "Hi, see you next time."

In order to protect the innocent and because both of them are lawyers I will not reveal their true name but call them MONOPOLYMAN and LAVAWOMAN.

I met them at the 7-Eleven in front of Takao station and we decided to give Wada Toge a try. This is always a good road for newcomers, because it cannot possibly get worse and after Wada all roads of the world look flat in comparison.

Obon is the official Umeboshi drying week in west Tokyo and we saw many of these hellish pickles laid out in front of the houses along the road.Some people seem to have left for vacation and upon return their house will be covered completely with letters and pamphlets.While LAVAWOMAN was ploughing her way up on the approach to the Wada entry, MONOPOLYMAN had a chance to take a good look at the sculpture garden.Then the climb to Wada started. We didn't wanted to do anything crazy, so all of us rode up at a slow speed. Jerome stayed with LAVAWOMAN to protect here from unwelcomed advances from other cyclists while David and MONOPOLYMAN went ahead. I stayed with LAVAWOMAN first to protect her from unwelcomed advances from Jerome, but as he behaved and, worse, other cyclists were overtaking me, I started to climb up faster. While overtaking some of the other cyclists again, I gave confusing hints: "Don't give up, only 300 meters left - vertical, of course.", in order to compensate for my lack in power and my plus in weight.

David and MONOPOLYMAN were already at the top when I arrived and while we were waiting for the others to come, we told MONOPOLYMAN about the witch in the tea hut.

And here they came, Jerome visibly suffering, but LAVAWOMAN still motivating him and shouting "Don't give up Jerome, you can do it!". Then LAVAWOMAN bought a bottle of water from the witch, something we would never dare to do and remarked: "She was quite nice" Ah, LAVAWOMAN, you must be more careful, you were already subjected to the treacherous magic of the witch. Not even your lawyer charms will work here.

We then took the obligatory memorial photo and asked another cyclist to do this. It took Jerome about 15 minutes to get up from his sleeping place and join us for the photo. Time means nothing in France.
And then we went down to route 20. Took another photo at the Fuji viewpoint. Fuji was barely visible. I thought it would be nice to have a better view on Fuji with all the blue sky today.

Meanwhile, one of the riders has managed to break a spoke on his front wheel.
Jerome has offered one camenbert cheese free of charge for the first one who can guess his name.

We managed to fix the spoke with some tire repair patches back to the rim so that at least it stopped making noise.

When I took some more photos suddenly everybody had gone ahead and as I felt still good I called David, left a message that I would part and continued to cycle along route 76.

I arrived at Doshi Michi and continued to ride to Yamanakako to see my Fuji. The roads were pretty crowded and it was hot but not that humid. And I found a very nice shrine on the way and bought some Ema for home.
Finally I arrived at Fuji Yoshida Station (Bubble -ugly building) and took the train home via Otsuki. Probably a mistake, could have ridden down road 139 to Otsuki on the bike, would have been faster most likely.Chaned in the wrong train at Hachioji and went to Ebina. Back to Hashimoto, then finally home after spending four hours in the train. Sat next to a girl who wore a t-shirt reading "Fuck me please" on the front. When she got up and left she had "Fuck You" written on the backside. Probably on the way to the Glay concert in Shinyokohama.

Nice day, nice suntan.
By the way, David, Jerome and me went riding Otarumi and Bijotani on Friday as well, then returned over Wada from the backside to Hachioji. David had to go back to work early and I returned by train. When I arrived at Shinyokohama the station building has been taken over by group of elderly people wearing green hats.