27 September 2010

Maiden voyage

Having spent a fair bit on finally committing to what is to be my new hobby, I had to jump in and do it.

I cycled to one of my favourite villages in the greater town area and on the way I enjoyed the reigning rice harvesting season. Photography is also a great reason to stop and take a break so that you can ignore how vastly unfit you have become since the onset of adulthood.

I made it to the watermills without falling victim to my clip-in shoes, probably because Ryō at the bike shop in Matsuyama was so patient with teaching me.

Highlights included the wooden Marunouchi covered bridge for which my colleague and I did a translation (her) and English check (me). Then, as mentioned, a lot of harvested rice stalks were hung up to dry. And there was a token pile-of-countryside-garbage location that I’d always wanted to photograph. I didn’t snap the first snake I ever saw in Japan because the long black guy fortunately headed away from the side of the road and into the bushes as I passed.


View Uchiko, Ehime, Japan in a larger map


Total distance: 27km
Lowest point: 70m
Highest point: 340m