Front Gate

Odawara castle's front gate....

Thats Fuji-san in the distance...

Odawara Stations Odakyu Line....

Training ride

Stop 'friginng' around with the camera and 'pedal dam'it !!!'

I found this new road just up the hill from Odawara.
It’s not finished yet. It runs along at about 200m elevation for about 2 km and just stops! This means there is no traffic except for the occasional mandarin farmer
I’m using it as a quick training course for times that I don’t want to work out a route etc for a longer ride. About an hour doing laps of this is a nice workout.
It has plenty of tight cambered turns, some short ‘out of the saddle’ climbs, a few flats section and is a superb ride on super smooth hotmix…

The ride up to this road is a good warm up....Its steep

This is the view looking down on the training road.

Just when I thought I was on the Flat...

I think I will have to stay away from the Izu Mountains now. It’s getting colder and I have no experience riding in the cold. Winter on the Gold Coast where I come from has day time averages of 20C to 25C…early morning rides you might have to deal with 5C to 10C but that doesn’t last long.
The cold temp is Ok while climbing but I get very cold on the descents… I seem to spend a lot of time taking off and putting on clothes…
Today, to avoid any altitude induced hyperthermia I managed 100km on a flat coastal road to Zushi near Kamakura and back to Odawara. On the way back I was ‘sitting on’ a truck from Enoshima to Oiso along the beach front …Apart from knocking over the km’s, it was warm close behind the truck in the ‘draft’ and I could enjoy a 45-50kph ride. The truck started to move to 70kph. I thought… gee this guy is trying to drop me…then I realized I was on a TOLL road…I wonder what the cars behind me were thinking…? I pulled over and went back to HWY 1 and 30kph….It was a good run. It felt good on the flat moving fast after all the climbing I have been doing along Izu.





The post are getting out of sink with the pic... after writing the above I went for another ride in the Izu hills for xmas...Here's Fuji-san from above lake Hakoni '900somethingmeters'
what a pretty sight!


Another spotting...
Hakoni Lake...is at '700somethingmeters' and there is a cycling road right around it. That's Mt Fuji's slopes in the background...

This sweet little place is called Manazulu...is 30minutes pedal down the coast on HWY 135 from Odawara.
Now this is the 'Flat Ride' I was talking about. This is near Enoshima.





THis is a shot from the coastal run to Manazulu...they are manderins growing on the steep slopes overlooking the osean...It's beautiful !

Well it's Christmas Eve...! This guy was going laps of Ugawara. He had little raindeer antlers on his headlight...reminds me of sitting in a certain cafe in Tumbulgum on the Tweed River and seeing Santa go past on water skis... Santa's into multisports !

Check the road...

Fantastic Food - My Love

Kimchi - Your Hot Baby !!
Here are some more photos of food for you I know how much you enjoy looking at them.

Christmas Croquette - Crunchy, Creamy and Warm...I can feel it and taste it just by looking. But thats only because I had you before !

This $64 basket of Strawberries - A gift you should receive...


Sweet cakes! Its hard to wait but time will tell...

Mixed Bag

Tokyo subway
Tickets please
Heres the shoe thing... slippers for the pisser...
Vegies just around the corner from Sunny Heights
Community vegi gardens are popular. You can rent a plot from the council for about $60 a year...
The beach front at Odawara. Don't think they would get away with a motorway like that along the Gold Coast...!
Sunset at Sunny Heights
Looking up the valley to Hakoni. There will be snow up there in the next few days...am I game enough to go for a ride ....?
Odawara Station
There is 'train spoting' and now there is 'road plate spoting'. These little beauties are different in each area...

One of the trains where you get to see down the tracks. Some Izu trains have seating that face sideways to see the views along the coast...
Quite run along 136 ...looks worse than it is. The traffic has good manners here!
Well... are you going to get in??? Or are you going to keep riding...?

Quick mate, grab a wheel...!
I've smoked some weird stuff in my day... but Eggs !

Here's a little elevated HWY with some vegies growing below it. Not sure about he arch, but it looks good... Don't ya just love the thrill of spotting another 'Road Plate'

Tunnells you got to learn to love'm...

Curly potatoe anyone ?

Restaurant shop front
Fe Art at Kamakura...
Shedism? well it's covered in a kind of mini-orb ..metal sheet.
The Hex bit is the surgery... plenty of natural light...I wonder if they get a crowd on theater days?
Starbucks...Kamakura

Shedism ? This is the stables of the Odawara Castle...Haven't managed to get a shot of it yet...stay tuned...
A foot bridge over the moat ...
Another shop front...
Another shop front.

Nice unit... do they come with rooftop bike racks ?

Guess whats on special at the local 'super'
Train Spotting..
More shop fronts...