Every weekday morning begins for me with a drive alongside the Kanogawa River and the Numazu mountains to a factory, where I teach everyday and where Iain teaches three days a week. Since both of us love the drive, we decided to take our bikes out today on more or less the same route so we could enjoy it a little more. (As a side note, I did not know the term "cycle run" until I went to Scotland and Iain's sister suggested taking one; at the time, I thought she meant something along the lines of, riding your bike for a bit and then going for a jog, possibly while holding the bike, because I am a genius.)
All week, my students have been issuing ominous warning about the rainy season beginning on Monday, so now seemed like a good time to go for it, particularly as the clouds overhead in most of these pictures seem to be proving my students right.
There are really nice bike paths along most of the river, so, aside from one detour that involved Iain having to heroically push our bikes up a steep, unpathed hill, it was a really nice, flat ride. We drove through farms of all sizes:
... and lots of rice paddies that are just starting to turn green:
Above: on a work morning, that white van is us!
It was really nice to take our time and to just be able to take in a bit more of the scenery we rattle past at 50 km/hour every morning. You can spend a lot more time admiring the Numazu Alps...
...or noticing quirky details that you'd never otherwise see, like this weary (bored? sleepy?) looking statue:
...or just plain weird things, like this sizeable bridge to ... nowhere:
Most disturbingly, though, were these creepy plastic doll heads that wandered straight out of a horror movie to guard some dude's vegetable patch:
Above: Come play with us FOREVER, Iain and Mikka.
Seriously, if we promise to stay away from your eggplants, will you take your creepy serial killer trophy heads down?
Fortunately, not 10 meters away was the world's best antidote to the horrors of the Children of the Eggplant:
DUCKLINGS! So, so many ducklings in mud. Awesome.
Three hours and some seriously sore legs later, we are home, where, like clockwork, the rain began about an hour ago.
