I forgot about my blog for over 2 months.

I promised myself I will write here more often. I also promised myself that I would get more sleep every night. Good track record. Maybe I should just not make any promises at all at this rate.

Anyways, it's been about 2 months since I started working at the bike shop. So far, so good. More people are buying bikes, and bringing their old ones in for repairs and overhauls. It seems like the combination of nice weather, raising gas prices, and concerns for obesity are the main reasons for the surge in the cycling population. I ride 22 miles to work one way, and it keeps me in good health. No need to maintain the car or buy gas for it. No need to look for parking spaces. I love it.

Time for bed though. I would like to update this blog more often, but no promises.

Haven't written in a while...

I haven't written here in a while, so I figured I would write something to keep it alive.

I had an interesting weekend. It consisted of: 120 mile round trip ride, visiting Tsuyoshi who toured the world on his bicycle, talking to a 66 year old that is attempting LA to NYC solo bicycle trip, and babysitting 3 kids. Here is the story. The long ride was a means to get to and from the house in which Tsuyoshi lives. At his house, was the 66 year old that wanted to get advice about US for the solo trip. And the 3 kids are Tsuyoshi's who I helped take care of for the day. I learned a few things this weekend. One is that it's never too late to start anything. Second, is that I don't want kids for quite some time...

On the way back, I noticed some weird clicking noise coming from the bicycle. It's a metallic clicking noise that occurs at certain position of the crank, and only when I am spinning fast. I don't hear it at low cadence, and the amount of load doesn't seem to make any difference. It's only related to cadence, and happens with both small and big chainrings. This problem is new to me. I will post once more when I figure it out.

One more thing. My friend sent me this link of a quadruped robot. Its interesting, but looks kinda creepy. See for yourself: http://gizmodo.com/368651/new-video-of-bigdog-quadruped-robot-is-so-stunning-its-spooky

The Ritual

If you were like me when I was little, you must have spent a significant amount of time playing the good old Nintendo. I don't know about you, but when I hear Nintendo, or "famicon" as we call it over here, I think of: Super Mario Bros., cartridges that seem to quit working on every single Nintendo ever made, and the finicky power cable. Seriously, every last Nintendo owner I know, made it a ritual to blow into the cartridge in hopes to try to get that thing to start. Some people will just blow directly at the cartridge, while others got fancy and covered the cartridge with the part of their T-shirt, and then blow into it. I was cool, so I was the latter.

Anyways, this ritual performed by every avid gamers to appease to the gods of Nintendo, was probably a futile attempt at getting the game to start. If it did start, it was probably just luck. But we all want to believe it was due to individual's efforts and skills. At least I do.

Now, the power cable. I haven't seen a single machine that had a fully functioning power plug. Usually. when i had the machine setup in front of the TV, I had to tell people never to walk over it, but around the back behind me. As soon as someone tried to walk across the front, the god of Nintendo was infuriated by the act, punishing the gamer through the supernatural resetting action. So you get pissed off and try to get the thing to start again, but that was also pretty difficult. If you don't keep the cables at certain angle, it would reset again.

Last, but not least, if you were into games where it requires saving where you left off, you probably know about the ever increasing forgetfulness of the game cartridge. It wipes your saved data randomly at times. I was playing "Dragon Quest", or "Dragon Warrior" for those of you in the US, and it started to delete the data. Gradually increasing as time passed. At the end, it would delete it everytime, so I had to leave the thing on forever until I beat it. It sounds like a great idea(sort of, or at least it did back then), but that never worked. Then you had someone that would step over the wire and it would all be gone. It wasn't until much much later that I learned it was due to the dead battery back up. Genius idea.

Nintendo games were not only difficult inside the game, but also the struggle against the physical issues of the machine made some games impossible to beat. Of course, there were some games that was just impossible to beat. Maybe they set the difficultly level about 20 levels too high.

Anyways, all I wanted to say is that playing Nintendo wasn't just mental, but also a physical struggle between the man and the machine(?). I'm sure a lot of peope out there can sympathize with me.

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Song of the day: Champagne - Paul Gilbert

So I did go on a ride.

I did go on the bike ride on Sunday which I wrote about earlier. The bicycle ride is always good, but what was best was the relief from leaving the Osaka city. It's not a bad city I suppose, but I am not a big fan of cities in general. Anyways, I took the road heading southeast, so I can get to the mountains that seperate Osaka and Nara. I didn't have the intention to leave the Osaka side because I left home late, and the roads in the mountain would have iced over. My roadbike with 28c road tire just won't cut it.
I rode to the area around Taishi-cho, Kanan-cho, and Chihaya Akasaka-mura, all located by the mountain on the Osaka prefecture side. Only about 30km one way, but more than enough for me to enjoy a scenery of the forgotten past of Japan. Really, everyone thinks(or am I the only one who thinks so?) that Japan is all about the city like Tokyo where everything is modern, full of cool electronics, nightlife, etc., but those are only part of it. It reminds me of how a lot of Japanese think that US is all NYC, Seattle, and LA, but thats far from the truth. Anyways, once you step out of the city, you experience the part of Japan that rarely receives attention. I have heard someone calling Japan the most backwards of the first world countries. "Wasteful" and disregard for the nature are two things that came to mind when I first heard it. We are good at making new technology, and improving what's already out there. We were so focused on the future that we hadn't had the time to look back into the good parts of the past. The old frugal lifestyle still exists in those areas away from the city. I think the hint for the modern environmental concerns are right in front of their eyes, waiting to be rediscovered. This is my opinion and the issue is quite debateable.

This brings me to another point, the nature in Japan often seem a bit different from what one might find in the US, for example. I don't know what it is, but seems like it's man-made, or having some kind of human intervention. Not necessarily in a bad way though. People used to live in coexistance with the nature, and maybe that's what it is. I do disagree with the mentality that some people in power have, about making places in nature more accessible to people. It invites more people who can come and trash the place. One mountain in Nara Prefecture finally put a limit to the number of people allowed every week, due to the quicker than expected degradation of the nature. I believe small "eco-tours" are pretty good idea because while inviting people to the nature, it educates them the dangers it's facing. That said, the nature found in Japan can be spectacular such as the Iriomote-jima, a.k.a. the eastern Galapagos. One thing we lack is nature in the massive scale such as Grand Canyon, and the great wilderness of Alaska. But I think it gives each country it's own unique colors.

Sorry, I digress. Now back to the ride. The small towns and the village I went through were quite amazing. People were very friendly and they had the time to talk even if it was just for few moments. It was the day after the "snowstorm", and the melting snow gave the air the damp smell unique to areas with soil and trees. I long for this because where I live, this experience that can be taken for granted by many, is few and far in between. As I made the 1400ft climb, the temperature got significantly cooler with more remnants of snow. That's when I turned around to leave the mountain pass for another day, for the sun was setting. No need for trouble. No need to hurry. I shall return again.

It's late, time to sleep now.

First blog entry since last year.

I have finally gathered up my motivation to write the first journal entry since last year. Anyways, it has been a "cold winter" so far in Japan supposedly. We got the first snowfall for this winter today, maybe about an inch or two. It didn't stick for long because the temperatures weren't quite low enough. But that's to be expected here. I felt it was a good change, not seeing the snow at all this winter. Maybe after 6 winters of seeing lots of snow, it became a part of my life. Who knows. Either way, it gave a nice enough change to the scenery that I wish I had my camera with me. But then again, I won't be surprised if that opportunity never comes around again til next winter. We shall see.

Now, riding my bicycle with slick tires in the snow, was interesting. Even with the little snow we got, it was pretty slippery. I imagine that any kind of progress would not be possible if it was the snow was packed. Maybe I should get a set of semi-knobby tires for occasions as such.

Next Monday is a holiday to celebrate the date Japan was founded. I don't know much about the history of how it came to be, but it's on the 11th of February. All I know for sure, is that I don't have to go into work that day. It wasn't the most exciting post, but I will try to update it more often.

Maybe I might take my bike out for a ride tomorrow if it's nice.

A little more to add to my last post.

Alright, I'm back after getting some quality sleep. Few more points I'd like to add to my last post.(Much of it is opinion oriented.)

First, cars are getting more efficient these days. To be fair, the emissions are cleaner But why aren't wee seeing cars that get equivalently good gas mileage? I think car companies are directing more time into output rather than fuel economy. For example, it has become a norm to see cars pushing 300hp with a V6 engine. Consumers are interested in the paper spec so they think, wow, thats awesome. But think about this. How often do you use the max power? Also, that max power of your engine is weighed down by the accesories and other fancy stuff. If you want a fast car with gadgets and accesories, you are putting handicap on yourself voluntarily. Also, car companies can make the engine peaky and high revving just so they can get the horsepower rating. Useless to have torque at such high revs as most people never hit it, and torque at lower revs makes more sense for daily driving. I don't see the need for cars going 120+mph on the road.

Also, people tend to overlook the non visible factors involved with cars and motorcycles. This is something that the paper specs can't show. As far as Japanese motorcycles go, they are cheap, reliable and high output, but lacks something. I'm not sure if its due to cost cutting, or lack of designers who know what driving pleasure is. The two BMW motorcycles I test rode, felt better than any other bikes I've ridden before. Probably attention to details, and superior engineering. Maybe inferior in terms of paper spec, but far superior in actual feel. Just because something uses new technology in engine, does not necessarily mean better.

I believe in simple vehicles that won't get outdated quickly. Simple, small, and light cars will require less resources to put together. It can get great gas mileage while giving good performance. Less does not mean reduced driving pleasure. Higher maintainability and timeless design would mean a car that lasts longer, reducing total amount of waste. Car companies love to add, but not subtract. I think subtracting is the real key to making a environmentally friendly vehicle, and isn't it something thats totally within their reach?

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We don't really celebrate Christmas here, but we do celebrate the New Years called "Oshogatsu". I suppose you can say it's the Christmas/Thanksgiving equivalent in Japan. Instead of Christmas cards, we send letters to all the people we know wishing them a good year. The first three days of January are spent relaxing and spending time with family. Most people go back to work from the 5th or maybe even later. This is roughly how new years works in Japan.

On that note, I would like to wish every one Happy Holidays and a Happy new year!

Bitter like a straight coffee?

It's Christmas Eve already and almost the end of the year. It seems like its snowing a lot in the New England area, but where I live, it rarely goes below 40s at the lowest. There might be a few days in a year that it might dip below freezing, but that's rare. It's a big news if it snows and accumulates half an inch. According to the weather forecast, it says low of 42F for most days next week. Regardless, people look like they are ready for a trip into the wilderness of winter Alaska. I do miss the snow... kind of.

Thoughts on bicycles...
I love to ride my bike all over the place. When my friend is home, I would ride my bike 25 miles one way to go hang out. Great exercise, significantly over 1000 calories(est.) burned round trip. With the money I save, I can go and eat something at a cheap restaurant and maybe even get change. Gasoline in Japan is about $4.90/gal, and combined with 25 miles of stop and go city driving, round trip would be at least $10 on a car. This is without putting into account the other expenses that go along with owning a car. The trains are pretty expensive, and I would spend about $10.83 for round trip. Of course, there are issues like rain, time, etc. However, I can make that trip in a little under 2 hours, and train or car would only be about 30-45 minutes quicker. If you are into exercising and spend an hour on top of driving, the total would come out to be about the same. This is limited to those who commute reasonable distance, and/or have lots of stop and go traffic. I don't know about you, but it works for me.

Bicycle fit...
There are bicycle frames made of steel, carbon, titanium, aluminum, etc., and they all range in price anywhere from thousands of dollars to free out of the garbage. But material and price don't necessarily get you a "great" bike. Sure it's a "great" bike in terms of quality, or for those that just want to show off how much cash they got. In reality, for those who actually ride, the garbage bike just might be better. Why? Fit is the key. Of course, It's a bit of a fetch when I say that a bike that came out of garbage is better, but its also true that a frame that doesn't fit you can be a pain. Literally. The harder and further you ride, the effect of the ill-fit gets exaggerated. To the point where your body might start hurting, you might fatigue faster, or at the worst, cause knee injuries. It can also make your riding inefficient, possibly lowering the effect of the lighter weight. So when you go buy a bike, make sure you get it fit properly by a reputable dealer. It might cost extra, but at the end, it would pay off by providing you with a bike that will give you the most bang for you buck.

Thoughts on cars, subtract, not add...
Improvements in technology gives birth to many new products and ideas that pop up everyday. It's relevant in the automotive industry with all the gadgets, new safety features, functions, etc. So you can be driving around with something like the "i-Drive", navigation system, automatic parallel parking feature, and drive by wire setup. Or you can be driving around in a barebones car with an engine, buttons and dials for climate control, and the good ole' cable operated throttle. Sure, all these new gadgets are fun and they make your ride comfortable, apparently.

Do you need all this? I want to own the car, not the opposite. Would you like i-Drive that requires you to agree to the lawyer screen everytime you start the car? I have never seen it myself, but I read in many sites that it asks you to agree not to operate it or something because it's a distraction. Why is it in there then? Do you really want to go through several steps just to turn on the heater when you can do that with the traditional button? Navigation system might be useful if you are constantly driving in a city and need to go visit different places. However, if you just need it once a month, is it worth the extra few hundred~thousand bucks to have this thing installed, which can break and need to be serviced? Drive-by-wire is pretty cool, it makes it less touchier at low gears, makes you more connected with the car(?), etc. And it's USED ON FIGHTER JETS!!! Wow. We should all drive around with the oxygen masks and cars that run with landing gear wheels because its used on fighter jets. I don't remember most people saying, "damn, I MUST HAVE (enter features here) or else I'm not driving to work!" I think most people learn to adapt, and all these gadgets are merely distractions. So car companies compensate for people not paying attention to the road by adding more safety features. Makes for a heavier car, necessity for stronger engines to give the same performance, worse fuel economy, increased points of failure, more reinforcements, and so forth. Also, all these gadgets that are "in style" will go out of style just as quickly.
http://my.reset.jp/~inu/ProductsDataBase/Products/ISUZU/PIAZZA/PIAZZA-05.jpg <- Look at the cockpit. This used to be the coolest thing when it came out in the 80s, looking like Kitt from Knight Rider.

What I want to see, is a simple car. I like to use Apple products as an example. iBook, and iPods are great beause they are simple, at least design wise, making it timeless design. A light, fun, reasonably priced, barebones, good mileage, and tough car. If all cars can be lighter, they would all have better mileage, at the same time, requiring less to make it equally safe. Take a look at the 80's Honda Wagovan, or the CRX. It gets 40-50mpg. People might actually pay more attention to the road with less distractions. Instead of adding gadgets to make a car "good", they really need to work on the direct and "connected" feel with the road. From what I heard, people really like the modern Mazda cars because of the feedback they get from the car. This also goes for Porsche and BMW. On the other hand, cars like Lexus might be full of options, but I hear that it has a really disconnected feel. Probably not a fun car to drive. From my point of view, a fun car would beat a gadget infested, inefficient car any day. Something like Caterham Super Seven, or Lotus Elise is my style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3K-mrlYG7Y

Can anyone tell me, is this "self defense" technique or just attempted murder? Either way, this is pretty hilarious and worth a look. Although I made it sound like it, it isn't gruesome or gory.

It's 5:34AM already. Sorry if this was difficult to read, because I didn't edit it. Like always, comments are welcome.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever it is. Goodnight.

First Blog entry for the last month of the year.

It’s December already. Not too many days left of 2007, but that doesn’t affect my ability to write more blog entries.

I hung out with my friend yesterday for her 29^th birthday. We went to watch the “December Boys” on the first movie showing of the day, at 10:45AM. Why so early? We get to watch the movie for 1200 yen(US$10.85) instead of the usual 1800 yen(US$16.25). I thought it would be pretty empty, but I didn’t expect to have the theater all to our selves. I had no objections to that. As for the movie, it was pretty good. But don’t expect anything excellent or out of the ordinary. It’s one of those films based on a book, and I’m sure the book is better than the movie. The use of new motorcycles was bothersome though. All the cars, houses, clothes, etc. were 1960’s, but the motorcycles were blatantly new. Maybe I am the only one that noticed it, but it took away from the movie.

After we watched the movie, we had lunch and walked to the city. We went to a book store where I found some kind of a panda mascot doll chilling at a bookshop.

“Yonda?” means “did you read?” in Japanese. It’s a pun.

Since it’s gotten colder, someone gave the panda a scarf to wear. I was the only one taking the picture of it, but who wouldn’t? At that store, I bought a book about FRP and instructions on how to fabricate FRP car body parts. Just something I am interested in.

Next, we went to a surplus store so I can get the LED flashlight I wanted for my bicycle.

It’s called Fenix L2D Premium Q5. It uses Cree XR-E LED for the light source, which is capable of projecting a blindingly white light. Although the performance of the light itself is much higher than most would ever need, the versatility is the key. The neat part about this flashlight is that it uses a voltage step up circuit so it would work with either 1 or 2 AA. I prefer to use the rechargeable NiMH batteries rather than the disposable batteries, and it helps that L2D performs the same. Rechargeable batteries output lower voltage than alkaline or lithium, and some electronics like MP3 players don’t work. There are other batteries like lithium CR123A(3V per cell) which perform better in all ways, but they are expensive and hard to find. Best to go with the popular AA batteries.

I was quite excited when I purchased the flashlight and I was playing with it all the way to the restaurant where we had dinner together. It’s like a male equivalent of buying new shoes or jewelry, for those that may not understand. After dinner, we went to an “ashi-yu”, where you sit down on a bench and put your foot in the small tub of hot spring. It warms your whole body up, and after about 10 minutes of it, you start to sweat. It’s nice because it’s located outside of the spa place, and it’s free. You meet lots of interesting people there, and they all enjoy talking. My friend and I were talking to a chiropractor, who came a few minutes after we got there, for a good 20 minutes. Maybe more.

The ashi-yu got us thirsty so we hit up Starbucks(yes, there are billions in Japan too) and had something to drink. We talked for an hour or so, and then I parted with my friend to go home. I noticed that the trains in Japan are much quieter than the one I rode from Norwalk,CT to NYC. I bring this up because I remembered my family friend talking about the noise of trains a while ago.

Random tip of the day…

Check out the self myofascial release technique(SMRT). This is a method to loosen up and condition the soft tissues that have scarred or knotted. All you need for this, is a foam roller or a tennis ball. Google “foam roller” and you will come up with bunch of them if you don’t know what they are. You put the roller on the ground, and you lie, sit, whatever, on the roller putting your weight on it. Roll on it until you hit a part that hurts, and then stay there until the pain goes away. Repeat with other parts. Static stretching on its own can’t loosen up the tight muscles, and this will leave you feeling great, while giving you better performance if you work out or play sports.

Entry about all things big.

Here I sit, struggling with an ever slowing internet connection trying to come up with something good to write about. The title says it all. It's about all things big. What about being big you ask? Well stuff such as...

My right knee when it was swollen. Hard to see in the photo, but it was pretty big. However, the pain was bigger.

Next, is the following picture.

Yes, it's a big Christmas tree. A big blue Christmas tree set up at the very beginning of November. I though it was a little early, but they think otherwise.

We want to see something that's even bigger next.


This was another Christmas tree, also set up too early. This thing stood at least 3-4 stories high. In fact, it was too big that I had to take two pictures. However, that's not all. This tree even changes color! How fascinating. It definitely got my blood boiling. Yes. Wow.

Now, onto something even bigger...

That's a huge Torii. It's a gate like thing thats constructed in front of the Shinto Shrines. This one is pretty impressive as you can tell.

Next is a big...



Bridge. A pretty well known one located in Arashiyama, Kyoto. Unfortunately, the foliage hasn't really started yet due to the unusually warm weather this year.

Last, but not least how can we talk about big things without this.


It's a mountain in Kiyotaki, Kyoto. Not the biggest mountain or anything, but it looks intriguing. Intriguing enough to make me want to climb it some day.

Now that I look back at what I wrote, it's awesomely worthless. Oh well, it was meant to be a joke anyways.

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Photos taken in Kobe and Kyoto.

Popularity of racquetball in Japan

I love racquetball. You get the opportunity to beat the hell out of the ball, without worries about going out of bounds. Even if you can't hit hard, you can still win since tactics are just as important. If you push yourself hard for an hour, a 150lb person may be able to burn around 800 calories. Of course, the values aren't exact, since weight and individual difference will account for some deviation from it. How can it get any better? Fun exercise thats also a great workout at the same time.

Unfortunately, racquetball is not a very popular sports in Japan. According to JARA website(Japan Racquetball Association), there are only about 200 courts, and 300,000 racquetball playing population in Japan. To give you an idea, I live in a pretty big city, but there are only few places. All of the places are a small part of the gym facilities, which usually costs at least $700 annually in membership fees. Seeing that racquetball is out of reach for me, I would love to see facilities dedicated to racquetball go up. Rather than people not wanting to play, I am assuming people just don't know about it. Maybe some promotion might make the future of racquetball brighter in Japan.