Ride to Inagawa

I went on a good bike ride the other day with my friend Michael. We met at the bottom of Mukogawa, and then bike up along it in the river park, to the hills north of Osaka. We had also talked about doing the real mountain route of 900 altitude meters, but it seemed like too much with the time available. The road to Inagawa village snakes up 300 meters, and it is fairly quiet too. The day was cloudy but comfortably warm.

Along the way, around lunch, we passed by a cafe which advertised wood-fired oven pizza. great, we thought, we'll finish the climb up and then roll back down for lunch. It was only 500 meters or so from the top anyway. Turned out they didn't make pizza that day, but only some sad looking riceballs. And they only sold them as sets.. why would they not let us have one each, get the money and the customer? Instead we went back up, and then down to the village were we had a great Japanese set meal with roastbeef. Only 1000 yen more than the riceball set. After lunch we rode down along the Inagawa river and into Osaka, where we parted.

All in all 80 km. It was a good trip, and cozy too. I've been one 1on1 rides before were there's been no conversation, which just defeats the purpose. I was on the faster bike but I adjusted my speed. I had been completely lost using the cycling computer before, but now I felt much more comfortable reading the data and relaying it in a way that made sense.

My whole experience with biking here is a microcosm of growth. Something palpable, observable. It's so good to feel that.