2004-11-12,13,14 Bike Friday Japan Meeting Kyoto 2004
Meeting Day 1

Bike Friday Meeting 1st Day...@nak participated in a fabulous sightseeing cycling lead by nas-san, a Kyoto local.

The meeting registration at the parking lot of Kyoto Tower Hotel No.3 A lot of Bike Friday folks had already arrived when we showed up.

Sat-R-Days being prepared out of the suitcase, owners showing off their Bike Fridays, friend reunions...the usual scenes from meetings like this. Hanz Scholz, CEO of Bike Friday and Ruthy Kanagey, Japan Advocate came over from Eugine to participate in the Kyoto Meeting.

This year's pamphlet and souvenier, which is a Japanese spatula with the BF Kyoto Meeting logo.

The meeting started off with opening words from Kataoka-san, our host. There were two choices for cycling on the first day ; a sightseeing route of historic Kyoto, or a climb up to Kyomi-Pass in northern Kyoto. We decided to join the sightseeing group, which consisted of about 40 people. Takeuchi-san, a Kyoto local led the group though Kyoto. First, a stop at a convinience store for drinks and snacks.

Kataoka-san makes a quick stop on a bidge crossing Kamo-river (Kamo-gawa), leaving everyone in surprize when he started feeding the birds !! The pack of bikes ride northward on a path along Kamo-river. 40 small wheelers in a row does attract alot of attention. :-)

Traditional cuisines standing alongside the river. We stop at Ikeda-Ya, which is a historical landmark. Trying to explain Japanese history to Hanz in English was a difficult one...my history grades weren't the best !

Next stop... a Velo-Taxi station. Velo-Taxis operate around central Kyoto. We arrived before operating hours, so we got to see them parked. Hanz-san takes a look under the body....a new idea popping up !?

Moving along to "Kyoto-Gosho", or Kyoto Imperial Palace. After a short stop near the gates, we visit the information center where a scaled model of the palace can be seen. We also visited "Hamaguri-Gomon", or Hamaguri Gate, which was a historic landmark from the Edo period. Bullets from the shoot outs can be seen sunk into the wooden gate structures.

Leaving the "Gosho", we head towards "Dai-Kou-Myou-Ji"...Dai Kou Myou Temple.

We stop to see a traditional Japanese garden within the temple grounds.

The bike pack strolls through the old residential area of Kyoto. At a intersection, Hanz-san aims his camera at a student on a folding bike,the typical "discount store cheap-cycle". Talking about discount store bikes lead to our interesting conversation about Wal-mart and McDonald's. Yes, of course I didn't forget explaining the traditional Japanese "long-apartment", "Naga-ya".

This is a stop for all cyclists visiting Kyoto, Kugi-Nuki-Jizo ! Would you believe that there is a guardian shirine (Jizo) that respects the god of Kugi-nuki, nail pincers !?

Bike Friday's Sapphire Blue, Canary Yellow, and Raspberry Red. A nice trio

Passing Nin-na-Ji(Nin-na-Temple),and passing railroad tracks, we reach the northwest of Kyoto. Hirosawa-Ike(Hirosawa-pond) appears. Heading alongside the pond, the rural landscape of Kita-Saga appears. People are just about ready for lunch...

Beautiful cosmos greet us as we enter the Kita-Saga district, designated as an important cultural property.

40 people don't fit in a restraunt that easily, so the group split up for lunch. Kyoto is famous for "Kyoto-pickles", so that's what we had. Kyoto Pickles, rice and tea makes a nice meal in Japan.

A beautiful autumn day with the leaves starting to color. As we wait at the parking lot for everyone to return from lunch, we compare and test ride a couple of Petite Crusoes. (Ta) goes off for a test ride of Uri-bo-san's compact Crusoe, and comes back with a big smile on her face ! :-)

We leave Kita-Saga for Arashi-yama, another sightseeing spot with a beautiful landscape. On our way, we pass though a forrest of bamboos streaking high in the air. Many visitors (Autumn in Kyoto is a big tourist attraction) avoided us from riding on our bikes, so we got off and strolled. We had to make way for the the "Jin-Riki-Sha", or rickshaws which takes the tourists around the Saga-Arashiyama district.

Crossing the Togetu-Kyo (Togetu-bridge) and arriving at Arashiyama, on the riverside of Hozu gawa (Hozu-river). Everyone lines up for a snapshot.

After alot of walking of our bikes, we enter the Kizu-Arashiyama-Bike Path where we can cruise the "fast-lane" The bike path runs along Katuragawa, and we head southward. Crossing a railroad track keeps the ride interesting.

Another stop before we head to our hotel; a Japanese confectionary called "Nakamura-Ken". Rice cakes with sweet beans.

After some sweets at the confectionary, we resume southward on the bike path. Well, the ride wasn't completely smooth, we had to grab our bikes and walk down some stairs at one place. One last stop before the hotel wa Ryuukoku University, where we were greeted with beautiful illuimation of the shchol building.

Coming back to the hotel, we parked our bikes and took the subway to the dinner party Kataoka-san set up for us.

"Ka-Kyu", a Japanese Cuisine located at Karasuyama-On-Ike was the place for the party.

The party started off with a word from Kataoka-sa, followed by Hanz, then our leader for the tour today, Nas-san. The food (shown in ths link)was gorgeous, and delicious.

The latter half of the party was spent by Hanz explaining and demo-ing the folding sequence of his latest development, the PTA. (which he actually brought a prototype to Kyoto�j The disclosing of this new 16-inch model was a treat only for the participants of the Kyoto meeting, so sorry for the mosaic folks, it's according to the Non-Disclosure Agreement ! We also asked Hanz to sketch the new-generation Sat-R-Day. Hmm...nice looking !

After the part was over, a buch headed towards Kyoto station for a late snack of....Ramen, chinise noodles ! (Haven't we had enough this evening !?) The place we found was packed, with people waiting in line outside of the shop. (This is 10pm at night folks.) The ramen noodles were good, a nice dish one to top off the day !

Kyoto Tower in the distance.

November,2004 Kyoto,Japan
Canon IXY Digital 400