Tower of Light

The weather today is gorgeous; sunny and with a clear blue sky and only a hint of the crippling humidity that strikes Japan later in the year. Yesterday evening, while the kids from the apartment swarmed around me and asked me the kind of questions kids ask, I put a new wheel on my bike, tightened the brakes and re-adjusted the chain. This afternoon, I was whipping down the huge hill that leads into Shiawasenomura and could see straight over Akashi and out to Awaji. The wind drummed tattoos in my ears and my shirt tugged at my torso as it billowed out behind me and I had to smile.

An hour later, as I rode back up that hill, the lactate burning in my veins, and sweat obscuring vision as it dripped and ran, I was still smiling.