A Valentines Caffine fix

Wild gal Riebo celebrated Valentines day by setting up a little coffee shop on her bike. Rie has been studying proper coffee making techniques at a local café and thought it would be a good time to show off some of her skills. With beans roasted by a small company in Chita, the coffee was actually very good and kicked Starbuck's ass (not a difficult feat).

Coffee-Meister, Rie in action

Slow brewed and good

Little Emi & Friend trying the coffee

She set up her bike café at Circles bike shop and sold lot's of hand brewed coffee to friends and customers. We even got to sample some delicious chocolate treats made by Izumi and a few other local girls. Rie thinks she might make this a weekly event starting sometime in March. I plan to bring my BBQ bike the next time so we can have a little coffee and hot dogs action.

Hand made chocolate treats

Cycling Scenes in the City: Feb 13, 2009

Cycling scenes from my hometown Nagoya, Japan

Not a "death" bike. Just a Japanese knockoff

Bike parking area by Matsuzakaya department store

Small urban bike with a hint of Penny-farthing

Canadian foot fetish

A Canadian custom

There's only one thing I enjoy more than cycling, and that is getting free cycling stuff. The cultured and highly advanced Canadians running the PezCycling News site were kind enough to send me a pair of their branded cycling socks (unused, odor-free). The socks are a Canadian way of saying thanks for allowing them to use some photos from my Love Wheels Nagoya Calendar. I like Canadians, in fact, I have quite a few Canadian friends here in Japan. They can always be counted on for helping you move furniture or when you're in need of a quick self deprecating humor fix. The custom of gifting socks in exchange for sexy girlie photos has its origins in the long harsh winters of the Saskatchewan plains. Early settlers and beaver hunters would pass the long winters stuffing their wool socks with pages from the bloomers & pantaloons sections of the Sears Roebuck catalog. In addition to preventing frostbite, the pages were thawed out in the summer and exchanged for new socks at the local general store. I love history. And Canadians.