It was good weather for a ride today: bright sunshine, with a wind from the north that helped me on my way down the Arakawa and didn’t give me any trouble on the return.

There was a 30km run in progress on the lower stretches of the Arakawa, but unlike last month’s marathon, cyclists were welcome to ride through if they took care to avoid the runners. There were so many participants that at times it was challenging to work my way around a large group in my lane while another large group was coming in the opposite direction. But it all came right in the end.

Nana had whipped up a batch of her world-famous mentaiko onigiri. I had a conveniences store hotdog as soon as I arrived at Arakawa, but I was famished again by the time I reached Tokyo Bay. As soon as I crossed over the Kiyosuna Bridge I stopped in the small park on the opposite bank and gobbled down three onigiri before proceeding.

After lunch it was the usual quick jaunt to Disneyland, and then backtracking over the Arakawa Kawaguchi Bridge to the Yumenoshima Cycling Road. The wind was stronger and colder as I neared Tokyo Bay and the Wakasu Seaside Park. I stopped for a quick photo of the Tokyo Gate Bridge, and to buy some water from a vending machine. I was soon joined by a group of “serious” cyclists on carbon fibre mounts.

From Wakasu, it’s back into traffic, and quite of bit of it large lorries carrying goods from the port across the Tokyo Gate Bridge. I worried that the wind, which had been from the north all day, would be fighting me at the point, but it was smooth going. As always, my next stops were Nihonbashi and Budokan, where I ate the last onigiri and a Snickers bar. There was a large crane behind a big barrier on the road that rises up to Tayasumon, so I got a photo of the opposite side of Chidorigafuchi for a change, looking towards Kudanshita.

I finished my second lunch at 2:18 and messaged Nana I would be home by 3:30. As usual, I’d given myself a generous buffer. With no issues on the way home apart from the usual traffic lights and dicing with idiot drivers and cyclists, I arrived home at 2:56, messaged Nana I was back, and brought Kuroko up the freight elevator to the Workshop in the Sky.

On a moving time of 4:16:16, I averaged 19.4km/h. That’s a very satisfactory result. I was helped by the wind coming down the Arakawa, and I even set some good times on the way north from Wakasu back to Eitai Dori.