I’d hoped to make an early start this morning, but Nana had trouble sleeping and didn’t come to bed until 4. As the forecast high was 28C, I could let her sleep and simply adjust my plans accordingly.

Nor did I rush to get ready when Nana finally dragged herself out of bed at 9:40, as my late start attests. At that point I figured just to run down to Haneda and back, perhaps crossing the Tamagawa Sky Bridge.

I felt fine, if not fully energetic, and the bike was working well. It was already warm when I set out — about 26C — but I knew it wouldn’t get much hotter. The sky was overcast but bright; what the instructions that came with Kodak film used to call “cloudy bright”.

There was very little wind up to the point where I stopped for the first of Nana’s world-famous onigiri at Omoide Sakura. The ojisan was there feeding and petting the cats, who seemed content to snooze in the heat. From there on downriver, though, the wind picked up a bit — enough to notice but not really enough to hinder my progress.

I left Omoide Sakura about 12:45, meaning I wouldn’t make Haneda by 1 p.m. as I’d hoped — I’d be perhaps 20 minutes late. I was just approaching a park bench in the shade and so I stopped there, ate the remaining onigiri and drank more than a bit of the remaining water.

On the paths I’d ridden so far, there’d been stretches where the grass growing tall on either side hadn’t been mown back, making encounters with random strangers more than a bit iffy. I decided on the return to take a route I haven’t in more than a decade, staying on the Tokyo side of the river where the the path is gravel. I haven’t been this way since Ol’ Paint days with her 26 x 1 1/8-inch tires. I figured Kuroko’s 42mm gravel tires might make for a better ride overall, and I had a taste for a little adventure.

The gravel was neither better nor worse than I remembered. I’m guessing Setagaya Ward has topped up the gravel once or twice in the decade-plus since I’d come this way, but hadn’t done much more than that. It was only when I approached Daisan Keihin that I found a paved path at the top of the levee which led — after a few hundred meters of single-lane gravel with tall grass on each side — to a road which hadn’t existed on my last ride through this route. It was a welcome change, and I wonder if I’ll live to see its continuation into an actual, usable cycling path.

My knees were somewhat sore when I returned to traffic (very heavy in the shopping area around Futako), and so when I reached the modest climb out of the Tamagawa valley, I dropped immediately to the lowest gear and rambled uphill at a steady 9.5km/h. My knees didn’t hurt at all during the climb, or in fact the rest of the way home, so I’m guessing the soreness was the result of the unusual (for me) few kilometers riding through gravel.

Someone has put a bonnet on the Dogseal in the small park at the top of the climb. (Some friends have recently suggested this is an otter, but I think that’s rather preposterous compared to my entirely reasonable conclusion it’s a Dogseal.)

After a brief rest in the park, I noted the time (2:08) and messaged Nana I’d be home by 3:30. (Not that it mattered in the end because she was the sauna all this time, without her phone.) I felt better in fact on the ride home through traffic than I’d felt coming back up the river, perhaps because of the frequent breaks (and perhaps the lack of gravel — by comparison the little bumps and roughness in the pavement were as pillows and hot fudge sundaes).

I dealt with the usual raft of idiots on the way home, including one who, yes, overtook me just to hit the brakes and turn left. I had less trouble with the few low climbs along the way, perhaps because I hadn’t ridden as far as usual and perhaps because I was taking everything just a bit more easy than usual.

I messaged Nana at 3:01 that I was home. No reply — she was still at the sauna. I parked the bike and headed for the showers. On a moving time of 2:48:00 I’d averaged 18.7km/h, which was gratifying as I really felt I’d been doing nothing more than loping all day, and I’d intentionally chosen a few different paths for the adventure — such as a few kilometers of gravel (that I probably won’t do again for a good long while).