Kitty's Sushi Roll Ride

Bike friend Kitty (real name: Grace) is a Japan expert. I mean that for real. Her degrees are in Eastern Studies and her day job has something to do with Japanse-American relationships. She has lived in Japan and recently returned from a trip there. She's also a serious cyclist and is a typically hyper-normal mid-Westerner while also being the kind of nutcase who shows up at events dressed as a penguin. So, I knew I would be good hands when she planned a Japan-themed ride, timed to fall in advance of the cherry blossoms so it wouldn't be a cherry blossom ride.

The weather didn't fully cooperate. We were at the tail end of a fierce windstorm that had descended on the whole east coast. Friday had been really crazy, with gusts up over 60 MPH causing our house to make weird moaning noises of a kind we've never heard before. Saturday was a little better, with winds "only" 20-30 MPH. As is my wont, I woke up in plenty of time but puttered around - breakfast, newspaper, stretching, coffee - until the point when I had to rush out the door to have any chance of getting there in time. Bundled up against the cold and wind, I hit the W&OD. The wind was at my back and I found myself doing incredible speeds - up over 20 MPH - with fairly little effort. With wind assist the trip to Rosslyn, which usually takes me about 35 minutes, took only 25. Crossing the "Intersection of Doom", I found the entrance to the Mount Vernon Trail blocked by a downed tree. Fortunately, it was the trunk blocking the path, not the crown, so it was possible to lift my bike over and then scramble after it. Another cyclist ... who turned out to be none other than Kitty ... hit the blockage at the same time. We helped each other over the tree and then continued on. Initially we rode together, but I told her to go ahead since she was in a hurry to get to the meeting spot. The meeting spot was a coffee place in Navy Yard. There was pre-ride coffee 8:15 followed by rolling out at 8:45. I had timed my arrival to be there for the ride start, not the coffee, so I was surprised to see that Kitty was on my schedule. Turned out she had gotten a later start than planned. She bolted ahead while I continued at my meandering pace. Obviously she got there first, but even with a restroom break at Columbia Island, I got there in plenty of time.

After donning some Japanese garb over her biking gear (not a kimono - too hard to ride in), Kitty saddled up and led us out. While I won't go into all the details of her well-researched and interesting presentations, I'll list some highlights:

• Stop at the Washington Navy Yard, where a delegation of Samurai made the first diplomatic visit of Japanese to the U.S. in the 1800's. Apparently they made quite a splash. According to Kitty, by the 1800's the Samurai class were no longer warriors so much as they served as the top echelon of government bureaucrats.
• A look at the Stone pagoda. This gift to the U.S. from the mayor of Yokohama in the 1950's is located near the FDR Memorial.
• A stop outside the Freer/Sackler galleries of art.
• Most moving, a visit to the Japanese-American Patriotism Memorial, which commemorates both the Japanese-American who were sent to internment camps during WW II and the Japanese-Americans who died fighting in the war.
• While the ride most definitely wasn't about the cherry blossoms, we did learn that the Cherry Blossoms symbolize life's fragility and beauty: the blossoms are a reminder that life is almost overwhelmingly beautiful but that it is also tragically short. I'm still working on the beauty part, but I'm for sure feeling the tragically short part these days!

Kitty gives her shpiel at the Sackler

By the end of the ride the sun had come out and the temperature had become quite comfortable. We lingered a bit and took group photos at our last stop, the Japanese Information and Culture Center (JICC). From there the group was continuing on to lunch at a Japanese restaurant above Georgetown. I have some sort of mild allergy to some ingredient/seasoning in Japanese food (I cough for the rest of the day after eating Japanese), so I skipped the lunch. I rode with the group as far a Georgetown then broke off and headed home over Key Bridge. It was on the late side of lunchtime and I got a craving for an Earl's salmon sandwich, so I made a little detour into Ballston for a lunch stop at Earl's.

Group photo at the JICC

It was an eventful ride. In addition to the places I've already mentioned we passed by the White House, biking past apparently just ten minutes or so before someone opened fire there, and saw the unveiling ceremonies for the Mayor Marion Barry statue. Wait, what?! There's a Marion Barry statue? Crack-cocaine abusing, woman-abusing, "Bitch set me up!" Marion Barry??!? 

Plus, I got a chance to visit the new DC WaWa market. Ted and I are big WaWa fans and so this was very exciting to me.

31 miles - my longest ride since surgery.