Breakdown!

Today, I head for Kyoto City - the old capital city of Japan. It was going to be a rather long ride, more than 80km, so I left Ashiya City at around 8am.

It was good that I left early, cause along the way, my bike rack broke! Due to my luggage being too heavy, one of the support bars on my rear touring rack broke off. This caused the rack to sink down and it kept hitting my rear wheel, making it impossible to cycle.

So, stopping in a nearby carpark, I had to make some emergency repairs to the rack. Finally, after about 30mins of struggling with the rack, I managed to use some twine to secure the rack to my bike frame again. However, in order to reduce the load on the rear, I had to sling my heavy trunkbag around my shoulders. Good thing the support broke only 30km from Kyoto!

Emergency Repairs

The remaining support bar on the other side of the bike (the bar with holes in it)

About 5km from Kyoto City central, I found a bike shop, but unfortunately they didn`t carry any spare to repair my rack or even a new touring rack, so I had to borrow a pair of their pliers and make do on my own. I managed to re-attach the broken support bar to the rack (its much shorter now though). Now the rack`s a little lopsided but I guess it`ll have to do! hahaha....

Entering Kyoto City, I checked into the very run-down Kyoka Ryokan and went out to catch a glimpse of the city. Kyoto is an extremely large place with lots to see. The city itself is split into 5 sections of which I was at the central area. However, since I was rather tired from cycling and fixing the bike, I just went to check out the area around Kyoto Station. Apparently, the station building is an architectural masterpiece...

The sprawling Kyoto Station complex

Kyoto Station Building

Inside Kyoto Station Building - `The Grand Staircase`

Too bad I didn`t have more time. Kyoto seems a rather interesting place and it would have been nice to spend a few days there!