Today is a very happy day. It is a day that I have long awaited. It is the day that my Trek 2300 will finally be free of its long captivity in its Thule bike case.
When I came to Japan at the end of last year my bike came with me but it has spent the winter lounging in the closet. Why would I do such a thing to my bike? Well, it is mostly a medical insurance issue. I still do not qualify for public medical here and even though it would have been possible to claim medical expenses in Canada it would have been a huge hassle even with travelers insurance. Luckily, I have found some medical coverage for people here who do not qualify for public medical. Since I am not doing any racing or commuting in the next few months the medical coverage should be fine for normal riding. It would probably be a bit irresponsible to ride in Tokyo without any coverage (not that it was not tempting whenever the sun came out and people were zipping by me on road bikes).
The other option would have been to ride on a training stand in my room for the winter, but not having a training stand hampered those plans pretty thoroughly. Today I should be getting my old training stand back from a friend so even if I had not had local insurance I would have been able to break out my bike. So, in a way, it is a doubly good day for my bike. Either way I will be able to ride in the very near future.
Now I just have to put my bike together, blow up the tires with a micro-pump(ack!) and decide where I will ride first!