I’m in Japan for an ATP workshop.  We arrived a few days early to check out the small town near where the workshop will be.  We’ve covered most of the village of Bessho Onsen on foot so far.  We were told by our Airbnb host that the town had bikes we could use for free.  There’s another section of town we could get to and explore if we had bikes.  There are some more temples we could see also.  We went down to the train station to “rent” the bikes.  They are electric bikes.  I’ve never ridden an electric bike.  They do seem to be all the rage lately so this should be fun.  This is a mountain village so it’s not flat.  The electric bikes should help with the steeper sections of journey as well.  But, of course, there is no flat open place to practice.  Nor did I have any thought that I would need practice.  I get on the bike and pedal to cross the street from the train station to the sidewalk on the other side of the street.  One half pedal rotation was like three.  I shot like a rocket across the street squeeling like an 8 year old girl.  For some reason, unexpected speed made my body think it needed to turn the handle bars sharply to the left.  I almost spun out in the middle of the street.  I managed to correct the turn just before getting to the curb.  What have I gotten myself into?  A whole afternoon of this?  Of course, the sidewalk was steep in the beginning and didn’t level off for about 15 minutes.  By the time it leveled off, I was a little more use to riding.  Starting remained a challenge most of the afternoon, though.  We got to ride through a more residential area of town which was wonderful.  I love to see neighborhoods and see how people live.   It’s fun to see what’s different and what’s the same.  It’s fun to try to imagine what it would be like to live there, where you would shop, where you would exercise, who you might know.  We went up into the hills and saw some temples.  The bikes were so helpful for climbing the small hills that would have been a huge challenge on a normal bike.  Now I want an electric bike.