Wind

No, I am not serious about the picture. I could see it work for crossing an open plain, with wider tires.

I don't mind hills.  I've even climbed over 2500m in a day.  Headwinds?  I have no use for them.  I've also no use for the Japanese blind-spot over trees.  Trees break-up winds.  Trees also cause shade, so your neighbour can get you fined for casting shade on his property, or for the clean-up of leaves?  No joke.  So much for consensus-oriented thinking, eh?  What Tokyo and Kanto need is far more tree cover: break up the wind, shade the (ubiquitous!) concrete, freshen the air, and relieve the eyes.  Make them all deciduous so winter warmth is not shaded, but summer is, and get over picking up a few leaves.  Never going to happen.  Look at this ugly!

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I've been thinking about it because the NW winter winds in Kanto are constant, and the tree cover and scenery minimal in NE Tokyo riding north on the Edogawa towards Satte.  Not helped by the only path worth riding away from a thousand stoplights suspended up in the winds atop the levées.  It's become quite demotivating: grind into the wind for a couple hours; zip home in something like half the time.  Rinse and repeat.  Maybe I need to get over my misanthropy and join a peloton...

I ran into a building-neighbour when I got back from my Sunday ride, and we laughed about how bad a ride I'd had, and that he'd decided against one: steady 30km/hr NW wind.  The more amusing part of the conversation is that he was thoughtful enough to refer to me (in Japanese) as the "gentleman from upstairs", instead of as "the foreign gentleman, married to the Japanese daughter of the building owner".  Clearly a more thoughtful than average local.  I referred to him as "the gentleman who does triathlon."  Showing what?  I know they do not all look alike?

The better solution is to get a train into the Boso-Hanto interior (map bottom-right) away from winds and among trees, where there is no snow and ice cover this time of year.  That means I have to get organized with trains, and the like.  Sigh...