The Trek Soho may not offer a ride quite as upright as you'd like but I think it's an intriguing alternative to both chain driven derailleur bikes and shaft drives. Based on this old thread I'd say that though shaft drive bikes probably have a lot of potential, the current offerings aren't well executed.

The belt drive of the Soho is new and may turn out to be problematic but I'd I love to try one of these out for winter riding.

I have two other recommendations. The first is to test ride a bunch of different bikes. I personally wouldn't try to import something unless I was pretty sure it was exactly what I wanted.

The second suggestion would be to use paragraphs if you're going write that much stuff