Takayama night market on Hondori Str.

We went to the night market event on Honmachi Str.
An array of night stools, small music lives, folk dance circles and game corners of kids are both sides of the street. Especially, an huge maze made of cardboard boxes fascinated local kids. Good job.




This is an assorted sashimi dish of Ajihei,
which is one of my favorite izakaya in Takayama.
Takayama is an inland (highland) town, but it is relatively close from Japan sea (about 2 hours by car). So a variety of seafood is served in restaurants in Takayama.

Moved to Hida Takayama by motorcycle for a one-month business trip.
6 hours on local roads.

The route is:
Kyoto - Route8 - Maibara - Route21 - Gifu - Route256 - Gujo - R472(Hida Road) - Kiyomi - R257 - Seseragi Road - Takayama

Long way.
My ass is aching.

The rain cloud is moving slowly.
I am heading toward the cloud.
Should I get wet after some while or able to get through?
I am a motorcyclist now.

Summer festigal for little kids

We found a new night-watch staff for Kyoto J-hoppers Hostel.
Now this is the last night for me to work overnight here as a temporary watch man.
The new staff is a proper university boy and speaks English well.
So no worry.



I went to the summer festival of the kindergarten with my family in the evening.
Fun!
Interesting events and colorful kids' kimono.
The teachers of this kindergarten really work hard.
Hope the summer festival unforgettable for kids!

The other day I went to western Shiga Prefecure and Fukui for a day touring with my new KLX25o. The owner of Roujiya Hostel invited me.

For the first touring with this bike, the route was a little bit tough.

I straggled to go through some hard part of the dirt mountain roads, which were sometimes very rough, jaggy or muddy.

Sometimes we enjoyed crossing a small river and stopped a vantage point of the mountain and saw the Japan Sea.

Stag beetles

I went to collect stag beetles into the riverside brush in suburb of Kyoto City with my son yesterday.

Against my expectation, we got some species on and under some Hannoki tree.
We have to be careful about some hornets. Stag beetles, drone beetles, bees and hornets are usually gather at the same place for tree sap.
We approached quietly to the trees and chased some hornets off, then started collecting some stag beetles.



Nokogiri Kuwagata
Ko-kuwagata
Hirata Kuwagata
(Kuwagata = stag beetle in Japanese)

It is a good kids' summer attraction. They learn how to bleed insects and study about life.
But this time I myself enjoyed much more than son.

First ride on KLX 250

My first ride on Kawasaki KLX250.

Just a short breaking in to Takao (30 min from Kyoto city center).

I haven't ridden a bike for more than 2 years and i had almost forgotten how to ride, especially on dirt roads.

Anyway it was amazing 30km warm-up.

The gear ratio of KLX is much higher than my former bike Yamaha TT250R Raid, especially around the top gear.

It is no problem in the city or in the mountain rough trails. But it is not very suitable for long touring.

The bike needs around 500 kilo meter initial breaking in.

I am afraid i cannot be patient enough and rev up soon.

Bye

todays tabipon

Let's begin again.