sexy,cool,beautiful.

There was a international bicycle race in Japan on Oct. 22nd and 23rd.
We closed the cafe both of weekend day and went to see the race. Fortunatelly,the location is not too far from my house.

The first day was the Criterium.The Criterium is a short distance bike race on the street run off across the town. It was nice to see the busy main street was closed.And silence like a calm sea.
Even the race has started,it was oddly quiet because the athletes never screamed or yelled.They just passed through in front of us in a moment with a wind.

The second day was a kind of climbing up road race. It was so exciting.

In a colorful jersey with sun glasses,they look so beautiful and cool. And sexy.

I attended the after party at the evening. I was surprised that the Japanese athletes were tiny except around thigh. And they were so friendly and sweet.

The Bicycle Diaries.

I know.
I was stupid.
It's been only 7 days since I went hiking and got severe sore muscles.
But I did it. My muscles are sore again.
I took a day-trip by bicycle! The biking is booming in Japan now.
My husband,regular customers..everybody around me started riding a bike.
I didn't care first.But I'm getting envy.
I feel like biking,too. You know,feel like trying something you thought you never be able to do.

But I don't think I can handle those cool, Lance Armstrong type of bike like my husband's.

-His bike-

Then I went with my old bicycle.
It's been long since the last time I rode bicycle then I was struggling fiirst hour. The streets are not for bicycles. Those are very narrow.And the car drivers were not gentle to me.

I found many things while I was cycling which I couldn't see if I drove a car.
Thanks for the slow trip,I could take some photos of my favorite scenes.

I was off to Utsunomiya-city where I went to almost every off-day. It's about 60km distance from my house.
But I couldn't make it. I was picked up with my bicycle by my husband.
It was about 10km to the goal.
damm.. Let's do that again.

My shadow reflect on the clean water river.

History teach us a lot .

Our cafe had a lecture on "ancient letters" last night.
The lecturer and his daughter visited the cafe a couple of months ago. He introduced himself as a scholar of ancient Chinese characters.

I love history. Then "ancient" sounds very attractive to me.
Since I had heard he had some lecture class,I dreamed to have the class someday right here at our cafe.
And the dream come true.

The letter of the picture means "learn."
The top part is the symbol of feather and the bottom part is white sunlight.
The ancient letter of "learn" originated in "the birds." The baby bird learn how to fly from its parents birds.
The baby bird practice flying over and over.
And you see white soft feather(down) of the baby bird.Or baby have pure white heart.
This is how the letter became "learn."

We had 17 classmates. The class begun 7pm then we enjoy the lecture full of two hours.
The class already be scheduled for next two months.

hike in the fog.

I went hiking with friends last Wednesday to check the color of trees.
The hiking sounds fun but it was not really.. because of weather. We knew the weather wasn't fine but we had no choice because Wednesday was the only chance to us.

I was a very beginner when it comes to the mountain climbing.
We were like taking a mist shower all the time but I forgot to bring any towel.
The temperature was getting low but I brought a pair of just regular qute knits globes which got completely wet due to the mist.
I put too much clothes because I thought it was cold but I was wrong. I sweat a lot less than 10 min from the start climbimg. And it made my condition unwell. etc,etc.

I have sore muscles in my right thigh pretty much now. I didn't exercise these days.You can tell that I didn't prepare enough.
So,I'm just a looser...

But there was something I liked about hiking.
We had a small comfort lunch with cup of coffee which was great specialy after we walked in the chilly rainy weather! One of us said that that is why we can't stop hinking because of this.And we all indeed.

It was foggy like this.

Oh Noh!

Noh is a classical stage art performed exclusively by men.
The orchestra consists a flute and three types of drums.
It has been performed since the 14th century. Most characters are masked and costumes are extremely beautiful.

There was a Noh performance in town tonight.
It was the first experience to me and I was glad that I attended there because I found it everything was so beautiful. The way of the performers move,smell of early winter evening,the sky at sunset,...

Noh hasn't been changed its style since it was started to perform. So we have same vision with people live in the 14th century.