This past weekend, I bought a motorcycle. I actually had no intention of buying one this soon - I was going to wait about two more months - but this opportunity that presented itself was far too good to pass up. It's a 1984 Virago. Yes, this bike is over 25 years old. That there could be a bike like this in such good condition is fantastic, but what makes it even better is that I had the same model of bike way back in 1993. So this bike is really special to me. I took it out for a couple of hundred miles this weekend - went down the PCH to the Three-Zero Cafe, then down to Alice's.

So I got to thinking - this makes this motorcycle #7 for me. I've of course been reminiscing about all the bikes I've had up to now. My first was back in 1992, a 1974 Honda CB360 I bought from some guy in Ballston Spa, NY.

Then, in San Diego, I got this 1986 Virago XV700C (I think there was a C anyway). This was a very special version of this model, in a rare blue color with no "Virago" emblems on it. This was the first bike I went on a long trip on (San Diego to Toledo). Best bike I ever had.

I sold the Virago (not a good move, in retrospect) before I moved to Iceland. Then, when I got back from Iceland I found this 1979(?) Honda CB750K. The engine needed to be rebuilt, but this guy took me from Toledo to DC and back, then all the way up into Manitoba and back down through Vancouver to San Francisco. Here it is in front of a Viking statue in Gimli, Manitoba

The CB750K didn't last too long once I got to San Francisco. I had to have a bike. Anything. So a friend of Sam's, a major(?) in the Marine Corps sold me this 1982 Kawasaki 750. Man, this thing lived a long, eventful life. Almost 2000 miles in one of the first weekends I had it, then I painted it gray. One of the mufflers came off in a trip to Las Vegas, coming very close to hitting a couple of my friends. Then it went down to LA once or twice, and since I've owned it, it stayed in good hands, with many other adventures to follow.

Then I got the FZ-1. Incredibly fast. I got it up to 162 mph. I went on some great trips with this one, too. I have no need to ever go that fast again, though.

The FZ-1 met an untimely end. But I still needed to ride. So I got the V-Star. It was really, really loud. I enjoyed it at the time, but looking back, that might have been kind of meiwaku. Took some great trips, including up to Crater Lake and Portland.

Sorry for the long lack of updates here. I have been a bit busy moving to San Francisco. I also had quite a few going away parties and some other things, of which pictures were taken by me. You can find them all on my Picasa page, but here are links to a few of them:

2009-09-27 送別会

2009-10-01 Zergsoft 送別会

Saying goodbye to the bars

2009-10-11 Goodbye dinner and karaoke

2009-10-18 Nagoya memories

This past weekend I took a short trip to Tokyo. There I saw another dance festival, among other things.

2009-08-29 東京

I think I have seen enough dance festivals in the summer. It's too damn humid to be outside in the summer, especially with so many people. Anyways, Sunday was a very important election, so you could see a lot of election posters.

And I went to Tsukuji Fish market.

So that's my story.

My grandpa just sent some photographs, including these old ones of him in some of his airplanes. Now, the first one is a Cessna 180 that was a little before my time, but it's pretty cool because it's sitting right in the front lawn of our house. The second one is a Twin Comanche that I remember flying in dozens of times all around northern Ohio.

Last night I went to a dance festival up in Gifu in a place called 郡上八幡 (Gujou hachiman). It's a dance festival that lasts a couple of days. The celebrations start around sunset and last until 8am.

It was a fantastic day, up in the mountains so it wasn't quite so humid. There were about 20 of us or so from Nagoya who met up there. Some of us got there early in the afternoon so we got to take a dip in the cool, swift current of the river (don't know what it's called - it's a tributary of Nagaragawa).

郡上八幡の盆踊り

It's really an amazing event, something that's been going on for hundreds of years, and everyone participates. Hopefully these pictures and videos can give a glimpse. On the fringes of the area where people are dancing, though, it really reminds me of a summer carnival in the states. Delicious greasy, salty food, silly games that no one can win (Unagi-tsuri), teenagers sneaking around trying to avoid getting caught, doing whatever.

As you can see, I wore a yukata again. I'm getting good at that now.

If you come to Japan, you should try to make it to a bon-odori like this.

I've finally finished reading my first complete book in Japanese. (Well, technically, I finished "Kitchen" by Banana Yoshimoto, but that one took me like a year, and I didn't really enjoy it, so by the end it was just an ordeal.) But this book I really liked, and finished the 221 pages in just a couple months. And it's the type of book I would recommend for someone learning Japanese if you're like me: not into manga, prefer non-fiction, and usually read in short spurts. It's called "Tetsudo no nazo to fushigi ni kotaeru hon", meaning, "The book that answers all the mysteries and wonders of railroads", and it does just what it says on the tin. It's awesome, because each question and answer is just two or three pages long - just short enough to read on the eight-minute subway ride to work. And it's all about trains, which I've recently really gotten into. People have started to call me tetchan, which I'll get into more later.

My next one is Haruki Murakami's first book, "Kaze no Uta wo Kike", which is translated as "Hear the Wind Sing". The goal is to get through this one in three weeks.

Took a day trip to Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka-ken. Took about two hours to get there, had some うな重, basically the same thing as Una-don, only it was square instead of round.

So people might have been wondering if I passed my most recent kanji test or not. See for yourself:

Circles are correct, X's are incorrect -'s are, I'm not sure - couldn't read, maybe? Yes, I failed this time. Just five points short. My weaknesses were synonyms/antonyms and find the incorrect character. I have to take it again now...

Here I am from last weekend wearing a yukata. A yukata is basically a summer version of Japanese traditional clothes. I didn't do it quite right. Like you're not supposed to wear a T-shirt underneath. And I didn't know how to tie the belt, so I just made something up. But of course everybody praises you because it's Japan and that's what they do. It turned out, at this yukata party, only four people wore yukatas. And only one male. And only one gaijin. Guess who that was. Me.

From 浴衣パーティー2009年7月25日

But I did win a prize, sort of. Here's the story: three winning tickets for yukata-wearers, four people. The first two I didn't win. The last one, a bottle of wine. He pulls out the ticket - I won! I was so proud. But later on, the guy drawing the tickets comes up to me - he's a friend of mine - and confided in me that he actually pulled the other person's name, but then switched it, so that I would win. I felt really bad, so I went up to the other yukata wearer and told her that she should really have the wine, since she really won it. But then she said, don't give it to me now, but how about next weekend over dinner? OK, so what I really won is a date. OK, that's cool. Here's the kicker. Later that night, at the sanjikai (third party), I went into this really crowded bar. Too crowded for my tastes, but I had accidentally set the bottle of wine down just before I decided to leave. So today I had to go out and buy the exact same bottle of wine in order to give it to the woman.

We had a nice time. Will probably go out again.

This is my life here.

Last weekend I went to Osaka for a couple of days to visit a former colleague who will be moving to San Francisco at the end of the month. Even though this is like the fifth time I've visited Osaka, it's the first time I've eaten authentic Osaka-style okonomiyaki and takoyaki. The okonomiyaki place we went to was absolutely incredible. Lot's of fat and salt and all kinds of good ingredients.

大阪2009年7月