Friendly Cat This is a first cat that I met on my cycling in early morning for a health.

I think this cat was a kept cat near there. I met this cat at 4:41 a.m. when I rode my MTB for the first time in the morning. It seemed a friendly cat to human. It was not run away at all from me. Taking a picture of the cat was freely.

My Mountain Bike I bought this new bike at only $100 including the postage. I rode it every morning for 7miles.
 
This is my mountain bike I bought this month by mail around the handle bar. There is a bell on the bar, a black headlight that I bought at 100 yen shop, a bottle holder that I bought at 100 yen shop, that holds a plastic bottle that was for honey, but it was filled with water, and a bicycle computer that I ordered with the bicycle at the same time, it can count the mileage, the speed, and time so on. It is a very useful gear. I think I have wanted to put it on my bike. It was $12. As you can see, this handle bar can fold up with the lever, it is a foldaway bicycle. I can put it into the trunk of the car to carry it anywhere to ride it. 

The Sun of Daybreak I think I saw the sun of daybreak for the first time this year. It was so solemn beautiful. 
 
 
This is 12 minutes later after taking a picture of the steal tower. I was on the bike to come back home then, but I returned to the way a little again to take this picture. This mountain's name is Kannon (the Goddess of Mercy on Buddhism) 325m(1063feet). 

Daybreak at Rice Fields This is in Hiraizumi. The sun was appearing from the mountain. Rice fields look mirror. MAP
 
As you can see, this is daybreak. There is a steel tower of electricity on the rice field, and there seems to be just a mirror that reflected the tower there. Rice fields around there have filled water from the river. They have finished rice-planting. So it is like a mirror. This picture was taken from top of the bank. By the way, on this day, I left home at 3:40, and had ridden my mountain bike on top of the bank for 10km (6.3miles) there. After all, I rode it for 20km(12.6miles) that day, and came back home at 5:10 a.m. 

Stroked Dog This is a stroked dog by my hand. I took this picture by my camera in my hand. It was very cute dog. 
 
Ｔhis is not a polar bear. This is a white dog. If it was a white bear, my hand would have been bitten by its teeth. My hand in the green work glove stroked its head. This digital watch on my hand was bought at $10 about 5 years ago at DIY store near here. This dog was very friendly to me who met for the first time like this. I saw weeds around the house seemed to be stepped on by human feet, I think it was by this dog's fan. I think it is popular dog for anybody passed through this road. I wonder if my body had a smell of the house even now.

Friendly Dog This is a dog kept in the house that my uncle built in old days. It was really friendly to me like this.  
 
 
This is not a white bear. This is a white dog that you might have seen yesterday here. It is very friendly to me like this despite the first meeting. This house had my uncle's family, but it was sold, he built another new house near there when I was a first-grade pupil, and his family moved to the new house next year. But he was transferred to another city with his family, so they lived in the house even 2 years. They came back to the house to live about 10 years ago at last after interval of 30 years. By the way, this house that has the white dog is not almost changing from that time, the roof color was only changed from original red color a couple years ago. It was very cute house from that time. There was the house on my way home, so I called at this house after school every day. I have sent a black and white photo, that my sister sent me in Tokyo, of me of a nursery school pupil in 1966 to Miho about 15 years ago, it was taken by my uncle in this house. I wonder if she has the valuable photo even now. Anyway, I called at the house that my uncle built often, it was true the dog was very friendly to me despite of the first meeting.

White Dog I happened to meet it for the first time this morning when I was on bike, but it was very friendly to me.    
 
I ride a bicycle for health every morning these days, but on this day, I happened to meet this friendly dog. I have passed through in front of the house by motorcycle, scooter, and car often, but I did not know about this dog kept there at all. But when I ride a bicycle, I noticed what the dog was kept for the first time, because it was not barking a gentle and friendly dog. When I saw the dog, and stopped my bike to take a picture of the dog, and I returned to before the dog. I thought it would bark, if it was barking, it would have make a worse atmosphere in early morning, but it was not barking to me at all. I got to love this dog soon. It is cleaver. As you can see, there is a house for the bright white dog, and a stainless steel bowl for water, and a plate for feed side. By the way, this house was my uncle's house before. He is my father's younger brother. I used to visit this house after school every day when I was a first-grade pupil in elementary school 40 years ago. This house is designed by my uncle, my father's oldest brother.

Turtle Home This is Kamekiti. 1 year past from his coming to my house. It is his favorite house that is a hovel. 

This is my mother's pet, Kamekiti, but only I have been taking care of this turtle every day. This bottle of sake is his favorite home. But he got too big to his home since this spring, so he could not entered his home, so I lay it down sideways on the water tank. I tried to give some feeds in front of the mouse of the bottle, his face was appeared to me like this to try to eat them. His face suited the bottle mouse, they were the same color by chance. I wonder why he became too big like this. I think I put a heater in the water tank for him to give him warm, but it had been laid there until recently. So he could eat feed that I gave all to him. I heard he would become a body of 1feet in five years. I wonder if my mother knew about it before she bought. Off course, she did not know at all. Then only I am taking care of him every day. A bottle of sake is called "turtle neck" in Japan, but he comes out of the bottle, it looks like a window of his home.
   

Motor Home This kind of car is called camping car in Japan. I would like to get own biger motor home someday. 
 
This is a motor home I saw by chance when I was riding my bicycle in the early morning. When I took a rest for a few minutes, I found this car. It is typical size of Japanese motor home. It was parked at side of the car's tire shop. What I have a motor home is my dream since I was a child. Pinky and Killers took the motor home of Mazda at that time to travel whole Japan. I wanted that motor home, too. But the dream do not come true yet. On top of that, we do not have a parking space for a big motor home like this, my car (1500) parks on the field road even though we do not have a space to park the car at my house, so if I got a motor home, we could not park it. Originally I was longing for the Kunimatsu family that was living in junk bus from before of that. I wish I would get my own motor home sometime.
   

Street of Landowner These are not closed stores. It was too early to take a picture. I came here by my MTB. MAP

This town is called Town of Landowner. It is not a shutter street. It is seen in almost all streets of the middle of cities in Japan. They were almost closed despite in daytime, because big stores with the parking a lot are building in the suburbs nowadays. These stores do not have the parking a lot each. But these stores do not close the stores. It is at early morning. The brown building store, Shinsei, from right is cloth store. I have never entered the store, and a stationery store, Hirasawa, I have entered sometimes, and an another musical instrument store, Taishodo, I have entered to buy strings of the guitar and CDs often when I was adult about until 20 years ago. There is a coke vending machine by chance in front of both music shops. And a delivery pizza shop at the first floor next to the music shop, if I get some money, I would like to order a pizza to my house in the mountain with a phone from a delivery pizza shop like this sometime, and a Internet cafe seems on the second floor by the signboard, but I do not know whether it is there really or not. 
   

Music Shop of Sato This is a musical instrument store that is one of two in our city. It seems a Yamaha shop. MAP    
 
This is a musical instrument store. There are two of music shops in my city, so this is one of them. It is along the main street. It has CD, too. This is a store which my mother goes to buy CD often. I do not come to the store recently at all, I used to come to this store to buy a record of ten when I was a student. A LP record which I bought for the first time was The Carpenters, but it was bought at this store by me in 1974. I remembered I buying the record even now. I hold it in my left arm on the bicycle after buying it, and turned the corner at a Japanese hotel. I got the same record from yahoo auction again these days. It was a very good condition than mine despite $1. I would buy a lot of records at that time, but they were most artists of abroad, such as Carpenters, S&G, Crusaders, and so on. There are some Yamaha logos in Japanese on the store, such as Yamaha piano, a school of Yamaha Electone (electronic organ). The shop seems to recruit new students, according to standing signboard in front of the store. I would like to learn to play the piano like English.
      

HONDA XL125R (1984) This is my motorbike. Ordinary I go out to take a picture for my blog by this motorbike.    & nbsp; 
 
There is a red motorcycle on today's picture, but it is my motorcycle, Honda 125. It was made in about 1984, but I got it from yahoo auction two years ago. It was old machine, so I take care of that when I ride it. By the way, this picture was taken soon after taking a picture of the gentle dog and looking back. The Kazawa Castle is 100 miters ahead. There is a cylinder on the left side of the sheet, but it is a map case that I made. Originally it was what was used by a cellophane film. I put a detail map (1/25000) into the paper cylinder to carry　especially when I ride it on narrow or gravel roads. This bike has enough power to run on the gravel road like this, but it is a hard work to run on national roads. So I prefer to ride it on gravel road. There is a field at right side of the road, but I think it would be what was the house that kept the gentle dog.
   

Guide of the Castle This signboard of the castle says to guide, Kazawa Castle was built here about 1000 years ago. MAP
 
There was a signboard after I rode my bike for half minute from the place the dog lay down. It is this signboard in Japanese. I stopped my bike again to read it. Off course, I can read it, you cannot believe it, most adult Japanese people can read it easily. According to this sign by my poor translation, "The ruins of the Kazaka Castle (Gold-mountain stream Castle) another name Shinonome (East cloud) Castle. In the Heian era (about 800-1200), Kuro who was a follower of Fujiwara Hidehira lived in this castle, there is what he gave his name as Kazawa Izu on a historical documents. In 1340, Chiba Kazusanosuke of the lord of the Usuginu Castle moved to this castle by the command of his boss, Mr. Kasai, according to old documents. Kazawa Izunokami Nobutsune who was a follower of after the Kasai family, was broken by the Date force at his this castle about in 1575, and he was killed in the war at Nukazuka, there is a stone monument for his soul until nowadays in the temple of the yard of Houjyuin. And …(continue)"
  
I mean, it seems to say that gentle dog was living below the castle now. There was an another road from the place in front of the signboard, I thought I tired to go to the ruins of the castle, I made my bike head for there. It arrived there at only 10 seconds. There was a small park that seemed to be able to camp there, Atago Shrine was on the top of the mountain instead of the Kazawa Castle, but nobody was in the park except for me. It was one of the branch shrines of the Atago Shrine all over Japan, but they says the head shrine of Atago Shrine is in the mountain of Kyoto. I watched the real head shrine for the first time by chance on a historical TV drama that I watched every week on this Sunday night. One of famous samurai, Akechi Mitsuhide, had visited the shrine to pray for his win of the war. It was almost the same time when this lord of the castle was killed. 
    

Gentle Dog I think this dog is a mongrel dog, but I have never seen a cleaver dog like this on my many bike trips. MAP 

When I was riding my motorcycle on the gravel road in the mountain, I happened to meet this dog. I think this dog is been keeping. It is a gentle dog I like. Most kept dogs were barking to me when I was on the bike to pass through, but this dog was quite gentle to me, it was not barking to me at all, and did not even move from there at all. Only the face followed me. I can understand a heart of barking dog to noisy bike with unknown stranger. If I were a dog, I might do so like ordinary dogs. However, I have never almost seen a graceful dog like this in all my bike touring. I think it was a very clever dog.The dog seems to be kept at an only house in the mountain, and it seemed to lay down on the side of the gravel road in front of the gate of the house like this. 
   
I stopped my bike to take a picture of the dog, and walked to the dog carefully to be near there little by little. But it only was looking at me. I think nature environment also made it gentle without the collar with a leash. It is a free dog, but left from there. So I think it is a wise dog like my parakeet I kept, Taroppe. As I wrote until here. I think basically it is a bright dog, but it has a skill to recognize it is a good human or not. Human, car, or bike comes there rarely, so it might be waiting for a traveler who passes through there gently all day long. It must watch after a passing traveler's back on the bike. I left from there after getting a heart warming by the dog.

Japanese Cake These are daifuku mochi, daifuku means big good luck, mochi is rice cake. They are $2 at four. 
 
This is shio-mame-daifuku-mochi. I mean, it is a salt bean soft rice cake stuffed with sweetened bean jam. There are some beans on the soft rice cake, but it is one of traditional Japanese sweets. I like it. By the way, I have never thought so, but it looks sexy when I looked at it on the picture. I wonder if Sharapova, pro tennis player, have eaten it when she came to Japan. I think she likes pirozhki. But she must like a sweet of round shape like a tennis ball. DATE Kimiko, Japanese pro tennis player, also likes rice ball. She would eat it before the game whenever she had a game. She should live in Germany with her husband, German racing driver now.
   

Packed Chinese Food These are called Gyoza by us. This pack I bought at supermarket has six gyoza at $2.7
 
Colin is a usual girl. It may be so she is ninja. This is "gyoza" of one of homemade Chinese foods, a dumpling with minced pork and vegetable stuffing. We eat it fried. I found this packed of gyoza on the table at $2.7 next to doughnuts and buns of yesterday at the supermarket, both put into the mom's basket to buy. Colin likes gyoza, I think, because she loves garlic. She said one of the her best favorite foods was a garlic, off course. The breath that a person ate gyoza is a bad smell because a garlic is used in minced vegetable stuffing in gyoza. So we must not eat gyoza before a date, but it is a difference for Colin. 
   
However it is better way when you would meet Dracula. That's why she does not mind to his mouse smell of garlic smell of gyoza. Instead of that, she dislikes white cream on the cake despite a young cute girl. So I think her birthday cake is covered with sliced meats on the sponge cake and some whole garlic and red plum pickles will be laid on the meat cake instead of strawberry with ninja employees at a party now. She loves a pickled ume that is very salty, too. And she drinks a bottle of vinegar with the special homemade birthday cake that her mom made. She was eating a rice ball filled in pickled in her hand at the side of a local road. An ordinarily girl loves a strawberry on the white cream on the cake, but she is not. because she is real ninja.
   
Like TigerMask, who was training at pro wrestling school, Tiger's Hole, in Alps. Like RainbowMan, who was training in the deep mountain of India. Colin was also training very hard to get to be ninja in the mountain of Koga(Shiga), Japan. But she was starving there anytime. Food was not enough for her there. But it was one of the training menus to get to be ninja. That's why she loves    healthy and nutritious foods, such as garlic, meat, pickled ume, vinegar drink, and ferment milk than sweets, cake, and pop cider to survive anywhere. If I go to a desert island, I would take her with me. 

Buns of Supermarket These buts were sold at supermarket. I happened to find them and put into a plastic bag.

There are two fried buns at right side on the dish, but curry paste filled inside. This at left side is called "ring doughnut" in Japan. It is coated with chocolate, and some sliced almonds on it. It is my favorite doughnut from a student in junior high. They were $5 each at supermarket. 

Deserted Place These warehouses cannot get enough sunlight despite of before 2 p.m. if you would live here. 
 
These are warehouses you might see yesterday. It is like this without telephoto lens. There is a wooden fence in front of the storehouses. It would have been built for cows. I can see there are cow sheds at both sides of that warehouse, but if they might be for horse, or goats. Anyway, the stock farm is covered with high grasses now before nobody knows. If cows put into the field, they would eat those grasses cheerfully, we do not have to mow them, too. I wrote about it yesterday, too, I saw there were some deserted houses like this in that area. I visited countryside often, but I do not know that an another area that has a lot of deserted house like this area. Some deserted houses are buried under the cedars at the bottom of the narrow flat area. Ships do not come hardly now, it is hard to live there by flooded water often. I am going to go this area to take a picture about left house in the near future again.
   

Old Warehouse These warehouse were the symbol of a rich house, but they got to be deserted house like this.

This is an old warehouse. It is a Japanese traditional storehouse, these walls are made from clay. I happened to see them after catching the cat with the camera. But whenever I go through that road on my bike, I was thinking I tried to take a picture of the deserted warehouse. I was lost after taking cat's picture, and I came out on the road along the Kitakami River. This area is between mountain and a broad river, so flat ground is not too much, there is only a narrow slender place there. Would you please click MAP if you don't mind? As you can see, a lot of high cedars are behind the storehouse, the warehouses looks like be covered with cedars. A traditional warehouse like these was sure to be seen in the rich house in Japan. But this area looked poor because flat ground is too shortage to make a field. And this is a region where it gets flooded often, so the house and fields should be easily under the flooded water of the Kitakami River. So it is too dangerous area to live, but why there is a storehouse of a symbol of rich house.
     
Actually, big the river of Kitakami in front of the warehouse was crowded with a lot of ship that passed through to carry freight, especially rice to Ishinomaki, at the mouse of the river until 100 years ago. And a lot of those rice bags were carried to Edo (Tokyo) from the port with a big cargo ship. Those ships came and went between Ishinomaki and Morioka for 200km(125miles) until the Tohoku Line of a railroad was built from Tokyo to Aomori, the most northern city on the same island. Some ruined houses are seen around there like them, but I like this area, but I think it was hard to live there for people, especially flooded water often from the river. It was hard to come there in old days until about 20 years ago unless not have a boat because the road is too narrow to drive a car, but a broad road was built about 10 yeas ago, the area got not to be a remote and lonely island at least after that. By the way, there is a forgotten gate in front of the warehouses, isn't it? I think there would have been cows in the gate in old days.

Face of the Jumping Cat This fat cat was walking slowly on the animal path just as if I was not, but look at its surprised face!

This is the cat walking on the animal path after jumping over the grasses, and the lower photo is the face of when the cat was surprised by my mewing just like a real cat. I think this cat is a kind of tortoise-shell cats. It looks like a fat cat like this, so I think it is a cat that has a home to come back to, I think it is had by someone near there. I heard  there was rarely male tortoise-shell cat by relation of cat-chromosome, so I think it is female cat. If there is a male of cat of the kind, it is unusual cat, I heard it was ridden on the ship as a god to protect the ship in Japan. This fat cat was going to walk over there just as if I was not there, so I tried mewing to make the face turn to this side to watch its face to took a picture for my blog's visitors. I thought it did not look back even if I called to the cat just as if I was not there, I tried to call it by mewing of my specialty just like a cat. The cat had known there was a stranger already, but the cat have not known there was a cat behind it, there was a cat why should not be behind it, so the face looked back to me quite quickly. and it gave me to show the surprised face easily, and I pushed the shatter button to take a picture of the face quickly, too.. It looks like a man who happened to watch a ghost, but there was a only standing a human who faced a camera on the face to it there But the cat walked away slowly after taking a picture by me just as if there was nothing there. I was watching after the tail of the cat until it got to be missing in the grasses. 

Jumping Cat There is a lovely cat, althogh it looks like a jumping rabbit. It is not running away from me, it wanted to jump to go to the path. MAP

This is a cat on the road I saw at first when I was riding my motorcycle in Hanaizumi. It was walked on the road in front of my bike. But when I stopped my bike to take a picture of the cat for my blog, it left from the sidewalk, and was walking by the warehouse. I walked to the cat slowly and carefully to take a picture not to make the cat be surprised. Then I had a good picture like this with the good timing. My digital camera also has a time lag to take a picture, so this picture cannot take if want to take. This cat was not running away from me who ran after the cat to take a picture. It happened to jump to the animal path directly from there not to go into the grasses. I took the picture by chance of very good timing. I think this picture is the best shot of about cat in all my digital photos. By the reason that my bike is 0.125 liters, so it cannot run fast, basically I always make it run slowly to take a picture, too. So I like riding it in the countryside, I do not like riding on the national road and so on that makes it keep high speed pace. It was too old machine, so the engine always made a mechanical noise whenever it runs, so I cannot run it hard compulsorily. Anyway, my motorbike always is overtaken by other automobiles like my life. Although I give the road, but nobody did not give me the road.  I wish I could occasionally run it to look at only front view without looking at a rearview mirror for them very often not to care of them in the future. 

Like Castle There is a red house, but it is bigger than ordinary house. It is seen well as farmer's in countryside.    

I called this house "FUKADA Kyoko's House" myself since when I saw it again, but you can call it "FukaKyon's House" too. FukaKyon is her nickname. I think SHIRATORI(swan) Reiko's house is as big as than Bill's(MS). By the way, I read a newspaper this morning, according to it, "Dracula's Castle" was returned to descendant after an interval of 58 years. The castle was in Transylvania, Rumania, but it was confiscated by communistic government. Sound of Pennsylvania, USA, is similar to it, but Pennsylvania is also from Rumania? Dominic F Habsburger of descendant who has living in N.Y. received the castle. The old castle was built in the 14th century, it was about 25 million euro as the value of its property. I saw the castle on the web page of the news paper, it was white castle like this mansion. "Dracula" was written by the author in Ireland in 1897, but they said the model of Dracula is the earl Dracula of the lord of the castle. I felt relieved about no Dracula in Japan when I was child because I did not have a cross. But there was only a garlic in even my house, so I felt relieved a little without any cross.   

Rural White House A mansion like this is seen hardly, but a straw-thatched roof house alike is seen hardly, too.

This is that white house in Hanaizumi that you might have seen here yesterday. I was surprised of the size of this house at first, but when I looked at it again after I passed through the house, I was more surprised of it again. As you can see, there was a house of straw-thatched roof next to the mansion. A kind of that house is seen hardly nowadays, but it was an ordinary size Japanese traditional house. So you could find how big this house is. The straw-roof-house is not small. It is bigger than our general house. Those straw-roof-houses used to be seen well in old days in countryside. And then this poor house has rusty tin roof. And it seems to be connected to the white mansion by the passageway of the rusty roof. The old house was a before house, and I think parents is living in the house even now, but its son with his family might be living in the mansion.

Anyway, this house is very huge, but the entrance road is quite narrow compared with the house, and around the mansion, too. Only the white mansion is gorgeous. So it made me feel strangely more. Anyway, I call this house "FUKADA Kyoko's House" after that. She is a detective, but she is called "Detective of billionaire." She is a lovely girl about at age of 23. It is not strange if she came out of the white house. But if this is ten years ago, we would have called this house "SHIRATORI Reiko's House." You might think Japanese policeman is rich, but Mr. Nakagawa, a young policeman was working in police box in downtown, who is a colleague with
Ryotsu is a grandchild of a billionaire grandpa, too. I might be too watching TV.  

Rural Mansion This is an only mansion in Hanaizumi I have seen in all my life. I was surprised of this house again. 

I think this is the biggest palatial mansion in this city. I have never seen a mansion like this in our city or our prefecture in my touring. I have known there was a mansion around here from before, but I have forgotten where it was, but I happened to meet it again a few weeks ago on my bike touring. It is a little strange, but this big house is around front of rice fields, and a small mountain is behind the house, too. I mean, it was in the really countryside when I saw it again. So I was surprised of the white house in the place like that, on top of that, it was a Western-style house that was not seen around here. I have known what this house was around here about 20 years ago, but it seems like a new mansion. I wonder if the house was redecorated these days.

So it makes me feel a strange. I seems like a person who goes into the restaurant, "The restaurant which gives many orders" by MIYAZAWA Kenji. When I was going to go to pass through in front of the house, I was on my motorcycle, but I made slowdown it to look at it carefully. Anyway, I could not believe it by my eyes despite meeting it again. It is a huge more than this picture's-looking. Anybody who is passing through before the mansion would be glued to this house by each eyes because all we are persons from the county, and have never seen a house called mansion. There is only a house like a tin roof's small house and a straw-thatched roof a little around there, although my house is a tin roof too. It is like the mansion of Rockefeller for us. 

Carnation Bouquet This is what my older sister gave our mother with cakes for Mother’s Day. It is so beautiful.

As you can see, this is a bunch of flowers of carnations with tiny white flowers, kasumi-sou (haze flower), that my older sister bought at store for mother for Mother's Day. She bought a bunch of this flowers and the cake for her. It is a beautiful flowers. A bunch of this flower in the vase is blooming beautiful in the living room even now. Carnations are popular, but kasumi-sou also is very popular by neat and clear looking in Japan. I wonder if Colin, woman ninja, sent a chocolate that was made from cacao in Ghana to her mother on Mother's Day of this year, because she had said "Let's send bright red Ghana chocolate to mother on Mother's Day" before Mother's Day.