２輪車と剣道・居合道の稽古日記＆その他

an hour to start the engine

I ran OFV this morning.

since i have to come reunion this evening at tokorozawa, i was thinking of start riding at 0900. however it took me an hour to start the engine.

it seems that 12kx250f has trouble when it is frozen. december 24th, i went to narita and it was freezing. i left my machine outside whole night and i had trouble starting it. simular phenomenon has occured since then.

this morning, it was coldest and no matter how much i kicked its starter, it would not respond me. it seemem no spark or no gas in the cylinder. probabry, the injection system would not let gas in.

i tried to use slope in vein. what was worse, i slipped down when i was pushing up my machine back to paddock and my machine pressed and squeezed my left knee in a funny way. it was so hurt and i worried about ligaments seriously. the weights of the machine gave my ligaments in a wrong way and when i tried to get out, it did me worse.

whem i finary got out, i was afraid if i could walk. guys walkind asked me what the hell i was doing.

thanks to wearing astarisk knee brace, it was somehow okay to ride and walk but i still have little funny feeling on my knee.

anyway i could start riding at 1000. the course condition was worse than i imagined. it was compleatly frozen and bumpy. it was a good training for me but i could not enjoy riding.

what was worse was i could not run as fast as the other junior class riders. #37 of tebichi, #88 of tomo racing, yucky, 3kami san, everybody passed me and i could not catch them up.

i will not be able to practise for a while. i am anxious about the opening round on 26th of february.

anyway, do not leave 250f out side on opening round eve.

absent from mx for a month?

It was 7th and 8th when I practised MX last. I have not ridden for 3 weeks. Thanks to my job, I cannot get any day offs for two weeks at the beginning of February. If I miss this weekend, I would not practise for more than a month, then.

This weekend, I have day offs on Saturday and Sunday but I have a meeting at Tokorozawa in the evening. The most convenient place to practise in the morning on Saturday is OFV. I am afraid if I could really ride, though. I asked Shishido san, who went to OFV yesterday, how the course condition was and he said difficult. OFV must be muddy. As for MX408, it seemed dry but I do not think it is close enough to Tokorozawa.

I anyway go to paddock this evening but if the course condition is too bad, I will not ride. As for Sunday, I think it is quite difficult. The meeting tomorrow is the one of my high school Kendo team and usually I have to treat those Senpai till 4 or 5 o。ヌclock in the morning.

It was 7th and 8th when I practised MX last. I have not ridden for 3 weeks. Thanks to my job, I cannot get any day offs for two weeks at the beginning of February. If I miss this weekend, I would not practise for more than a month, then.

This weekend, I have day offs on Saturday and Sunday but I have a meeting at Tokorozawa in the evening. The most convenient place to practise in the morning on Saturday is OFV. I am afraid if I could really ride, though. I asked Shishido san, who went to OFV yesterday, how the course condition was and he said difficult. OFV must be muddy. As for MX408, it seemed dry but I do not think it is close enough to Tokorozawa.

I anyway go to paddock this evening but if the course condition is too bad, I will not ride. As for Sunday, I think it is quite difficult. The meeting tomorrow is the one of my high school Kendo team and usually I have to treat those Senpai till 4 or 5 o。ヌclock in the morning.

Gao Xian（高峡）

Last Sunday, I got a stone rubbing of “A Night Mooring…” as I wrote in former article. I searched for the stele and found it out that it is very likely that the stone rubbing I got was sold as a souvenir at Hanshan Temple. The stone rubbing enriched my knowledge about the poem, the calligraphist, and the history of stele and Hanshan Temple.

With the stone rubbing, I got calligraphy. It was the calligraphy of Amitāyus (अमितायुस in Sanskrit) in Chinese character, 無量寿佛. It should be 無明寿佛 if it were Amitābha(अमिताभ) in Sanskrit. It is rather known as 阿彌陀佛 in East Asia.



When I was showed the calligraphy, at a sight, I liked the blurred lines.

Right after I came back home, I opened the calligraphy to check it. It was easy to know that the calligraphist’s name was 高峡 by his signature and seals but I had trouble reading the rests.

I was quite interested in what kind of person 高峡 is. I was quite surprised that he is a very famous calligraphist from China today. He was once the superintendent of a museum in Xian, Xian Beilin Museum (西安碑林博物館) . Knowing he is a Chinese calligraphist from Xian, I immediately figured it out what I was not sure about those characters in signature. It should be 高峡书於長安　（Gao Xia wrote in Changan）.

Gao Xia has visited Japan many times and quite a few Japanese calligraphists respect him a lot, too. I wonder if I should keep the calligraphy by myself.

A stone rubbing of "A Night Mooring by Maple Bridge(楓橋夜泊)" from Hanshan Temple(寒山寺)

A stone rubbing of “A night mooring by Maple Bridge(風橋夜泊)” from Hanshan Temple(寒山寺) has come to my home.

“A night mooring…” is a classical poem style during the Tang(唐) dynasty called Qiyan jueju（七言絶句 or shortly 七絶/qijue/, that is a jueju in a seven-syllable-long form of poem） written by Zhang ji（長継）. It is actually very famous jueju in Japan. I remember I learned and recited “A night mooring…” when I was in high school.

When I first saw it, I found an explanation with the poem said that the calligraphy for the stele was written in 光緒丙午(bing wu year of Guangxu Emperor). I could tell it was at the end of 19th or beginning of 20th century. When I came home, my share mate was using internet and I asked him to search which year it was. It was 1906, right after the Russo-Japanese War.

I am not familiar with those calligraphists but it was written by a man called Yu Yue(兪木越 (木&越 must be in one character). I am quite sure those who practise calligraphy in East Asia must know him.

Today, I made some research on the stele and jueju on internet. It was so easy to find its translation and pinyin.

月落烏啼霜満天 /Yuè luò wū tí shuāng mān tiān/
While I watch the moon go down, a crow caws through the frost
江楓漁火對愁眠　/Jiāng fēng yú huǒ duì chóu mián/
Under the shadows of maple-trees a fisherman moves with his torch
姑蘇城外寒山寺 /Gūsū chéngwài Hánshān Sì/
And I hear, from beyond Suzhou, from the temple on Cold Mountain
夜半鐘聲到客船 /Yèbàn zhōngshēng dào kèchuán/
Ringing for me, here in my boat, the midnight bell

This is cited from Wikipedia. I do not like some parts of the translation in English but basically I think okay. Most of the translations are very similar. However, I have one part that I do not like those interpretations. Neither Japanese nor English.

I do not like the interpretations at the end of first line, 霜満天. Literary, you can translate it “frost filled the sky.” People are just explaining the part “cold” but I do not think it is enough. I think Zhang ji wanted to express not only it was cold but also the sight in the sky. He expressed stars in the sky as frost, I believe.

Anyway, I enjoy the art.

I also got something else yesterday but I will write about it in another article later.

Baz in Japan

Since I started sharing my house, 3 people have come and 2 have already left. The share mate who stays with me since last September is called Baz.

Baz is from London and his first language is English. He has been in Japan for years and he has got a master’s degree in Japan. Of course he has an English accent when he speaks in Japanese but I actually have found it out that his vocabularies and proficiency in Japanese is much better than ordinary Japanese native speakers.

He writes music and lyrics in English and Japanese. Owing to his proficiency, you must found those songs he writes must be quite heart shaking. He is also a great singer. He never forgets to train his voice every day. Actually, he is not merely keen on music but he tries to make his life by music. He has just released his songs from indies label this month.

I say that when he sings, his voice is quite similar to the one of Rod Stewart. He usually has guitarist as a company and sometimes, other guys with other instruments. It is quite hard for me to explain those songs and melodies of him. Instead, I can put URL of his site below:
http://www.bazinjapan.com/
Actually, he gave me a link of his video clip below.
http://bit.ly/wdOxUO
You can find videos of his songs there. Try, please. You can choose Japanese or English whichever language you like.

I actually like his music. I would like to listen to his songs when I drive. I had better buy his songs. I asked where I could buy his songs and he recommended me to buy thru iTunes which is linked at his site. He gave me URL below.
http://bit.ly/wGMutt
For English speaker, here is better.

Anyway, you should go and check his video clips first and get data at the iTunes.