An afternoon ride in the heat!

Man it was hot today. Had to go to work to cut the school grounds with the kids. After that we played some Ringette, which they called (Floor hockey). It was fun the kids were pretty good actually. On the way home I knew I wanted to get on the bike. Called Mitch but he was too busy so called Steve hoping that his kids sports day would be finished. So at 3:30 pm we got on the bikes. Went up Minagata again and did our favourite course. We do it too much but its so long and today the conditions were prefect! Steve with Some northern Nagano Mountains.
The View was nice so we went to the top before our ride. Looking at Goryu with some nice sun rays.

After having a great ride down Minagata we decided to try and find the elusive Goryu Trail. Here is the start it was a wild ride super technical and really fast. One brake miss and you will go mach speed.

Sorry I forgot my camera so I used my cell phone.

Ms Newmarch and Ms Kowal

My good buddy Kyles wife Lynn. She still looks great pretty much the way I remember her when she was only 19 or 20. Reysa and Keagan their beautiful kids.
Hannah and ryesa man they were/are good playmates.

My work place

My work place has some great views. Today we had an Art day and the kids all went outside and drew pictures. My job was to sit there and make sure that no one came and hurt the kids. Had a good time just sitting on my arse for 3 hours watching them paint and laugh. The view of the local mountains isnt bad either. Mount Jonan didnt want to pop out of the clouds but it was still nice.
Yuji on of the best baseball players at school drwing a tree and laughing about it for 3 hours.

Every Gaijin in Town

Aoikiko Lake it cleared enough to get this shot, went for a short swim after this.

What a day! Went riding with Steve from 6am to 8am up and down Minagata. Great ride almost prefect course. Then came back and chilled with my 2 girls before they went back to Kyoto.
After dropping off the girls I was bored so I decided to go for ride number 2. I rode up and over Sanosaka and over to the downhill course at Aoikiko. Met Karey and Koji there and proceeded to show them how bad my MTBing skills were. Got a little sun shower and then we got a cool rainbow off the lake.


This is me at near the top of sanosaka after the gravel section
After the Downhill I wanted to take a swim. The weather wont be nice for much longer so I jumped in. still about 25 degrees so nice temps. On the way home I did Bennett's old trail from the side top of Sanosaka. Didn't ride well but after 50ks of biking Im not surprised. On the way home I saw/met Troy, Sakiko, Albert and fam twice Stewart and family twice. I saw a good portion of gaijin in town!

A great day

Good look Babe in Kyoto!

6 am start with a 40 plus minute climb

Another ride with Steve the man I envy for retiring so early in life. He had kid duty fro 8am so we went out for a fast climb to slick downhill ride. I was beat at the top of the course man was that a climb! The sweat was pouring off my cap! We didn't have time so a phone call to get Hiro to cover Steve's kid duties in case we were late and off we rode. The first picture is of Steve dropping into the downhill course. We choose this one to link up with the old cross-country course and get a 25 minute ride.
Steve flying into the meadows 90% finished the run
The top of the meadows it was slick!

Got a nice shot from the old power line that was or wasn't built!
The view from the top before the meadows! You can see the shoulder of Goryu there and the rice paddies which will be harvested in about month. I gotta get me some fresh koshi hikari rice off of the farmers!

Great ride as always I was the slowest but Ill never give up. The hard tail is a great climbing bike but it isn't the same on the Downhill. Lots of sliding and the mechanical disk brakes aren't as nice as the hydraulic ones that are on my Downhill bike. Same time tomorrow I hope if we don't get too drunk.

BBQ and morning Coffee

After a good ride and 5 hours painting it was time to head to the community BBQ. With the manager of spicys chefing up a feast of pretty much anything we all feasted like pigs. With draft Ichiban beer to wash things down it was a good time. Got to chat with many neighbours which is good of course too, but man do they get drunk!

After an early bed time I woke up at 6 with a good view of Happo. Decided to drink my coffee and enjoy the mild morning before driving down the road to teach for the day.

Its going to be hard driving down to teach in the middle of winter but thems the breaks. At least I have 50 days of skiing to look forward to.After coming home Hannah was a little restless so I thought id get out with here and play. We are just so busy and she is a bit stressed with nobody to play with. We gave her a 30 minute bath. The girl loves baths, she loves the water. Hannah scares me cause she loves the water too much. We had a fun time playing in the bath making funny faces.

explore explore- with kKen and Steve

Paint and Biking that was the name of the weekend. Steve the keen biker that he is was ready to go on 2 early rides. 2 early rides that saw me brake chains 2 days in a row.
The first day we would head into the Iwatake woods. Just as we were about to go in Ken-Chan and old student showed up. Showed Ken the Trails and he was stoked. Ken is one of the best skiers in Hakuba and also just an all round good kid.


After that Steve ad i Hit up the Tsugaike to Iwatake Trail. The access is to hard to fine but its a great trail. For about 100 meters there are steps. Freaking hard riding on a hard tail. That said I suck at biking.
Sunday saw us head to Sanosaka to hit the improved Downhill course there. First had to the wife to bring another bike as I snapped chain number 2 for the weekend. Steve looking into the course saying fukc that is steep.
get to
Me crossing the bridge on the way back. A good weekend ride for sure.
Met Ken-chan at our local area BBQ and he was so happy to ride with us. Ken is a great kid he even brougth a beer home from the BBq for his old man!. Now that is a good boy.

Back to painting!!!!!!