10)Sunday September 23, 2001 Looking for stone Buddhist images (Fine)

• It was fine on the second day of the three consecutive holidays. It was a good day for jogging due to fine and low-humid autumn weather.
• After a long interval, I decided to look for some stone Buddhist images in the city while jogging with city map.
• This means I had to jog the different course than usual one.
• The city-library's materials for Higashi-kurume's stone Buddhist images mention only the rough locations.
• Therefore, I had to look for carefully with map and thus I jogged around 12 km in the morning for more than 1 hour. As a result, I found two locations where several stone Buddhist images existed, which I had never seen.
  
  
  Six Jizo Jizo (A guardian deity of children)
  
  
• On the other hand, at 5:00 PM, I met Mr. Y at the Higashi-kurume station after 3-month interval and jogged with him for 10 km alongside Kurome River.
• During the jogging, I met more than 30 joggers. This is my first experience in coming across such a numerous joggers there.
• Immediately after the jogging, we went directly to the pub in front of the station. We enjoyed drinking/chattering very much.

9)Sunday September 9, 2001 Jogging in Matsuyama city, Ehime Pref. (Sunny)

• I went to Dogo Spa. in Shikoku Island togeter with my running mates.
• I took on the highway bus at 20:20 from Tokyo station on Friday and arrived in Sakaide city of Kagawa Pref. at 5:30. It took almost 9 hours and I was tired.
• On Saturday, I climbed Mt. Ishizuchi (1,981m) which is the highest mountain in the Shikoku Island, then went to Dogo Spa. and took a hot bath there and relaxed.
• On Sunday morning, I jogged in the Matsuyama city.
• It was fine and hot. I went to Matsuyama Castle located on the hill (Approx. 4 km from the lodge.). You can use lift there, but I walked up to the top of the hill. It took much time to reach the castle. I thought that it was hard for the Samurai in Edo era to walk up every morning to reach there!
• The view from the top of the castle was marvelous. I could see Mt. Ishizuchi far away.
• The total running distance was only 10km, however, I sweated so much. No one except our 3 members was running!
• Of course, we went to hot spring "Bochan-no-yu" after running.
  
  
  Matsuyama Castle Matsuyama City from Castle
  
  Mt. Ishizuchi from Castle

8)Sunday August 26, 2001 Jogging with E-mail Mate (Cloudy)

• Mr. O who once visited my website just moved to Niiza city and asked me if I could run with him via E-mail.
• We met therefore at 16:00 on the bridge of Kurome River located just in the border between Higashi-kurume city and Niiza city.
• Mr. O is slim and tall and in early forties. He says he belongs to the running club of Itabashi-Ku, Tokyo. He usually joins Ekiden races rather than marathon races.
• Before he moving to Niiza city, he lived in Ikebukuro area. He used to run back to his home from his working place (Akasaka-Mitsuke) for 10 km. (How wonderful it is!)
• Our destination was Wako-city Forest Park.
• It was so humid and hot, thus I was wet to the skin by sweat when I reached the park.
• After arriving in the park, Mr. O still started to run on the 1 km-course there, but I couldn't.
• While returning from the park, Mr. O gradually speeded up.
• It was a little bit hard for me to catch up with him, but I tried my best to run parallel with him.
• Finally, we came to a little park very close to the starting point.
• We had a very small party with a canned beer bought via vending machine.
• Anyway, it's always very nice to drink a beer with friend after sweating a lot.
• Dear Mr. O, let's drink at pub next time after running!
• I usually do not run in the evening. However, this time, I noticed more people running in the evening.

7)Monday August 20, 2001 Jogging in Istanbul, Turkey (Cloudy)

• I had a chance to go to Istanbul, Turkey owing to business trip from August 19 to August 25, 2001.
• The hotel was located just 2 km away form the airport. I could see Marmara Sea (Connected to Black Sea via the Bosporus) from the room.
• There was a 4-km walking/jogging course on shore. After stopping heavy shower in the morning, I started to jog. The strong wind blew and the waves were high. To my regret, the sea water was not so clean. It was not so hot as I expected.
• I met only a few people while jogging. No joggers! I joggerd almost 8 km for 50 minutes and I could refresh.
  
  
  Marmara Sea from Hotel Jogging Course
  
  Plane landing to Istanbul Airport (Photos taken on Aug. 24, 2001)
  
  
• I also jogged in the morning of AUGUST 24, 2001 (FRIDAY), the last day of Istanbul.
• It was fine and I started to jog at 7:00 AM. This time, I met a lot of walkers/joggers on the same course.
• No wind and it was a little bit hot. I sweated so much.

6)Wednesday August 15, 2001 Kibi Cycling Road (Cloudy occasionally sunny)

• I went back to my home country, Okayama City, from August 11 to 15, 2001.
• As usual, I jogged to Kokubunji-Temple once (20 km) and to Kibitsu-Shrine twice (10 km each) during the period. I jogged totally 40 km.
• Kibi Cycling Road runs in the race fields as you can see from the fotos. The scenery has never changed so far. I always feel relieved when I see these sceneries.
• I happened to see a weasel while jogging. (A brown small object in the middle of the foto)
• It had been very hot and I sweated so much.
  
  
  Rice Field Kibi Cycle Road Weasel
  
  

5)Sunday August 5, 2001Water lilies of Shakujii Park (Cloudy)

• In the train of the Seibu Line, I saw the advertisement that the water lilies of Shakujii Park is now at best and thus I decided to jog to see them.
• It was cloudy in the morning and cool. I left home at 7:30 AM and arrived in the park at 8:30 AM.
• Then I walked around the Sanpouji Lake. I could see both white and red flowers of water lilies were in full bloom on the lake.
• However, they were far away from the shore and the flowers were small. Therefore, I found that it was very difficult to take good photos with compact camera. You should take camera with tele-photo lens.
• As to wild animals in this season, you can see only spotbill ducks, carp and turtles there.
  
  
  Water Lily (White) Water Lily (Red)
  
  

4)Friday August 3, 2001 Mid-night jogging in the moonlight (Fine)

• Unfortunately, I will have an assignment on Saturday and thus I will not be able to jog tomorrow. Therefore, I have decided to run on Friday night alongside Ochiai/Kurome Rivers.
• I left home at 9:00 PM, but it was still hot and humid.
• However, it was the 13th moon. The almost full moon was shining and it was bright and good for running.
• It breezed sometimes, but I was gradually sweating and finally drenched in a sweat.
• It was Friday night and I only met one gal jogger! I am sure that almost all joggers enjoy drinking at pub or beer-hall!
• I saw several people gathering alongside Kurome River where badgers live. I could see one young badger there.
• I ran 10 km in the moonlight. I prefer to run early in the morning rather than at night in hot season.

3)Tuseday July 24, 2001 Kurome River & Badger (Fine)

• This year, the rainy season ended earlier than expected (on July 11, 2001). and since then, the hot weather continues.
• Thus I could not sleep well without drinking beer or something. Also I wake up early in every morning.
• Owing to hot temperature, I waked up at 4:30 AM this morning. I had hardly run on weekday in early morning. However, somehow, I decided to run this morning and left home at 5:00 AM.
• I planned to run alongside Kurome/Ochiai Rivers and found a lot of people were walking in the early weekday morning.
• I was also surprised that I met several joggers during the jogging, which was more than I expected. I wondere if they run every morning.
• When I came across the Monzen Bridge (1-chome, Hikawadai, Higashi-kurume city), I noticed that a lot of people were standing and looking at something! I stopped there to find out what was that. I saw that two young badgers were eating bread given by passers-by in the bush of Kurome River.
• This is the palce where parent bagers reared children last year. However, I heared that children had been washed away by the flood . Nevertheless the parents seem to survive and try to rear again there.
• The yong baderes have already considerably grown up. I wonder where they will go and live when they become adult. (It seems to be some habitats of badgers in the city.)
• To my regret, I did not take a digital camera and thus I could not take photos of badgers. From now on, I will take the camera every time as much as possible.
• Although I only jogged 10 km this morning, I sweated too much.

2)Sunday July 8, 2001 Kurome River Walkway (Cloudy)

• I had a plan to get up at 4:00 AM. However, I overslept since it was a little bit cool and I forgot to set the wake-up clock. Thus I waked up at 5:00 AM!
• I hurried up to start and left home around 5:30 AM.
• I ran alongside Ochiai/Kurome Rivers downstream. A lot of people were walking around 6:00 AM.
• In July, the walkway alongside Kurome River was improved in Niiza city.
• Two under-the-bridge walkway were added in the vicinity of the Kanetsu Highway. From now on, the runners/walkers do not need to cross the heavy traffic roads.
  
  
  Under Horinouchi Bridge Plate Drawing
  
  
• The students' drawings were displayed on the wall of the walkway.
  
  
  Drawing Under Big Bridge Car-stop
  
  
• I ran to Ohizumi Central park today. The running distance was approx. 20 km. The total running distance of this week end was approx. 50 km.

1)Saturday July 7, 2001 Karabori River (Cloudy)

• This year, the interruption of the rainy season continues. Therefore, the hot day and night continue, resulting in my unsatisfactory sleep.
• Lately, the daily weather forecast changes one after another. According to the forecast in the Friday morning, it would be rainy all day in Saturday. So I expected to run in the cool rain on Saturday. However, in the Friday evening, it changed to "Cloudy"!
• It was also humid and hot at Friday night and thus I could not sleep well. I waked up at 4:00 AM.
• Since the weather forecast was not right, I decided to run along side Karabori/Yanase Rivers as I did a few weeks ago. (The total distance is 30 km.)
• I left home at 4:30 AM. However, I was dim due to lack of sleep and could not speed up.
• After passing 10 km, I finally waked up.
• At last, I reached the entrance of the walkway of Karabori River from Tamako-Lake Cycling Road.
• There are two stone monuments there. "Batoh-Kannon Monument & Repose Monument for Stone Bridge" (Batoh-Kannon is an image of Kannon which has a human body with the head of a horse. Repose Monument for Stone Bridge is a monument erected for the repose of a bridge's soul.) In the old time, the man and horse might cross this stone bridge. The bridge's name is "Batoh-Bridge".
  Monuments Batoh-Kannon Bridge
  
  
• Owing to lack of rain, the volume of water of Karabori River was small.
• I came back home at almost 8:00 AM since I ran at a slow pace today. Anyway, we need more rain!