do you mean the CBR250R? The CBR250 is no longer in production. I have a neighbour with a CBR250R and he loves it, - it has a full licence so could choose a larger bike.
Leather v textile,- some of the textile suits are really good these day, but good stuff does not come cheap, - leathers wise personally I would not go for Alpine Stars or Dianese these are more fashion over quality, - good brands that I have experience with are Furygan and Revitt (textile). I would not go cheap on gloves or boots, - if you are worried about cost then look at Hein Gericke stuff.... Helmets? Try before you buy and spend as much as you can afford. Oh and do not forget ear plugs.
32 years of riding experience, have also worked in the industry and done a lot of racing photography and magazine testing of bikes. To be honest I really do not like Japanese bikes, but for starting out they are great. As you might guess from my screen name and avatar the greatest bike ever made and that I did once own is the Ducati 916, - owned quite a few Ducati's, had a BMW R1200GS, and even a Harley! Early days was Jap stuff, - FZR1000, GPX750 (went round Europe on that), GPZ1100B2 (first fuel injected bike), GSX1100 Katana, CB750, RD250LC.
My YouTube channel with plenty of my Joe's videos dating from 2009 inc his first Hammersmith Odeon ones:
http://www.youtube.com/ian916fun