Trip to The States #2

We came here in Orlando, staying at Chris's home.

Trip to The States #1

We arrived in the States!! A wonderful trip has started. :-)

My Travel Agency Bankrupts

I have been very busy preparing for coming trip to the U.S. We leave Japan March 26th and come back April 7th.

In the midst of these busy days, a terrible thing happened to me.
My travel agency bankrupted last Monday and all workers in the office disappeared.
The office has been locked since then and the telephone line has been always busy.

I had to give up our air tickets to the States. They cost almost $4,000.
I found the bankruptcy more than one week before our departure day, so I could buy air tickets again for $5,000. The $4,000 will not come back to me, sigh.

I found on the web that some customers of the agent went to Narita airport and found that all airlines’ reservations were cancelled because the travel agent had not paid the money.

The $4,000 is heavy on me but I’m lucky I don’t have to give up the trip.
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New Video: Tokyo 2009

I made a video, “Tokyo 2009” and uploaded it on YouTube site yesterday morning. After that, I took part in Mohka tennis tournament with my colleague Mr. Ikeda. Then, I went to T-PAL tennis team party at night.
It was a very hectic day yesterday.

I embedded a “Tokyo 2009” link on this blog. I’m happy if you watch the video.

World Baseball Classic: Japan vs. Korea

I took a day off from work today and went to Tochigi Drivers’ License Office for having it issued an international driver’s permit.

The office is open on weekday only, so it’s a good excuse for me to take a day off.
After finishing the chore, I took a rest at home and enjoyed watching WBC (World Baseball Classic) Japan vs. Korea game on TV with my younger daughter Rina.

For we rarely watch baseball games at home, Rina doesn’t know the ball game rules at all.
I explained the rules every time their play proceeds.

Comparing tennis and Rina’s favorite long distance running, I realized again that the rules of the ball game are really complicated.

Ofuda: Paper Having Holy or Magical Spells

My mother living in western Japan Shimane prefecture sent us Ofuda last week.
She sends Ofuda every year in this season.

Ofda is a strip of paper or a piece of wood which has been blessed and sanctified by a Japanese Shinto priest or a Buddhist monk.

It's said that Ofuda is to bring the bearer good luck or protection against those with evil.

My mother, my brother and my sister living in Shimane are rather religious comparing with me.

The power of Ofuda expires at the end of the year so people must buy new ones for the New Year.
This custom has lasted over several hundred years in Japan, I guess, and is a very clever custom for sellers.

They are usually sold at shinto shrines or buddhist temples, recently they are sold on the web, too.
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A Tennis Court on the Top of a Building

I like playing tennis very much. The place where I play tennis is a little bit strange to people living in a foreign country.

Where is it? I play tennis on the top of a building. It’s not unusual in Japan that tennis courts are on the top of a building. When I lived in Tokyo I also did in the same type of a tennis court.

For it was a very sunny clear day yesterday, I carried my camera with me and took several pictures of the scenery from the tennis court. Mountains in Nikko area were beautifully capped with snow.


Scenery from the tennis court

Members of my tennis club are posing.

Saint Valentine's Day

This year's Saint Valentine's Day fell yesterday on Saturday this year.
Customary, female office workers give chocolates to their colleagues in Japan, but I saw a few workers giving out chocolates in my office on Friday, one day before Valentine's Day.

I guess this year’s sales amount of chocolates decreased a lot due to both an economic downturn and that it’s on Saturday.

My wife Kiyono made a strawberry chocolate cake for me, for herself and for our daughters.

Since younger daughter Rina went to track and field club camp to Ibaraki prefecture yesterday, we three (Kiyono, Emi and I) ate it together.

Never mind, we left a part of it for Rina. It was really delicious.

Emi and Rina are baking chocolate cookies at kitchen now. They are planning to give them to their friends tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Emi goes to girls’ high school, so she does not have boy friends whom she gives them to.














Rina goes to coeducational junior high school.
She is confident to receive lots of returns from her boy friends.
It’s good investment for Rina. lol.

My Birthday

My wife, Kiyono bought a cake to celebrate my 50th birthday on February 6th. I was very happy to have had the wonderful day with my family members. I had a piece of the cake and drunk several cans of beer.

I think a birthday brings different feelings to each generation, teenagers, twenties, thirties …
I think that the older one grows, the more one’s feeling becomes complicated.

I’m planning to give a big birthday present to me and to my family: an oversea trip in this coming March.
I was so busy last year on business that I couldn’t travel abroad.
I haven’t decided the destination yet but I'm quite excited to think of it.

Setsubun or The Day Between Two Seasons

Setsubun literally means "seasonal division" or "the day between two seasons."

But usually the term refers to the spring Setsubun, celebrated yearly on February 3 or 4 as a part of the Spring Festival.

Setsubun was accompanied by a special ritual to cleanse away all the evil and drive away disease-bringing evil spirits for the year to come.

This special ritual is called mamemaki.
Mamemaki is usually performed by the male who was born on the corresponding animal year on the Chinese zodiac, or the male head of the household.

Roasted soybeans are thrown either out the door or at a member of the family wearing an Oni (demon or ogre) mask, while the throwers chant "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!"
The literal meaning of the words is like "Demons out! Luck in!"

The beans are thought to symbolically purify the home by driving away the evil spirits that bring misfortune and bad health with them.

Then, as a part of bringing luck in, we customary eat the same number of soybeans as our age.

Tochigi Prefectural Ekiden Road Race

Rina, my younger daughter took part in Tochigi prefectural Ekiden road race as a runner today. She ran over 3.08 km course, about 2 miles in 10 minutes 43 seconds.

Ekiden: it usually referred to as a marathon relay, is a long-distance relay road race.

Twenty-seven teams consisting ten runners each (junior high, high school, college students and workers both men and women) ran over 60 km, about 38 miles, from Utsunmiya city to Tochigi city, then came back from there to Utsunomiya city.

Utsunmiya city has two Ekiden teams. Utsunomiya-A team is stronger than Utsunomiya-B team. Rina always becomes a runner-up in municipal races, so she became a member of B team.

Her team finished the race 20th and Utsunomiya-A team finished the race 5th. Rina and spectators including my wife and mother-in-law really enjoyed the race.

New Year’s Holidays

Buildings in Shinjuku.

I went to the condominium of my parents-in-law with my family during the New Year’s holidays.

We did shopping on January 1st in Odaiba Tokyo Bay area. My wife and my daughters like buying New Year’s lucky bags; they are called Fukubukuro in Japan.
Shop owners make Fukubukuro filled with random contents and sell them for a substantial discount. People buy bags without knowing the exact contents.

I also went to Shinjyuku where the office of Tokyo metropolitan government is located. I like walking around Shinjyuku and taking pictures of high rise buildings.

Emi and Rina received Otoshidama or money in a small envelop from my brother-in-law. Japanese people have a custom of giving money to children. They were excited about thinking of what they wanted to buy.

From the Left: Emi, brother-in-law Masashi and Rina.

Emi and Rina are showing an enelop of Otoshidama.

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Happy Birthday To Rina!

Rina and Emi are posing before noodle soup.
Rina brought back lots of presents.
Rina, my younger daughter had a birthday on January 8th. She has become fourteen years old. I asked her if there was something special she wanted as a birthday present. But, so far, she hasn’t told me any. So, I haven’t bought her birthday present yet but just promised to buy one when she decides.

On the contrary, Emi, elder daughter never misses to ask me a present a few weeks before her birthday. Even Emi and Rina have grown up in the same family, their personalities are quite different.

Few days ago, Rina brought back lots of birthday presents from her school. She told me that the presents were from her classmates or friends of the same track and field club. She was very pleased to have gotten so much.

We went to a noodle soup shop “Kyushu Ichiban” yesterday to celebrate both her birthday and the silver medal she had gotten at Utsunomiya Marathon last year. I think that “Kyushu Ichiban” is one of the best noodle shops in Utsunomiya. The taste of the white soup is really excellent.
If you have chance to visit Utsunomiya, never miss eating at “Kyushu Ichiban.”
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Hakone Ekiden Road Race

I went to Tokyo to watch Hakone Ekiden, a long-distance relay or a road race, with my daughter Rina and mother-in-law Noriko yesterday and the day before yesterday.

Hakone Ekiden is one of the most popular Ekiden in Japan, which features teams of students from various Japanese universities.

Rina is a great fun of a long-distance road race and also a member of Utsunomiya municipal Ekiden team.

She was so excited to watch the race that even ran with the ekiden runners. I thought that it was good for her to feel the first class runners' running speed by herself.

We all enjoyed watching the live race very much.

I wish all visitors of this blog a happy new year.

Can You Find Any Difference in Those Pictures?

A picture taken on Dec. 23rd, 2008 follows,
A picture taken on Dec. 10th, 2007 follows,

I’ve been making it a rule to take pictures of my family in the end of every year.
I show you two pictures; one was taken a year ago and another was a week ago.

Do you find a big difference or find no difference?

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Tennis Tournament in Igashira Park

From the left: It's me, Ms Tajima, Hiroto and Ms. Kaneda.

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Even though the result turned out to be regretful to me, I enjoyed playing tennis in the tennis tournament held in Igashira Park today.

It became rather warm and gentle day comparing to that of a year ago.
I took part in the same tournament exactly one year ago with Ms. Tajima. We could beat some teams but could not win the tournament again.

The tournaments were divided into three classes: there were an upper level class, a middle level class and a beginners’ level class.
Participants can decide their appropriate class by themselves according to the unwritten classification.
Beginners or players older than forty years old could participate in the beginners’ level class.

We participated in the beginners’ level class … but …

Anyway, I have to thank God for being able to have friends with whom I play tennis and for that I have been in the perfect physical condition, no pain at all in any part of my body, since a few months ago.

Thanks everyone, Ms. Tajima, Ms. Kaneda, Mr. Kosuge, Ms. Itoh, high school boy Hiroto and staff who ran the tournaments for sharing the wonderful day with me.
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Rainy Days in December

Due to the cold rain, the tennis tournament that I planned to participate was canceled today. It was put off till next Sunday. I stayed home and relaxed all day long.
Only two weeks are left in this year.
Time really flies.

Bunny rabbit Nobi lives with us for more than two years. She doesn’t seem to become bigger this year. On the contrary, Emi and Rina have grown up amazingly.

I have to prepare Happy New Year greeting cards within two weeks and post them before the end of this year.

I make them with family pictures every year. It’s a tough but fun job to select the best pictures among hundreds of them that I took this year.

Modified Pictures

Since the 9th grade up to my graduation of college, I was a member of photography club. I used to take hundreds of pictures within a week, develop and print them by myself.

It really took long time to make satisfactory pictures. I sometimes spent a whole night to make a few nice pictures

But everything has changed regarding to the way of photography these days. In my case, I quit taking pictures using films almost five years ago.

Thanks to the software technology, changing colors, contrast and gradation have become quite easy work.

I modified two pictures I took last month spending only few minutes.

I’m satisfied with the results very much.

Don’t you think so?

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Party with My Colleagues

I was a member of the project to develop a new semiconductor production instrument at my company. The project was successfully completed in the beginning of this month.

We had a party to celebrate the success of our project last week.

This project took less than two years. The length of the development term was exceptionally short comparing other same kind of projects in our division.

We sometimes had very tough days to clear troubles, solve problems and accomplish the specification of the instrument.

We forgot every painful day and enjoyed the party together veeeeeery much.

Happy Birthday, Emi!

Emi, my elder daughter, had her sixteenth birthday last week. She is already taller and heavier than my wife. She has grown up amazingly over last one or two years.

Emi is a member of a drama club of her high school. I guess that most of her close friends are her club members. She seemed to have gotten many emails from them celebrating her birthday.

We didn’t have her birthday party, but I bought a birthday present to her. She has been asking me a new mp3 music player with larger memory size. I went to Yodobashi discount shop and bought one for her. Sony NW-S638F is the one I bought her.

NW-S638F is very cool and its various functions in a small body surprised me very much. Emi was jubilant with the present and I was happy to have seen her smile.

***NW-S638F Spec.***
Music : MP3, WMA, ATRAC, PCM, AAC, HE-AAC music formats
Video : MPEG-4, H.264 AVC, WMV9 video formats
Picture : JPEG image files
Built-in FM radio
8GB of flash memory
2-inch LCD color screen