2012.7.30

It was fine and hot from the morning.
I went to visit the hotel to pick up the things I asked them to keep.  It was very convenient to have stayed at that hotel  in Shinjuku (新宿) so that it is very close to my office.
After about 10 days, there were many things to do at the office,.  Furthermore I am going to take a day off tomorrow, there were many things to do within the month.

2012.7.29

I went to the Narita Airport to see the delegation off.  It was so crowded.  Now is the time of summer vacation.  Therefore so many people go to somewhere for the vacation.The flight was about 40 minutes late.
I ate lunch with a colleague at a Chinese restaurant.  The picture of the menu was different from the one I got.
I was surprised to see one of the students who became a helper at home today.

2012.7.28

The 30th London Olympic Games had just begun.
Before the opening ceremony, there were already some soccer games or so.
I like to see the Olympic Games and have been to see something at Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Nagano 1998, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002, and Athene 2004.
I wanted to go to London this summer but I did not arrange because my friend in London said it is very difficult to get the ticket even living in London.

There was a big fireworks festival in Japan.  The venue is Sumida river (隅田川：umida gawa).  Since I am in Shinjuku (新宿), I hoped to see it too, but I was very busy at night and could not see them.
It was a very hot day and I got sun tan.

2012.7.27

Today is doyo no ushi no hi (土用の丑の日).  In Japanese calender 12 is one cycle.  Have you ever heard jyunishi (十二支), the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac?  There are 12 animals, that is ne (子) for rat, ushi (丑) for ox,  tora (寅) for tiger, u (卯) for rabbit, tatsu (辰) for dragon, mi (巳) for snake, uma (馬) for horse, hitsuji (羊) for sheep, saru (申) for monkey, tori (酉) for cock, inu (戌) for dog, and i (亥) for wildbore. 
This cycle continues to turn.  This is the year of dragon. Each day falls on something.  And today is the day of ox.
Doyo (土用) is the period of 18 days before the first day of each season such as risshun (立春)
 for spring, rikka (立夏) for summer, risshu(立秋) for autumn, and ritto (立冬) for winter.  However we usually mean the 18 days before risshu (立秋).
On the day of ox of the summer doyo, I mean on doyo no ushi no hi, we Japanese usually eat unagi (うなぎ), eels.
But this year it seems they are very expensive and some restaurant decided not to provide.

2012.7.26

It was very hot today.
It seems the rainy season was over all of Japan now. 

Today I ate at three different restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  All places were buffet style one.  I went to 6 buffet restaurants during the past 5 days....  Tomorrow I will go to another one which I like very much. 

2012.7.25

It was a hot day. 
I passed near the Saitama Prefecture Governmental Office.  They had green curtains on the windows for saving energy.  And the buildings were earthquake-proof construction.  They say it became just before the 3.11 last year.
I listened to 2 lectures in the morning and went to see the Water Discharge Tunnel on the Outskirts of The Metropolitan Area in the afternoon. It is the large underground Discharge Channels providing safety and reassurance for people living in the Metropolitan Area.  They have 3 tours per day and during summer vacation it is full.  You need to make a reservation to see the underground channels but it is free of charge and worth visiting.  I did not know there are such facilities.  I recommend you to visit there if you have a chance.

2012.7.24

There is a big news.  Ichiro (イチロー) of the Seattle Mariners will move to the NY Yankees after 11 years or so.  I have seen his games when I went to Seattle.

Now I am staying at the Japanese Style Hotel in Omiya (大宮) where opened in 1888.  I think Japanese dinner is very nice because there are so many variety of different types of cooking.  They look very beautiful with very beautiful containers.  Tonight I tried the game called tosenkyo (投扇興) which started becoming popular around 1773.  It is a game to throw the fan to the target called butterfly on the small table.  At first it was rather difficult, but I enjoyed.

2012.7.23

July 23 is known as fumi no hi (ふみの日), Day of Letter.  July is called fumi zuki (文月), month of letter and 23 is possible to read fu (2) mi (3), that means letter.  Day of letter of the  month of letter.  On this day the Japan Post issues special memorial stamps of two different unit price every year.  One is yen 50 for postcard, and the other is yen 80 for letter.
These days we often use emails and seldom write letters.
However receiving letters makes me happy, so I would like to write letters as much as possible.
Since my best friend's birthday is in this week, I have just written the card.

2012.7.22

It was slightly raining today.
It' s Sunday, but I had the program starting today till next Sunday, I came to Shinjuku (新宿) as usual.
I have been very busy from the morning till late in the evening.
Today is the last day for Nagoya grand sumo wrestling tournament (名古屋場所：nagoya basho).  There were two wrestlers who have won for 14 days straight.  They are Yokozuna Hakuho (横綱白鵬) and Ozeki Harumafuji (大関日馬富士).  They say it's been 5 times since this kind of match was held and it's been 29 years since the last time.  After all Ozeki Harumafuji won and became a champion again. He won in Nagoya last year too.  Congratulations!
Both Hakuho and Harumafuji are from Mongolia.
I hope Japanese wrestlers will be more active.

2012.7.21

It was cool again.
I went to grocery shopping in the afternoon. 
I got three parcels which I ordered the other day. Mail order is tsushin hanbai (通信販売) in Japanese. It is very convenient for me to buy through mail order, and I often use it. How about you?

2012.7.20

It was cloudy in the morning, then slightly raining at lunch time. I went out for lunch with 4 colleagues to the sushi restaurant. It was very crowded and we had to wait for a while. But it was worth waiting because we were us ushered to the small comfortable room with  horigotatsu (堀ごたつ) where we could sit like on the chair.

2012.7.19

It was fine and hot in the daytime, but it became cool outside at night.  Inside the office it was hot, though.
Usually I buy lunch on my way to the office and eat it in the meeting room, but today I did not buy and went out to buy at lunch time.  I bought Chinese Green noodle at Chinese stand and yoghurt at the convenience store.  It was rather difficult to eat because there were many ingredients in a bowl, so it was hard to mix with soup. It would be more delicious if it is cold.

2012.7.18

They say the rainy season of Kanto area was over, but it rained again in the evening.  The new typhoon is also approaching, and Kyushu area may have lots of rain again.

Yesterday there was an announcement of 147th Akutagawa Prize (芥川賞：akutagawa sho) and Naoki Prize (直木賞：naoki sho).  The former was given to Ms. Maki Kashimada (鹿島田真希) by Meido meguri (冥土めぐり： Rounding the other world).  The latter was given to Ms. Mizuki Tsujimura (辻村深月) by Kagi no nai yume wo miru (鍵のない夢を見る：Seeing the dream without key).  Both are in their 30s.  Congratulations!

2012.7.17

Early in the morning I got a call from the neighbor.  She told me about the duty of the festival in September.  After the talk she said she bought 3 of my books and gave one of them to my primary / junior high school classmate too.  She said it is well-written and that she enjoyed reading.  I am glad to hear that.
It was another hot day today.

In the morning news I was surprised to know that 105 years old man went to travel around the world.  He has visited about 40 countries.  He is still active and gives lectures to encourage people.

2012.7.16

Today is a national holiday called umi no hi (海の日), Marine Day.  It is the last day of 3-day weekend.  It was fine but windy.  It became moshobi (猛暑日), again.
I went to see two Japanese movies which recently released.  One is not crowded but the other was almost full.  As you can imagine, the latter was a good movie.  Its title is Brave Hearts Umizaru （海猿）3.  It is a series of life saving coastal guards stories. I like the series very much.
It is the time to change the new films, maybe because of the summer vacation.  For some movies last Friday was the last day for showing.  Though I had an invitation ticket for a movie,  I missed seeing it. There were some movies I wanted to see but missed too. I hope to see everything I want to see in the future.

2012.7.15

It was windy and very hot.  More than 440 places recorded more than 30 degrees centigrade. The days over 35 degrees centigrade is called moshobi (猛暑日), heat wave day. It was the first moshobi this summer.
I went grocery shopping.  Though I bought ice cream, it was melted before coming back home.

2012.7.14

It was windy and very hot.  It became the hottest day in this summer. 
In Kyushu area it is raining very heavily.  And the banks collapsed in some places, the rivers were flooded, and there happened landslide disasters. People are evacuated. Some are injured and even killed.

Today is the first day of the three-day weekend.  I looked through old albums.

2012.7.13

I had lunch with colleagues.  One of them will leave the office at the end of this month.  She taught me everything when I joined this organization.
After work I went to see my old friends from Expo '92 at a Spanish restaurant in Nakameguro (中目黒).  I was lucky to visit a place to have a meeting before that.  Otherwise I had to overwork at the office till late....
There were 7 members.  One of them was from the USA therefore we got together.  She will return next week.  It's been about 10 years since I saw her last.  We enjoyed talking, eating, and drinking. It's nice to have good friends.

2012.7.12

Finally the gold-banded lilies (ヤマユリ:　yamayuri) started blooming in my back cliff.  Every year I am looking forward to seeing them bloom. This year it seems rather late.  Yamayuri (山百合), literally means mountain lily,  is a flower of Kanagawa (神奈川) Prefecture.

There were earthquakes this afternoon.   And heavy rain is keep falling in Kyushu (九州) area.

2012.7.11

On May 22 this year the tallest tower in Japan, The Tokyo Sky Tree opened.  Until yesterday only those who had advanced ticket could enter.  From today day ticket is available.  It costs yen 2,000.  Advanced ticket costs yen 2,500.  There will be a big fireworks festival on July 28, and its ticket costs yen 4,000 and it seems they are all sold out.
I hope to visit there someday.

2012.7.10

It's been already 10 days since July started.  One third of the month was over.  How fast time flies!

First 10 days called shojun (初旬) or jyojun (上旬), next 10 days is chujun (中旬), and the last 10 days is gejun (下旬) in Japanese.
Sho (初) means first, jyo (上) means upper, chu (中) means middle, and ge (下) means under or below.

2012.7.9

It was very hot today.
At the office I happened to see a colleague whom I have not seen for a long time.  And when I was walking down the stairs after work, I happened to see another colleague who worked with us until the end of last year.  It is nice to see old friends.

2012.7.8

It's been two months since my book was published. I do not know how many people bought and read it.  But those who I gave a book and those who bought said it was interesting and they felt like going to Florida.  I am glad to hear the comments.
Now the finals of men's Wimbledon 2012 is played between Federer, 30 years old and Murray, 25 years old. This will be a historical match even if either of them won.

2012.7.7

Today is shosho (小暑), one of nijyushisekki (二十四節季), the 24 solar terms.  The last one was geshi (夏至) on June 21 and the next one is taisho (大暑) on July 22.
Shosho (小暑) literally means small heat.  Taisho (大暑) literally means big heat.
It was hot in the afternoon.
July 7 is known as tanabata (七夕), the seventh evening.  It is a star festival.  Two stars Vega and Altair are supposed to meet once a year across the Milky Way. In Japan there are festivals to decorate the bamboo trees with many oblong cards of wishes.  What are your wishes?

2012.7.6

It was fine this morning, but when I got out of the office at night, it was raining, and I remembered we are still in the rainy season.
In Kyushu area it rains heavily these days. So there are two warnings at the weather forecast. Heavy rain and flood.
Heavy rain is ooame (大雨), in Japanese.  Oo (大) means big, ame (雨) means rain.
Flood is kozui (洪水), in Japanese.
Tomorrow is July 7, tanabata (七夕), star festival.  It is the day for two stars, Vega (織り姫：orihime) and Altair (彦星：hikoboshi) to meet once a year.  Hope it will be fine.

2012.7.5

It was hot and humid. Hot and humid is mushiatsui (蒸し暑い) in Japanese.

At lunch time about 20 colleagues got together at the meeting room to have farewell lunch. We used to have it at the restaurants, so I do not know why this happened there. 2 staffs will leave the office this month.  They talked about old interesting stories they have experienced in the past programs. I think it might be interesting to put together into a book. Would you like to read it?

2012.7.4

Happy Birthday to the United States!
When I was in Florida, we went to see the fire works festival.
Today is Wednesday.  In that case when is the July 4 weekend?

It slightly rained here in the night.

2012.7.3

There were rather big earthquakes in the morning before lunch.  There was another one in the night but it was not so big.
In the morning it was fine but after lunch time it started raining.  When I got to my station in the night, it rained heavily.  In Kyushu area it is raining heavily too.
Recently I sent many emails to inform about my eBook.  I am glad to hear from old friends with whom we have not written each other these days.

2012.7.2

I took a compensated day off.  The reform of the bathroom finished and I like it very much.  For Japanese people taking a bath is very important.  It is not only for cleaning yourself, but also for relaxing.  So we usually take a bath at night before going to bed.  I love Japanese style bath very much, and I often missed it when I was abroad.
I finished reading the book "The Secret" which was recommended by a photographer I met on my birthday this year.  I ordered its DVD yesterday, so I am looking forward to watching it soon.

2012.7.1

A new month has started.  July is shichi gatsu (七月), and its old name is fuzuki (ふづき) or fumizuki (ふみづき) in Japanese. Fumi is letter.  Fumizuki (文月) literally means letter month.
I used to write letters often but these days I seldome write letters but write emails instead.  Receiving letters or cards is a pleasure. But emails are very easy and I can send many emails at once, therefore I use it to inform something to many people.
However sometimes it takes quite a while to write back the reply because emails remain long and need to be very careful.

2012.6.30

June 30.  It means a half of the year has already passed. How was your first half of 2012?
I have been busy for making the first book.  And on May 8 I could publish it finally as I planned last year.  And I also published eBook.