2015.2.28

The last day of February.

It was fine but very cold.
The bright pink cherry blossoms called Kawazu zakura (河津桜) were full in bloom at the station.
Many people came to see them and I saw many people hiking.

I went to Kimono-style Miya to attend a  graduation party of Kimono wearing lessons.
The party was held at a special room of the Royal Park Hotel with a course of French dishes.  All were very delicious.  Seven students attended.  We received a certificate and a small gift for Doll's Festival.
After the party I went back to Kimon-style Miya to change clothings and went to massage.
After that I went shopping, and bought ink and two books.

I had a nice Saturday.

I hope you too.

2015.2.27

It was fine.

In the morning before going to work I went to a bank to transfer money.  One is for the branch of the same bank, and the other was to a totally different bank.
The handling charge was quite different.
The amount was bigger for the same bank, but it cost only yen 108.  To the other bank it cost yen 432.

2015.2.26

It was a cold rainy day.

But while I was in the USA, brght pink cherry blossoms called Kawazu zakura at the station became full in bloom.

After work I went  to many banks.

At home the installation of rails for my father here and there was done in the morning.  Because of the support from the city, we paid only 10% of all the cost.

2015.2.25

I arrived at Haneda Airport around 00:30
AM, about two hours behind the schedule.
At this time there were no public transportation.  Therefore the airline company offered the cost up to $100 for taxi.
Since I have booked a hotel near the airport, I went there by taxi.
But many people must have had to pay extra money.

I went to office earlier than usual. I felt relieved to hear everything I was worried went well during my absence.

2015.2.23

It was fine.

Today is a moving day.

My flight from LAX to SFO was at 15:02, but we left earlier hoping to have nice lunch at the airport.  But there were not such a place before security check, so I thought we should have had nice lunch at Downtown Los Angeles.

Now I am onboard bound for Haneda.
Since we pass the International Date Line, I will arrive at Haneda around 10:30 PM on Tuesday 24.
I will have only one hour and a half on Feb. 24.

After wrting here, there found something wrong with the plane and we had to change it, and it delayed nearly two hours.
So I won't have any Feb. 24 this year.

2015.2.24

I was supposed to arrive at Haneda airport  on 10:30PM of February 24.
But the flight from San Francisco was delayed for two hours.
So I arrived at 00:30 AM of February 25.
Therefore I did not have February 24
this year.

2015.2.22

It was cloudy and became rain in the afternoon.

I  went  to Little Tokyo using a one day train pass for $8 . I visited the Japanese American National Museum. It's been nearly eighteen years and a half since I visited there last time. The new museum was built. As a special exhibition, they were having "Hello, Kitty." It cost ＄20 to see it, so I just looked at the general exhibition. After that I visited the Koyasan temple, and Japanese village.  Then I ate sushi at Zencu.  Sushi in Japan and that of California is  different.

After coming back, I took a nap watching Academy Award Ceremony.

2015.2.21

It was cloudy.

We attended the third general session in the morning.

In the afternoon, we went to Santa Monica and Hollywood. It has been eight years and a half since I went there last.  Weather was beautiful.
I did not know the route 66 started from Santa Monica.  There was the bench of Forest Gump.
At Hollywood they were preparing for the Academy Awards for tomorrow.

At night there was an award ceremony, and I attended there with kimono.

2015.2.20

It was cloudy.

There was the second general session in the morning and the second country session in the afternoon.
There were four hours in between so that I expected to have a decent lunch. But after shopping there was a long line for checking, and it took nearly two hours to finish.   Therefore we could not go out for lunch and ate fast food.

My friend from Washington State University came to pick me up all the way to invite dinner. It  was a nice house in the southern Los Angeles and five of us had dinner together. It's been nearly eight years and a half since three of us had meal together, and I met two of them for the first time. Knowing new people is a pleasure, and visiting somebody's house is an honor. My friends took me back to the hotel by driving for one hour and a half.
I had a good evening.

2015.2.19

It was fine and warm outside, but inside it was rather cold.

There was the first general session of the International Leadership Conference in  the morning and the first country session in the afternoon and a contest at night.

I ate waffle in the morning, turkey sandwich and noodle soup for lunch, and  chicken caesar wrap for dinner.  Those are also typical dishes while I travel in the USA.

2015.2.18

It was fine and warm.

I ate bagle and creem cheese for breakfast.  While eating, I heard Spanish, and I felt being in L.A.

Around noon I went to L.A. Convention Center for registration.  I happened to see my friend there.
Then I went out for lunch with a friend from WSU.  It's been nearly eight years and a half since we met each other last, and we enjoyed talking.

At night, there was a welcome reception at the NOKIA theater plaza.  There were many people from around the world and I had chances to talk with people from Peru and Russia.

2015.2.17

It is a cold rainy day.

I am now at the airport lounge of the Haneda airport waiting for the flight to Los Angeles via San Francisco.

It's been nearly two years since I travel abroad last on the contrary to my will.
There are many things changed.....

I was surprised to find that my mileage plus number no longer exists because of the partnership agreement between the airline companies.

The insurance fee seems more expensive than used to be.

I hope I have a good time in the USA.

2015.2.16

It was fine and warm today.

It seems Diamond  Fuji was seen from Tokyo.

Today I saw two babies of one year old at office. They were taken by their fathers.  They were so cute.

2015.2.15

It was fine and rather warm today, but it became windy at night.

I went to a shrine and went to Kimono Style Miya for the last kimono lesson.
There were five lessons: yukata, kimono with half size obi, kimono with Nagoya obi 1, kimono with Nagoya obi 2, kimono with fukuro obi
Now we can wear kimono by ourselves. Therefore we will have a graduation party next time wearing kimono.

After coming back to the station I went grocery shopping. Since the road was so crowded that I took back road.

After coming backing home I packed a suitcase with kimono set to be picked up by delivery service to the airport.

2014.2.14

Happy St. Valentine's Day!!

How are you?

In Japan it is a day for women to give chocolates to men they like. 
In return one month later on March 14 men give sweets to women who gave them chocolate.
How about in your country?

Today I went to beauty salon to have my hair permed, then to kimono shop to buy something, then went to Tokyo to have dinner with my ex-classmates from Ability Garden which I went to a haf year from October 2004 to March 2005. There were 30 students and we studied International Business Administration. It was a nice course.
We went to a Chinese restaurant where I booked using Groupon. Do you know Groupon? It is a nice system, and we could eat 9 dishes course at about half price of a regular price.
We enjoyed eating and chatting. It's been  more than 10 years since we studied together, but it was as if we were studying recently.

2015.2.13

It was fine, but very cold.

After work I went out for dinner.
There I found a strange wet tissue cover. There was a slit on the shortest side to open the bag but there were two letters "open "at the other sides which are round and impossible to open.
It looked like made in Japan, but the phone number was written as 04-xxxx-xxxx.  The area code is usually three digit and two digit should be either Tokyo for 03 or Osaka for 06. 
I enjoyed talking with staff about this strange finding.

2015.2.12

It was fine today.

It is still cold, but spring is certainly approaching day by day. 
The day time has become longer.
Flowers of cherry blossoms at the station have started blooming.

2015.2.11

It is a national holiday called kenkoku kinen no hi (建国記念の日), National Foundation Day.

It was fine.
I stayed at home all day long and did many small things which I could not do these days because I have gone out every weekend.

There are still lots of things I wanted to do, but I had a nice day off.
 

2015.2.10

It was fine but very cold.

February is a season of juken(受験), entrance examinations.
This morning when I got to the station, there were many local junior high school students
who were going to take an entrance examination of private high schools.
The one for public high school will be about a week later.

In our university it has also been a period of entrance examinations for ten days since last week.
And only limited gates are open during this period and only applicants and limited people can enter the campus.
We need to wear wansho (腕章) , the armband to show we work here at the gate.
When there are guests, we need to pick them up at the gate and take them to the gate after finished meeting.

2015.2.9

It was cloudy and very cold.

February 9 is known as fugu no hi (河豚の日), day of blowfish because February 9 is written as 2.9 and pronounce as fu ku.
Fuku (福) means fortune. So fugu restaurants had special campaign to lead fortune by eating blowfish. 
There are many fugu dishes.  One of them is row blowfish called tessa (てっさ) which I like very much.
They offered it for yen 29 which is usually yen1,119.
I went to eat last Friday with my ex-colleague and enjoyed course dinner.

2015.2.8

It was cloudy in the morning, became rain in the afternoon, and stopped raining in the evening.

I went to grocery shopping in the morning, cooked lunch, and went to Kimono-style Miya for kimono wearing
lesson in the afternoon.

After coming home, I cooked dinner.  I felt it's been long time since I cooked dinner on Sunday last.

 

2015.2.7

It was cloudy.
I went to Shinjuku to attend a monthly meeting.
Then I went out for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant where I was going to use for my friend's birthday party.
Lunch menu looked nice and reasonable. But there was something bad and I complained. They offered me to cook again, but i was full and refused.  Then they offered me a cup of coffee, but since I do not drink coffee and refused.
At the cashier, they offered me free lunch, so I was very surprised.
I felt something looked bad is not always bad so much. 
There is a saying, "wazawai tenjite fukuto nasu (災い転じて福と為す)" which means "Make the best of a bad bargain. "

Then I went shopping, but the one I wanted to buy was sold out at two shops.
Then I went to Komagime to visit a museum because I had invitation tickets.

2015.2.6

It was fine.

In the morning it was so cold that the windshield of my car was white with frost.

After work I went to Shinjuku to have dinner with my ex-colleague.
The name of the restaurant is Genpin fugu (玄品ふぐ).  There are many branches here and there.  And the one I tried to book was full till 8:30pm, therefore I tried other branches. They were also full at my desired time, and I booked the one from 7:30pm.
It's been about three years since I went there last.
Fugu (blowfish) dish is one of the most expensive seasonable dishes of winter.
One of the reasons must be the license.
To cook fugu, they need license.

We ordered the course menu of five dishes plus fried blowfish and softdrinks.
The reason we chose the restaurant and the reason they were so crowded was they have a once a year campaign of offering the raw blowfish called Tessa (ててっさ) just for yen 29 to celebrate fugu no hi (河豚の日), the day of fugu on February 9. February 9 is written as 2.9 which could be pronounced as fugu.
They have a campaign from February 1to 9 every year.

We enjoyed eating and chatting for two hours and a half.

2015.2.5

It was a cold rainy day.
When I got to Tokyo, it was snowing. It did not pile though.

At the Ikebukuro station they were conducting evacuation training.

The 66th Sapporo snow festival has begun.
It will last till February 11th.
Star wars and the Manila cathedral are highlights of this year.

I hope someday I go to see it.

2015.2.4

Today is risshun(立春), one of nijyushisekki(二十四節季), the 24 solar terms. The last one was taikan (大寒) on January 20 and the next one is usui (雨水) on February 19.
Risshun literally means stand spring which means the first day of spring.
But the weather forecast says it would snow tomorrow.

2015.2.3

Today is setsubun (節分), which literally means divide the season. Therefore there are four setsubun in a year. But when we say setsubun, it means the one divides winter and spring.
On this day we scatter the roasted beans by saying "Oni ha soto, fuku ha uchi (鬼は外、福は内)" meaning evils out fortunes in.
This year is a year of sheep, and those who were born in the year of sheep are called toshi otoko (年男) for men and toshi onna (年女) for women.  Some of them are invited by shrines or temples and scatter beans to drive evils.

We eat the same number of beans as our real age wishing the good health of the year.

The custom of eating a big sushi roll calked ehomaki (恵方巻), literally fortunate direction roll is getting popular these days.
I ate them for lunch today.

2015.2.2

It was fine.  Mt.Fuji looked beautiful.

I could get up early this morning.

I usually buy my lunch on my way to the office at the nearby supermarket.  This morning I found cheeze with umeshiso(梅しそ), plum and perilla flavour, which is quite new to me, so I bought it to taste. At lunchtime two of my roommates were together and they also showed interest. Therefore I shared it with them and they liked it too.
Umeshiso is sour and it is a standard item for the ingredient of onigiri(おにぎり) , riceball. Onigiri is also called omusubi(おむすび).  It is a handy foods with wide variety of ingredients                                            and very popular for picnic lunch.                                                                                                                               

2015.2.1

It was very cold but fine today.
Mt. Fuji looked so beautiful.

I went to Kimono-style Miya for Kimono lesson in the morning.
And I went to see a movie "Annie" and I liked it very much.

At night there was a meeting for local representatives.

After that I went grocery shopping. I wanted to go to bank ATM but it was already closed.