2015.12.30

It was fine in the daytime, and rained at night shortly.

Since I was still sick, I spent most morning in bed.

In the afternoon I started jigsaw puzzle which I got for a Christmas present.

In the late afternoon we went to see a movie "Star Wars Episode VII The Force Awakens" at the IMAX theater.
There was no ticket box open in front but we could buy the ticket at the snack area which is clever for them to be able to sell both at a time.
The story seems to be continued.

For dinner I cooked salad, curry and rice.

2015.12.29

It was fine but I was not fine again.
I do not think I have a fever, but still having a runny nose and slight headache when I sneeze.
I did not do anything special but just slept and relaxed.

2015.12.28

It was fine but I was not fine.
I got sick, and had a fever of 101.6F in the morning.
Since we use celsius in Japan, it was rather hard to know how high my temperature was. Thanks to Google, I knew it was like 38.66C.
Yes, I was sick.

I had an appointment with one of the students from Florida International University who was interested in my book "Florida Report 2006 - 2008" at lunch time. I went to see him to give my book and had lunch together.

Besides this and grocery shopping, I stayed in bed and slept and slept.

I hope I will be fine soon.

2015.12.27

It was fine and hot like summer mostly and showered partially at night.

While driving, the ODO meter marked 101010 miles around 11:11 am.

We started from the Venice Beach searching for shark teeth. We could not find the good one but I think I found two parts of them.

We  visited the Outlet mall on the way to our destination. There were so many cars and people there shopping discounted goods.
Since I am not interested in shopping, I just walked around. There was a pond and the sign said "Beware of Alligators" which reminds me of being in  Florida.

There was a 50th wedding anniversary party and about 40 people were invited. Some came all the way from Chicago driving 18 hours or so.
It was held at the Bride's brother's house which is quite big and beautiful.
The bride wore the dress which she cut the bottom of the wedding dress she wore 50 years ago. It was impressive.
I was a totally stranger for them, but they welcomed me warmly.
I enjoyed eating and drinking.

We came back to Delray Beach around 9:30 pm.

2015.12.26

It was fine in the morning, but cloudy in the afternoon and rain in the evening.

I enjoyed walking along the Daytona Beach where you can drive by paying $10.  Since it was fine and hot like summer, most people there were wearing bathing suits enjoying sunshine and waves.

At lunch I ordered a bucket of Harricane, category 5 which serves for four to six people. It was tasty so I thought I could drink all, but could not at all because I felt drunk soon.
I was almost sleeping in the car all the way to Venice Beach.

Nice holiday, isn't it?

2015.12.25

Merry Christmas!

I came to Daytona Beach via St. Augustine from Delray Beach.

For dinner we went to the all you can eat place of Japanese and Chinese restaurant named Ichiban meaning No.1 in St. Augustine. There were so many people there because it was the only place opened on Christmas.

Today is the full moon on Christmas which happens only once in 19 years.
I enjoyed walking along the beach taking picture with the full moon.

2015.12.24

Merry Christmas!

It was a very cold rainy day in Japan.

I could not sleep at all last night. This is not unusual for me when I go abroad.

I left home around 5:15 am. It took about three hours to the Narita airport.
It's been a long time since I went there because these days I prefer using the Haneda airport which is much closer.
There were many changes at the airport.
I happened to see someone from the organization where I worked until 2013.

It took about 11 hours and a half to get to Houston.  I watched four Star Wars movies.

At Houston I had to wait for 3 hours or so. It was cloudy there. 

I arrived at Miami earlier than schedule, and came to Delray Beach around 4 pm.

I was invited to the Christmas Dinner and enjoyed meeting new people.

After that I went to see a famous Christmas tree of Delray Beach after 8 years.

It is still warm like summer.

It was a long day.

2015.12.23

It was a cold rainy day.

Today is a national holiday called Tenno tanjyobi (天皇誕生日), Emperor's birthday.  He became 82 years old.

During the daytime I stayed home to do many things.

In the evening I went to a French restaurant "Le Soleil" to have Christmas Dinner with my high school friends.  My best high school friend's sister and her husband run the restaurant.  And every year at this time some of us get together to eat special Christmas menu.  This year only three of us got together.  There were 6 dishes with drink.  Everything was delicious as usual.  Since the restaurant is located at the inconvenient place, we need to go there by car.  Therefore unfortunately drivers cannot enjoy alcoholic drinks.  So only my best friend enjoyed wine.

I hope we will have this once a year event as long as possible.

2015.12.22

It was fine and warm.

Today is toji (冬至), winter solstice, one of nijyushisekki (二十四節季), the 24 solar terms. The last one was taisetsu (大雪) on December 7 and the next one is shokan (小寒) on January 6.

Toji is the day when the daytime is the shortest in a year.  In Japan there are customs for us to eat pampkin and take a bath with yuzu (柚), which is called yuzuyu (柚子湯). If you do so, we won't get cold or sick.

2015.12.21

It was fine.

Today was the last day of working this year.

I can't believe it is already a holiday season.
This year I will have 22 days winter holiday.
Since we are in the mourning we cannot celebrate a new year as usual. Spending the new year by myself is not fun.
So I will go to Florida to be a snow bird for the first time from Christmas Eve.

What is your plan for winter vacation ?

2015.12.20

It was fine and cold.

In the morning there were three visitors.

In the afternoon I went to Kimono style Miya to receive the DVD of Kimono fashion festival in Kyoto on October 18. When we were participating, we only knew our scenes and we did not know the whole stracture. So I am looking forward to watching it.
I got some presents there by my kimono teacher in return of my book for Christmas present last week. I am looking forward to tasting them.

Then I went shopping.

2015.12.19

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

Usually I do not work on Saturdays but I went to work. The good thing of working on Saturday is I can take a transferred day off.

2015.12.18

It was fine and very cold.
Mt. Fuji looked very beautiful with snow.

Today was the last day for our colleague. So four of us went out for lunch. There is a Japanese restaurant nearby for reasonable price. We enjoyed having lunch together.
We were surprised to know each other's meal preference at home.

A new Star Wars movie was released today. And the first episode was on aired. There were many scenes  I have forgotten.

2015.12.17

It was fine.

At lunch time my colleagues and I had Christmas luncheon. This was the second party. We could not believe it's been already one year since last time. Eight of us attended. Some cooked and brought dishes, others bought and brought something. Everyone brought different dishes.
So we enjoyed salad, lasagna,  bread and bun, fruits, and cake.
We had a good lunch.

Yestetday there were two big judgements regarding marriage at the Supreme Court.  Having different surnames for married couple is unconstitutional. Divorced women cannot get married for 180 days after divorce is unconstitutional.
Civil law will be modified to 100 days.

I think having different surnames should be accepted.
It seems only Japan does not admit it though we have a longer history of having different surnames.

2015.12.16

It was fine.

Yesterday the kanji of the year was announced. The kanji of 2015 is an (安). It came from security (安全:anzen) related law issue and anxiety (不安:fuan) by terrorism. 
There were 129647 votes and an (安) got 5632 votes. The second was baku (爆), 4929 votes which was used for bakugai (爆買い), heavy shopping. The third was sen (戦) battle, 4556 votes, which means 70 years after World War II.

An (安) is used not only for anzen (安全), safety and anshin (安心) security but also yasui (安い) cheap.

2015.12.15

It was cloudy.

I took a compensation holiday and went to Yokosuka.
Last Friday I went there in the evening so that I did not notice, but there was a new building near the tower mansion. I was so surprised at the changes. 
I visited two stock companies to submit the necessary documents to ask for the financial statement of my father's asset.

After that I went to attend a monthly meeting. It lasted for 7 hours or so.  We enjoyed lunch as usual.
There came a new member whose talk was unordinary and interesting.

On my way home I went shopping.

It became a nice day off.

2015.12.14

It was cloudy.

After work I attended the open lecture of Dr. Chizuko Ueno(上野千鶴子) who is a professor of sociology and Japanese best-known feminist.
The title of the lecture announced was "Hikon desu ga sore ga nanika?(非婚ですが、それが何か!?), meaning "I am not married. What's wrong with that?" This is the title of her book published this summer.
But the title of today's lecture was slightly different from that.
It was "the reason of increasing unmarried people - future of modern family. "
It started at 6:30 pm and lasted till 8 pm. She introduced herself wearing Christmas tree ornament on the head.
Her lecture was interesting, informative, and attractive.  Inspite of the rather dark and heavy theme audience laughed and laughed.
This was the third open lecture for me to attend this series. There were most people attended.
After that her 50 books were sold there, and she autographed.
To my lucky I could buy one and get her autograph, what is more I could take pictures with her.

Since I have wanted to listen to her lecture for a long time, I am glad to do so.

Thank you, Professor Ueno.

2015.12.13

It was a rainy day.
I am glad it was fine yesterday.

They say tomorrow is the night we can observe the Gemini meteor shower. I hope it will be fine tomorrow night too.

At the figure skating Grand Prix Final in Barcelona, a Japanese skater Yuzuru Hanyu (羽生結弦), 21 years old, marked the highest score 330.43 ever made in the world and became a champion for three times straight, which is also the first record in the world history.
Shoma Uno (宇野昌磨), 17 years old became a bronze medalist.
Satoko Miyahara(宮原知子), 17 years old became a silver medalist.
Congratulations!

2015.12.12

It was fine.

There was a Christmas party of Kimono Style Miya in Yokohama. My appointment was 3pm, but there were many people and my turn came nearly at 4pm. First hairset, second make-up, and third dressed up.
I wore homongi(訪問着).  Obi (帯) matches bag.

There were about 30 people. Some attended with family. There were many foods and drink. And I ate a lot.
We exchanged presents. Everyone prepared the one within yen 1000.  I prepared a pair of gloves and got small bags in return.
After the party we took group pictures in front of Christmas illumination.

The night view of Yokohama was beautiful.

2015.12.11

It was heavily raining and windy like a storm in the morning, but became fine in the afternoon. It was rather warm like 20 degrees centigrade.

I took a compensation day off and went to the city office to get registered documents. Then I went to Yokohama to attend a monthly meeting.
After that we had a year-end luncheon at a hotel restaurant which has a beautiful view of the Yokohama port. There were about 60 people and I heard many impressive stories.

After that I went to Yokosuka to visit the national pension office.
They say the rules were changed from October.

I could do many things which were pending. 

2015.12.10

It was fine in the daytime, but started raining at night. To my lucky I did not have to use an  umbrella.

Today the new bakery was opened on my way to the office, so I went there to buy lunch. Salad was rather cheap.
There were some eat-in spaces  too.
They have a point card. You can get one point for yen 300. If you get 25 points, you can change to yen 500.

After that I went to the post office to pick up some documents to apply for insurance.  It seems I need to prepare some official documents to apply.

2015.12.9

It was fine and cold. They say it was the coldest morning this winter.

Today I found out that We will have 21 days off during winter vacation. How nice it is!

What will you do if you have 3 weeks?

I will travel, meet my old friends, and hope to finish translating my book into English for my foreign friends.

2015.12.8

It was cloudy.

There was a year-end luncheon.

December 8.  What do you think of this day? Pearl harbour? Or John Lennon?
I think of my high school classmate's birthday. I have three close classmates. My birthday is May 8 and two of them were born in July and the other is December 8.  And finally we became the same age again. In five month I become one year older than them again.
Happy Birthday!

2015.12.7

It was fine.

Today is taisetsu (大雪), one of the nijyushisekki (二十四節季), the 24 solar terms.
The last one was shosetsu (小雪) on November 22 and the next one will be toji (冬至), winter solstice on December 22.

Taisetsu literally means big snow, and it is the time for heavy snow.

I bought a new pair of gloves last Saturday and started using them today.

2015.12.6

It was cloudy.

I thought of Christmas letter today. There were many things happened this year. Christmas letter is a way of wrapping up the year.
I picked up the things I have done from the 10 year diary. There are schedule pages 
before each month and a free space to wrap up the month after the last day of each month. So I checked them.
This year I was closely connected with kimono. I got some kimono for the gift.
I have visited many shrines and temples during their special years.
                         

2015.12.5

It was fine.

I went to Ikejiriohashi to attend a general meeting. It was the first time for me to use the Tokyu denen toshi line and it took longer than expected. There were about 60 people. After the meeting I went to a park on the highway.
From there I could see Mt. Fuji.

After coming back I attended a year-end party for the local representatives.

2015.12.4

It was fine but windy in the morning.
The sunset was beautiful orange.

After work I went to see the illumination along the Meguro river.

I went out for dinner. There was an attractive menu said "Tuna raw ham avocado" and I ordered. I expected to have tuna with avocado and raw ham with avocado. However it was just raw tuna with avocado. I asked them where raw ham is. The waitress pointed this is raw ham. I asked again where. She said here. That is there was no raw ham at all. They meant raw tuna as raw ham. I thought ham is made of meat of pork. So I was disappointed.

2015.12.3

It was rainy in the morning but stopped raining later.

There was an illumination lightening ceremony for the two big Himalayan ceder trees at campus. Those trees are about 100 years old and 25 meters high. 1150 illuminations were lighten up after the ceremony. There were many audience including neighborhood residents.
We were handed the candles  until the lighten up.
The illumination will last until January 6.

2015.12.2

It was cloudy in the daytime, and became raining in the evening.

Yesterday there was an announcement of the new and popular word of the year. And two of them got grand prix.  One is bakugai (爆買い) which is a phenomenon many incoming tourists buy many Japanese goods at a time.
The other is Triple Three, which was the accomplishment two of the professional baseball players made this year, that is 30% batting average, 30 homerun, and 30 steals.

I knew the former but I did not know the latter.
Did you know them?

2015.12.1

It was fine.

A new month has started.
December is jyuni gatsu (12月), twelfth month, its old name is shiwasu (師走), literally means teachers run.

There  is only one month left.
Time to think about the plans of year end party and holiday season.
How many parties will you attend?
How will you spend the holiday season?

Today after work I attended the open lecture by a famous psychiatrist at school. Its theme was "Why people are deceived?"
It started at 6:30 pm and finished at 8 pm. There were more audience than last time.

This is the second lecture of the four lecture series. I am not interested in the next one, but I hope to join the last one.