It was fine.
I took a day off.
This is officially the last day of my work at the current university where I have worked for about two years.
I will start working at another graduate instituion from tomorrow.
March is a month of good-bye and April is a month of hello.
One fourth of 2016 has passed. I hope to have better time at the new place.
It was fine and rather warm.
I took a day off.
I went to Shibuya to attend the annual general stock holder's meeting of the film company. This is the third time for me to attend there. I asked the question for the first time. Some of the participants had the same idea and gave me applause.
After that I went to Ikebukuro to visit the Edgar Rampo's house and the university to return the room key. I visited many people to say good bye because I was too busy to greet yesterday. Many of them appreciated my work with them and I am so glad to see them.
After that I went to Yurakucho to visit the Emperor's palace where is open just for a week. There were so many people but I did not have to wait so long.
I had tea and went to Komagome to have dinner and visit Rikugien(六義園). There was a long line to enter. There is a beautiful cherry blossom tree. See the picture.
It was a fruitful day.
It was fine and beautiful.
Today was the last day of my work.
I went to work earlier and leave later because there was something to do at the last minutes.
It has been about two years for me to work at the university.
I have had a very good time here.
After work I went to attend my colleague's birthday party.
When I arrived, it was almost 10 pm. I could not stay there longer, but I missed the last train.
However I am glad to congratulate her birthday.
It was fine but cool.
I took a day off today.
In the morning I stayed home.
In the afternoon I visited the tax office to ask about inheritance.
Then I went to the beauty salon. I had 1000 yen and 500 yen coupons so I thought it would be 1500 yen less than the regular price. To my surprise I had one more 500 yen coupon. So it was 2000 yen cheaper than usual.
Then I went to massage. It had been eight months since I went there last.
It was a nice day off.
It was cloudy in the morning, but became fine in the afternoon. However it was chilly.
I went to Yokohama wearing kimono to attend a luncheon. It was held at an Italian restaurant of the Techno Tower Hotel. This was the first time for me to ride on the Seaside line from Sugita.
It started from salad, next was pasta and pan, then main dish. Dessert was buffet style and we could choose what we like. Drink was self service. There were about 22 participants. One table consisted of 4 people. Next to me was 86 years old gentleman. The other was a mother of two daughters whom I talked for the first time. Another was a shop staff. We enjoyed eating and talking.
After that I visited a nearby famous factory of Sponge cake.
On my way back I rode to Kanazawa hakkei by Seasideline. That is I rode from the beginning to the ending.
I changed the train and dropped at Yokosuka chuo to shop. It is fun to find presents.
At night there was an annual general meeting of local community. This is the last duty of my two years representative role. Next Saturday we have a farewell party. And this is the final.
It was fine but very cold.
I stayed home in the morning to receive the delivery service and to pay the expense for automobile inspection which was done yesterday.
In the afternoon I went to Yokohama for the kimono lesson.
In the evening I had dinner with my two friends from university. It's been more than four months since we met each other at the ground reunion. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. Though I booked the restaurant of the second floor, when I got there, there was no light. It seemed the owner of the first floor and the second floor was the same person and they open only first floor.
We ate 12 dishes and drank unlimited drinks for2.200 yen.
We enjoyed eating and talking a lot.
I had a good day.
It was fine but very cold.
I took a day off but went to work to prepare for the event next week. I had a lunch appointment at 11:30 am but we cganged the schedule and when I arrived, it was already 2:15 pm.
The restaurant is very famous for crab dish, and I have wanted to visit there for a long time. And finally I made it.
After that we went to Shinjuku for shopping, and we went to the observatory of the Tokyo metropolitan government. It is on the 45th floor and it is free of charge. There were so many foreigners there, maybe more than 80% were foreigners. There were exhibitions and sales of speciality of each prefecture.
I went to see a movie "The Big Shot. " Japanese title was Money short karei naru daigyakuten(華麗なる大逆転). "
It was cloudy and rainy in the morning, but became fine in the afternoon.
There was a graduation ceremony for College of Business in the morning, and Graduate School of Business in the evening.
Most of undergraduate women were wearing kimono and hakama and they looked very beautiful.
There was an awarding ceremony. To my surprise there was a student who passed the examination of CPA and top three students were women.
After the commencement of graduate school, there was a chance to try the gown and cap which was nice.
After work there was a farewell party for me by my room mates of the office. We went to our favorite small Japanese style bar near our office and enjoyed eating and talking.
I thank for my past two years experiences here at this university.
It was cloudy.
There was a graduation ceremony for some colleges and graduate schools. I saw some women students wearing kimono and hakama.
When I left the office and went to the main gate, there was a waiting line to take a picture in front of the sign "Graduation Ceremony (卒業式: sotsugyo shiki)."
Today is fullmoon.
It was beautiful, but looked smaller than last night.
Today is higan ake (彼岸明け), the last day of the equinoctial week.
It was fine.
This morning we prepared the distribution goods for the graduation ceremony which will be held the day after tomorrow.
There are many colleges and graduate schools at my working university. The day of graduation ceremony is different depending on the colleges and graduate schools.
It seems there was a gradation ceremony for the second stage college today. It is a course for a year for those who are over 50 years old.
Tomorrow there will be the graduation ceremony of some colleges and graduate schools.
I myself graduated from one of the biggest universities in Japan. Therefore our entrance ceremony and graduation ceremony were always held at the Budokan (武道館) in Tokyo. They say the unversity and the Budokan have a few decades contract on the fixed date for those events to avoid overlapping of the reservations.
It was cloudy.
I went to Tokyo to attend one day seminar of the million seller writer Ken Honda. This was the third time for me to attend his seminar this year.
I happened to see one of my friends whom I met at Expo 92 for the first time. His birthday is the same as mine, that is May 8. We don't remember when it was that we met last time but it's been so long since the last time. We have known each other's activities through Facebook and communicate on our birthday but we have not had time to see each other these days.
Today's seminar theme was to find our talents and live our life work. 5 secret ways to change our talents to money.
During the seminar I thought my talents were teaching, communicating, connecting, networking, and creating.
But when I tried the finding tool on the train back home. The results were different.
During tea break I tried two different fortune telling. One is calculating the birthdate as numbers, the other is by the cards. Both were free today.
Ken-san gave us a book by John Gray. I appreciate his generousity.
It was raining in the morning, but became fine in the afternoon.
I went to Jingunae (神宮前) for two reasons. One was to visit a boutique which my friend from university opened this year. The other was to visit the art exhibition of my high school tennis friend.
My friend's shop was closed to Harajuku station. We talked about many things and I leaned a lot from his variety of friends' connection. And we went out for lunch at a Japanese restaurant which I was attracted to on my way to his shop which was located between beauty salons.
We enjoyed eating, talking and taking pictures.
After lunch I visited my friend's annual art exhibition.
On my way home I dropped at a kimono shop.
Today a new NHK drama started at night. Since I watched the program dealing with its writer in the morning, I watched the program at night.
It was fine and warm in the morning, but became cloudy in the afternoon.
In the morning news I knew the ski jumper Noriaki Kasai(葛西紀明), 43 years old made a record of 500 times participants to the World cup championship games for 28 seasons. He started his career at Sapporo in December 1988 at the age of 16 years old. He is called "legend" but he made another legend. He said he would try to 600 games next.
The second person has participated for 399 games.
So he is outstanding.
It was fine, warm, and very beautiful.
March 17 is St. Patrick Day. I was going to wear something green, but this morning I totally forgot about it. But when I remembered, I was glad because I happened to wear the green sweater.
Today I was invited lunch by my colleague because the other day I helped her. I chose the restaurant where I have wanted to visit for a long time. She was kind enough to have reserved the seat, so I was impressed. We ordered the scallop lunch set. It started from a little cup of soup followed by deep fried scallop, oyster, and red paprika, scallop and Japanese radish salad, grilled scallop, cooked scallop, chirashi zushi, miso soup, and pickles. Then coconut milk pudding and tea or coffee were served as dessert.
We had a very good time.
It was fine and cold in the morning, and became cloudy in the afternoon.
I went to Maihama to attend the second day of the big event. It started at 9 am, so I needed to leave home around 6 am. There were many information. It lasted until 4:50 pm.
We went out for lunch at tonkatsu (豚カツ) restaurant. Tonkatsu is breaded pork cutlet. I chose seasonal limited dishes of sakura shrimp croquette, fried shrimp, and pork cutlet with rice, miso soup, chawan mushi and pickles. You can get unlimited cabbage, rice, and miso soup. It was volumy and cost 1300 yen.
I do not deep fry at home so I try to eat outside what I do not cook at home.
It was fine but very cold.
I took a day off and went to Maihama where there are Disney Resorts. I am not interested in Disney so I have not visited there for a long time, and actually this was the first time to see IKSPIARI. There were many shops and restaurants. I met my friends at an Italian restaurant for lunch.
Then we attended two days big event. There were about 2000 participants. There was a recognition part and so many people were awarded. Some of them delivered speech.
Someday I want to be one of them.
It is a cold rainy day.
March 14 is known as White day in Japan. It is a day for boys and men who received chocolates on St.Valentine's Day to give sweets back to girls and women in return.
It was cloudy.
I went grocery shopping after a long time. I usually go to two places. I did so today too, but I could not find what I wanted to buy at the first shop.
I cooked clam chowder for dinner after a long time. I tried a new pumpkin salad which recipe was appeared on today's advertisement.
It was cloudy and partially fine, rather cold.
I attended a monthly meeting. We had lunch together at a restaurant called Country House and we ate the special hamburg lunch.
After the meeting I went to Kimono style Miya to see my teacher of kimono lesson. She likes cooking and gave me some foods she cooked.
After that I went to see a Japanese movie titled"Everest kamigami no itadaki (エヴェレスト 神々の山嶺 Everest: Goddess of the sky ). "
I read the original book long time ago. Last year when I saw another movie dealt with the Everest, this movie was previewed. And I have been looking forward to seeing it since then.
Today was the opening day but it was not so crowded that I could sit on the good seat.
I did not remember the contents but I felt I have read this book before. After finishing I checked the writer and it was written by Yumemakura Baku (夢枕獏). It is a pen name. Baku is an animal which is believed to eat bad dreams. Yume (夢) is dream, makura (枕) is pillow in Japanese.
It was a cold rainy day.
It's been five years since the Great East Earthquake and Tsunami happened in 2011.
I stil remember the day well.
It was Friday.
Before going to work I went to Asakusa in the morning to book the conference room for the JENESYS Programme.
Then I went to the office in the afternoon.
At 2: 46 pm we felt the big shake which lasted for a long time than usual. At first we did not expect it became such disaster because we often have earthquakes. But it was different. We were asked to evacuate with helmet and got together at the nearby shrine. We watched our building swinging slowly. We stayed outside for a few hours. We could not use cellphones.
In the evening those live in Tokyo area started going home, but since all the trains were stopped, I could not go home. After having dinner at a Chinese dining, my colleagues and I went back to the office. I live far away from the office and knew it is impossible to walk back home. So I gave up going home but stayed at the office. I did not sleep at all. There were water, electricity, blanket, and foods at the office. I took a right decision. Telephone lines were not available, but fortunately I could use Facebook and let my friends know that I was OK.
Next morning, the director, colleagues and I went back to Kanagawa together by taxi, and I took a train from Kamioooka, and got home.
For a few days we could not use the electricity for a certain period to save energy and we could not go to office too.
There are still many people missing, and living in the temporary housings.
And in Fukushima it is said it will take 40 years to close the nuclear plants.
We stll need to work to make the places and peoples' lives get back to normal.
It was a cold cloudy day.
Today is my dead mother's birthday. If she is still alive, it would be her 80th birthday. In Japan 80th birthday is called sanjyu (傘寿).
I have had a backpain since last night.
It's been a while since I had a backpain last. I walk with my back bent forward and very slowly.
I wonder those older people are having this pain always or not.
It was cloudy in the morning and became rainy later.
I took a day off and visited a museum and went to see a movie "The Hateful Eight" for free using stock holders' invitation tickets in Kawasaki. The movie was different from what I expected.
For lunch I ate at the food court. This was the first time for me to go there. I found Yamaya dining which is very famous for its spicy cod eggs called Mentaiko (明太子). There is a set menu of bowl of rice, butajiru or tonjiru (豚汁), pork soup with vegetables, and mentaiko for yen 670 or so. And you can add the main dish of meat or fish and other side menues. I chose grilled mackerel and pickles called Takana (高菜). See the picture.
After watching a movie I looked for a birthday present for my friend in England. It is fun to shop.
It was cloudy and became fine and rather warm.
But according to the weather forecast it will be cold again this week.
At lunch time there was a year end party and farewell party at the finest restaurant called Matsumotoro(松本楼) in our university. There were more than 30 faculty members and staffs. One professor, and two staffs including me are leaving at the end of March. We received a beautiful bouquet and a memorial goods. Then we delivered the farewell addresses.
Foods were delicious and everyone looked happy with them.
It has been raining since yesterday but was not so cold.
This morning I noticed there was almuni news letter of my high school in the mailbox. It must be delivered sometime yesterday but I did not notice.
I checked the newsletter after coming back home.
There are many articles in 18 pages including historical issue, recent news, and many pictures of reunions.
Our high school has more than 108 years history. Classes have not changed for three years. So if you were in a good class, friendship will last forever.
Class period was 70 minutes each when I was a high school students. This was rather long for high school, but it was a good transition to college period which usually lasts for 90 minutes.
First it was a junior high school, and later it became a high school.
According to the reuion report, 34th junior high school graduates celebrated beiju (米寿), 88 years old together.
33rd junior high school graduates celebrated their 70 years after graduation.
16th high school graduates celebrated their koki (古稀) 70th birthdays.
Soft tennis club celebrated its 100 years foundation.
We, 33rd, high school graduates got together after 33 years from graduation in March 2014. There were 10 classes with 45 students each in total of 450 students when we were students. And at that grand reunion there were about 200 students. This was the first time for us to have a grand reunion. We are planning to have it every four years now.
I was lucky to have been in a good class, so we often have petite class reunions and some are connected by Facebook.
It was cloudy in the day time, but started raining in the evening.
There was a big event, the 34th Miura International Marathon in my city today. It is a sister race of the Honolulu Marathon. There are four courses; half marathon, 10km, 5km, and kid's beach marathon for 800 meters. Fixed numbers are 5000, 3000, 2000, and 400 respectively. The top 6 men and women of each race will be awarded respectively.
They say one from 10km finishers and two from half marathon finishers will be invited to the Honolulu Marathon.
All the participants will get a special T shirt and a daikon (大根), Japanese radish. Miura is very famous for Miura daikon.
When I was a junior high school teacher, I participated in the races twice with my students.
It was fine.
I went to Shinjuku to attend a monthly meeting.
After that I had lunch at Hanamaru udon where my colleague said they were tasty.
I happened to see the photo exhibition.
At night there was the last meeting of local representatives. Our term is two years. We will have a general meeting on March 27, and the farewell party on April 2 and our responsibility will be over.
It is keichitsu (啓蟄), one of nijyushisekki (二十四節気), 24 solar terms. The last one was usui (雨水) on February 19 and the next will be shunbun(春分) on March 20. Keichitsu is a day when hibernating insects awake. Spring is nearing day by day.
It was fine.
TGIF
This morning I walked to the station to go out for dinner with a colleague after work.
It is prohibited to drive after drinking in Japan.
So when I know I will drink, I try to walk to the station in the morning. Because otherwise I need to walk to the station to drive back home next day.
We promised to have lunch more than one year ago but have not had a chance to do so. Lunch time is too short to enjoy. So we decided to have dinner instead.
I found a Spanish bar near our office by Groupon.
Do you know Groupon? It is a coupon website which offers discount tickets.
The bar only accepts three groups per day and I was lucky enough to use the coupon. There were 6 dishes with unlimited alcoholic drinks for two hours with about a half price of the regular price.
We enjoyed eating, drinking, and talking.
It was fine.
March 3 is Hinamatsuri (雛祭り), Doll's Festival or Girl's Festival in Japan. Families with girls often decorate hinaningyo (雛人形) to wish their healthy growth in February for this day. After March 3 they clear them as soon as possible hoping them to get married earlier.
On this day there is a custom to have some special dishes, sweets and drinks such as Chirashi zushi (ちらし寿司: mixed sushi), hamaguri no osuimono (蛤のお吸い物: clear soup with clam), sakura mochi (桜餅: sweet rice cake with red bean paste wrapped with the leaf of cherry blossoms), hina arare (雛あられ: sweet small colorful rice crackers), shiro zake (白酒: sweet white sake) and so on.
March 3 is also "mimi no hi (耳の日)," day for ears. It is because of the shape of 3.3.
It was fine but still cold.
It is already Wednesday here, but in the USA it is still Tuesday, and it is Super Tuesday. Therefore in our news it is broadcast as a big news too.
When I was in Washington State in 1996, it was the year of presidential election. The hall of my dormitory was set as a voting station. I was surprised to see the voting paper which was very long.
The big difference of voting in Japan and USA is the day of the week voting is held. In Japan it is held on Sunday because most people don't work on Sunday. However in the USA it is held on Tuesday. The reason is Sunday is the day to rest and not to do anything in a certain religion. They say people used to come to the voting station by horse long time ago and it took long to arrive, that's because it became on Tuesday. But we do not know the real reason.
When I was in Florida from 2006 and 2008, there were some elections. At that time online voting has been introduced. And there were four languages or so on the screen. I was surprised to see the sticker "I Voted!"
A new month has started. March is sangatsu (３月), the third month, and its old name is yayoi (弥生) in Japanese.
It was fine but very cold. Mt. Fuji looked very beautiful.
One sixth of the year has gone.
March is the farewell month.
At high schools today is the graduation day.
Congratulations!!
