2016.9.30

It was cloudy and fine.

September 30. The last day of September. That means three fourths of 2016 has already gone. Where are they?
I remember some events happened during the nine months. But I do not know how much I remember the rest.

It's been a half year since I started the new job. Today I ordered 100 business cards. This is the third time I ordered since April. So in six months I have met more than 150 people. I am not sure how many names and faces match though.

After work I went to the Fuji Film Square to see the new exhibitions.
There I was called by the cosmetician to try their new cosmetics which is now on special campaign.
Can you imagine the film comany is now making cosmetics using their anti-oxidizing technique of film applying to human skin?
They are also selling suppliment. I did not know but they said there is a facial treatment room at the corner of the same lot.
Many things are keeping progressing.

2016.9.29

It was cloudy and fine in the morning. It might have rained in the afternoon.

I went to the office after a week off. There were many things to do and I overworked.

At lunch time there was a luncheon which is held once a month among the same department colleagues. We bring our lunch and after eating the director talks about something. Today's theme was about academic budget in the universities.

2016.9.28

It was fine and hot in the morning, but became rain in the afternoon.

Today is the last day of my summer vacation. I went to Yokohama to see two movies.
One is a Japanese movie titled "Gosaigyo no onna(後妻業の女)" which means the woman whose job is to marry old rich men.
The other is "Sully" and its Japanese title is "Hudson gawa no kiseki (ハドソン川の奇跡)" which means "the miracle of the Hudson River."
I think this is a good title because if we hear "Sully" we cannot imagine that the airplane accident occurred at the Hudson River.

After that I called many places to deal with my father's inheritance.

In the evening I met my ex-colleague of teaching job. We enjoyed talking about old stories.

My summer vacation was nice in total.

2016.9.27

It was cloudy in the morning, and became fine in the afternoon.

I am in the summer vacation, and went to see movies in Kawasaki. I saw two movies by stock holders tickets.

The first one was a Japanese animation movie which is very popular now. Its title is"Kimi no na wa (君の名は。), " Your name. It is a spiritual movie, and somehow difficult to fully understand.

The other was "By the Sea." Its Japanese title is "Shiroi boshi no onna (白い帽子の女)" which means "The woman with a white hat. " It is quite different from the original title. The reason why I chose this was I happened to know that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jollie Pitt take leading roles yesterday on TV news telling about their divorce issue .
Brad Pitt is my favorite actor.

Recently I read a book written  by my friend Chie who wrote about the message from the beloved one in heaven.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/4809414132/ref=zgm_tr_500618_4?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&sr=1-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65

Since I have not had my children, by watching this movie and reading the book, I felt miscarriage is such a big issue.

After that I went to tax office again. There I happened to see one of my classmates from high school.

In the evening I attened a meeting after a long time which lasted from 5 pm to 10pm.  It was fun to have dinner together and talk about many things with friends who have the same goals.

2016.9.26

It was fine and hot like sumner again.

I am now in the late summer vacation.

I went to the branch city office to get some certificates to submit at the legal affairs office, and to post office to submit the documents and buy some money order to ask the certificates to Hiroshima City Office for family registers to submit at the tax office and banks.

Then I went to Yokosuka legal affairs office to submit the necessary documents with tax to inherit my father's land and house.

After that I visited a securities company to submit "my number."

It took longer to do these things than I thought and I gave up going to see some movies today.

Instead I went shopping.  I was not going to buy, but the customer before me got a special discount and I bought the bags with the same special discount price.

2016.9.25

It was fine and very hot like summer again.

I went grocery shopping in the morning today.

After having lunch, I headed for Tokyo Big Sight to visit the Tourism Expo 2016. It is one of the biggest tourism exhibitions in the world and there were many booths to see.

There was a long line to buy an entrance ticket, but to my lucky I got an invitation ticket by my friend and was able to enter soon after arriving.

It's been a while since I visited this Expo last. There is a passpport, and if you get more than three stamps at each area, you can get a small gift.
There are many companies which offer small presents if you install their company's application.

There were many cultural performances too.

I only had three hours there, but enjoyed many places.

I really love traveling and taking pictures. My next destinations will be Iceland, Bolivia, and Cyprus.

I hope to publish some travel related books in three languages in the future. 

2016.9.24

It was a rainy day.

I went to the Kimono Style Miya to ask summer kimono cleaning in the morning.

Then I went to Shinagawa to attend the follow up seminar of ISD studies. There were 8 participants, and I have known half of them. It is nice to see somebody that has same interests.

On my way back to the station,since I have a passport for a year, I went to the Aqua Park. At the entrance there was a long line, and I was wondering what 's going on, but it was not for Aqua park but for Stella Ball, live house. I enjoyed watching jellyfish and seal today.

After my getting out, there was a picture taking event in front of the picture of the Olympic flame. I have some pictures taken having a torch.

2016.9.23

It was a rainy day.

I took a comp day, and visited many places such as post office, banks, securities company, and Legal Affairs Office to deal with inheritance procedures in the morning.

I went to Otsuka in the afternoon to attend a special lecture about music, aura, element and destiny which was really interesting.

Then I went to Ginza to visit my friend's art exhibition. Every year at this time she has an exhibition there. She said "Next year it will be 20th anniversary. " How nice it is! I am looking forward to visiting her exhibition next year too.

I bought her recent book and asked her autograph and we took pictures as usual.
The exhibition will be over tomorrow, so if you have time, please visit the Gallery Musashi at Ginza 1 chome.

Thank you!

2016.9.22

It is a national holiday called Shubun no hi (秋分の日), Autumn equinox day. This is also called Higan no chunichi (彼岸の中日), middle of equinoctial week.

There is a saying "Atsusa samusa mo higan made (暑さ寒さも彼岸まで), " which means "Neither summer heat nor winter cold last after the equinox. "

It was heavily raining this morning and it was rather cold. 

In the afternoon it stopped raining and I went to my parents' graveyard. There I happened to see one of my  students.
During equinox week Japanese people usually visit the family graveyard.

After that I went to the beauty shop to have my hair cut and perm. It took about two hours.
My beautician has confidence in my new style. Here are pictures of before and after. What do you think?

It was slightly raining when I left there.

2016.9.21

It was cloudy and cool in the morning.
It seemed to have started raining in the afternoon.

I started earlier this morning and stayed at the office almost until 10:30 pm, nearly 13 hours at work. I rushed to the station and got the last train fortunately but unfortunately I could not sit for an hour or so. 

Tomorrow is a national holiday, and I will take a transferred day off on Friday and three days off for summer vacation next week. Therefore there was something I wanted to finish within today. 

2016.9.20

It was a rainy day because of the typhoon No. 16.

I took a half day off to attend Minarukane taisai (巳成金大祭) at Ueno this morning. This is once a year festival held on the day of snake in September and the statue of the principal Buddhist image, Benzaiten (弁財天), is displayed to the public. She is one of the seven gods, and brings us wisdom and fortune.

The main hall opens from 5 am to 5 pm. There are two prayer sessions at 10 am and 2 pm.
They sell special charm of gold coin and purse. 

I arrived there just before 10 am. There was already a long line to enter the hall, but there were longer lines to enter the main hall and another hall, and to buy those special goods only for today after I came out of the hall around 11:30 am.

Since it was raining, it took longer time to take off shoes and enter the hall than usual because some people were wearing rain shoes.

Next year it will be on September 15.  If you are interested in visiting, I recommend you to visit early.

2016.9.19

It was a rainy day.

Today is a national holiday called keiro no hi (敬老の日), Respect-for-the-Aged Day. It used be on September 15 but has been changed to the third Monday of September since 2003 because of Happy Monday System.

I went to Matsubara danchi in Saitama for the first time today to attend a seminar. It is in Soka city where is famous for rice cracker, summer kimono, and leather products.
There was an exhibition room at the first floor and I bought a small charm dog made of leather and a bag of assorted rice crackers at the break during the seminar.

The seminar started around 1 pm and lasted till 7 pm. There were about 14 participants. 

After the seminar we went out for dinner and it lasted for more than two hours so I took the last train. 

It was a long day.

2016.9.18

It was a rainy day.

I went to Shinagawa to attend the ISD seminar for instructors Day 1 again which I attended on April 30 last time.
This is a two days seminar and I cannot attend tomorrow, therefore I was wondering if I should attend or not.

There were only three participants today and two of them including me have already finished this course before. The other one was attending yesterday. He asked me to analyze his family, and he was pleased about my diagnosis.
The other person was very surprised to hear about my travel experiences.
There were something I did not remember, therefore I am glad to have attended.
It is better to take the course consequently if it is the first time. But if you have already finished the course, it does not matter to take the course again in the separate date.

There is something to learn each time, I think we should take chances.

2016.9.17

It was cloudy.

I went to Shinagawa to attend the ISD seminar for advisors. This was the second time for me to attend this seminar.
It was April 29 this year when I attended for the first time.
There were many things I still  remember but it was a nice experience to deepen the knowledge and to get to know new people.
There were six participants, and I was the only one who attended for the second time.
It started at 10:30 am and lasted until 6 pm.

ISD stands for Institute of Self Discovery.
It is a study of statistics and classification based on one's own birth date.
There are three categories: Moon, Earth, Sun. Each group has certain tendencies.
They judge from four aspects: essence, appearance, mind, hope which accounts for 50%, 30%, 15%, 5% respectively.

I belong to Earth, Sun, Earth. Sun Group respectively.
When we talked about "surprise party" as an example, I felt I certainly have both sides of Earth and Sun.
It is very interesting.

Today is full moon. Here is a picture for you.

2016.9.16

It was cloudy in the morning and started raining in the afternoon.

I took a train bound for Narita Airport this morning though I got off at Shimbashi.
I hope to take this one someday to go to Narita Airport because I do not have to change and I can go there directly to leave for foreign countries.

There were two programs today.  One was a lecture at a company in the morning and the other was a museum visit in Narita in the afternoon. I learned many things today.

After work I came back from the Narita Airport. I only changed at Aoto once. It was  about three hours ride to my station. I sat in the corner of the very front seat at the second train.

I had a big nice Japanese lunch including seasonal matsutake gohan (松茸ご飯), matsutake mushroom rice .

2016.9.15

It was cloudy.

I went to the shrine in the morning.

Today is jyugoya (十五夜), the 15th night, it is also called chushu no meigetsu (中秋の名月), hervest moon. Chushu is August 15 of the luner calendar. They say it's been 46 years since the last time it fell on September 15.

On this day we decorate dumplings called tsukimi dango (月見団子) and Japanese pampas grass and enjoy viewing the moon.
Though I did not decorate them, but enjoyed the beautiful moon.
The full moon will be on September 17.

2016.9.14

It was cloudy.

There was a graduation ceremony.

Graduating students wore gown, so did some faculty members.

Since there are many foreign students at our institute, there were many flags at the entrance.
I helped to clear them after the ceremony and found there were many flags which I could not recognize.

My work does not relate with students directly, but I felt I should take a chance to communicate them to know unknown countries.

2016.9.13

It was a rainy day.

In the morning I went to MLIT and in the afternoon we went to the Tokyo Sky Tree. It was a part of the research visit, therefore we could visit many "Staff Only"places and we were escorted, though we paid yen 3090 to climb up to the top.

After finishing the visit and saying good-bye I happened to see two of them again and we went to have sweets.
There was a Japanese sweets shop where was selling warabi mochi (わらび餅), bracken  skewered which I have never seen. There are many dumpling but I could not imagine warabi mochi using skewer because they are so soft. The original taste was sold out, and we ate maccha, green tea taste. It was good to try.

Here is a picture after the light up too.

2016.9.12

It was fine in the morning, but became cloudy in the late afternoon.

After going to the office we went to Yokohama.

Then we had sushi lunch. Besides ordering the regular sushi lunch set, we ordered two pieces of sushi of tuna and salmon roe because they offered them at yen 90 each commemorating  their 90 years from the foundation.  They say usually it costs yen 432 each.

2016.9.11

It was heavily raining when I left home in the morning, but fortunately it stopped raining.

I was invited to the September Grand Sumo Tournament at Tokyo by Kimono Style Miya. I have wanted to see the sumo wrestling at the box seat for a long time, so one of my dreams came true today.

Around noon I visited Kimono Style Miya to get hair done and dressed, but no make up today.

I prepared the rain coat and  rain shoe's cover but I didn't have to use the coat. Instead I wore other coat which way of weaving is called "ra (羅)." I bought it some years ago by the first sight but did not have a  chance to wear by now.  But today's sash is also the same weaving, so I decided to wear finally.

Fifteen of us went together to the venue at Ryogoku by train.

We sat at the box seat called "masu seki (升席)" for four people each. It was very small, and a little bit different from my imagination.

All the tickets were sold out because today is Sunday and the first day of the tournament.
There were banners saying "Sellout crowd (満員御礼: manin onrei ). "

We saw the ceremonies from 3:30 pm and enjoyed watching matches until 6 pm.
Some matches were very popular and there were many prizes for the winner.
The last demonstration called yumitorishiki (弓取り式) was nice too.

Unfortunately Yokozuna Hakuho (横綱白鵬) was absent from this tournament, but we enjoyed watching live games.

After that we had a full course dinner at a Friench restaurant at the Tokyo Station Hotel. They were so nice.

I enjoyed the events today.

2016.9.10

It was fine and very hot.

Today we went to Saga Arashiyama (嵯峨嵐山) area to see the examples of preserving historical and natural landscape.

We took a train and walked around a lot.

My step counter showed more than 17000 before getting the bullet train back to Tokyo.

We visited Daikakuji (大覚寺) temple and Gioji (祇王寺) temple first. The combined tickets were yen 600 instead of yen 800 buying at each place.
Daikakuji was very big and has a big pond too. It was calm and  beautiful.

On our way to Gioji we could see the sign of the regulations to preserve the beautiful landscape.

After visiting Gioji we visited a tea room to taste Japanese Green Tea where they offered a charm which will make our one wish come true.

We went to Nonomiya jinja (野宮神社) shrine where is a big touristic spot and there were so many people there. It may have been more than 23 years since I went there last. The bamboo forest was very beautiful.

Then we crossed the famous bri dge called "Togetsukyo (渡月橋)" and ate lunch. It may have been more than 10 years since I went there. Last time I took two of my Venezuelan friends when there was Expo 2005.

I felt people there were very used to deal with tourists and kind. They kindly showed us the way to our next destination,  offered to take our pictures, and gave us useful information.

At the Kyoto station I bought my favorite kakinoha zushi (柿の葉ずし) with oshizushi (押し鮨) for dinner.

Since my luggages were so heavy that I went to the office to leave the documents and PC.

It was a fruitful business trip.

2016.9.9

It was fine and very hot.

After visiting a company and construction site in Osaka, we went to have lunch at takoyaki (たこ焼) restaurant. There were 6 people and we ordered 6 different takoyaki dishes to share and try many different tastes. Takoyaki is a small ball-shaped pancake including a piece of octopus. One of them is called Akashiyaki (明石焼き) and it is eaten by dipping in the broth.

Then we went to Kyoto and visited the city hall to listen to the lectures about Kyoto's landscape preserving policies. We learned a lot.

After that we walked around Kyoto city to see the examples of applying the policies.

I have come to Kyoto many times before, but I have never realized about these policies. I walked the unfamiliar streets too.

At night we enjoyed dinner including kuri gohan (栗ご飯), chestnut rice, the fall speciality.