2019.12.31

It was a warm fine day.

I stayed at home all day long.

I watched the dramas again.

At night I watched Kohaku utagassen (紅白歌合戦.) White won.

How was your 2019?

Mine was good.

I wish you a Happy New Year!!

2019.12.30

It was slightly rainy in the daytime.

I cleaned the Shinto Altar called 

kamidana and entrance.

After that I went to see my friend in Hinodecho.

In the afternoon I went to China town to attend a high school reunion which is an.annual event. There were 11 of us. 

We started at 14:00 and ate and drink a lot.

After that we moved to Karaoke place and sang and drank a lot. 

It was interesting to hear the fact I did not know when we were high school students.

2019.12.29

It was fine.

I prepared New Year's cards finally.

In the afternoon I happened to see a drama which I enjoyed before on TV and I kept watching all the episodes after all.

In the evening I went grocery shopping for new years.

And at night I watched two dramas which ended tonight.

I spent too much time for watching TV today.

At this season there are special programs on TV which last for a few hours. I should be very careful not to waste time.

2019.12.28

It was fine.

I went to Yokohama to see my friend. We met early this year at the Hawaiian pan cake cafe last time. So we decided to get together at a pan cake place at the end of this year. 

I found the restaurant by Internet. I was the first customer there today. Since we did not have breakfast we decided to eat instead of having pan cakes. It was fun.

She asked me to be a cosmetic monitor. So I did. I am not sure the difference between before and after but she saw the difference in me. It is intereting.

After that I went to see a movie "Star Wars IX The Last Jedi"

After that I bought "My Book" at Yurindo and asked them to cover it by orange paper which is my rythm color of the next year. 

After that I went to Shinagawa for dinner at Grand Central Oyster Bar. It's been a while since I went there last. It seems more expensive than New York one.

2019.12.27

It was fine. At daytime there were no clouds at all. I saw the very beautiful sunset with Mt. Fuji from the 23rd floor.

Today is the last day for most office workers for this year. This is called shigoto osame (仕事納め). If it is the official place, it is called goyo osame (御用納め).

For two of our colleagues it was their last day for our department. There was a farewell ceremony.

This year many people have 9 days year-end & year-beginning holiday.  This period is called nenmatsu nenshi (年末年始).

Have a nice holiday!

2019.12.26

It was cloudy.

After work I went to Otemachi to have dinner with a friend. Since we didn't decide the restaurant before meeting we walked around two buildings here and there. We entered an Italian restaurant at 19:15. If we entered before 19:00 they were offering happy hour special. We will go there earlier next time.

We enjoyed talking about what we have accomplished this year and planning next year's events.

I realized I did a lot this year.

Today is the new moon. It is a good time to make plans. 

2019.12.25

Merry Christmas!!

It was a cold cloudy day.

There was luncheon. Since there is a vegetarian we went to Koromu at Gakushikaikan again.

Eight of us attended. I ate shrimp dish of lunch menu. I expected the special menu for Christmas but since it was a Chinese restaurant, there was nothing special.

I learned how to upload to YouTube today.

I also learned that new year in Southern India is in April.

After work I went to Shinagawa to attend a seminar. I am glad to have asked questions and got answers.

2019.12.24

Merry Christmas!!

It was a very beautiful day.

In the afternoon a professor gave us very delicious cakes. There were three in our office today and we chose three different cakes and enjoyed one third of each taste: chocolate, strawberry, and green tea. 

They say the cake shop is Japanese but very famous in Europe and it imported the green tea flavour again to Japan. They looked expensive. We really enjoyed the three cakes.

In Japan we eat Christmas cake on Christmas. 

From today free promotion of my 8th ebook has started. This is my Christmas present. I hope many people enjoy reading about Japan.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082ZL7H3C

2019.12.23

It was cloudy and cold.

This morning I went to health check. 

After work I went to Yokosukachuo to go to banks.

Dec.23 is ex Emperor's birthday. Until last year it was a national holiday. He became 86 years old. 

Happy.birthday!

2019.12.22

It was a cold rainy day.

Today is toji (冬至), one of nijyushisekki (二十四節気)  twenty four solar terms.Last one was taisetsu (大雪) on December 7 and the next one is shokan (小寒) on January 6.

Toji literally means winter reach. It is winter solstice. It is the day daytime is the shortest in a year. As a custom we eat pumpkin and take yuzuyu (柚子湯), bath with yuzu not to get cold.

I stayed at home all day long and publushed the 8th ebook "Things Japanese in August." I was going to go out for shoppingg but did not.

2019.12.21

It was cloudy.

In the morning there were some deliveries. One of them was unexpected. Almost every day I eat cereal. There was a campaign last month and I applied. And I got 2kg of potatoes from Hokkaido and some original ziplocks. How lucky I am!

I went to the Kimono Style Miya to have my hairset, makeup, and dressed up two new beautiful kimonos and pictures taken.

After that I went to the restaurant at the 70th floor of Royal Park Hotel and enjoyed the special Christmas dinner. It was delicious and the view was beautiful.

It was a nice day.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2019.12.20

It was fine and beautiful.

After work I went to massage after a while. I usually go there once a month but I had a bad back pain last month and could not go. It seems there were many parts I needed massage.

After coming home, I was surprised to see the private road to my house.  The owner of the back mountain seems to start building the wall against the cliff to prevent the crumble.

They did not inform me at all.

I will miss mountain lilies.

2019.12.19

It was a cold rainy day. But fortunately I did not have to use umbrella.

There were many things to do at office which was nice.

There were something wrong with the phone at office. And we decided to buy a new set. There are three staff in our office so we tried to find the main cord phone with two cordless handiphones. I picked up five sets. Three were the same products with different colors but their main phone was also cordless. Since we do not know the reason of malfunction we are looking for the cord phone. We will keep finding it tomorrow.

There is something wrong with my PC at home which is not good at this busy time of the year.

2019.12.18

It was fine.

There were many things to do at work which was good.

Towards the end of the year many TV programs end these days. I saw one of them tonight. It was a happy ending which was nice.

Results of the tickets to see Olympics arrived. I could not get any after all. I have been to many places to see Olympics since Barcelona 1992 such as Atlanta 1996, Nagano 1998, Sydney 2000, Salt Lake 2002,and Athene 2004. But not Tokyo in spite of living in Japan. No marathon in Tokyo. What a pity!

I hope to see something somewhere.

2019.12.17

It was a slightly rainy day.

They say today is 100 day before the Torch relay for the Olympic starts from J Village in Fukushima on March 26. Many cerebrities will run too. About 10,000 people run through all the prefectures by unique ways for 121 days.

There are 220 days left until the Olympics starts.

There were some arrangements I needed to do today. Most of them were the first experiences. Each site is different, which was what I learned when I was in the USA as a JOI coordinator.

This is the third graduate school. The duty of each place is different. But the most important is communication. Tonight I had a chance to talk with faculty which was nice to know what they are thinking.

These days I had a few chances to see the visiting scholars from abroad. I am a bit surprised that most of them do not carry business cards.

Use of business card is popular in Japan in business world but maybe it is not so popular as before in academic world? Or it was just coincidence.

2019.12.16

It was fine.

There were two guests and I was rather busy and overworked for two hours.

They say new year's cards have been accepted since yesterday. If you post them by December 25, they will be delivered on January 1.

2019.12.15

It was fine.

In the morning I brought old newspaper and cardboard to the designated area.  Those things were used be collected by local children's association, but they stopped collecting. 

After that I went to the nearby shrine for the 15th ritual.

I went to the beauty salon to have my hair cut and permed. I was the first customer of today.

I visited the kimono shop to buy something.

I hoped to buy a Christmas present for my English friend but I could not find this time.

After that I went to Kamiyacho to attend a seminar. To my surprise I happened to see my friends there. It started at 13:30 and lasted until 17:00 without break.

After the seminar my friend and I had a steak dinner.

After that I decided to go to Roppongi to visit Fuji Film Square where I have often visited while I worked in Roppongi. If you visit there 24 times, you can get a beautiful calendar, and today was 24th times and I got the one which is sold at yen 2,200. 

I decided to see the illumination which I often saw for the past three years. It was very beautiful and not so crowded yet as Christmas Day.

It was a nice day.

2019.12.14

It was fine.

I slept a lot to get rested.

I stayed at home all day long. 

I finished writing the manudctipt of Things Japanese in August. I hope to publish it soon.

2019 12 13

It was cloudy.

There was a visitor to our office. Almost every day we communicate by emails but this was the very first time to see each other. Face-to-face communication is very important.

On my way back I dropped at Yokosukachuo to go to banks. At the supermarket I found special offerings.

They say today is the starting day to prepare the New Years. 

Yesterday there was an announcenent of 25th Kanji of the year. It is 令(rei) of 令和 (reiwa). There were 216,325 entries and there were 30,427 votes for 令 because of the new era 令和 and the new law 法令 for consumer tax and official announcement 発令 of evacuation at the time of natural disaster.

No. 2 was 新 which means new and got 14,850 votes. No.3 was 和 which means harmony and got 10,281 votes. No.4 was 変 which means change and  No.5 was 災 which means disaster.

Last year's Kanji of the year was 災.

2019.12.12

It was fine.

Today is full moon.

After work I met a friend and had dinner at Shinagawa. I have tried to book a restaurant since yesterday but all was full and they did not accept the reservation. Therefore we decided to walk in. The first restaurat said they were full and needed to wait for half an hour. So we gave up and decided to go to other place. We went to Izakaya which is dining and drinking place and ate many different dishes.

It was fun to talk with someone that have common dreams.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2019.12.11

It was cloudy in the day time but slightly rained in the evening.

After work I went to Takanawadai to attend 

a seminar. It was interesting as always and I got new infornation about New Year's rituals to bring good luck.

It started at 18:50 and lasted for more than three hours.

I met some friends there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2019.12.10

It was slightly raining when I left home but it was fine when I got to Tokyo.

Usually I check emails and send messages on the train. Today I sent birthday messages. One of them replied saying "Thank you for remembering my birthday every year. I did not realize it until I got your email." 

For me birthday is the most important day in a year. And I don't understand why some people forget about it. How about you?

2019.12.9

It was fine in the morning, became cloudy in the afternoon, and slightly rained at night. It was rather cold.

I went out for lunch with my colleague. There were two choices. Since I read a mail magazine mentioned that today's lucky meal is steak, we had Steak lunch.

After work I went to see a movie "Yuzuriha" in Mita which was nice.

On my way back home, I happened to see my friend from high school. It was a surprise because I thought he was still stationed in Malaysia. He said he came back to the headquarters in July.

2019.12.8

It was fine.

There was a year-end luncheon at Yokohama. There were more than 20 participants wearing kimono. There were two new faces. I enjoyed talking with people at the same table and eating Italian dishes.

Before going there I visited Iseyama kotai jingu shrine and Naritasan temple. 

Ginkgo tree was yellow and beautiful.

After the party I was going to Tokyo, but it was too late to go so I went shopping instead.

Sunset was so beautiful today.

Thank you  thank you, thank you.

2019.12.7

It was s cold rainy day.

I wore the thick overcoat and glove for the first time this winter.

There was a possibility of snow but did not.

I went to Onarimon to attend Mr. Ken Honda's one day seminar.

There were some group works and we made a group of six people. It was interesting because I could find something in common with all five nembers.

To dream an ideal future is fun.

I met some friends and made more friends too.

It was a fruitful seminar.

Thank you  thank you, thank you.

2019.12.6

It was cloudy and rather cold. They say it might be snow tomorrow.

I went out for lunch at a Chinese restaurnt with a colleague who used to work at the same place as I did from 2016 to 2018.

She also lives faraway from office and it takes more than 2 hours each. 

I got the result.of skin check which I applied for the other day. It said my skin was minus 5 years of the real age.

2019.12.5

It was fine.

There were two big events today.

In the afternoon there were Conference of Competitiveness 2019 and Porter Prize Ceremony.  Four Japanese companies were awarded and there were interview sessions with CEOs. After the recess there was a lecture titled "How CEOs Manage Their Time" by Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University followed by panel discussion. It lasted for four hours.

It was more interesting than I thought.

After work I attended monthly meeting which is held at the beginning of every month. I was late for an hour. After the meeting I asked the question and felt relieved.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

2019.12.4

It was fine.

There have been earthquakes these days.

Today I knew that one of the colleagues used to work at the same place as I worked from 2016 to 2018.  

I hear there are three who worked there. So I have met two of them.

When I worked there there were some people who worked at the same place as I worked from 2009 to 2013.

It's a small world, isn't it?

2019.12.3

It was fine.

At lunch time I had un urgent work therefore I took lunch time a bit later than usual.

It was such a beautiful day that I decided to go to see Daijokyu (大嘗宮) at the Imperial Palace. 

My office is very close from Hirakawamon(平川門) gate but it was only used as exit and I had to walk to Sakashitamon (坂下門) gate.

There were so many visitors today, and I could not take good pictures. But I was very glad to be able to see the special complex built for the special event of the ceremony of enthronement.

Thank you, thank you  thank you!

2019.12.2

It was fine in the morning but became rain in the afternoon. It stopped raining in the evening and the crescent moon was so beautiful.

I usually buy lunch at convenience stores but when it is rain I use the dining hall. So I ate there with my colleague.

My train delayed on my way back home due to rain though I did not see any rain at night.

2019.12.1

A new month has started. December is junigatsu (

十二月) the 12th month. Its lunar name is shiwasu (師走), literally means teachers run.

It was fine.

I went to shrine as the first day ritual.

Then I went to Komeda coffee shop to see my friend and ordered the morning set where you can have a half piece of toasted bread without paying additionally. It's Nagoya culture.

After coming back, I ordered Nohana which is a photobook of 20 pictures. I feel I had many things last month.

2019.11.30

The last day of November.

How fast time flies!

It was fine. Mt. Fuji and the sunset were so beautiful.

In the morning I received the delivery by Sagawa. To my surprise they changed the service from seal to signature on device. I also received the new years cards I ordered the other day.

In the afternoon I went to Misaki to see a movie which I had to book but free. I had to pay for the parking lot.

After that I went to Kimono-style Miya to have my hair set, makeup, dressed up, and pictures taken

I had dinner at a Japanese restsurant at the 68th floor. It was delicious.