2020.12.31

The last day of 2020.

It was fine. 

I attended a zoom meeting in the morning. Half of the members attended. There was a surprise. I was appointed to escort the first new year's event as a power spot meister. It is a great honor but after many things considered, I decided to decline the offer.

Maybe next time.

This year I have not prepared the New Year's Cards yet by now, and finally today I was writing them. To my shock my printer suddenly became out of order and needed to be repaired. I decided to use the old one. It was OK at first, but there happened something wrong and I could not print addresses. I feel depressed.

There were lots of things I was going to do, but I couldn't. 

How was your 2020？

I believe for most of the people it became an unforgettable year.

Nobody foresaw what we are experiencing now at this time of last year.

For me there were good things and bad things.

Thank you for everthing.

I hope 2021 will become a better one.

Have a nice New Year 2021!

Thsnk you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.30

It was heavily raining early morning, but became fine and rather warm.

I stayed at home all day long and tried general cleaning. I washed my car and all the windows from outside, entrance, and so on.

After decorating flowers, I put New Year's decorations.

At night I joined a zoom year end party.

Usually on December 30 I have a year-end party with classmates of high school. I hope we can get together next year as usual.

2020.12.29

It was fine.

I had an appointment from 13:00 and it was supposed to be two hours, but we enjoyed talking, and finished at 17:00. 

Before or after I was going to visit shrines but gave up.

It was a nice reunion.

After coming back I went shopping for New Year's.

There was a zoom year-end party of the morning activity group. It was fun.

Thank you, thank you..thank you.

2020.12.28

It was fine.

They say it will be colder from tomorrow.

Today is the last working day of this year.

I walked to the station to drink tonight.

After work I went to izakata (居酒屋) in Shinagawa to have dinner. I enjoyed some Japanese sake with seafood apetizers.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.26

It was fine.

I stayed at home all day long.

There were lots of things to do but I did not do anything.....

There were some replies to my Christmas gift of the e-photobook. To my glad it became No.1 in the USA and Spain as well as Japan. I am glad to hear from friends around the world. I hope to see them someday again without any restriction.

Tomorrow is the last working day of the year. This year there are only 6 days off at the end and beginning of the year.

2020.12.26

It was fine.

I started the day with laughter yoga.

I went to massage in the morning, which is my one a month health treatment.

After having lunch I headed for Enoshima. 

This year in September I went to Chikubushima island in Shiga and in November I went to Miyajima island in Hiroshima. Since I went to two of the three great shrines which enshrine Benzaiten, I wanted to visit Enoshima Island by all means within this year and I dicided to go with my Power Spot Laboratory friends. 

We walked around the island and visited shrines, a temple, and caves.

In the evening we took a illumination cruise. Sunset was beautiful, so as night illuminations.

We enjoyed the local specialty bowl for dinner. 

After coming back, I attended a zoom meeting.

It was a nice day.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020 12 25

Merry Christmas!!

Hello.  How have you been?

I hope you are doing fine.

The other day I published the fifth e-photobook about South America.

Here is my Christmas present for you.

You can download it for free of charge for just 5 days.

I hope you enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R449VSQ

2020.12.24

Merry Christmas!

How are you spending this day?

I went to office as usual.  There was a present of Christmas cake, which a very famous pastry chef produced. It was cute and delicious.

In Japan we eat Christmas cake and roast chicken for Christmas eve. 

Most of us are buddhist and shintoist and not Christian. Therefore the way of celebrating Christmas is quite different from other Christian countries.

I enjoyed attending a zoom tea party to learn the relationship of Numerology and Color tonight.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.22

It was fine.

They say from today the new era of winds has started.

 

I published my 5th e-photobook today. It is a collection of pictures in South America where I have been to four times in my life so far.

I hope you enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08R449VSQ

2020.12.21

It was fine.

Today is toji (冬至), winter solstice. It is the day when the daytime is the shortest and the night time is the longest in a year. 

On this day we eat pumpkin, and we take a yuzuyu (柚子湯), hot bath with yuzu fruit. If we do so, it is said we do not get a cold.

They say the new era of wind starts tomorrow.

I took an earlier train to go to health check in Tachikawa. It was rarher far. I took two gynecological examinations after a long time, one for breast cancer, the other for uterus cancer. Both exams are painful.

For lunch I bought a pumpkin dish.

I took a yuzu bath.

2020.12.20

It was fine and very cold.

I started the day with Kid's yoga for adults. After the lesson three of us enjoyed talking. It was fun to know about people whom I only know through zoom lessons.

In the morning I had to stay home to receive three re-delivery goods. I had waited for one more visitor in the morning, but since they did not come I called and changed the schedule to night.

I went to Sugita to shop some gifts and went to Yokohama to see a Japanese movie.

In the night I attended a zoom seminar about wtiting.

There were something I wanted to do, but could not.

2020.12.19

It was fine and very cold in the morning, but became cloudy and even hailed when I was at the mountain.

I went to Isehara to learn the strings art for the second time. Before that we visited the Oyama Afuri Jinja shrine. The view from the mountain was very nice and I could see Enoshima island and Oshima island.

I wanted to go up to the summit but we did not have enough time.

Maybe next time.

We had a nice tofu course lunch.

After that we went to the instructor's house and enjoyed making strings art. This time I made yin and yang by gold and silver strings.

I am glad to have made it.

After coming back to Yokohama, I went to bookstores to buy my favorite 10 years diary. However to my shock it seems they are discontinued. Therefore I bought a different 10 years diary.

It will be another treasure of my 10 years history record.

At night there was a zoom drinking party of my university friends. I just attended for a short time. One was attending from Chile, and the other was from Iwate prefecture.

This was the second time for us to have such a reunion.

It is nice to see old friends, isn't it?

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.18

It was fine and very cold.

On my way back I attended two zoom seminars on the train. One was about language and translation, and the other was about horoscope. 

There are only two weeks left this year.

How fast time flies!

Usually we have the year end party around this time of the year. However because of COVID-19, many people refrain from having parties this year.

How about in your country?

2020.12.17

It was fine and very cold.  

Mt. Fuji looked so beautiful. 

The Ginko tree near my office is yellow and so beautiful.

Today is a pay day so that I went to some ATMs in Yokosukachuo on my way home. 

Today I received the first Christmas card from the USA though I have not prepared any yet.

I got a notebook from Vortex today.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12 15

It was fine but very cold.

Mt. Fuji looked so beautiful.

I received the result of health check which I took on October 26.  There were some good and bad changes from last year.

There was an anmouncement of The Kanji of the Year yesterday. This year's kanji is mitsu (密) which means "closed." Because of COVID-19, we are asked to avoid sanmutsu (三密) which means Three Cs in English: 1 Closed spaces 2 Crowded places 3 Close-contact settings.

They ssy there were 208,025 entries, and mitsu got 28,401 votes.

Today is the new moon. Let's write the wishes!

From today the new year's cards to be delivered on January 1 are accepted to to post. I have not bought them yet. If we post by Christmas, they will be delivered on January 1st.

2020.12.14

It was fine.

I arrived at Ikebukuro before7 am, and went to office directly.

After coming home, I talked with a person from the Insurance company. I am glad to hear that they will pay for the repair of the roof.

Thank you, thak you, thank you.

2020.12.13

It was fine at first, became rain, and became fine again and rained again.

I started the day with Kid's yoga for adults.

After checking out the hotel we headed for seven waterfalls. It was so nice. After finishing seven waterfalls visit, it started raining. I felt very lucky.

We had soba noodle lunch. The restaurant seems very famous and crowded.

We visited two shrines.

And we had sweets.

After coming back to Kanazawa station, I went to a shrine and the castle park by myself, and took a bus to go around the city.

After that I had seafood dinner.

It was a nice trip eating delicious foods here and there and visiting many shrines and waterfalls.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.12

It was a rainy day but became fine too.

I started the day with laughter yoga.

First we went to have lunch at a Sushi restaurant in Toyama. It was a nice experience.

Next we visited Kosokotai jingu shrine where there are enshrined 126 gods. The way of procedure of praying is different from other shrines. Usually we bow twice and clap twice and once bow again. But there we did four bows and 8 claps.

The yellow and red leaves were so beautiful.

Third we visited a park where there is the most beautiful Starbucks. It seems it is beautiful at night.

Fourth we visited the Sake brewer. There was a surprise there.

Fifth we went to have dinner at the same restaurant as yesterday.

There were lots of dishes and I could not finish all.

It was another nice day.

2020.12.11

I arrived at Kanazawa around 8:10 in the morning.and attended a morning activity after a long time.

My appointment was 11:07 so that I decided to eat breakfast.

After getting together, eight of us from different places drove about one hour and a half  to eat  Oyster course lunch.

After that we visited a shrine near the beach and sacred water place, and gold leaf museum.

There are many good things in Kanazawa. 

At night we ate my favorite crab dinner.It was so nice.

And we went to Karaoke.

2020.12.10

It was fine.

After work I stayed at the office to attend a zoom meeting.

I take a day off tomorrow to attend a special tour in Kanazawa.

There are four ways to go there, by Shinkansen, by airplane, by car, and by Express bus.

I decided to take a night bus leaving Tokyo at 22:20 and arriving at Kanazawa at 8:05.

It must be a longest time but the cheapest way. To my lucky I found a reasonable ticket by a special campaign.

This may be the first time for me to leave from the Kajibashi parking lot to take a night bus. My bus is delayed a little bit.

2020.12.9

It was fine.

I usually go to convenience stores before going to office to buy lunch so that I can make use of lunch time. First 15 minutes I watch NHK's morning drama's rebroadcast from 12:45, and news for 5 minutes and have lunch watching YouTube or sonething.

So usually I stay in my office most of the time.

I saw beautiful clouds in the afternoon through windows.

2020.12.8

It was fine.

It's been 40 years since John Lennon was shot in New York. 

It's been79 years since the Pearl Harbour.

What events do you remember on this day?

For me it is my friend's birthday.

2020.12.6

It was fine.

I started the day with Kid's yoga for adults.

I stayed at home all day long today.

In the afternoon I attended a zoom seminar about what to do at the end of the year and the beginning of the year. This is the second time to listen to this lecture.

I prepared the documents to submit tbe insurance company.

2020.12.5

It was a rainy day.

I went to Roppongi to visit "NO BORDERS  A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ART EXHIBIT 2020" at The National Art Centet, Tokyo with someone whom I met at Tomonoura tour last month.

In Roppongi there are three places I want to visit whenever I go there. Her train seemed delayed, therefore I visited Izumotaisha shrine Tokyo branch and Tenso shrine before meeting her and Fuji Film Square after the exhibition together.

The exhibition was really nice and I felt "Art is unlimited."

At Fuji Film Square there was an interesting service of making a photo post card.

We had a nice lunch at a Japanese restaurant.

After that I went to Omiya to take a calligraphy lesson. It was fun. After three hours lesson we moved to a nearby family restaurant and drew some more works again.

After that I met my friend from Expo '92 and had dinner, and went to a cafe to have dessert.

It was a nice day.

Thank you, thank you., thank you.

2020.12.4

It was fine.

I took an hour off to attend the year-end monthly meeting. Before that I went shopping for tomorrow's Calligraphy lesson. Every day I only go to the office from the station via convenience stores, and sometimes I go out for lunch, and go to the post office. Therefore I have not walked around the area. I found many used book stores, tea rooms and restaurants around the station.

The meeting was nice. I am inspired whenever I attend there. It is nice to listen to the story of successful people.

At night I tried to watch my friend"s Facebook live but I myself appeared by chance.

2020.12.3

It was cloudy and cool today.

I am planning many things.

I was going to see a movie in the morning of Saturday but I found today was the last day of showing. How shocked!

I think we should do something when we want to do. Otherwise the chance will leave without waiting for us.

I have been thinking whether I should attend the event next month or not. I feel like attending but I need to take at least a half day off and it costs a lot. But I applied.

At night I attended Month reading zoom session for two hours or so. It was fun and we decided to get together for the special interest meeting in four weeks.

2020.12.2

It was cloudy and cold in the morning but became rain in the afternoon.

I attended a bilingual event by YouTube live. It was hard to listen. I should have chosen one language to concentrate.

At night I talked with someone by zoom. I have known her for several months from the same interest community, but have never talked face to face until today. We found something in common and enjoyed talking.

These days I receive many stock related documents including calendars and winter gifts. Yesterday I chose new rice and today I chose seafoods. It's so nice to have such good stocks.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2020.12.1

A new month has started. December is junigatsu (12月 or 十二月), the twelfth month, or called shiwasu (師走), meaning teachers run.

It is hard to believe there is only one month left.

Before going to the office I visited the nearby shrine as a ritual of the first day of the month.

In the afternoon I watched "Brand Japan Award Ceremony" by YouTube. It was very interesting.

I did not know Calpis has more than 100 years of history.

Today there was an announcement of the word of the year. Sanmutsu (3密) was chosen for the grandprix. Sanmitsu means 3C in English: Crowded places, Closed-contact Settings, and Confined and enclosed Space.