2019.2.28

The end of February. One sixth of 2019 has gone. How fast time flies!

It's been raining.

I felt lucky because during our business trip to Kansai it did not rain.

At the end of every month I order a photobook through smartphone. First I choose 20 pictures and upload. Second I edit by writing captions and editor's comment, and decide the order of the pictures. Third I order. It is free of charge and I only need to pay for shipping charge.
It is a very good way to look back what I have done for a month.

This month I went to Chichibu by bus tour, Mt. Takao by my friend's event, and Kansai on a business trip.
I had chances to wear new kimonos and attended luncheon.
There were three programs at work.
So I had a rather busy month.

On my way home after overwork tonight there was a train accident and the train I was on did not go to my station, and I had to take the alternative way.
First I went to Zushi to take JR, second I changed at Kurihama to take Keikyu again. I am still waiting at Kurihama. It seems I cannot come home within today.
What a long day!

2019.2.27

It was cloudy.

We visited two places, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon.

At lunch time we moved to Sannomiya by Hanshin Electric Railway and had beef steak lunch. It was the first time for me to eat at the Ikinari Steak restaurant but they say it is becoming very popular around Japan.
At first they only had counters without chairs, but considering the use of women and children they introduced tables with chairs.
They serve quickly and have a high turnover of customers.
Since we had to wait for a while, I visited the Ikuta shrine which was very close from the restaurant.

The afternoon session ended earlier than we planned.  So we changed the ticket of Shinkansen, and came back a little bit earlier.

2019.2.26

It was fine.

I came to Osaka on a business trip.

It's been a while I came here last.

Osaka is the second largest city in Japan.

There are some differences between Tokyo and Osaka. One of them is dialect.
The other is waiting line. When you stand on escalator, you are expected to stand left side in Tokyo so that people can pass through the right side. However in Osaka it is opposite. So It is cofusing.

 

2019.2.25

It was slightly raining in the morning but to my lucky when I got to Roppongi it was not raining.

We (3 Japanese, 1 Thai, 1 Indonesian) went out for lunch at an Asian restaurant.
We happened to choose the same Indonesian menu. For Indonesian it was not spicy, for two Japanese it was a bit spicy though I did not think so.
We usually use chopsticks. So as Chinese and Korean. Westerners use knife and fork. Indonesian and Thai use fork and spoon. Indian use hands.
What do you use when you eat?

2019.2.24

It was fine.

I went to Mt.Takao today for the first time. It is one of the places I have wanted to visit for a long time.

My ex-colleague who is a vegetable sommelier planned a special visit eating shojinryori (精進料理), vegetarian foods at the Yakuojin (薬王院) of Mt. Takao.
Five of us got together at the Takaosanguchi (高尾山口) station and started climing the mountain at 10 am. We took the Inariyama (稲荷山) course and arrived at the top of Mt.Takao where is 599 meters high around 11:45 am.
Then we went down and ate lunch at 12:30 pm. It was amazing. Some were pseudo chicken or pork or eel made of soybeans paste or something.

We visited the temples and shrines and came down to the station around 3:30 pm as schedule.

My ex-colleague and her husband took a hot spring bath near the station.

I decided to visit the Trick Art Museum instead. It was a very interesting place. If you have a chance, I recommend you to visit with somebody to take interesting pictures.

On my way back I dropped at Sugita and visited two places.

It was a long day but very fruitful.

2019.2.23

It was fine. 

Kawazu-zakura cherry blossoms are full in bloom.

I went to massage in the morning. This is my once a month health maintenance. There I met two women and decided to have lunch together. The shop we wanted to visit was already closed because of sold out.  So we ate Chinese after all.

After that I visited Iseyma Kotai Jingu shrine where the wedding ceremony was just going to be held.
Then I visited Naritasan.

Since I had some time before the next appointment, I visited the Shinagawa shrine. Red and white plum were full in bloom.

I had an appointment at 4 pm at Shinjuku and 6 pm in Sugita but the person of 4 pm was late and had to cancel at 6 pm appointment.

If I knew it before, I could have done something different...

2019.2.22

It was fine and rather warm.

I started the day early and came home by the last train.

There were many things to do today and two programs out of three have finished successfully.

There was a dinner party tonight and I wore the Myanmar dress which I order-made in Yangon last December. This was different from the ones bought in Myanmar and since I got a piece of cloth and asked the dress-maker to make. The ones I got at the shops tie by strings of the skirt but this ties by two hooks.

I am very glad to wear it at the party.

2019.2.21

It was fine.

I left home earlier and came home very late.

Not only overwork, but also on my way back, there was a fatal accident by the Keikyu train I was on and it stopped for more than two hours or so. This was the very first time I was on the train which was involved in the accident.
The accident happened around 9:45 pm near Koganecho.
Many people got off around 10:10 pm between Koganecho and Hinodecho and seemed to walk to Hinodecho and changed to subway or JR. I am not sure how far to Hinodecho was.  In any case I needed to go to the terminal station and I just waited for it start running again.
After all I came home after midnight. What a long ride!

2019.2.20

It was fine and very warm like April today.

Last night it was raining and I could not see the supermoon but this morning I saw the beautiful full moon.
It was foggy when I left home.

I started early again and came home late again.
Two programs started today and there were many things to do.

Tomorrow another program begins too.

2019.2.19

I started the day early.

I took 6:17 am train to Narita Airport to meet the guests. It took more than 3 hours to get there.
We visited the Narita Airport and Community History Museum and heard the story from the volunteer guide who was involved in the struggle about a half century ago. This was the second time for me to visit there.

When we got out of museum it started raining.

We went back to the airport to pick up suit cases and took trains to Roppngi which took about two hours.

After eating lunch I visited the Fuji Film Square after a long time. There were beautiful pictures of Iceland where I want to visit someday.

I went back to office and overworked, and came home around 10:30 pm.

It was a long day to have ridden on the trains for more than 7 hours.

Today is usui (雨水), one of nijyushisekki(二十四節気), 24 solar terms. Usui literally means rain water. Though tonight it is the supermoon it was rainy and I could not see it.

2019.2.18

It was fine.

I left home earlier and got home later.

From tomorrow I will be busy for managing three programs. There were many things to prepare. Printing the documents for all the participants and making files is one of them.
There was something wrong with a printer in the afternoon. A repair service man was called soon and he fixed the problem. Many of us were saved by his deed in this busy time. Thank you.

2019.2.17

It was cloudy at first but became fine.

I went to the Kimono-style Miya to have hair-set, makeup, and dressed. Then we went out and took pictures for kimono magazine for May edition.
It was taken place at the Jiro Osaragi Memorial Museum (大仏次郎記念館) at Yamate, Yokohama. There is a tea room upstairs where you can book for tea ceremony or poem-making meeting, or lunceon.
They say it is very beautiful at spring when cherry blossoms are full in bloom or fall when leaves turn in red and yellow.
I hope to visit there again in spring and fall.

2019.2.16

It was fine.

I walked to the station and went to Shinjuku sanchome to attend a seminar in the morning.

I walked to Nishi-Shinjuku to attend a lecture in the afternoon and measured AGE.

After that I went to Roppongi to see the art exhibition and met my friend there. It was fun to talk with her because we have a strange connection. We have a mutual Spanish-French friend in New York.

Then I went back to Shinjuku to have dinner party at an Italian restaurant. There came 7 in total. We have known each other for a long time.  But it's been a while since these 7 got together.

It was a fruitful day.

2019.2.15

It was cloudy and cold in the morning, and  snowed in the afternoon for a while. It was unexpected.

Before going to work I visited three shrines as a ritual of the 15th.

Next week there will be three programs and I overworked for a few hours.

There were some unexpected news today.
I hope things will be better tommorrow.

2019.2.14

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Different from other countries in Japan it is a day when girls and women give chocolates to boys and men. And after a month later there is a day called White Day when boys and men give sweets to girls and women in return.

How about in your country?

2019.2.13

It was cloudy and very cold.

On my way back, there happened something on the trains and I came home around 10 pm.

Our office introduces flex time system and  the core time is from 10 am to 3 pm. Between 7 am and 10 pm we have to work 7 hours and 45 minutes including the core time. We can adjust the total working hours within a month.

Today at lunch time three of us talked about the time. One of them said she usually gets up at 4 am and leaves home at 6:30 am and starts working at 7:10 am to leave early.  I live in a country and take more than two hours to commute, so I start working  at 9:30 am or so and come home later than 9:00 pm. I like starting late and my previous job started at 10 am.

But to make use of after 5 I should start early too.

2019.2.12

It was fine and cold in the morning and became cloudy.

I visited two shrines before going to work and during the lunch time.

I had a group meeting in the morning.

After having quick lunch, I went out by getting 2 hours off. This is one of good working conditions I like.
On my way back to the office I visited the Fuji Film Square after a long time.

There was a good news regarding the fire insurance I made a contract last Saturday. The total payment is very expensive. Therefore I wished to pay by credit card to get points. The person refused on Saturday but he asked the company and it introduced the new payment system so that I could pay by credit card.

This may be the grace of gods I visited last Sunday.

2019.2.11

It is a national holiday called kenkoku kinen no hi (建国記念の日), National Foundation Day today.

It snowed slightly in the morning, and became cloudy in the afternoon. It was very cold. I am glad it did not rain at least.

I went to the Kimono-style Miya to get hairset, make-up, and dressed and went to Kacho (花蝶) in Ginza to attend luncheon. There were 40 people who love kimono there.

2019.2.10

It is the middle of three-day weekend.
Weather was fine but very cold.

I got up early to get on the first train to attend a bus tour to Chichibu leaving from Shinjuku at 7:30 am.

There were 5 spots to visit in the tour. Four of them were shrines.  My purpose to attend this tour was to see icecles at Chichibu. During the season they light up the site and I wanted to see both day time and night time sceneries.

However it is the three-day weekend and many tours to go there both were full. This was the only one I could book with the icecle site. Unfortunately it did not include the lighten-up scenery but since today is the extremely good day to visit shrines I decided to join. I enjoyed every site visit. I also enjoyed talking with participants who joined the tour by themselves. They know many good places to visit and I felt like going there.

We came back to Shinjuku around 7 pm.

It was a nice day.

2019.2.9

It was cloudy and very cold.
In Tokyo it snowed.

Today is the first day of three day weekend. I stayed at home.

It is the time to renew the fire insurance. Last time my father made a contract of 5 years at one time payment. During this peroid a few major price change happened because of many natural disasters. Therefore it became very expensive to pay at once. However to pay once is cheaper than to pay 5 times.
So after a few hours consulting, I decided to pay once.
I hope I do not have to use it for another five years.

2019.2.8

It was fine.

They say it will snow tomorrow.

We have a three-day weekend because Monday is a national holiday called kenkoku kinen no hi (建国記念の日), National Foundation Day.

What is your plan for this weekend?

I will stay at home and relax tomorrow.

I have plans on Sunday and Monday.
I hope it will be fine.

TGIF

2019.2.7

It was fine.

I attended the last English workshop today in the morning. There were many topics to learn and time was too short to practice everything.

This was one of the benefits I liked working at my office for the past 3 years.

I received a boxed sweets from Indonesia as a souvenir from a professor.

This is another benefit.

I liked the location and the flex system.

The best thing was the job itself which is very interesting, international, and exciting. I could  make use of all the experience and visit many places both in Japan and abroad.

2019.2.6

It rained slightly in the morning but became fine in the aftetnoon.

After work I went to Awajicho to attend a monthly meeting. We heard a lot of exciting information. After the general meeting, we had a group meeting. It was fun to hear about spiritual stories.

2019.2.5

It was fine.

Today is Lunar New Year.  Happy New Year!
In Japan we do not celebrate it but there is a big China Town in Yokohama, and they must have a big celebration.

It is a new moon too. I started writing 10 wishes on every new moon day about 2 years ago. There are slight changes depends on each month's event, but my basic wishes are almost the same.
What kind of wishes do you have?

2019.2.4

It was fine and rather warm like April.

Today is risshun (立春), one of nijyushisekki(二十四節気), the 24 solar terms. The last one is daikan (大寒) on January 20 and the next one is usui (雨水) on February 19.
Risshun literally means stand spring, and it is the first day of spring.

In many fortune-telling world, it is regarded as the start of the new year.

Happy New Year!!

2019.2.3

It was fine and rather warm at this time of the year.

I stayed at home to wait for two deliveries and a repair serviceman for solar panel control panel.

I cleared some kimonos.

Today is setsubun (節分) literary means dividing season. We usualy scatter roast beans to drive away devils by saying, "oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi (鬼は外、福は内) devils out fortunes in.  "

2019.2.2

It was fine and beautiful.

I went to Shinjuku to attend Morinda's monthly meeting.

After having light lunch I went to Anahachimangu (穴八幡宮) shrine in Waseda where they offer the special talisman called ichiyoraifuku omamori ( 一陽来復御守) from toji (冬至), winter solstice to setsubun (節分), the day before the first spring day. They are the special times of division of the year.
I went there last year for the first time after knowing about it. There are only three chances to put it on the wall facing to the good direction of the year. They are either at the midnight of toji, new year's eve (omisoka: 大晦日) or setsubun which is tomorrow. There was a long waiting line to buy it.

In front of the shrine there is a popular taiyaki(鯛焼き) shop. Taiyaki is a bream-shaped baked sweets filled in azuki (小豆) sweet red bean paste or other creams. I bought two of them, one is azuki sweet red bean paste, the other is time-limited sweet potato paste. There was another long waiting line to buy them because they make one by one.

After that I went to the 8Bunkyo Civic Center in Korakuen to see the Diamond Fuji from the 25th observatory floor. It was one of my dreams to take pictures of the Diamond Fuji. I happened to know the information by my friend's Facebook post. The sun set a little bit right side, but I am glad to see it.

One my way there I happend to see an acquaintance at the Iidabashi station.

After taking pictures, I met a friend and had another time-limited cake set.

It was a nice day.

2019.2.1

A new month has started. February is nigatsu (二月) or kisaragi (如月) in Japanese. It is the coldest month.

It was fine but very cold today.

This morning there was an inspection of the train or something at Mita station of Toei Asskusa Line and from Shinagawa to Daimon I had to take the alternative way. I took JR from Shinagawa to Hamamatsucho instead.

Usually I visit the shrines near my house and near my office in the morning of the first day of the month before working. But this morning I had to take the irregular way, and could not visit shrines near the office. Instead I went there at lunch time.