The first snow in this winter. Snowfall on the last day of the year. Uh ! Cooooold !
Have a very nice last day of the year 2004 !

Stay calm, the earth !

It's so depressing to know that the big wave caused by the gigantic earthquake in Indonesia killed more than 12,000 people of the nations along the Indian Ocean, including many tourists for holidays from the world. Why? What's wrong with our planet? It's not simply a matter of the news far away from my country. Earthquake is basically a natural disaster which can threaten anybody anytime without any notice. It had just jolted the central-nothern part of Japan two months before and brought about incredaibly huge damages on our lands and in residents' hearts. And gradually and very slowly things are seemingly going upword with hopes.
Then this news from the Indian Ocean slaps our hearts down to the depression. Please for the sake of us, stay calm, the earth. We are only powerless human beings against the Nature and the Universe. Let us live up our short span of life just in peace. I can't help praying these words hoping the Nature can hear us. Gosh, only if they had had a tunami warning system------

Now it's the coming of the New Year

Now the Christmas of 2004 is over. I went to the office today, even though it was Sunday, to get together with my colleagues. For one thing it was for having lunch all together at a Japanese restaurant. We have 10 staffs including the boss. Usually we won't see all of them through a week. So it was really nice to meet one another at the same time and have luch together. We looked back over this past year and laughed a lot about who did this and that and all sorts of pleasant topics. And after enjoying the meal, there we had another enjoyment. Cleaning up our office ! That was today's main event! Gee, it was really a good exercise after a big lunch. Haveing a lunch before cleaning up was a perfect decision.
Now from tommorow being away from my job, I'll be playing a role of a very busy housewife preparing for the New Year's Eve and the very first day of 2005. Oh boy, that makes me feel dizzy.
(I changed the style sheet of my blog in case I won't have enough time to sit at the computer before the coming of the new year.)

It's Christmas!

Here is my short Christmas greetings to those who are very special for me.
Thanks for coming over to my blog.
I hope you might enjoy it as well as I do.

Please click here and you will see my greetings.

Out of order

It's been less than one year since we got this coffee maker. It is out of order again! Again means this is not the first time. It has gotten useless twice in a year. I didn't handle it in a wrong way nor didn't drop it, but all of a sudden the switch went dead. Why? Again? No kidding! Last time they said they'd changed a fuse. Is it this fuse again? Then why? Is there any other cause that the fuse has blown again? I brought a coffee maker today to the shop I bought it from and ask these questions to a salesclerk. He couldn't make me understand to any of these questions. All he could do for me was just to fill out a repair form and check the date on his watch and tell me "it won't be back before New Year." Gosh! It isn't my responsibility, rather it's their responsibility to sell such a poor coffee maker which get useless in a short period of time. They should be kind enough to give me a new one. I was disappointed with their attitude towards their business. I should have called up the customer service center at the coffee maker company at first hand. Without a coffee maker, how can we go through Christmas and New Year ? We can't enjoy espresso. That's really disappointing.

His absence

I got up 5:30, still dark outside. I woke my husband up to send him out for his golfing with his colleagues. How happy they are! They are enjoying golfing away from the daily trifling matters while their wives must have been busy vacuuming the rooms, doing the laundries, or washing the dishes at this time of the day with other busy schedule to get prepared for lunch for the rest of the family and to go out for shopping for Christmas and New Year by the time their husbands get home.
Fair or unfair? There are various ways of analyzing it. Many wives, of course, are simply miss their husbands hoping to spend time together with them. However, husbands should know that many wives might have a subconscious desire to enjoy their own life after ten or twenty years of marriage life. There once was a popular, funny but cynical TV commercial copy for mothballs. A middle aged, overweight, full-time housewife is skipping along the street chanting "It's so nice as far as my old man is healthy and won't be home till late."
That connotes that a husband's absence from home makes a wife's life easier as far as he is healthy and works hard for his family. Well what do you think?

Hectic time of the season

Now it is December. I went to Takashimaya department stores to send out some "Oseibo"(a year-end gift) to our family acquaintances.
See, there are lots of people here and there, everywhere.
This last month of the year is quite busy for everyone, especially for every housewife. New Year is right on the way so December is the time to get everything ready and set for the coming year, such as cleaning up the house, sending out the New Year cards, and cooking the special New Year dishes right on time for the first morning of the New Year. Oh, but, here is one more important event for us. -----Christmas! Though most of the Japanese are not Christians, Christmas is such an important event for every families and friends and lovers in Japan. I have to get the presents for the family, make Christmas dishes. And on the next day right after Christmas, you put every Christmas decorations away into boxes and we all set ready for the New Year. Whew, just this simple imagination makes me feel dizzy. So those last five days before the New Year is by all means, very very hectic time of all the year round.

Rose! Rose! Rose!

A good friend of mine gave me a bunch of different roses in colors, sizes and types
I'm not familiar with roses. Of course I love flowers, but I'm not goot at learning their names by heart, not to mention different names of roses. Roses are roses.
They are just gorgeous and beautiful enough to fascinate me with their charms.

On the train

It has been cloudy all day and the temperature never goes up higher than 16C. The air is cold and it is chilly outside. This morning, I had to go downtown to the main bank office to deal with our family bank account. Well, I drove to the car dealer first and left my car there for its safety check-up. Then I walked to the nearest station and get on the train to go downtown. It's so fun to watch many kinds of notice or commercial advertisements on the walls or some hanging from the ceiling on a train. I'm especially enjoying watching the advertisements of the weekly magazines. Some are very social and political and some are full of gossips headlines of popular TV and movie well-known faces. Well, this is one of ways to kill time until a train gets to my destination.
Nowadays, people with commonsense refrain from talking with their cell phones on trains and in hospitals. However, look at some people there on a train I took this morning. No, they are not talking to a cell phone but, they are busy inputting mails to send out or busy net surfing some their favorite sites. I am always skeptical whether this is ok for those that have pace makers embedded in their hearts.
"Excuse me. You better not use your cell phone on a train. Some radio waves might cause a problem on some people." I spoke to myself. No one could ever hear it. Otherwise, some one might come to me and speak ill of me, or in the worst case,might flap me in my face shouting "It's none of your business."
Well, with a sigh, I just hopelessly look up those magagines advertisements flapping in the air . "Shut down your cell phone while you are here!" I wish there were those warnings with large letters in stead of gossips headlines.

Very popular and very local food

We ate out for lunch today. Since every one in my family wanted to have something warm, we decided to go to the "Miso nikomi udon" restaurant.
Simply speaking, "Miso nikomi udon" is a dish of "noodles in a soup based on Hacchou miso "a red-colored fermented soybean paste". "Miso nikomi udon" is cooked in a single serving size clay pan. Japanese broth, "Hacchou miso", some chopped green onions, fried soybean curd, small pieces of chicken and noodles are cooked on high heat in this clay pan for each person. And one raw egg is added as a final touch. Mmmm,perfect!
"Miso nikomi udon" is characterised by its thick noodles. Anyone that tries this dish for the first time will suspect the noodles are served uncooked. However this thick and hard noodles go so well with strong Hacchou miso soup that once you have tried it, you are on the top of the world, hopefully!
There are many "Miso nikomi udon" restaurants here and there in Nagoya So don't fail to drop by one of them and try this special food from Nagoya " Miso nikomi udon."
Here is a link to my favorite "Miso nikomi udon" restaurant. (only in Japanese)
There is a flash site on the top page. You will enjoy it.

Everybody owns cell phones

Late in the afternoon, as I often do, I went out for shopping to the department stores at Nagoya station by bicycle. Since there are heavy traffic around the station on weekends and special holidays, you can hardly find a parking area unless you stay on a long line of cars to get into a parking pool. It's not a good idea to drive there on weekends. So I chose a 15-minutes ride on bicycle and stopped it near the station buildings and headed for the department stores to pick up some fresh meat and fish and some other goodies.
There are full of Christmas decorations here and there and everywhere. One of the huge decorations that we are looking forward to look at every year are set up on wide wall of the station buildings. We had crowds of people taking a look at it, or taking pictures of the Christmas light up decorations. One of the amazing and funny sight I had seen in the crowds, was the same standing pause of people with their arms raised high up above their head trying to get a nice shot of Christmas light up decorations with their cell phones. Of course, I was the one of them. You would be surprised to see so many people from young to old have their own cell phones with built-in cameras.
For Japanese, cell phones are definitly one of their "essential item" in their bags and briefcases.

Now click right here to see those 9 pictures. (Please click an arrow to proceed)

Sunday morning

This is a quiet,warm and relaxing morning in autumn.
I don't have to rush nor care about at what time and who in my family is leaving home for work or school.
So I popped out in our garden and took a picture with my cell phone camera.
I don't think the Blogger doesn't provide a moblog.
So what I'll do first is to e-mail this picture to my computer and then post it to my blog. Right?
It'll be fun, though it will be a bit bothering.
You will see my quasi-moblog now. Here you go!

What a day!

I don't know why I did it this morning. Maybe I needed for a change or something. I took the different route to get to work.
The traffic was smooth and I enjoyed 30-minute-driving. The opposite lane leading to the center of the city was in the middle of the heavy traffic congestion and there was a long line of cars.
"Gee, I am lucky." I said to myself. "I"m glad that my office is located in a neighboring city. Not the city of Nagoya."
So with a good image I took the same route to go home as I did in the morning. It was OK halfway but soon I was trapped in the traffic jam. What the hell is this? My idea was too young to realize that this route is notorious for the heavy traffic jam to go into the center of the city of Nagoya after all. My goodness. It took twice as long to get home. It should have been "Perfect ending for a perfect day! " On the contrary!

Vegetables

Look at the price! A head of cabbages cost 499 yen. Usually it won't cost more than 200yen. No kidding!Owing to the damages the recent typhoon No.23 and No.22 brought about on the fields here and there in the country, the prices of various kinds of vegetables are skyhigh rocketing.No wonder we won't see lettuce in salada at many restaurants.It's the season we enjoy the warm dishes like stew and potaufeu at dinner in the chilly evening. Isn't it disappointing to find no stew or no rolled cabbage from our family dinner menu? I hope that the prices turn to be normal before long.

Getting ready for Monday

Every Friday through Sunday I'm off from work. I can't wait for Thursday coming. Free from house jobs such as fixing and finishing dinner and some more chores late in the evening, I am finally sitting at the computer and spend time without worring about what time I should go to bed or picturing images what to do the first thing in the morning.
And as things go, now it's Sunday evening. I've got to get prepared for tomorrow. Is there any thing left that I haven't done yet? I'm looking aroud the room and staring up in the air....and Yes, there's one I haven't done yet. That is ironing the shirts mostly my husband's. I've kept too many shirts for the weekends. Ironing the clothes. It's beyond my ability. It requires me lots of time and patience. Since there is no one else at home that is in charge of ironing, I've been honored to be responsible for this job for twenty years. What a privilege! Thanks for this, you can count on me for a clean and pressed shirt. Absolutely!

Cute Visitor

Once in a while, we have some visitors at our house garden. They are cats. Some of them are stray cats and others are pet cats.As I make it a rule that we never feed them nor tame them, we just leave them as they like. As we are all different in characteristics, so are these cats. It's fun to watch them playing. Just a few days ago, since I wanted to make a shot of flowers in a vase in the daylights, I put it on the grass in the garden and was about to take a picutre of it. Then I saw one kitty was approaching to the flowers very carefully and slowly and studied them. It is often pointed out that cats shows curiousity to anything. This is it! So here is a series of pictures I took. Just click here to see the 6 pieces of slides show.Click an arrow to turn to next.

Nice excuse

It's threatening to know there are only two flaps of calendar pages hanging from the wall. There you see "November" and "December".
Just think how much did I accomplish my New Year resolutions?
-Not much.
And how many more days are there on my hands?
-Not so many left.
The older you get, the faster the time goes!
Yes, indeed. Time flies!
But I cannot blame time for my grumbles.
I should be happy about it, shouldn't I?
I don't have to make any more new resolutions for the next coming New Year.
I'll just keep going!

As if I were at home

This is one of my favorite spots during the day especially when the wind and the sun are so nice on me like today.
It's in my one box car with a roof window full open. I make the seat flat and there I read a book looking over the sky up in the air. Besides reading, I enjoy listening to a CD, talking with my friends over the cell phone or just taking a nap.
I also have a coffee break in there or read an English book aloud. It's really something special I can feel happy about.
This car used to be a children's room when our kids were small. And now it has turuned to be my own room when I want to do something different for a change.
You can do almost anything here as if you were at home but taking a shower. All you need is just a parking lot for free.

City Park downtown

On my way back home after I dropped my husband in his office, I stopped by at the park downtown. This park run by the city of Nagoya is located next to the Nagoya Castle. It used to be on the premises of the castle and that's why there are so many old but tall and big trees still grown all over, I believe. Indeed, walking along here makes you feel as if you were in the wood. I love to see flowers taken care of by the stuffs here and there along the paths, and enjoy a cup of coffee at a guest house.
This park might be a perfect point of the city that everyone can be proud of only if there aren't so many blue tents where homeless people live in. Where else do those people stay safe, I wonder.

Making it new for the New Year

Today on such a beautiful and gorgeous autumn day, guess what I did ? Well, I worked on the sliding paper door (Shouji). That is I tore off old and discolored yellowish papers especially made for Japanese sliding doors and cleaned the doors which consist of many frames. After I cleaned them with water, here comes the very important process of the whole work. You've got to cover the door consisted of many small frames with new sheet of papers which is as white as snow. It's something similar to working on a wall paper. You should put glue on frames with a brush. Then, before glue gets dry , very carefully you cover a door with a brand new white sheet of paper. Just after you finish the job, you are very surprised to know how bright the whole room can be. This way, we can all celebrate the New Year in a very refined atmosphere. Thing is, however, I feel just exhausted after bending down for hours to glue many door frames. Brightness requires quite a hardworking.

Sweet Potatos make nice potage

A friend of mine gave me a nice receipe for our dinner tonight.It is "potage" made from sweet potatos. This is very new to me.Potatos, pompukins and beans are very familiar and popular ingredients for potage but not sweet potatos.I tried this receipe this evening. Steam sweet potatoes and fry minced onions.Put both of them into a food processor and make it until it gets into smooth paste. Put it into a deep pan and add some soup cubes, milk and cream. Stir until it makes into soft and creamy soup. Very simple, tasty and just right for autumn dish.

What will become of their daily life?

A series of typhoons had brought about tremendous damages throughout our lands from south to north. This is unbelievable. More than 10, maybe 13? typhoons as of now acutually hit the Japanese peninsula. The recent typhoon No.23 called "Tokage" was the most huge one with a powerful wind and rainfall. And another tragedy had hit innocent people in Niigata prefecture. A gigantic earthquake jolted the mountainous area in Niigata and collapsed mountains, rivers, roads, railways and not to mention houses. Things are getting more confusing. Aftershocks never leave people in safe yet.What will become of their daily life? What will become of their housing? I feel like crying out “Stay calm, the earth! Let us live a quiet, peaceful life.”

I'm sitting at the comupter.This is one of the most relaxing time at the end of the day with visiting several web-sites of my friends, checking e-mails or posting on their BBS. I love these!
Tonight, there is something outside making big noise and just disturbing my happy time of the evening.
That's the tyhoon "Meari". Isn't it funny? They spell it "me-a-ri" not "mary". So what? Nothing changes. Tyhoon is tyhoon.
Go away, buster! Don't bring any more wind and rain on us. Just die away. Good girl!

Non-stop day!

Oh, the day is finally over. It was really a busy day. When did I wake up this morning? Yes, it was 5:30. Since then I’ve been tied up with my schedule the whole day. Ah, it’s good that I’ve finally sit back on sofa watching TV over a cup of coffee. Today was really a non-stop day. Now I was so relieved that everything went well after all. When I met the heavy traffic jam on the way this morning, I felt so upset that I won’t make it on time for the appointment. I knew it was not safe to make a call with my cell phone but just in the middle of the traffic jam, there was no choice for me to take out my cell phone while driving and make a call to my party to let her know that I may not be on time. Well, it’s another Monday, the beginning of the new week. I’m afraid tomorrow will be just as busy as today. Let have my fingers crossed for a better day.

Time flies!

So many things here and there!I wish I could have spent the wholde day free from a bunch of housechores. I would have re-built my friendships with some of my friends overseas that haven't seen each other for long. Time is passing so fast! I feel I'm loosing sight of them in the busy world. You can't deny it as you're getting older year by year. People say, "The older you get, the faster time flies. "Let's get things going, while nagging at yourself. OK. I'm getting back to work! Vacuume the rooms."

So many things here and there!I wish I could have spent the wholde day free from a bunch of housechores. I would have re-built my friendships with some of my friends overseas that haven't seen each other for long. Time is passing so fast! I feel I'm loosing sight of them in the busy world. You can't deny it as you're getting older year by year. People say, "The older you get, the faster time flies. "Let's get things going, while nagging at yourself. OK. I'm getting back to work! Vacuume the rooms.

Let me try from a mobile phone

Let me try if I can upload more than one pictures in one article box.
Great! I did it. So, more than one pictures. I can use the series of small pictures in the story soon. It must be fun. I still have about 49MB left. Well done.

Get a good shape

Ah, I really enjoyed the lunch with my friends yesterday. That restaurant was really neat and the food was just excellent.
I think I ate too much. Wow, look at this woman in the mirror! I'm putting on my weight! I’ve got to be more serious about going on a diet. Look! I have to get rid of this spare tire around my stomach. Otherwise, every jeans and dresses will be too tight for me to put on. Shame on me.
I know what I should do first. I should stop eating between meals. Sweets and snacks. I should put these things away from me. No, I'd rather push myself away from the table. Mmm, I want to be in a good shape.

Curiosity

I'm curious. I'm just curious. How do I send a picture and a message to my weblog from my cell phone? Afterall how does it look like? Well then, I'm gonna try to see how it goes. No practice, no progress. Right?

I feel sick

Ugh,　I have a headache this morning. It's pounding. I think I've caught a cold. Last night when I go to bed, I felt my throat scratchy. Now it hurts to swallow this morning. Let's take a look in the mirror. Wow, look, my throat is already all swollen and red. I should have taken some medicine last night. It's too late. I should have been more careful about my health. Just think where I got this virus? Yes, I'll bet I've got this at the office, since it has been going around these days. I wish I could take a day off today, but possibly I can't. Anyway take a breakfast, take some medicine and go to work. Ah, I have a good idea. I'll go to see the doctor first thing in the morning and then go to the office. That's the way I should. OK. And don't forget to call someone in the office that I'll be late for work.

Gee, I’m running out of time. Let’s drive fast, otherwise, I’ll be late for the appointment. Wow there’s so much traffic today. There are cars here and there everywhere. All right,let me cut in the next lane. Get the blinker on , please let me in. Good! I made it! That driver must be a nice man. I’m gonna flash the hazard lights at him. Thank you! Well, the traffic is getting smooth. Wow look at that convertible in front of me. The driver is really overspeeding. I’m pretty sure some day he will run into a serious trouble. Watch out! A kid on a bike is crossing the road just in fron of me. Boy, it’s dangerous. Can he even see me? Let my car slow down and let him cross the road. Look. I’m running out of gas. Better fill up on my way back. Good. Here I am. I am making good time despite the rush.

Time to get it started

Time to get up. Just think. What've I got to do today?
First I've got to do the laundry, then, get prepared for breakfast...what's next? Oh, today is a burnable garbage day. And don't forget to drive my husband to the station at 8:00.
Wow afterall, how can I make myself ready to leave home for work before 9:00? It's going to be a hectic morning.
I wish I could have stayed in bed another 5 minutes.
No way, I am loosing time before I know it.
Let's get things started.

It's messed up!

Oh,look at my desk! It's messed up. I should put all the things more in order. Well, I did it, but it won't take long to find a mess again here. I don't have a good talent of cleaning up.
Gee, it's not a good excuse.
Just make a little effort to clean up before going to bed.

Earthquake

What's this? Oh my god! Earthquake! The house is jolting. Oh, I hate this.Yach, it's a big one. It won't stop at all.Look at the room lamp. It's swinging.What about the stuffs on the selves and cupboard? Don't fall on me.
Ah, seems like it's getting weaker. Thanks God. What a relief.Whew, it's gone.
Do we really have a giant earthquake some time soon? It may be a good time to get prepared for it. Where shall I start with? Let's check some of the websites on internet and find out what to do so that I won't go into a panic on that moment.