The last day of Intensive Training

17th Aug,
Because I am taking a Wealthy Mind, this is going to be my last day of Intensive Training (of course I came back here for the graduation ceremony on 18th Aug after the first day of Wealthy Mind ). Oh I will surely miss people here,,,

Well, this is how the training is given;


By the way who is teaching in the front is Nick. This picture was taken while he was teaching ( taken by Dave ).

And the last 4 days were taught by Christiane Turner. She is so fun and powerful! She has a website called Quantum NLP.



And the video below is how we manage our state.



By the way a strong British accent near the camera is created by Jayne, my seminar-aunt from York. And I really appreciate Michael and my seminar-aunt from Oregon Kathleen for their beautiful dance. Michael is in a red jacket. Kathleen is in front of him with sunglasses. Everybody, watch this when you want to manage your own state!

Dinner with Dave and LiWen

15th Aug, one of the resource persons in the training , Dave took me to an Italian restaurant that are relatively close to Hilton Garden Inn Burlingame. It is called North Beach Pizza.

After the training, Dave went home to pick up his wife, LiWen and came back to the hotel again to pick me up. We discussed a little in a car then decided to go to North Beach Pizza. Their decision was absolutely correct. A pizza we had was really delicious and we all really enjoyed it.

Dave has been to America for about 9 years and is running a coaching business. Soon he will expand it to Taiwan, America and China. He is from Taiwanese. He is an expert of Feng Shui （風水）. Recently he started to teach that with NLP in America.

I have seen 2 lectures he gave so far, they are so interesting. I am sure he will be a great trainer soon.

His wife, LiWen is also Taiwanese. She came to study English in SF, then they met. hmm good story :) She also has studied NLP for years. She will come to a Wealthy Mind Seminar this weekend. I'm joining that as well.

They are interested in coming to Japan. If you come, please let me know. I'll take you two a nice sushi place. Anyway thank you for a great dinner! 謝謝！



By the way, my favorite player in my home team, Hanshin Tigers is from Taiwan. His name is Lim.

Sushi with Larry

12th Aug, Larry , one of my seminar-friends took me to a Japanese sushi restaurant called "Naomisushi". I really like to go out in the evening of the training day because it feels like I spend two days in one day.

Larry has worked in Japan for a couple of years. He has been to Hokkaido , Tokyo or etc. He really likes the way Japanese work. Japanese make promises and pursue goals hard. I do not support all aspects of Japanese work style but what he says totally makes sense and that is what I like about it.

At Naomisushi, they serve really really great sushi. Oh I loved it!! We had several Nigiris and rolls.

I am figuring out that there is everything in SF. I don't think you will have difficulty with finding tastes of your country's here.

Larry treated me to a dinner. When he comes to Japan next time, I am going to treat him a nice food. Well, arigato Larry!

Golden Gate Bridge at Night

11th Aug, it is my girlfriend birthday! As it is her lucky day, she gave me a luck too. I got a chance to see The Golden Gate Bridge in the dark even though it was a normal seminar day. Everything started from my seminar-friend, my great friend, Cathy's offer. Since she lives in SF, she took Inhwa (from Korea), Milt (from Michigan) and me to downtown SF and The Golden Gate Bridge.

Cathy has been to Taiwan and Korea for a while and interested in Asia. We talked often and worked on the exercise together often. Of course she is a great great coach, and she coached me very well. But what I like more about working with her is to get a chance to listen to her laughing. That is so unique.

Speaking of laughing, I introduce Milt. He used to be in one of the greatest companies in the world and now is a coach. He often makes very useful comments in the training. You have to listen to his laughing.

I should have recorded that!

Then Inhwa, she is a college student from Korea. Her mother is an NLP trainer and has taught her NLP. Inhwa speaks not only English but Japanese. Her Japanese is much better than English , she says. When we talk to each other, we speak in Japanese. I am so amazed at her speaking Japanese so perfectly.

We went to an Italian restaurant and talked about the training, differences of countries, personal histories and such.


Inhwa, Milt, Me, Cathy

After that Cathy took us to the best place to enjoy the GGB in the dark. In the video below, you cannot see it well but in the real eyes, it looked so beautiful. With the sound and smell of waves, we enjoyed the scenery.



Anyway, thank you for taking us there Cathy!

Trish's house

After the training on 4th August, Trish , one of my seminar-friends took Richard , unthinkablly funny Dutch guy and me to her house and downtown of SF. Trish used to live in SF and now she lives in Oregon with her husband. She knows a lot about health and nutrition. "Health" has been a always one of the biggest people's concerns but here in the states, it looks more than that of Japan.
Anyway, Richard , UFDG (unthinkably funny Dutch guy) , is funny and pretty smart. He has long experience of NLP and knows a lot about it. And he invest that wisdom into hypnotizing girls.

As soon as we got to Trish's house , we met her mother Cathy. She was not in good condition then but kindly came to the living room to welcome UFDG and me.

Then we enjoyed a beautiful view of SF from the living room. Here are pictures of it;




After enjoying her living room, we headed for a restaurant area nearby the house. We had dinner at a Mayan restaurant. As soon as a waitress came to take an order, UFDG performed his skill. "What is your name?" I thought "Oh, it starts again!". But his communication skill is worthwhile to see. He said he learned this habit when he was in Dutch Navy. What a thoughtful navy.

After dinner, we went to Mission district. There are a lot of bars that reminded me of my Emory time. That was already 4 years ago. Why we went to bars? Because UFDG needs to see girls in order to survive.
But he is not the only one who had a good time. Trish and I also, we all had a great time.

Next day, I showed them a movie of "All You Need Is Love". They really enjoyed it very much, especially Richard did since he knows how popular the show is.

Anyway lastly enjoy a beautiful view of SF from the balcony.

Meeting with Masters

The first half has passed. Hmm time flies indeed. I hardly remember about when we landed here. It is always fun to learn what I love. And here are the masters who devoted themselves to teach NLP Coaching to us.



This is Suzi. She is really, I mean "really" super at teaching complicated things SIMPLY and playfully! She taught me how important simplicity is especially when things are complicated.



Nick. His commitment to engage in people to help is awesome. He is really friendly , anyone can talk to him so easily , very open-minded. His ability to create connection between people just amazed me!



Lastly Helen. Surprizingly we have the same religion. I could not believe it! She has an aura that tells people how magnificent and powerful one human-being is. She really loves coaching, you can see that from her easily.

Ok now it is almost 1 pm that means I have to go. The second half is starting!

Stanford University

Today is the first dayoff in our summer intensive training so we ( me + 2 companions ) went to Stanford University, one of the best schools in the States and the world.
From the airport, we took a BART train for one stop, then chenged the line into Caltrain. It takes about 30minutes to get to the station nearby Stanford called Palo Alto.

At Palo Alto, shuttle buses are running so you can visit many places by those on the campus. We were planning to join a campus tour so firstly we headed for a visitors' info which is right in front of Hoover Tower. We knew the tour starts at 11 because one of our seminar friends works there , she told me so , but we were a little late. So we talked to people at the info then planned where to go.

As far as they told me, there are three tours; campus tour on foot at 11 and 15:15. And at 13:00 there is a tour by a cart ( $5 ) . One by a cart is popular and the number is limited ( I guess 9 was the maximum ) so you need to book it beforehand.

We walked around a little bit then went to a bookstore that has more than books. They also sell a lot of kinds of Stanford goods. So we shopped for a while.





After that we had lunch at a cafeteria where you can enjoy the live jazz. It was amazing. I am not sure but in this season they are playing that everyday. How cool is that!

We rested for a while then walked to the main library. Gotta work, you know?
So what we need to do there is to check how many and which kind of NLP books they have. But surprizingly there are not so many of them.

Maybe writers do not put "NLP" on its title or ,,, it is just because NLP is not so popular???

Anyway, after disappointing search, we finally went to the top of Hoover Tower. You need to pay $2 to go up, but what I found out is it surely is worth it. You can enjoy a panorama view and cool breeze. We stayed there for a while, talking to students there, or just standing in breeze.



After that, we went to a shopping center by or inside the campus. The shuttle goes there. We went there because one of my companions wanted , so basically I had nothing to do, so I walked around, seeing things there.

We really liked spending time here. We call San Francisco "the Heaven on the Earth".

Fisherman's Wharf

After visiting Golden Gate Bridge, we took a bus to Fisherman's Wharf. It was really cold and windy day , so two of my companions bought a jacket to make themselves warmer.
I have been there once, that was last year. There were so many people and many street entertainments. One of them is a black guy hiding in a bush and suddenly comes out saying "Hello!" that was really funny because though he is hidden from one side he is so visible from the other side. So many people are standing the side where they can see him well and waiting for somebody from the other side to be shocked. Another one is here. I thought my younger brother, Hiromasa will like it;



Other than that, we went to Pier 39 where a lot of stores are. We had dinner at restaurant where you can see sea lions.

I took a picture of what I had for dinner.

Yes Clam Chowder,,, this is what you have to have in SF.

Wait, before we came here, what had we done,,,???

We went to see a submarine and took some pictures.

Then walked around in Pier 39;





Well, we thought we just had walked around, but it looks like we did many things there.

Golden Gate Bridge

On 26th July, that was our second day here + a day before the seminar started, we went to a downtown of San Francisco. We visited many places so I'll tell you more later but for the moment, here I put a picture of Golden Gate Bridge.

Unfortunately it was foggy so we couldn't see the whole clearly but still fun to visit there. We took a bus ( Muni bus ) to get there. I found it quite handy , with 1.5 doller you can take a bus to anywhere it goes within 90 min. A travel guide says if you master how to take a bus in San Francisco, you master to enjoy a trip in San Francisco.

Golden Gate Bridge : the length is about 2,700 meter, height of the poles is 230 meter. It was built in 1937. So now it is 70 years old. Here is a link to wikipedia / Japanese wikipedia .

ヒルトンガーデンイン 俺の部屋です

ヒルトンガーデンイン　俺の部屋です。
着いてすぐに撮りました♪

My room at Hilton Garden Inn

This is my room. I filmed it as soon as I got here.

Kurayoshi

There is a great steak restaurant about 20-minute away from my house. It is called Kurayoshi. I have mentioned about it before, and last week I went there again with my family ( without my sister who is now in New Zealand ) plus Louana :) Here is a very short video of it;

Accounting

Well, in these 2 days I have been working on Accounting of my company. It feels very good to make a mess into organized sheets. It is like a puzzle. Put pieces into the right order and right place then at last you see the whole image. Well, the image I saw is a little bit different than it is supposed to be. So I'm going to find that out,,,

It is more fun than I thought. Let me guess why,,, I guess it is because of the sense of "Getting things done".

Anyway Louana is getting an internet modem today which allows her to do many things. First of course, she can internet at her place, she doesn't need to an internet cafe near her place and pay 300 yen or something. Second, she and I have 3 ways to communicate for free in distance ; 1. Softbank phone, 2. BB phone, 3. Skype or other Instant messenger.

Oh, now I got a phonecall from her and she got a modem! Yippie!
Well, just wait till it is set up.

Also she borrowed a new Harry Potter book from her coworker Jo. Louana and Jo both are Harry Potter freak. It is good to be freaked about something as long as it does not bother other people.

Well, go back to accounting

Long time no post

Well, it has been awhile. How have you been?
Thanks to Minke's comment and Louana's wish, I am writing this again. I have been really busy and did not have time to think about this blog. But you know, people need to express yourself and blog can be where you do that.
After the last post, what happened : Louana has come to Japan and we have spent some great weekends together. She is in Inuyama which is 30minute away from Nagoya. So we used to be like 20-hour distance but now we are 2-hour distance almost. And we used to pay 200,000 yen to see each other but now we pay 10,000 yen to see each other. Time-wise, now it is 10 times better. Money-wise 20 times better. In addition, we both have softbank cellphones in family pack so basically we can talk for free 24/7. Since both of us are working, we normally talk midnight after work. It is almost the same as it used to be,,, talking on Skype. So let's not count that. Well, let me caliculate,,, 10 * 20 = 200. So according to my stupid and superficial analysis, we are 200 times happier than we used to be. Is that so right Lou-sensei?

Dad's Birthday Party at Kyoto

Miyako-Douri in Kyoto

22nd of March is my father's birthday. Since 21st of March is a holiday because of Vernal Equinox Day. As the calender says like that, it was much warmer on that day than before. I drove about one hour and a half to get to Kyoto. Then we found a reasonable parking and parked our awesome car, Estima. We walked to JR Kyoto Isetan which is connected to JR Kyoto station. They have many stores that were entertaining, we walked around to find a restaurant for lunch. What we liked the most is 10th floor, there are 4 or 5 Ramen stores from cities in Japan. All of those ramens looked and smelled delicious but we could not get in any of them because it was too crowded. We had to leave there at latest at 12:30 in order to see the play "Crazy For You" so we ended up getting a lunch boxes of Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki. There is a square where you can enjoy those food , so we ate them there. After that, we went to see the play by Gekidan Shiki. The play was about 3 hours, we enjoyed it a lot though we liked "Mamma Mia" better.



Then we took a subway to get to where you can enjoy more traditional Japanese scenery. From the beginning of March to this day 21 of March, they held an event that you can enjoy the lightings , Maiko dance etc. We all really liked that. There are some photos from it.

Maiko Dance

Goju-no-To

Tanukis (racoon dogs) at a souvenir store

After walking around these places, we went to a Chinese restaurant and celebrated my father's birthday. We gave him a CD of "Furinkazan" which is a history drama on NHK. He loves the show and its mucis.

Seminar Assistant in Nagoya

Kintetsu train(Outside)

Kintetsu train (Inside)

Last weekend ( 2 March - 5 March ) I was in Nagoya to assist Mr Yamasaki's NLP Practitioner seminar. The seminar is given for 10 days, 5 weekends (Sat + Sun) but I am one of the assistants there, called Resource Person so I had to go to the meeting a night before the seminar. At 15:30 I took a Express train at Namba station on Kintetsu line. I hardly take Kintetsu because that doesn't run near my house. This time I took Kintetsu because it is cheaper than JR. It just costs 3,200 yen between Osaka ( Namba ) and Nagoya. It takes as twice long as JR does, but I was not busy on Friday. After more than 2 hours, I arrived at Nagoya station. The meeting was held a couple of stations away from there, I lost my way for a little, but managed to be there.

After the meeting I again came to Nagoya station because a hotel I stayed was closed to that. I like the building of Nagoya station so I took a picture of it. Around that , there are several buildings that look nice, I hope Louana will like them.

Nagoya Station

Next day, the seminar got started. That was my new experience , anyway I had a great time.

After the seminar I went out dinner with another Resource Person who lives just 30-minute away from Nagoya station. We went to the 12nd floor but all restaurants were full because it was Saturday night. We found an Indian restaurant where we found an empty room. We had a big Indian meal, talking about how-you-got-to-know-NLP or NLP. He is a student in an acupuncture school, studying Eastern Medicine. I found some similarities between Eastern Medicine and NLP, so I enjoyed the talking.

Because we took long to find a restaurant that had a room, we walked a lot in the building. There are many stores and the looks are great, so I thought that should have been one of the places I would like to come with Louana.

I am going to come to Nagoya 4 more times, so I hope I will find more of nice places so I can come there with Louana.

No Rurikei this weekend

Sight from the balcony (cloudy,,,)

Well, this weekend I was supposed to go to Rurikei with my dad as usual but we did not. Because we needed to finish some project designs done. That took us about 3 hours to finish, and my dad got tired enough already then. After lunch, my parents and I sat in Kotatsu, watching a TV program about "Von Trapp Family" in "The Sound of Music". I have seen that movie more than ten times to study English so that TV show caught my attention, and that of my parents'.
The second girl , Maria was on the screen longest, talked about how their life then was. Now they run a big Lodge "The Trapp Family Lodge" in Vermont. It is a beautiful place, I would like to visit the Lodge. If lucky, I can see Maria, 92 year-old lady.
The show ended at 3, when I found my parents were asleep. A couple of minutes later, they woke up, and my dad gave up going to Rurikei.
So we watched "Rush Hour 2". That was funny , but not as good as the first one like many series-movies. I recently like to watch Jackie Chan's movies. He is one of the most popular Asian in the world.
With coke and popcorn, I enjoyed the movie.
Next I watched "Nothing to Lose". I found it first at Tsutaya, so had not known that before. I checked the package, then thought it would be fun, so borrowed it. But it was not as good as I thought. Not so funny, interesting nor touching.
Then I just saw "Shanghai Noon", JAckie Chan again. This is a relatively new one, so he is old in there. His action in that is a little slower than himself in Rush Hour. And the story is cheap, so I did not enjoy it much.

So today I saw three movies. Yeah it is a holiday , I have to get relaxed. But I don't know, recently I enjoy my work a lot, so sit at the desk and reading or writing makes me feel good. But no pressure, it is holiday. I have to tell myself that.

So here, I placed a picture of Rurikei that I took when I visited there last time. It was cloudy but better than nothing. From our balcony you can enjoy a panorama of mountain.

"All You Need Is Love" DVD has come

I really did not have time to post things here. Finally now I do.
Now I write about "All You Need Is Love" DVD as you saw on the title. If I had to choose the best thing last year, surely this will be one of those few experiences. My intelligent girl, Louana was asked by her friend if she wanted to apply for being in one of the most popular TV shows in the Netherlands, "All You Need Is Love". When she told me about that, I thought it was a great idea. I was positive, but did not expect much.
She submitted the application, her step-father Guido did too. I also was filling that in. At the end of November, I got a call from unknown number at Starbucks. I picked that up, heard a foreign language which was not English nor Chinese. Then that girl noticed I did not speak Dutch, she started talking in English.
Well, who was she? Yeah, she is Heleen from Endemol TV station in the Netherlands. I was so surprised and shocked. My voice became louder and louder , people in the Starbucks begun to hear my conversation which I did not notice at all.
Yes, this is how it all got started.
After that I submitted my application, applied for Russian visa because we were going to film in Saint Petersburg. On 8th December, I flew from Osaka to Amsterdam.
Then a day after staying in Amsterdam, I came to Saint Petersburg. The city was so beautiful, totally overwhelmed me. Oh I wish I could have stayed there longer. Maybe we can go there with our future kids, won't that be fun?
I met people in the TV station, talked about our relationship and how the filming would go tomorrow.
Well then, the next day 10th December, my girl came to the square by a white coach.
I had not seen her more than a year. Finally , after long waiting in a cold square in Russia, I hugged and kissed her ( then I even said a very complicated Dutch greeting to the camera ).

This experience was broadcast on Christmas in the Netherlands last year. I saw the parts we are on the screen (Louana filmed those parts and put them online) but not the entire show.

And now what? The DVD of the show is in my hand, thanks to Heleen and people in Endemol TV station ( Dank u wel! ) .
I have not seen it yet but I'll cetainly see it with my intelligent girl who is going to translate that into English for me then.

"All You Need Is Love" DVD

Best Weekend Guaranteed in Rurikei

Well, just got home from Rurikei. My dad has built a cottage there so we often go there to get relaxed. Yes there are many things you can get relaxed from , such as beautiful nature, good food, nice spa, onsen, warmed water pool , rock sauna and other relasation rooms.

Normally we have lunch on way there at a restaurant called "Gyu-Fuku ( English translation would be " Lucky Beef" or something ) where you can enjoy very fresh beef that is directly transported from their ranch , next door. They serve you as much rice and misosoup as you want as lunch service, so I usually have 2 cups of rice because their beef is awesome.

Right next to this restaurant , you can buy nice vegetables and rice. I used not to realize the taste of rices, but because of this store, I begun to realize it. Their rice is really good, I like it.

If you drive about 5 minutes to South from there, you can find a really nice fish store, they sell great quality of fish for unbelivably cheap. We enjoy shopping there a lot.

Anyway, after the fun shopping and eating, we enjoy movies at our cottage. This time we saw "Rush Hour". It was funny , made me want to see other movies that starred in Jackie Chan. Luckily this week Tsutaya gives 50%off sales promotion again, so I'm going to go there and get some Jackie Chan.

Then we went to Spa and Rock Sauna. This is the best part. Including warmed water pool, we spent more than 3 hours there. In the building where Rock Sauna is you also can enjoy WOWOW which is one of TV stations mostly you can enjoy movies. We sat in that room and watched a small show then enjoyed Rock Sauna. The workers there forgot somehow to time, we enjoyed it longer than we were supposed to. I was so relaxed.

After that, left the spa house. But I found a very Japanese store, so I took a picture of it. This is called "Hina Ningyo" , we decorate them to celebrate Girl's Day , May 3rd.

Hina Ningyo

Valentine's Day

Yes, as you might have seen it as titles many times today, I also put that on my title. Valentine's Day. Because of lots of things going on, I have not been able to post my blog but today I decided to post something.
Here I show you what I have received from my girlfriend Louana;

Valentine Present from Louana

You see a pink bag. That is a decoration for bath according to her message. So when she is in Japan, we both can enjoy it together. I wonder how it is going to be, just fun to imagine.

The message she wrote to me was so touching, almost made me cry. I can't imagine how deep she went to inside her mind to message those words to me. Now I feel more loved by her and important to her, thanks to the card. I am even more motivated to give her all love that I possess.

Valentine's Day, such a great day I think.

Big Sushi for Setsubun

Big Sushi for Setsubun

After getting my new pc , I was hustling for data transferring and such, now I finally can post on my blog with my new pc. This pc is from Panasonic, called Let's Note W5, very light, very strong and has a enormous stamina. This can work for about 8 hours or something without plugging. Anyway then what I am writing here. As you saw the title, I will attach a picture of big sushi here. Because 3rd of February is a day called Setsubun in Japan. On this day, people throw beans at demons ("Oni" in Japanese) to get them away. I looked it up about Setsubun in Wikipedia, they say Setsubun originally was a day which separates seasons. So I guess there used to be 4 days but now it is only one. They say 3rd Feb is between winter and spring in the ancient calender so my guess is Japanese like that day the most of the four.


I didn't throw beans but I had sushi today. You are supposed to look at the lucky direction that is changed every year and supposed not to say a word till you finish it. I didn't follow those rules, but sushi was great and big. So my dinner this day is just those sushi plus soup. Very easy but I enjoyed it a alot.

Yakiniku at One Kalbi

You put those raw beefs and vegetables on a hot plate.

Because they are having a sale of some kinds of beefs, my sister , my brother and I went to Yakiniku restaurant called "One Kalbi" lastnight. This is my second time to have Yakiniku in this week.

I have been to One Kalbi twice before with Mayumi and Minoru. Both of the times, I enjoyed it a lot.

Even though I am not a big-eater, there are several foods that I sometimes have difficulty with containing my appetite such as Ramen, Curryrice and Yakiniku. Now this is Yakiniku time for my sister, my brother and me simultaneously.

So I was representing to myself how great the taste is of Yakiniku with rice , especially Kalbi with rice after lunch yesterday. My brain was singing "Kalbi and rice, Kalbi and rice..."

At the table, we ordered many things. We found out that Hiro , youngest, knows the most of the three about Yakiniku. Because he is a big-money-spender and loves to go have Yakiniku. Every time my mother tells him she will be busy on some day, he says "Sure, so I'll have dinner out". He can receive money for dinner from her then. The privilege of being a student and being the youngest kid in a family.

We all enjoyed dinner so much.

Where One Kalbi is located is kind of a plaza where has a big parking space, other restaurants and shops. There are sushi restaurant, okonomiyaki restaurant, onsen, convenience store etc.

This place used to be a baseball ground. When I was an elementary school kid, I often played there. After the big earthquake, there built temporary houses for those of who lost theirs. And recently this new buildings were built. It is very convenient and I am so happy that we have those varieties of stores near my house.

Hiro's Birthday Party at Kurayoshi

Two days ago, 21st Janu, we had dinner at an awesome steak restaurant called Kurayoshi. Why we did that is to celebrate Hiro and my birthday and my sister Yuka's coming home. But mainly it was for Hiro since his birthday was really close, 16th Janu. Now he is 19 year-old.

This time, we went to Kurayoshi because this is where my mother really likes. This was her third time. I still remember when she first had dinner there. After coming home, she was talking about how great it was to everybody. So I was really looking forward to having dinner that night.

From my house, it was about 15-minute-drive. Very close to LaLaPort Koshien.

We were a group of 7 people, 5 from my family, Aunt Akiko and Grandma Kiyoko.

There were 3 boys in our group but we all had "Lady's Set". This is their recommends so we took it.

First in Lady's Set you have a raw beef and some mushroom food as an appetizer. At this time, I already liked the restaurant. You have to taste this raw beef dish.



Next, you have Shrimp, mushroom and some vagetables in hot tinfoil. I enjoyed tough flesh of shrimp. Be careful the tinfoil is really hot. And when you open it, hot vapor inside bites your fingers. I got bit and screamed "Attsu! ( 'Hot' in Japanese)".



Thrirdly, you have mushroom, string bean ( maybe?) , tofu, scallop and pumpkin all baked. With them, they give you 3 kinds of sauces ( Soy sauce with mustard, Citrus sauce, Sesame sauce ). I liked Sesame the best.



The list still goes on.

Next you have these. Do you know what they are?



They are sliced garlic. They are baked with butter. Almost look like Potato Chips. And it comes with diced beef, beansprout, spinach and bread. Why bread? Because you eat the last dice of beef with it. It is like a sandwich. Hiro really liked it.



Then???

You go to another room to enjoy the last dishes.

There is a room next door. Inside is Karaoke machine but we did not sing because we wanted to enjoy conversation. In there, you have Ochazuke, seasoned rice and pickles. Ochazuke is one of the most popular Japanese foods. Every one of us liked it.


After Ochazuke, you have fruits and coffee.


That is all we had that night. We were all happy. Since she really recommends us have dinner there, my mother paid for everything. Yeah we all liked that restaurant. It has been just for 2 days since then but I already want to go there again. Louana surely can go there with me.

A Hot Rock Sauna

Outside Rurikei Onsen Building

This weekend, today and yesterday, I was at his cottage in Rurikei, Kyoto with my dad. Rurikei is a wonderful place, and so is the cottage. In Rurikei, you can enjoy hiking along the river , hiking on a mountain, playing tennis, golfing and spa. This time, we tried "Ganbanyoku" , in English it is going to be "a hot rock sauna". It is so good, you feel really relaxied and healed. Firstly you lie down on the floor facing down for 10 minutes. You have a hourglass so you can know when it is done. Next you turn upside-down facing up for 10 minutes. The floor is warm rocks so you feel the heat but it is not going to be hot. It stays at the point you feel very warm and that is so relaxing. I felt my concsious mind was resting, and I couldn't think of anything at all. Yeah, your brain surely can take a break.

In Rurike, if you take this hot rock sauna, you can go to other rooms such as Movie Room or Lyingdown Room. Each room is so relaxing, oh I want to go there again.

On way to Rurikei from home, we often go to a restaurant near a ranch. They have awesome beef so we had lunch there. At the table, I was reading a business magazine. It was about the best entertainment in 2006. There I found Ganbanyoku is No.1. I might have already liked it since then.

Next to that restaurant, there is a big natural food shop called "Michi-no-Eki" its translation would be "a station on the road" . We buy vegetables, rice, fruits etc. They are cheap healthy and teste good.

If you go another 5 minutes from there, you can find a supermarket called "Nose Box". Don't read "Nose" as a facial part. It is a name of place and pronounced Roman way. "No" is "No" in "Yes/No" and "se" is "ce" in "cell". Makes sense?

Nose Box

This supermarket is quite good, they have varieties of foods, magazines, DVDs, energy drinks and liquors. Also inside, you can find a breadstore. They are good as well.

30 minute-drive from there, you can arrive at Rurikei Onsen inwhere you enjoy Hot Rock Sauna , many kinds of spas, onsens, pools and restaurant. If you go 20 more minutes, you find the cottage.

Fireplace in the cottage

European Snacks in Carrefour

Chocolate from Europe at Carrefour

Hiro and I went to Starbucks today as usual. Recently he came to like to go there too. He does his homework or studies English, German or Educational Psychology which is his major. Today he was studying English so sometimes he asked me for a help. I helped him well although what he was learning is very high-level I felt. He goes to Kobe University , a very wellknown school in Japan.

I was working on my translation job as usual. It is almost done. I finished a chapter so changed what I do, I read a Japanese version of "From Coach to Awakener" by Robert Dilts, a world known NLP developer. It is a fun read.

After that, I went to take a picture of European snacks upstairs. I had little time because I had to go to Osaka, so I took one picture. Louana gave this snack before so when I found it, I remembered it right away. I think there are more snacks from overseas especially from Europe in Carrefour. I want to come here when Louana comes to Japan. She will be excited then.

Another thing I had fun with is my starbucks cup. On Starbucks Press, they say if you bring your own starbucks cup, you get 20yen discount. So today I brought my starbucks cup which I bought in Shanghai then asked them if they do that. Yeah they do it, so I got Tall Double Mocha Macchiato for 410 yen. The storeman has not seen the cup I had so he asked me at which Starbucks I bought it. I told him in Shanghai, he looked he liked the cup. I will show you how it looks here. So now it is proven that what Starbucks Press said is true. I will bring this cup next time too.

A Starbucks Cup I bought in Shanghai 4 Years Ago

Dr. Phil DVD

Yesterday I was very busy but when I got home, there was a cute envelope from Louana. I wondered what was inside but I couldn't find scissors so I put it in a big pocket on my jacket. I had dinner and got several things done.

Then Louana talked to me so I was at my PC. She talked about a bill for a red iPod so I thought inside the envelope is that bill. But I wondered why it could arrive in here that quick. Usually it takes about a week to ship something from the Netherlands to Japan. After talking for a while I opened the envelope then found a card and a DVD. This is something I didn't think it was.

It was a DVD of Dr. Phil! She recorded the shows and sent it to me! In my future I want to have a TV show in Japan like Dr. Phil so when I visited her last time I bought a tons of DVDs and asked her to record and send it to me. She made a lot of effort on making this DVD because there was some machine trouble. I really appreciate it. The DVD has as many as 12 shows! I am so happy!! I am so looking forward to watching it! Thank you Louana :)

Louana has received a red iPod

Well, I was busy today and yesterday so I didn't have time to write a blog but a great thing was happened yesterday. I secretly have ordered red iPod for Louana with Gyano's help. And it was successfully shipped to her place yesterday! She was so happy about it that took a picture of it and wrote about it on her blog. It was kind of hard because if you want to buy an iPod you have to buy at your country's Apple Store. She lives in the Netherlands so I had to check Apple store in the Netherlands. Everything is written in Dutch that is why I asked Gyano for help. When I bought a webcam for her, he helped me too. Yes I have to learn Dutch to be able to do this kind of thing by myself.

Thanks to Gyano, I made an order. When we were doing that, Louana talked to me but I asked her to wait a bit. That is a hard point of making a surprize. The person you are going to surprize doesn't know it. Gyano and I tried not to be known by the surprizee.

On this red iPod you can inscribe two lines each has maximum 23 charactors. So it will be your original one in the world. One more cool thing is that some of the money you pay for it is going to be in donation. This makes me feel I am a good person.

I was browsing website of Apple store which looks neat and cool. Then I remembered what Steven Jobs said to graduating students at graduation ceremony of a university in America. "Stay hungry, stay foolish". I like this word. I found it when I was making a speech sheet for my graduation ceremony from Kwansei Gakuin Univ. People liked that word too.

Anyway, giving a great present to who I love makes me proud of myself more. I would like to give her even a better gift some day soon.

Supermarket , What A Fun Place!

This is Qanat, 5-minute walk from my house.

Today was a great day, I worked very well on my translation and writing job. From morning to lunch time, I worked very hard on translation job with a cup of coffee and jazz music. Today I listened to Herbie Hancock. You know, people need something the same and something different most of the times. I need some changes to keep my motivation that is why I go to starbucks, change the music I listen to or etc.

Lunch time came, I had to go buy some food at a supermarket nearby my house. The supermarket is called Qanat, relatively new I like shopping there. I bought some materials for Udon, a box of Sushi ( Salad-Maki ) and Chirashi-Zushi. They are not expensive but the taste is awesome. My sister who had been away from Japan for 10 months tells me how great Japanese foods are, so that makes me more convinced on that.

Recently I like to shop at a supermarket. It is a fun place isn't it? I don't drink nor smoke, but I like snacks. There are many kinds of snacks and even if I buy lots of them, the cost won't be that high.

And it is the best place to find a souvenir to foreign friends. Last time I visited Louana, I bought lots of souvenirs there. Of course I bought expensive snack boxes but the rest are not. What is important is she and people in the Netherlands really liked them :) So it worked well.

My meeting with Mr. Yamasaki was cancelled today so I had time. I went to Starbucks with my sister. I like it a lot.

After 2 hours of translating there, we went to shops upstairs. There are DVD store, CD store, bookstore, clothes shop and supermarket. We looked for a DVD which Hiromasa will like because his birthday is 16th Janu. We didn't find it there but that gave us a great hint and now we already ordered a DVD for him. That is about a high school teacher, a real story, very touching.

Supermarket in Carrefour is nice because there are many things imported mainly from Europe. Sometimes I find stuff I found in the Netherlands. I should take pictures of them.

The Last Golf Lesson

Drivers Range in Technoland Amagasaki

I didn't have time to wrote on 12th January Friday. I worked at JMA then went to my last golf lesson. Since this is a makeup of a class I missed, I had a different teacher, but he was really good. He is very good at explaining how things work. Before hitting, he read our textbook and explain logically. It made sense a lot. Then he saw students' hittings. He gave me two advices. My hits were often sliced, meaning curved to the right. He first told me to set the face earlier than I imagine. This means the head of my golfclub is not really facing straight, instead facing to the right. Yes that makes sense, that is why my hits go the right. The second advice he gave me was to move my weight forward as I swing. In baseball you are often told not to move your weight back or forth so that you can see the ball well. But it is not a golf ( I have to keep saying that to myself ) , you can move forward while swinging. This allows me to hit further.

Thanks to those two nice advices, my hits got much better. They became to go more straight and further, more often. If you get better, you enjoy it more. This is true. The class ended at 9:15 pm but I didn't notice it. I was hitting , hitting and hitting. When I noticed, the time was already after 9:30. But there were still some balls in my box. I hit them quickly. That was a hard exercise unlike golf. I was very satisfied.

I put my clubs in bag , then walked to my family's car. I took a picture of the drivers range then.

The teacher I met this day is a really good teacher. It was right that I chose to take a makeup lesson on this day this time. I think my debut game will be in March. Hope it will be fun like this golf lesson.