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.

Louana has received a present

This is where I bought it.

Jippie! She has received my present yesterday and I found out that she really liks it. I gave her a schedulebook that is pink and has a zipper so you can file things there. I bought it at Carrefour after enjoying my study at Starbucks. It took me a little of courage to go in a girly store and be there more than 30 minutes to think about what would be the best one to give her. She likes Japanese small cute things so I thought a schedulebook would do well. What is good about a schedulebook is that she can take that with her when she comes here so I can see her using it. That will be heart-warming to me. One more good about it is that it is so small that it wouldn't bother her taking a lot of stuff with her from Europe to Japan.

It was not so difficult to find a nice store that sells cute schedulebook. I went in and stood in notebook section. There were couple of kinds of schedulebooks but what I wanted is the one with English. I checked one by one and came to three choices.

A large one, one with a cute painting on the cover and a small one. Louana likes pink so a large one is out because there is not any pink large one. Ok, which will be better this painting one or small one?

Next I thought about the functions. The painting one, yeah it is well-made but it doesn't have anything great functionally. On the other hand, a small one has a train map of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka etc , plus it has a zipper so you can put memos or pictures there. I chose a small pink one.

While looking for this, I saw many schedulebooks. Some of them were so girly. It might be just my imagination, but when I took and saw inside of a very very girly schedulebook, a person nearby looked at me with a little surprise. I didn't see her clearly but she was in my sight.

But a schedulebook is not all I gave her. I also bought a cute card in order to give her a message. Yes this took me even more courage but it was done lot quick.

It was Janu 3rd or 4th I don't remember but soon after that day, 5th , I had to go to Osaka to work on our NLP project. Nearby Osaka Station, there is a big post office called "Osaka Chuo Yubinkyoku". I am not sure their official English name but it will be something like Osaka Central Post Office I guess. I went there and sent my present to the Netherlands. This time I sent it to her working place, EXPO Eindhoven. Why? Because she likes surprises and I thought she would be more surprised at that. And I knew EXPO's address because at the last Christmas I wanted to ship a webcam through Amazon Japan or America or England or Germany. Firstly I put her address but they said they didn't send things to that area. So I asked her mother, Lia to tell me other addresses that Louana is close. She gave me an address of EXPO and her sister, Chantel's place. Both of these addresses didn't work but then I thought I should send something to this address someday, that will be more surprise to her.

Anyway she likes the present itself a loooooooooooooot! I am so happy about it. But next time she wants it to be where she lives. Sure I will.

Why did I give her a present then? It is because 11th Janu is the day we first met and I thought she was a rude b***h. I didn't expect we would be like how we are now, she neither. Life is an adventure huh?

French Fries at Ministop

I took this picture while walking. Can you see X?

Because of this blog, I now have a habit of taking at least one picture a day. It is not hard to do if you have a cellphone in Japan. Yesterday I was very busy with publishing work so couldn't write blog but took a picture. That happened at around 11 pm, on my way home from Mr.Yamasaki's office at ShinOsaka. I was very tired and hungry from long work I wanted to eat something quick. Then I saw a big ad of French Fries at Ministop, called "X Fried Potato". This got my attention, I went in and ordered it. The store lady told me it takes for 3 minutes, I was ok with it. After a couple of minutes, I had one for 189 yen, not a bad price. So while walking to ShinOsaka station, I took a picture of it.

And today I took a picture of a drivers' range where I take golf lessons. But day after tomorrow I am going to take a lesson again so I chose to put a picture of French Fries here.

Why is it called "X Fried Potato"? I think it is because it is shaped "X", instead of square. By making it X-shaped, it is thinner and crispier. I enjoyed it.

What I do in this publishing thing is mainly making charts or pictures that describe the previous pages. Now we are almost finishing, the deadline is this week, Mr. Yamasaki said. In some parts, I also wrote. Writing helps me understand more about NLP. That organizes my thoughts.

While working on this publishing thing, I thought I really needed real experience of NLP or personal changes. I have read a lot and know a lot, but have not really applied in my daily life. I think true knowledge will come from my own experience. So now I should apply what I have learned in my daily life and create some results.

What I am interested in now is to stop my bad habit , biting my fingernails. How am I going to solve this? By associating it with some identity that I hate? By finding alternatives? Well, I'll find a way.

When thinking about "what works", I remembered one of my professors said in his class. "Get the evidence, not opinions". There are many opinions. Dr. Tom says A. Dr. Bob says B. Professor Tim says C. But I should find out what works to me. Maybe this is what Dr.Phil says "Get Real".

NLP Seminars in Nagoya

Shinkansen at Nagoya Station

Just got home from Nagoya. I am so tired. Yesterday and Today I was there to help Mr. Yamasaki's seminars about NLP and communication.

On Saturday, I arrived in Tsurumai at 8:20 am. A building the seminars were held are called Tsurumai-Plaza, about 5-minute away from JR Tsurumai Station. I was supposed to be there at 8:40 to meet Mr. Yamasaki , Miss Oe and people from C's Career Reseach. So I was the first one to be there and they came at 8:45. I normally am the one who comes just in time or a bit late, but thanks to Louana, I am getting this habit. To be there in time enough.

In order to get to Tsurumai , which is 2-station away from Nagoya, I left Tachibana Station at 6:50, ShinOsaka Station at 7:10. By Shinkansen, it takes less than one hour from ShinOsaka to Nagoya. It costs 5980 yen for a non-reserved seat.

I didn't know who would be with Mr. Yamasaki. He came there with Miss Oe who also throws seminars and is a big learner of Mr. Yamasaki's, and two ladies from C's, Mrs. Yoshida and Ms Aoi. Now preparation starts. We put desks and chairs as Mr. Yamasaki wants, bound Seminar Materials, set the Mic on and etc.

At 9:30, the seminar starts. This is introduction of NLP , titled "NLP for beginners'". What I wanted to learn from this semianr is how to teach NLP. It is complicated for me to explain it, so being there and saw how and what he talked was helpful.

It is Nagoya, so mostly people are from there but sometimes I found people from Osaka. A lady sat in front of me was also from Osaka. She wants to learn NLP more but since there are few seminars done in Osaka, she came there. Well, in June you can take NLP Practitionor course in Osaka. I'll tell her the details later. She was an interesting person, teaches at universities "Attraction Skills". It is not about sexual thing but more likely how to behave or how to wear clothes nicely. Her main career is color designing so her class is a derivation from it, I guess.

After the seminar, we went to have Sushi which ended up to be on Mr. Yamasaki. He ordered the best Sushi set for us. It was great needless to say.

Then we went to a restaurant to study. Mr. Yamasaki taught us how to structure seminars with what and why he did today. It was a really interesting lessons, Miss Oe recorded everything. She gives seminars so for her what Mr. Yamasaki said was very real. She often asked questions to him. I was very silent but I also had many questions but those questions were to me, not to Mr. Yamasaki. At the end, the time was 11pm, he asked us if any questions. That was the first time I opened my mouth there besides when eating Chocolate Sundae. It looked like it is very important for us to doubt about NLP. Yes it is a very practical and effective tool and attitude but you have to get real. Mr. Yamasaki looked very happy and said "Yes, yes yes, you are very right!". I was very happy to feel the sense of "Getting the point". And that made our talk 15-munite longer.

On that night, I stayed at Business Hotel Comfort, very private small hotel. It looked like an apartment.

Next day, Sunday, the seminar was about NLP but more advanced skills. It was also much fun.

The seminar is over, Mr. Yamasaki and I went back to ShinOsaka by Shinkansen. We got there at 9, then we went to have dinner. At the table we were talking about the book he is about to publish. I am a charge of its charts and pictures. We talked about several things about it and left the restaurant.

Because he lives in Amagasaki too, he gave me a ride home. I knew he has bought a Porsche but never seen it. So I saw it for the first time! It was a silver and small one. It didn't look convenient to drive but the feeling of being there is awesome! I liked it a lot.

I really wanted to make pictures of Nagoya but since I didn't have much time there I just took a couple. But almost surely Mr. Yamasaki will invite me to his 10-day seminar in Nagoya from March to April, I'll take more then.

Nagoya is a beautiful place, they have a beautiful Christmas illumination till the beginning of January. I took a part of it from a car.

Christmas Illumination at Nagoya Station (from a car)

In fromt of Nagoya Station

My favorite Place

Entrance of Carrefour Amagasaki

After setting up webcams for PC dummies in JMA, I went home to do several things. Then the time was already 4 pm. But I had to work on the translation work, so I went to my favorite place, Starbucks in Carrefour.

I went there 2 days in a row. I don't like people there to remember my face and they think inside "Oh he comes here again". Because I spend about two hours working there. But it is just 2 days, I shouldn't be worried about it. Since I was bit tired from my morning work at JMA, my work didn't go as fast as yesterday, but it is always fun to read or study at Starbucks.

Today I had Caramel Macchiato there. I got to know this from Louana. At Starbucks nearby Emory University, she often had this one. So I tried , it was good. So today it was maybe my 5th or 6th Caramel Macchiato try, I was already used to it.

There are several ways to enjoy Caramel Macchiato or other coffees. How do you drink this kind of coffee? Before I used to taste a little bit of the caramel on the top, then stir. But recently I stir from the beginning and enjoy that mixed flavor. How about you?

A well-known therapist, Milton Erickson has told once that he can see people's sexual behavior from their eating behavior, Tim Hallbom said in his seminar ( that was right after our lunch break, what a good timing! ). So I think maybe your way of drinking coffee imply some of your sexual behavior?

Anyway, it is always fun to find out about human , brain or that kind of stuff. Tomorrow I'm going to Nagoya for Mr. Yamasaki's seminar about NLP and communication.

Business Innovation Center Osaka

Ad of AEON , Honmachi school at Honmachi station

In order to reserve a seminar room for our NLP seminar in July, I went to Business Innovation Center Osaka. Actually I didn't know they had an English page which looks blunt. It is still 4th Janu, most of people are still in New Year's mode. Understandable enough. On way there, something caught my eyes, so I took a picture of it. My girlfriend will work for Aeon in Inuyama in May.

Business Innovation Center Osaka

Because it is a new and popular building, there are many organizations who want to have seminar in. So the rooms are given by lottery. They put pieces of paper which says number on in a box, you take one and wait till your turn comes. Last time I took "8" that was relatively a good number since there are always about 20 groups, I reserved the room I wanted. This time what I will get. The lottery is taken by the order of phonecalls. If you call them and tell them that you are going to come to reserve the room earlier, you can take the lottery earlier. I was the 6th or 7th one of the lottery. Well, let's see,,,
"5" nice number, I became almost certain that I would get the room I wanted. And I did.

Number "5"

I got home and worked on my translation work. After lunch I biked to Starbucks. I thought it was very far from my house, but it only took 20 minutes by bike. I can do this easily. Today I had Double Moca Macchiato which started to sell on 26 December, about one week old product. It tasted good, my work went so well. Thank you, starbucks.

"All You Need Is Love" is online

Great job! Louana successfully upload the movies of "All You Need Is Love". When it aired, she filmed it by herself over TV screen. She is always nice to me for some reason and is good at catching the moments. Dank u wel schat!

Sushi Place

Click to Play

This is what I filed for "All You Need Is Love" but it was not so well-made I guess.

New Year, Relatives get together 2

Minoru enjoyes karaoke

Today is the day our dad's family get together. 3 of my uncle's family, 2 are my uncle & aunt, my grandma and 4 of my family. We were a groupd of 10 people. In the afternoon, my uncle, Akihiro was out, he was golfing which was very important to him because now he wants to have his wife. Yes there was but she has passed away for about 6 years. It was subarachnoid hemorrhage, her death was too sudden. I will never forget how shocking it was.

We, 9 of us, enjoyed lunch that was sushi. Since we wanted to make it no war among who gets which sushi, we had one box for each. It worked well. I always enjoy talking to my grandma, Shizuko who has got recently really forgetful. But she has never lost her sense of humor and upbeat atmosphere, most of the times she is happy and that makes everyone around her happy too.

After lunch, my mother , my aunt Mayumi and I cleaned up table and plates. I used to get annoyed with people who are not cooperative in a family society. "Why doesn't he do anything while we all are doing this? Does he think he is the King and we are his slaves or something?" something like that. But I was not annoyed much today because I found another perspective. I found that while I am doing this stuff, I am also building people's trust. And that is one of the most important things. Also I thought there lies something I can grow inside. If I stop being who I want to be because of people around, that is absurd. So I was enjoying cleaning kind of. Am I being too positive? I don't know. Let's see.

Then we went to Karaoke. There is one in Amagasaki called Manekineko. Manekineko translates "Inviting Cat" word-to-word. This is a cat figure that is considered to make people and money come to your place. So normally you can find it in stores.

We got there at 5pm with Hiro's thrilling drive. Someone had to make a member's card, so I did. Because it will live for one year which means when Louana is here we can karaoke at this place. I am so looking forward to that. Karaoke was fun, and what came to the last is , of course, grandma Shizuko! She is a really good singer. We were there for two hours.

We came back to Akihiro's place for dinner. It was Nabe as Louana has expected. Like Sukiyaki last night, it was also great.

"Ohhh,,, you hurt me. But I like you" SM Foot Massage Tool

Dinner was done and we found something fun there. Akihiro has a massage tool for your feet. You step on the tool so your feet are pushed. According to the tool, if you feel pain then, some of your body parts are unhealthy. Depending on which part of foot feels pain, you can know which part of your body is unhealthy. I tried and felt pain in Achilles-side and middle-side which means I lack sleep and my kidney is not healthy. Maybe , maybe not. It was so ridiculous to see people standing on it and walking on the spot. The best one is when Mayumi was on. I took a picture of it. She looked like "a ski jumper in the sky" or "a girl who secretly wants to go to restroom". We all tried and laughed how they looked on it. Yeah, I'm going to buy this one in my house.

She is just getting a massage. Nothing strange.

New Year, Relatives get together

Very crowded in LaLaport

It is already 2007, a happy new year! Last night, I was talking to Louana to count numbers for a new year but the TV I was watching didn't count down, so we missed it. When we noticed the time, it was already after 0:00. After that, we talked and I slept at around 3 am because I had to get up slightly before at 8 am in Japanese time to count down for a year 2007 with Louana. I got up at 7:55am and immediately made a call to Louana's cellphone but that was not what she expected. She thought I would call her house-phone. Her cellphone battery was low so I had to call her again to her house-phone. Then she went outside to see fireworks which is a common way to celebrate new year in The Netherlands. I was sleepy so I slept again.

At 11 am I got up and my new day started. Every New Year's Day, my mother is happy because she can buy "Fukubukuro ( Lucky-bag )". Fukubukuro has a lot of stuff inside but you can't know what are inside until you buy it. But you can buy many things at very cheap price, that is why it is called "Fukubukuro", Lucky-bag. We went to LaLaport again to find good Fukubukuros.

My mother was not the only one who wants to buy Fukubukuro. So I was. I needed to buy two of them , one is for Yumi, the other is for Amy. They are my cousins who came over with their parents to my house for dinner.

Since Yumi and Amy are very young (14 and 8 ), I went to very girly stores. Finally I found Fukubukuros of stationery that include many cute things. I took two bags and lined to Casher. It was a really fun experience to line up in a girly store. Most of them are girls. Sometimes you find middle-aged guys but they are with their little doughter. 23 year-old man, standing alone in that line must have been really funny to people around me. Even I found it funny. But hey, life is an adventure, doing something is usually better than doing nothing.

In the evening, my relatives from my mother's family came to my house for dinner. We had Sukiyaki. Oh I loved it! We all really enjoyed it. My brother, Hiromasa, even said that " who invented this awesome food?". After Sukiyaki, we had several desserts. Food was good, and meeting relatives who I had not met for months was also good.

Sukiyaki Dinner