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.

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