Expensive Local Beer

Today, I had a meeting until 11pm. Finally, I cloud not go shopping, enjoy meals or go around in San Francisco. I think discussion with lawyers is always long... Of course, we have to pay them on an hourly basis.

I am drinking the local beer in the mini bar. It is $7. Expensive... But shops have already closed and I have no choice.

San Francisco

I am staying in San Francisco on business. Even though I am in San Francisco, I have meetings from 8am to 11pm every day, even on Saturday. Unfortunately, I have no time to go to a restaurant to have seafood and local beer. I am just eating sandwiches at each meal. I wish that I went to the fisherman's wharf and ate crabs...
I am leaving to Tokyo tomorrow. I look forward to watching movies and drinking beer on the plane.

Tokyo German Village

I went to Tokyo German Village located in Chiba prefecture with my wife and daughter. Tokyo German Village in Chiba??? It sounds strange. This is the German-inspired theme park located in Chiba. I can not understand why its name include Tokyo although it does not related to Tokyo. Anyway, we can eat sausages and drink German beer there. We could enjoy ourselves very much. My daughter walked a lot on the grass and in the stream. After coming back to home, she got sleep soon.

Telework

I worked at home yesterday and today, because I have to take away from my office until the end of this week due to my flu infection.
I understood that I could comfortably work at home as long as I have the PC and the cell phone. I didn't have to ride crowded trains for one hour each ways. I could play with my kid soon after finishing my work.
I hope to have occasional telework.

By the way, I suddenly have to go to San Fransisco next week. I unfortunately have to cancel my short trip next weekend. I was planning to stay a hotel located in a hot spring area and eat sumptuous dishes.

Silver Week Holidays but I was lying down due to new flu

We have many national holidays in Japan.　The number of national holidays are fifteen and it is more than the US or Europe. I wonder why Japanese people have such many national holidays. Anyway, we have five consecutive holidays, called Silver Week Holiday, this week.

However, I and my family caught new flu, swine flu, last weekend and we were just lying down during the holidays.
I was completely cured, but I cannot go to my office tomorrow because of my company's rule that people who caught flu must stay away from the office for 7 days after infecting flu.
Therefore, I have nine consecutive holidays. Nevertheless, I am not so happy because I cannot go out.
I can read a lot of books during this week.

The change of Japanese government

We had the general election for the House of Representatives last Sunday.
As a result,　the administration of Japanese government has moved from the Liberal Democratic Party to the Democratic Party. Although I anticipated that the Democratic Party would win the election, I could not image such massive victory.
I hope that the Democratic Party would improve the current bad economic conditions and weak and out-of-date social systems of Japan.

Fireworks show in my town

We had a firework show in Futako-tamagawa which is my town. I went to the river side with my wife and kid and enjoyed it.
When I watch its firework, I feel the summer is ending.

Raw meat of chicken

As you know, Japanese likes to eat raw fish. Do you know that you can eat raw chicken in Japan? You can eat fresh meat of chicken, beef and even horse. I like to eat fresh chicken breast fillet with wasabi and soy-sauce. Its taste is weak because of low fat and you can eat like raw fish.

When you have a chance to come to Japan, please try to eat raw meat as well as raw fish.

Takoyaki

We ate TAKOYAKI at dinner. TAKO means octopus and YAKI means baked. It is very popular snack in Japan. Takoyaki is a dumpling with a diced octopus.
We generally eat takoyaki as a snack or a light meal, but people in Osaka eat takoyaki as an usual meal. I had felt it was strange to eat takoyaki at dinner, but now I became enjoy it. Beer is good for takoyaki!

Its recipe is simple, batter, dices octopus, pickled ginger, green onion and takoyaki sauce. However, it is a little difficult to make a ball first. To make takoyaki, we need a special pan for takoyaki. It is said that all families in Osaka have at least one takoyaki-pan. Because my wife originally came from Osaka, she brought a takoyaki-pan as one of her hope chests when we got married.

I think our home made takoyaki is much better than that was sold in the market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

Solar eclipse

Although we expected to ovseve a partial eclipse of the sun in Tokyo today, we unfortunately could not see it due to bad weather. We can observe the next solar eclipse in 2035 in Japan. I have to wait so long.

Tokino-sumika

I had the three-day weekend because Monday is national holiday "Oceans Day" in Japan.

I stayed at Gotenba-Kogen Hotel with my wife and baby. That hotel is in "Tokino-sumika" which is leisure park located in Gotenba. It takes two or three hours to go there from Tokyo by car. There are shops, restaurants, hotels, hot springs and tennis court. We can also enjoy variety of local beer named "Gotenba beer".



At night, we enjoyed to walk the illuminated road. It was very beautiful! Please see the attached picture.

I would like to stay there again and drink beer more!

Haruki Murakami's novel "1Q84"

I am reading Haruki Murakami's latest novel "1Q84". Murakami is one of the popular authors in Japan and thought to be the closest Japanese author to the Nobel prize for literature.
His latest novel "1Q84" was sold out soon after it was released. Because I ordered it in advance to Amazon, I could get it.
It is a very long story,two-volume, 1,055-page hardcover book, but it's hard to put down the book once you've started it. Although its story is very mysterious and unpredictable like mixture of reality and fantasy, it is easy to read due to easy-to-follow story telling. In addition, characters are very attractive. There are two main characters. One is a male who is obscure author and another is female who is a hired hit-woman.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the story.

Non-alcohol beer

When my mother in law came to my house, I picked up her at the Sin-Yokohama Station by car. Because she arrived there at about 7 pm, we had a dinner at a restaurant in the station. We ate assorted row fishes, and I wanted to drink some beer very much! I can not image that eating row fish without alcohol. Best drinks with row fish is beer, Japanese sake or white wine! But unfortunately, I could not drink, because I had to drive to return my home.
Therefore, I tried a non-alcohol beer which was just released by Kirin. I thought that its taste was not bad and enough to keep off my hunger for beer.
I heard that this Kirin's non-alcohol beer is having a good salse.

Sunny day took me jog this morning

When I wake up at 6.30 this morning, I found that it was sunny and calm. I suddenly decided to go jogging. I went to the Kinuta Park. When I go to the park, go around a jogging course there and come back home, it is about 5 km and takes 30 to 45 minutes. When I arrived at the park, I felt good and refreshed. I though to jog more frequently. However, when I was working at office, I felt sleepy. I took coffee a log to avoid sleeping.

Keiji Suzuki

I watched documentary TV program which introducing Keiji Suzuki's current life and thought after the Beijing Olympic. Suzuki is a Japanese Judo player and a gold medalist in Judo over 100kg at the Athene Olympic in 2004. When he participated in the Beijing Olympic last year, he was expected to win the second gold medal and played a role as captain of Japanese team. However, he lost at first-round and failed to get a medal. After he returned to Japan, he was criticized and said that he must have retired. I have not known what he was doing now and how he was thinking about his future career. I could not imagine the life of champion who scrape bottom.
Though its TV program, I found that he decided to continue playing Judo and started to training for the next London Olympic. However, it is not easy for him, because many young players are getting stronger and he get out of shape.

After I watched his good personality, honest attribute and his strong effort to overcome his weakness, I became a fun of Suzuki. I hope that he make a strong comeback!

His blog is below, but it is written in Japanese.
http://ameblo.jp/suzukikeiji/

Wikipedia in English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiji_Suzuki

Georgia Aquarium

Because I had a time for sightseeing today, I went to the Georgia Aquarium. There were many kinds of fishes in the huge tank. It was so impressive!
There were many children and babies. I felt I wanted to come here with my family and take a lot of pictures.

Tomorrow, I will wake up at 4 am and leave Atlanta at 7 am. Because I ate huge meat and drunk a lot every day, I believe I got weight. I should diet after I get back to Japan.

Big Hamburger

I ate a big hamburger for lunch. It tasted good! But I was afraid that I might get weight during my trip.

Big steak!

I had a dinner with my colleagues from our US subsidiaries. I ate a big steak! It was very nice! I like an American size of stake. But soup and sweets were too big for me.

Came to Atlanta

I came to Atlanta to attend the BIO Conference.
I am staying Marriott Marquis. It is a big and convenient hotel. Its design is impressive, so I took the attached picture.

Picnic at Kinuta Park

Because it was warm and sunny today, I went to Kinuta Park for a picnic with my wife and my baby. Kinuta Park is located near my house and it takes about 15 minutes on food.
There were many people today, but it was not crowded because Kinuta Park is very large and has a lot of spaces for playing.
We had a lunch under the shade of a tree and took a nap.

After the picnic, I got my hair cut shorter than usual, because it is getting warmer and warmer.

Fruits vinegar for drinking

I bought two kinds of fruits vinegar, grapefruit and mango, for drinking. The fruits vinegar is less sour than general vinegar to drink easier.
Because I like alcohol very much, I drink alcohol like beer, wine, Sake and wisky every night. However, for my health, I drink fruits vinegar instead of alcohol to give my liver a rest at least twice a week.
Japanese people knows vinegar is very good for their health and there are many kinds of vinegar for drinking in Japan. We mix vinegar with wather, soda or milk to drink easier.
One bottle of the fruits vinegar is about 1500 yen. It is more expensive than general ones, but more cheaper than liquor.

Lunch at the Chinese restaurant 'SENCE'

I took my wife and my mother in law to the Chinese restaurant ‘SENCE’ for lunch. I sometimes have a business lunch there with my clients because it is in Mandarin Oriental Hotel Tokyo located near my company. I think it is one of the best Chinese restaurants as far as I know. You can enjoy not only nice cooking but also good view of Tokyo from 34th floor. I would like to offer my family fancy time.

Picture is a fruit cocktail with red wine sauce which I ate in Senbikiya. Senbikiya is at 2nd floor of the same building and is a famous fruits shop. You can eat a fruits parfait there. I also recommend you to take it.

Lunch course at SENCE is from 5000 yen.
Fruits parfait of SENBIKIYA is from 1300 yen.

Houto, local food in Yamanashi

We ate ‘Houto’ in the picture on our way back from Yamanashi. Houto is traditional local food in Yamanashi and is thick noodle with plenty of vegetables such as squash, carrot and potato.

Mt. Fuji from Yamanashi prefecture

Because we had a noting to do in the evening, we went to Yamanashi prefecture to see a ‘Shibazakura’, flowers look like cherry blossoms growing on the ground. However, we had a heavy traffic jam and had to give up getting there. Because fee of express highway is cut down to stimulate the economy in Japan, there was heavier traffic jam than usual. We could not see beautiful flowers but could see a beautiful Mt. Fuji in the picture.

Fried meat of kangaroo

I ate a fried meat of kangaroo in the picture. I found it on a menu at ‘Izakaya’, Japanese style pub. We don’t have culture to eat kangaroo in Japan and I don’t know why they were supplying it. I hesitated to eat kangaroo at first because I usually watch jumping ones in Australia on TV. But I was getting to try it. After I ate it, I thought it was not bad.