Date W Uncle K

Dating in Kyoto

I spent a night at my grand ma’s last night.
I woke up early to impress my grand mother.
We went shopping to a couple places for him to bring some tuff back to SF.
We drove to many places, and it was fun.
We also had a nap too!
It was such a peaceful relaxing Sunday but just lots of driving.

By the way, today I felt I eat for EATING.
I had breakfast and had big lunch on the picture above.

Had an orange as snack, and also had an orange jelly on the picture above.
It is $6.30 US.
Expensive good stuff.

And had dinner, of course.
My favorite grandma’s hand-made dish.
My uncle’s friend for over 40 years came to join us.

It was a nice dinner!

This was the last thing I had today.
I know I had too much.
This is one of cakes Mr. Ito brought us.
Cheesecake is my favorite cake in this world!
I had swissroll tonight too.
I drove back home and did some exercise!
Now I's ready to go to bed!
Ugh... I am full still...

Osaka to Kyoto

Slow Saturday W Uncle K

I spent a night at my parents’s house with my sis and uncle.
My parents are in Hawaii on business now so we had to take care of our doggy.
I wanted to get up early to go out on a date with my uncle, but could not.
I was so tired from last night.
Well I am always tired on Saturday from all my work from Mon-Fri.
Yes, I am weak.
I need to sleep.
Anyway, I woke up and finally got ready to go at noon, and had lunch all together.
My sis left for ski to Hokkaido today, so Uncle K and I went to our cousin’s dog’s hospital to leave my dog for two days.
It is always hard to make her spent at dog’s hospital.
She always can’t eat and sleep well when she spent nights at my cousin’s.

Uncle K and I went to a shopping mall to do some shopping.
Lately, I am crazy about Assam Black Tea Latte from Starbucks.
I wonder if you have the same menu in the US.

We stopped by at cake shop to get some desert after dinner.
And we left to Kyoto.
In a car, we talked a lot about what’s going on lately.
We have so much to catch up.
I love talking with uncle K.

After we got to Kyoto, we picked up my grand ma and went to a small Chinese restaurant.
They are all yummy!!
It is nice to spend time with family.
Slow but fulfilled Saturday.

Family Friday

Crazy Uncle

I have lunch every Tuesday and Friday with my sister.
Today, we went to Italian restaurant and had garlic spaghetti, and we both got really stinky…

I had a rough day today at work.
We had a presentation but my partner screwed, and my boss got really mad, so I could not go home early.
I had to go home early since my uncle was at my parent’s home with my sis.
My sis cooked for my uncle and me.
I had dinner while they were watching me eating since they had already finished eating.
After my dinner, we all decided to go to Karaoke.

Guess how long we sang.
We sang for two and a half hour.
We went home at midnight.
What a bad family!
I am so sleepy but it worth!
We had such a good family time.

My Grandpa’s Memorial

Favorite People and good Food

Two years has passed since my favorite grandpa passed away.
Wow, time goes really fast.
I remember that I wrote about him on this blog when he passed away two years ago.
It is snowing pretty hard today in Kyoto.
I like snow actually, though.

We were shivering and prayed for my grandpa with my favorite uncle Koji!
Yes, my uncle K is now in Japan!!

We had a great Kyoto style French with my grandma, my parents, my uncle and my sis.
Look how tiny the each plate is!
The picture above is French style Oden.

This is a desert dish.
Crape with Ice cream.

I came home to work.
Crap, snoopy company in the US are taking two days vacation.
I could not finish my work for approving for our new packaging design…
Damn it!!!

Lazy Sunday

I Am Too Goofy

I did not do much today.
I have to reconsider how to spend my day-off.
I should not be lazy like this, otherwise, I will go crazy and stupid.
So I went to my favorite glasses store and asked to fix one of my glasses.
And went a little shopping.
And had this Sukiyaki dinner.

I e-mailed the company who gave me an offer letter.
I asked them a couple things.
I am still thinking what to do.
I want to take the offer so badly, but still there are a couple issues.
Like me not talking with my dad, less salary than I get now, and so on.
After I get a reply from them, I will make a decision.
I hope they would not feel annoying that I asked them so many questions, that’s something I am so worried.
We’ll see…

What I Learn From Lecture

Seminar At Hotel

I had a seminar today.
Before the seminar, there was a concert of piano and violin.
It was really great.
I attended with my sis and had lunch.
We wanted to have lunch at Westin hotel which we had a seminar, but all the restaurant was full so we had lunch at a local place close by.

The seminar was about “women get fat, but you always can loose weight.”
It might sound weird, but it was really for work.
We leaned about nutrition.
Mostly those are something I leaned at school at DU, but it helped me remembering what I learned.
It was interesting, but the guy who gave us a lecture had a bad mouth.
I mean he used all bad words, and sounded too aggressive.
Which made me regret how I talked with the lawyer last night.
I usually don’t use bad words, but sometime I can’t help!
But he, the lecture guy, reminds me of how people feel uncomfortable listening bad words…

See? I learned a lot at the lecture.

Babies

Will I Have A Baby Someday??

I went to Kobe to see my friends from college.
Went to Brazilian restaurant which one of our friends works.
He just got married last October, and he looked so so happy!
His restaurant is pretty cool and it is a buffet style.
Look how much I ate.
These with lots of meat, which Brazilian waiter cut in front of us.
I still have stomachache, but can’t help eating… Why???

Anyway, Mayumi who is still single and I who is also single went to see my friend who came back to our town for vacation with her baby boy.
Also my other friend came to see her.
It’s been a while since I saw her the last.
She took her husband and her little baby.
Since we met, it’s been 22 years past, but we are still good friends.
It is just weird that most of them now have a family.
Look this little guy, how adorable!!
I like this age kids but I just could not imagine that I will have a baby like him someday.

Everyone laugh at me holding baby.
It seems like being mother is very difficult and lots of work more than I work now.
But someday, I will get there.
Just can’t imagine now somehow…

It was snowing today in Kobe.
On the way back, I stopped by the massage place I always go.
Ahhhh, felt really good.
Now I am in my apt writing this blog in my bed waiting for my sister comes home.
After she gets to her apt, I will go over and stay over her apt tonight.

It is a pretty fun weekend-start for me.

Last Day In My Bed

Not Ready For Working

I had a headache and stomachache today.
Ah how foolish I was to drink that much…
I gotta think about my age, I know…

I woke up pretty early although I stayed up late last night, but of course I did not get out from my bed till late afternoon.
Now I love watching Ally McBeal.
So I am in a bed with surfing intenet and watching American dramas.

Since my grandma is at my parents’ house till tomorrow, I went to my parents’ to have dinner together.
We had good time.

Now I have already chosen what to wear tomorrow.
I just need to get ready for tomorrow in my mind.
Well I have definitely not been ready yet.

Still Eating

2nd day in 2009.

Still haven’t decided my own goal in 2009.
I went to shopping with my sister in Kyoto and we all came back to Osaka this evening.
And Voila.
This is what we had dinner tonight.
It is not Japanese traditional new year dishes, but still a lot of good stuff.
Ah, I can’t eat, no, I don’t wanna eat anymore.

I went to my sister’s afterwards, and I stayed over at her apartment.
I watched American drama, “The OC” till in the morning.
How come I can’t stop watching videos once I started?

A Happy New Year!!

Hello New Year

I appreciate lots of people who support me.
Thank to everyone who support me, I could get this new year 2009.
We traditionally wear kimono and we have a little family serious new year party in the morning on January 1st.
However we decided not to wear kimonos.
It is kinda sad, but it was also hassle to wear them only for a couple of hours.
We had our morning ceremony with our grandma’s maid who is 96 years old.
He hardly hear us now…

After that we went to see our grandma who is in a nursing home.
She can’t understand anything, but at least she opened her eyes and saw us.
After the visit, we went to shrine as every year, and also went to our office to pray.
Then, we drove down to Kyoto to celebrate with my other grandma.
She could come to Osaka to celebrate with us but she cared about out dead grandpa and wanted us to come to Kyoto.
Now she is thinking to move to Osaka and live close to us.
She seems like she was pretty excited about it,

We just kept eating and eating.
I love Osechi, Japanese New Year’s traditional dishes.
Guess how many items we had at the dinner table?
60, sixty!!!
This is the day I feel lucky myself to be born as Japanese.

Woff, I ate too much…

Talkative ot Not Talkative??

Not Feeling Like Talking

Yes, I am talkative.
However, I sometimes don’t wanna talk.
I had so much to think today,
Biiiiiig Topic.
I was thinking what made me happy…

Anyway, I did not talk much at office and everybody got freaked out.
It seems like my assistants thought that someone made mistakes and I was mad.
I went to a lunch to research for food and sweets made by Chinese herbs with one of my assistants.
She said that she was asked by everybody that to whom I was mad at after we got back when I was not there.
Oh boy, I have a day that I don’t feel like talking much…

It was a gourmet day with my Hula friends.
We went to have this Korean pot.
It was spicy and tasty.
I will smell pretty bad because of lots of garlic, but should be good for my skin!
We talked about happiness.
One of them worked for a company which related to Toyota.
She lost her job because of this world situtaion.
Obama!! Change this world!! Please!!

After dinner we walked to Ritz Carlton and we enjoy their Christmas decoration.
And we had a cup of coffee and chat again.

I did not feel like talking today, but I talked a lot at night.
Well, I am talkative, so what can I say?

Get A Luck

Crap!!!

Crao! I got droppings on my coat and my bag this morning.
In Japan, poeple say that you get luck when you get droppings.
I had a white coat on, so I felt really sad and misserable.
I don't know how I got them.
Crap...

I went to Park Hyatt this afternoon to meet a business related person.
We had lunch at "NY Grill" at park Hyatt.
Look this beautiful sight.

There are great buffet style of appetizers and I was full by lots of appetizers.
My main course was this Risotto.
It was pretty good.
And we had another buffet style of deserts.
There were 15 defferent deserts.
Oh my god...
Anybody!! Please stop me eating!!!


After lunch, I ran to the airport and caught a flight to go back to Osaka.
I went back to my office in Osaka and get everything done.
I was away from my desk just a day, but there was a pile of papers...
Not only papers, but also lots of tastings.
I ate so many quiches.
And guess what?
I went to eat French for dinner.
I promised to go to a French restaurant with my favorite artisan.
I did not feel like eating, but they were good.

I think I gained 20 punds this week...

Chinese Food

This Is What I Ate

Today was a day to go to a famous Chinese restaurant with Board of Directors from our company.
8 of us went to downtown and had this dinner together.
This is soup I had.

This is a mango pudding, which is my favorite desert.
Their Mango Pudding is one of the best ever.

I miss American Chinese Food.
Japanese Chinese Food is a little too fancy.
Also I miss Chinese food in Shanghai.
When should I go back to Shanghai next??

Bonus!!

Bonus Day

It was a Bonus day.
We get bonus twice a year.
It is depending on how hard we worked and how the result was for half a year.
My bonus was just "so so" this time.
Oh well. Still I have to appreciate that I could get extra money from work.

I supposed to go to gym tonight, but decided to go to Okinawa food restaurant.
The day we get bonus, all Japanese salary-men have to use money to praise ourselves.
We had never been to the restaurant, but I knew that it was a famouse good restaurant close to my apt.

And it was pretty good!

Food Food Food

Eating Too Much

Thai Fried Rice, originally uploaded by yikada.

Today was an eating day.
I went to Thai food restaurant with my assistants for lunch.

At 3PM, I tasted lots of food by my co-workers who took a cooking class from our chef who has a contract with our company.
All of them tasted really good.
I had like 5 menus…
And I went to a party at night with people from other companies for work.
I was a hostess, so I arranged the time, place and everything.
Everybody like the restaurant I picked.
It was a restaurant with all chicken.

Lastly, we went to Sushi to drink more.
I can’t believe why we could eat Sushi after we eat a lot from the last restaurant.
More surprisingly, at the Sushi place, I met a woman who knows really well about me,
I had mever met her, but she knew my dad.
She hesitated to tell her name, but she confessed that she has known my dad for a long time.
Who the hell she was?
Is my dad a “man”, like others??
Oh well…
I don’t think she was my dad’s lover or anything, but let’s not tell my mom.

Working Outside

Working Out Of Office

It was foggy this morning.
Very rare!!
Made me miss San Francisco!

I am sooo tired today since I was out of office most of the day.
I went out to eat French restaurant which was just opened at a new building last month and waited for this reservation.
My assistant and I went to BENOIT by paying $40 for lunch.
It was more than good food and we had good time.
We will introduce this restaurant at the meeting on Saturday to Board of Directors.
Believe or not, this is part of our work.

This new building was cute.
Of course we did not have much time to look around, but took a picture of part of their architect

After eating too much at the restaurant, we went to a couple department store to check out new products.
Guess what, I found our pie product at one sweets section at one department store.
Two days in row!
I bought some and tasted them.
Don’t look that good in this picture, but were pretty good!

I ate more sweets which some of my assistants bought after this.
Oh my, I don't wanna eat anymore...

Okinawa Food

Dinner with Co-Worker

I had to take a train to work since I went out to drink last night.
I used to take a train every morning, but now it is something I hate.
I don't know why but I just got used to driving to work.

As I mentioned, I interviewed a foreigner today.
I thought he would be American, but he was actually from Brazil.
He spoke pretty good Japanese, but he was not someone whom I was looking for as my assistant.
It was interesting to meet through interviewing.
He was not the one, but I found the one and she will be working with me from next Monday.

I went out to drink with my co-worker.
He used to have my position, but moved to a different department.
It had been a while since the last time we talked in person.
We went to a restaurant which serves food in Okinawa.
It was pretty good.
He does not drink much, so I drunk for him.
It was fun and so nice to talk with him about a lot of stuff.

Drinking everyday make me be able to hold lots of alcohol.

2nd Day in Gunma

Lots Going On in Gunma

We woke up early and Ayako drove me to palm reader.
I went to see a fortuneteller in July or August and had a really bad experience.
At that tie the fortuneteller yelled at me and told me what I did not want to hear.
However, when I think about it now, she was not that wrong.
Actually some of things she told me at that time really happened to me now.
Anyway, I was so afraid of going to see a palm reader, but she said he was good so I decided to go.
Actually he is a Buddhist priest.
He was not a strict one at all.
Some of the stuff he told me surprised me but interesting.
He wrote out lines on a hand and explained.
He could read my palm and see that I am wondering which of three ways I should go now, to keep working for my dad, changing job, or going to the US.
Of course he could not tell me what exactly I was wondering about, but he could see that I was wondering among three things.
See? The three lines on my hand. (One with a ring)
He explained everything and I understood everything.
What he told me actually encouraged me.
I don’t rely on him, and don’t believe in everything what he said, but keep what he said in mind would help me, I think.
He said that I am going to get married next year and will have 3 kids, 2 girls and 1 boy.
He was confident about it, so we’ll see, hahaha.

Ayako and I went to a department store and took a picture in heart.
I don’t know what it was but seems like it was a photo spot, so we took a picture.

On the way back to Ayako’s house, we had bread with Miso, which is bread famous for Gunma.
It was yummy!!
Also we had chocolate, almond and banana crape.
We ate too much.

And after we went back I had dinner with Ayako’s family again.
This is a picture which Ayako took.
Me with Boo.
I left Ayako’s at 10 in this evening and took a bullet train to Tokyo for tomorrow.
I have work in Tokyo tomorrow again.
Now I am in a business hotel washing TV.
What a nice weekend I had!
Ready to go to work tomorrow.

Expo in Tokyo and Fun in Gunma

Tokyo and Gunma Trip

I just got back from Tokyo to home yesterday morning, but I left home to Tokyo again early this morning.
It is just one-hour flight from Osaka to Tokyo, but still it is a lot of work for me.
I put all my stuff in a locker at the station in Tokyo.
Since I am not good at remembering which “coin locker” I used, I took a picture to remember where.

I had to help with exhibiting at food expo in Tokyo.
It was actually fun though.
It was hard to stand from 9:00 to 5:30 whole time, but I could talk with many people and fun to sell cakes I produced.
There were not many sales women or talkative girl who has strong Osaka accent, so I became pretty famous at the convention center.
This picture is one of products we exhibited at the expo.
Tarts for Quiche, very good stuff.

After this expo, I took a bullet train to Gunma to see my friend, Ayako.
She is one of my good friends whom I have known since I went to DU.
And this is “Boo”, a pug she has.
What a cute doggie.

Gunma is sort of countryside of Japan, so pretty different from Osaka or Tokyo.
People, landscape, food and culture are different, and it is a part I like to visit there.
Ayako’s family is so nice and warm.
They serve so much food at dinner whenever I visit.
Tonight, Ayako’s brother’s family, Ayako’s friends were there too.
9 of us had dinner all together and it was like a party.
Ah, I ate too much again till midnight.
Uhhhh bad for my health but it was such a nice night.

Happy Friday

Fun Last Day of A Week

I got up at 6 am and left my hotel soon after without putting on makeup.
I just needed to catch the first flight to go back to Osaka.
After arriving at Osaka, I went back to my apt and took shower and got ready.
And went to Umeda to meet up with my sis and had lunch with her.
This is a place where my sis had lunch all the time when she was a high school student.
Memorable place foe her, but the food was just okay.

Since I went to work after lunch, there were tons of stuff to do.
However, I did not finish everything and left work early to have dinner with my friends from Hula lesson.
This is my dessert plate, banana with FIRE!!
Cool, huh?

It was such a fun dinner with them.
We were not that close last year, but gradually we are getting good friends.
All of us have different work, different life and different dream, so it is nice to get together and talk about many things.
I took a train so we all got drunk and had such a good time.
I feel that I am so lucky to be able to hang out with so many kinds of friends!