Icho Namiki

Autumn trees in Tokyo (@Gaien Jingu). It was so beautiful.

My recent appetite...

Seasonal Japanese dishes.
You can eat all of them, leaf shaped carrot, rice wheat shaped popcorn... it's art.

Wine I bought in Paris 5 years ago. It tasted fantastic.

French in Kyoto style.

Bouchon in Lyon

It was true that Lyon is one of the best city to eat.
You can eat inexpensive with high quality dishes.
One bouchon we went turned out to be one of the best, we met some local people who came to bring their friends from Paris, a restaurant owner in different area of Lyon and they said it is one of the best places to dine.

We had a dinner set with appetizer, main dish and dessert for 12 euro and it was the quality of Michelin star restaurant.
I would definately come back to the same restaurant! @Atelier d'Yvonne

Lyon, France

Berlin Marathon 2009

For my holiday, went to see Berlin Marathon.
Running is one of the sport I hate the most, however, seeing this marathon made me want to run a little. (well, very little though...)
At the end of the marathon around 35-40km, people seem to be really tired, make them think to stop and quit at anytime. However, most of the people do not stop. Why is that? Why do people run even though they are really tired and cannot move even 1 step??
One answered "There's only 2 choices for marathon, either proceed or stop. You can stop anytime, but if you stop it's the end. Therefore, I proceed until I have no choice to stop."

I saw lots of people from Denmark and Swiss. Are there many marathon runners? Very few Asians, btw.

I really respect all the people who finished to goal 42.195km, no matter how fast nor if they walked. Achieving is the most important thing any not many people can do that till the end.

I didn't get to do much sightseeing, but got a chance to see Berlin Cathedral. It was amazing! One of the biggest and most powerful Cathedral I've ever seen. Too bad we couldn't get to go inside due to the Sunday misa.

Berlin was a little different from what I imagined, modern and clean city than I thought. Since Berlin is one of the city that was destroyed in WWⅡ, I was expecting more of Middle Ages, European style. My impression was mixture of US and Europe. People were... not so nice.. :(When I asked for direction or something, people either said no or answered with unfrindly face.)

Solar Eclipse -7.22.2009-

I could see the solor eclipse in Hong Kong.!! well, actually at the border of Hong Kong and Shenzhen (China side).

I had a meeting on the 22nd with a customer in China, so I knew I do not have a chance to see the this fantastic event.

Around 9 am, I was on the train to Shenzhen, desparately wanting to see the sun. After arriving and got on a car that came to pick me up, I had a chance to look up in the sun (usually people say you cannot see the sun in Shenzhen because of polution). I didn't have any protection film or something to see the solor eclipce, however, luckily from the car window shade and a little bit of cloud, I could see the sun covered by the moon!!! It was phenomenal...

I was sooooo happy. I really really wanted to see this once-in-your-lifetime-event, and since I was giving up on that, I was even more happy.

I could take some pictures too. It's not a good shot but not bad for someone who happened to carry a camera and took in a hurry, huh?

Delightful Afternoon

I saw a rainbow today.
It was one of the most beautiful rainbow that I have seen. It had a perfect semicircular shape all the way to the end, and there were two! I took some pictures but the camera didn't capture how beautiful it is...

When I see a rainbow, somehow it makes me happy. I feel lucky and think that today is gonna be a good day. Isn't that same for everyone?

Trip To Singapore

It's been 1 year since my last trip to Singapore.
Exactly 1 year ago, I was here to start my first business in Singapore. This year, came to meet this company again to give feedback and also discuss our future business plan. Met other companies as well to see if there is any other business opportunities.
What's difficult is that since Singapore market is very small (population around 4 million), having several partners will cause confusion and conflict. Therefore, we are researching the one who will be our best partner. Well, I guess you never know who is the "best", so I would say "better" business partner. This is always my biggest topic to consider.

Anyway, I met my good friend, who we sometimes discuss about work, love and marrige and he advised me this one phrase "to be successful, is to be ready when opportunities come". This is absolutely right.
I would also like to add "to be successful, you need to have the courage to jump in to that chance & change". I've seen so many people who doesn't have the courage to act and missed their chances.

Below is the picture from the boat ride on Singapore river.
I really like this city. Clean, organized, lots of nature, good food, and what's more, it is English speaking country. I feel comfortable wherever I go:) Enjoyed my biz trip this time!

Work, work work...

I haven't written anything about my life recently... Maybe because I didn't feel like writting, not many good news these days.

I've been stressful with my work since we entered 2009. One reason is because I'm feeling too much responsibility for my work and second is I feel difficulties dealing with one of my biggest client...

It's been almost 2 years since I joined this company, and I became to understand my company, job, my boss etc just recently. Since we are very small company, there's no one to teach you, you have to study, research, think and act yourself. That is interesting until they put you under too much pressure. Recently, I feel pressure towards me is more than my ability. If I can make an excuse, there's no one to teach, no past experience, so I have to figure out all by myself. In those cases, if they put me under pressure, I can't do anything... I'm too scard to do something. If they are gonna ask me for responsibility, I want more education, experience, someone to teach me, lead me.

This is one of the biggest differnce between big companies and small companies. In big company, they give you lots of opportunities to develop yourself. In small company, you have to figure out yourself. This is good and bad. Just studying and not putting into practice is meaning less ( I know many end up like this), however, you can't develop yourself unless you have the ability.
I quit my former company because the organization was too big that I couldn't do what I wanted to do, and now I'm doing what I dreamt of but asking for education like big companies... I guess humans desire for what they don't have. Such an ironic thing...

Anyway, hope my work situation will be bright. At least I like my company and like my boss, co-workers a lot. There's no one that I don't like in my company. Everyone is nice so work enviroment is very comfortable.

Only half year left until 2010... Time past so quickly...

Lake District, UK

Surprisingly, it was sunny every single day during my stay in UK. Even the person went here (Lake District) 3 times, said she never saw a blue sky.
I love the scenery of the countryside of UK like the photo below.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

This is one of the country I've always wanted to visit. Such a beautiful place with terrible past, finished not so long ago (1991). Because I didn't have enough time, I only visited one city. I really want to visit other cities as well. well, next time...

Ryuzo Nakata Private Salon Party @Tokyo

Went to Ryuzo Nakata's private salon party the other day.
He's a famous designer in Paris, not too commercialized in Japan but has lots of fan who is crazy about his clothes.
Only his friends or his friend's friend can go to this event so there was lots of clothes that can not buy at the store, with very good discount.
I wasn't planning to by any clothes (cause I need to save money for holidays), but I finally bought 2 dresses... it was too adorable. His clothes are amazing cause any age can wear (20-60 yld) and is sexy, cute, feminine, sensitive, elegant... has all the concept that all women want to be. Or I would say it has the style how men want women to be. Has men's collection too.

He features embroidery, swarovski design attached to jeans, jacket, dress etc. He was saying in one interview that he puts the embroidery where he wants to touch on womens body. He design the clothes imagining how elegant it will look when undressing the dress. wow... that is so romantic...Every single clothes are made one by one, by hand so there are no other person wearing that clothes. It is very special.

I met him directly, drank wine together until late at night :) I got the image that he is very friendly, energetic, creative, wine and women lover.

One more thing that was so interesting were the people who came. Wine freak, president of one company teaching women "how to get married" or "how to get a better man and not losing", lives in Paris, wife of a doctor who's crazy about his clothes (she bought 12 clothes!) etc. Everyone was energetic and positive so I got lots of energy from them. ( I'm kinda stressful at work these days...)

Went there around 6pm, stayed there until 12am... trying all kinds of dresses, drinking wine & champagne, chatting with all kinds of people. I had such a wonderful time!

Thanks to my friend who invited me to this party!

Ryuzo Nakata Exclusive Paris

http://www.ryuzonakata.fr/

Sunday Church Live

Today, I went to visit my co-worker's Sunday church ceremony. I'm not Christian and am not planning to be one either, but since I am interested in religion and she invited me, I thought "why not?".

This one that I went was more like live music show, live band, singing, dancing etc. but talk about bible, sing about Jesus and make community. Many were young (18-30 yld) and very international community. What I was surprised was that there were so many young Japanese who believe in Jesus, and they were so energetic, so positive.

I've been to church quite a few times when I was living in US, with my friends or family so going to the ceremony it is nothing new to me. I've met people who believe in God, and some were non-believer but became a strong believer when they are grown up.
I am not for or against religion, I think as long as one is happy with that, it is completely fine.

Sometimes I feel envious for the people who believe in God. Sometimes I wish I believe in God. Because they have something to believe, believe that God is there to help you, I think you are stronger than others. That strong belief will help you and lead you to overcome difficulties.
In my experience there are 2 types of beliver. One is the ones taught by their parents since they were born so religion is part of their life. Two is the ones who once got lost in their lives but met god and was saved by him. When they were struggling and needed someone's help, somehow they met religion/God. Maybe through friends or accidently went to the ceremony etc. but however people met God, there is one thing that is common between them. They were all lost. They were desparate. By listening to the what God wants to tell you, that God is there to help you, and sharing their experiences with other people in the same community, they feel that they are not alone and be resuced. A lot of my friends who I know is this second type of people.

If religion can encourage people to live, to survive, I think religion is a wonderful thing. I said in the former paragraph that beliver is stronger that others (non-believer) but maybe people who has weak mentality, who is feeling alone, who needs help tend to believe in God. People who has strong mentality, who is succeeding very much may not become a believer.

As I said before, I'm intested in religion. To be more specific, I'm interested in mentality side of religion. I'm curious why people became a beliver, how they were rescued, are they happy compared to the time when they did not believe in God?
If some of the readers who can share their experience/opinion, please let me hear what you think.

P.S. One more thing what surprised me was that people were so friendly to me. Everyone came and talk to me, asked me many questions, looking like they really want to get to know me. I asked my co-worker, "why everyone is so friendly? why do they want to know about me?" and she said "we are happy to have someone new in the community. we want as many people to know about us, how fun it is to come here even though they don't join the group. We want to share our experience and want to know about others too." Everyone (I mean EVERYONE) seemed to enjoy being together. I also asked her "what if you met someone you feel you are not comfortable, or you don't like?" Then she said "there are no likes and dislikes. we are like brothers and sisters, like one big family. There is no likes/ dislikes to your family, your family is your family, right?" I totally understood what she meant.

My recent activities

It's been a while since my last post.
Here is what I've been doing for the past few month.

Birthday in HK..

Hakone Onsen at the end of the year...

Okinawa (Miyako Island) on New Years...

and San Francisco (Mac World) for biz trip... came back last week.