C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (15)

Our boat...everything is picturesque!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (14)

The tour guide boy caught a turtle!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (13)

And lobsters, which were tres bon!!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (12)

We ate the fish caught in the sea.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (11)

And the birds!!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (10)

Look at this incredible blue sea and white sand!!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (9)

Among other island where I visited this time, Nokanhui was absolutely the best...! The fish looked so comfortably swimming near the shore.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (8)

And there are many French cars in New Caledonia, including the parking lot of the school.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (7)

This is the French language school where I attended. It's run by the local government.

Ma professor est tres severe, mais tres bonne!!

And this is the back yard of the school....wow!!!

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (6)

Bonsai in the sparkling sea....

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (5)

This is a natural pool called "La piscine naturelle" in Ile de Pins. Simply by walking and looking down, you can encounter tropical fish.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (4)

At a morning market that starts at 5 am, there are so much frensh food.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (3)

Every night, if the weather is good, you can see this sun set from the hotel window.

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (2)

In Noumea, the capital city of New Caledonia, I found an interesting sushi restaurant. Isn't this so French and tropical at the same time...??

C'est la vie -- tres bonne! (1)

I've just come back from my eleven-day vacation in New Caledonia. I simply enjoyed seeing the spectacular scenes and colors that needs no further explanation. From today, I'll show you one scene per day...stay tuned. Today's photo is Nokahui Island.

Luxuary Sadness

Shinjuku 43 km -- a green sign appeared in the dark, toward which many back-lights were driving like taking off.

On Sunday late evening, when returning from a trip, I love the moment that reminds me that it is the nation's capital where I'm coming back to start a week the next day.

It's sad because it clearly shows the weekend is over. But it's luxuary sadness, sort of.

I remembered having the same luxuary sadness when I saw the "Washington 160 miles" sign lit by my head light as I was coming back from a weekend trip to Ocean City in Maryland.

Yeah, I love the idea that I live and work in the nation's capital, that I have this little space of my car all to myself, and that I can listen to whatever music I like in the car......all this makes me feel I'm a true-blue yuppie:)

The Luxuary of Feeling Natural Breeze

A week ago, I moved to a new apartment. The main reason was that the previous place faced a busy street, and the noise had gotten worse and worse -- to the extent that I couldn't sleep well.

So, for the past few months, I spent many weekends looking for a quiet place, with a parking lot. I finally found an apartment that met my most conditions. I felt overall OK.

But it has turned out to be more than just OK. In fact, this new place reminded me of the luxury that I had missed for a long time: feeling natural breeze coming from the window while still in bed. Last Sunday, as I felt the breeze, that automatically in my mind brought me back to a dorm where I stayed eight years ago: Escondido Village at Stanford University (see picture).

When I attended the summer school, I lived with a room mate and her boyfriend, living a kind of strange but fun life. Due to her dorm contract, she later moved out and then I had the two-story, three bedroom apartment all to myself. That accompanied natural breeze coming on to the bed in the morning.

Somehow, my new apartment in Tokyo possesses the same atmosphere as the Escondido Village that I cherished......well, I guess that's a good start!

A Good Year

About a week ago, I saw a movie entitled "A Good Year." I was supposed to see it for free, as I had received an invitation ticket to a preview. But as the day coincided with my boss's farewell, which I couldn't miss by all means, I gave the ticket to an old friend. She wrote to me and said that it was a fun, good movie. Since I really wanted to see it, I decided to go see by paying 1,800 yen in a Sunday afternoon.

The story is about an aggressive, successful British financial dealer called Max, who spends a very busy life in London. He was notified that his uncle running a vine yard in southern France died. As Max was the inheritor of it, he flew there, to sort out and sell it. But as the old house brought back good childhood memories and related people, mixed with romance, he decided to live there in the end.

Aside from the romance department, I encountered a similar situation this week. My dad told me he will give me our house, which is located in a leafy Tokyo suburb. Since he is hospitalized, nobody currently lives in the house. So, I go there every two weeks to ventilate it, take away spiders' nests, vacuum the rooms and stairs, etc. This week, somehow electricity was gone, so I called the electronic company. A technician came, checked and found out the automatic short circuit censor had functioned and stopped all electricity. Which means, inside the fridge was mess, so I got rid of rotten food and wiped out inside the fridge.

Then I checked the garden. Last time I was in the house, a gardener came by and asked if I wanted him to take care of it. Well, the trees did need to be trimmed, the grasses did need to be taken away. So I asked them to do the gardening, which they reported they did last week. Well, the result was the garden got back to normal, now looking like a garden! As they left an invoice in the post, I sent money to their bank account this evening.

Hummmmm....all this needs a lot of work. It really takes a lot of work to maintain a house. But for me, doing so is a luxury. Condos would be more convenient, but I really prefer a house to a condo. Especially when it is related to good memories......

Still in the Dream

It was as if I were awaken while still sleeping.

"Hi Sam, how is it going?"

That was a phone call from a guy whom I had JUST SORT OF, SLIGHTLY KIND OF been dating. Since I hadn't seen him for long, I almost forgot about him, and my memories about our conversations were mostly deleted from my brain. But just like a PC, my own brain went back to a certain time we used to talk a lot.

"How is your writing project going?"

He was talking about my novel, which I somehow stopped writing a few months ago.

"Ah, yes, right, sure...well, I am stuck. I mean, I ran out of creative juice....thanks for reminding me of that....yeah...that's right....."

You know, it's hard to speak right after being awaken. I was just like that.

"Well, then, you'd need to drink some beer...."

Maybe because my answer was just "yeah" and not anymore, he moved on to ask how I will spend summer, when I take a vacation, etc. He then told me his own summer plan, which was going to a resort island on business. Well, that may be true, since it is also god damn true that I did go on a very busy business trip to the Caribbean last summer. He ended the conversation by suggesting lunch together without suggesting any specific time and place.

I wondered why he called anyway. Maybe it was just that I ran into him on the street yesterday for the first time in a long time. But at that time, I was probably in the worst condition: my hair was messy under this humid weather, my shirt was tatty, and I was groggy as it was Day 2 of my period. So, when he asked me how I am, I only replied in the standard beginner's middle-school English, "Fine thank you, how are you?"

Well, the world is too mysterious to decipher. That is the only thing I can say..........

Louvre Pyramid in Tokyo

In the Louvre Pyramid-like gym (see picture), I swim a few times a week. That is the best way for me to disperse confusion and take back sound simpleness.

Why Do People Tell Lies?

Japan's Prime Minister Abe said that his patience has come to the limitation on the abduction issue of North Korea. Right, he is tired of their lies.

The most frequent lies that I have encountered is about ages. Somebody told me he is 48 several months after he stated he was 51. Well, did he have a time machine that makes him younger as he age? Another person had said he had got divorced 1.5 years ago. The same person now says he has been single again since 1997.

My friend who used to lecture me about her perfect marriage suddenly gave me a call and said she has been preparing for a divorce. According to her, his husband has been violent. I was stunned as he looked so nice and even a bit sheepish.

From my standpoint and background -- journalism, whose most important mission I believe is to seek the truth -- all this is astounding. I don't even know what makes a difference between the two statements -- 51 and 48, for example.

For me, it is not even the matter of age; it is a lie that honestly backs me off.

Perfect Combination

I finished reading Le Garde du coeur this morning. I tried going to France's Amazon to see what reviews it has gotten from the French-speaking audience. I couldn't find any reviews, but a recent version has a perfect combination -- Modigliani and Sagan!

They're the most favorite artists in painting and writing. I just think they're so sophisticated.

Same Old Fantasy

A bit tired, beautiful, successful career woman wavering between a young, impossibly good-looking, pure-hearted man and a middle-aged, sexy, elusive playboy type.

That's all about my all-time favorite novel entitled "Aimez-vous Brahms ?" by Françoise Sagan.

I don't know why I've been so attracted to this story for such a long time -- the past 12 years to be exact. Well, I am a bit tired, that's for sure. That is exactly why I went to the Body Shop's reflexology salon already twice for the past week.

But I don't think I've ever been caught between the two opposite types, though the two characters sound very attractive to me for different reasons. Well, that may be why I am so into the novel.

Anyhow, reading the novel in original is my objective of learning French, at least for now. By doing that, I'd like to architect a perfect fantasy in my mind.......

Simple Life

When I was browsing in an electronic appliances shop -- on the floor of 30 to 50 inch TV sets to be exact -- I somehow irresistibly felt that I needed a more simple life.

Over the weekend, I also looked around a few condominiums. But the more I did, the stronger I thought that I needed to study real estate. And to me, it seemed like a daunting task to find a nice condo that would not be damaged even when a big earthquake hit Tokyo. Plus, I learned that earthquake insurance covers only 10 million yen (about USD 83,000). So, what if a massive quake comes on the day I purchase a condo?

Well, I currently live in a small, but cozy, and best of all, safe apartment. Perhaps I should just read Sagan's novels here, and live in my fantasies.....

So, What Is My Story?

Ever since I saw a movie titled The Silence of the Lambs (see below), I have been wondering then what my story is.

Off the top of my head, it's related to a car. One childhood scene that flashes back sometimes is when we did a road trip to my grandmother's place in Nagano. As our car was so small that it was not comfortable for a long trip and I often felt sick. But I knew my parents would be in trouble every time we took a rest as that would multiply the travelling time in a crowded road. So, when I told them I was sick, I was really, really sick. I appreciate, even today, the fact that they never accused me of that even once.

But all this has made me determined to obtain a big car that nobody would question its comfortable quality. So, for me personally, it was a little success story that I took my mother by my BMW to Nagano earlier this month.

My uncle, however, cast somewhat a cold attitude. Of couse, he didn't openly criticize it, but I could sense he didn't like the car, or the fact that I drove it. Perhaps it was in part because his son, i.e., my cousin, works for Nissan. Overall, I felt he simply doesn't like yuppie things. From a conservative rural point of view, he might have thought that a black sedan is too much for a woman.

Anyway, I love my car, I obtained it with no debts from anyone, and I continue to love it. What's more, it made the road trip much easier for my aging mother. What the hell is wrong with that?

Everyone Has A Story

On Day one of this long weekend, I got most content with a move for the first time in a long time: The Silence of the Lambs.

Everyone has a story that motivates you to do something, good or bad. It can usually be buried under your unconsciousness. But once you discover it, you can act effectively toward your end. I thought that is the main message of the movie.

For an FBI Academy student Clarice Starling, it is a story when she ran away from her relative's house. She has lost her father who was a police commissioner from a duty, and as her mother had been also gone, Clarice was sent to her aunt's in a farm. There young lambs were screaming when they were being killed. She could not stand that and ran away by managing to take one lamb. But then a local official caught her and the lamb ended up being killed, too.

That made a deep impression underlying her motive to become an FBI agent -- to save those who were on the verge of being killed, just like keeping the lambs silent.

The irony is that the person who made Clarice notice that, Dr. Lector, the cannibal ex-psychiatrist, is still on the run, wanted by the FBI. He would probably have his own unique story that has led him to eat human meat.

Each acting has a taste. It is one of the rare, classy movies that you'll love!

Famous Steps

Several weeks ago, I was guided to "famous steps" in Philadelphia -- though I didn't know what they meant.

"Don't you know the scene where Rocky ran the steps? It's here!!"

Since my friend was so passionate about the site, I was feeling a bit bad as I actually had never seen the Rocky movie series.

Last night, I finally finished seeing all the six episodes. I thought Rocky IIII sent the most compelling message, and probably the last one, Rocky Balboa, was the most educational. I especially liked his following lines to his son:

The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth.

Well, I think I can appreciate the sight much better if I have a chance to go visit there again......

The 60s Is a Boom

As I was going to a class that starts at 7 pm in Sendagaya, I stopped at a local small restaurant there to have dinner before the class. I didn't pay too much attention to it from outside, but as I sat at a table I noticed the restaurant was so 60s......the whole concept of the restaurant, from pictures on the walls to its menu itself, was the era.

That age was before cell phone, PC, the Internet, even message telephones.

Somehow, people seem to be enjoying going back to that simple time.

Tiny But Macho...??

When I washed my car at a coin car wash place this afternoon I somehow came to this thought....I may look tiny, especially to Americans and northern Europeans, but I would probably be very macho inside.

It was a moment when a strong stream of water came from the hose pipe, which I targeted to the car body. Somehow I thought this action is quite macho, which I was excited to do. Looking around, only men were doing this. Not sure why, but the sheer fact that I came upon the idea of washing my car in a Sunday afternoon as a relaxing pastimewas quite macho, at least in Japan.

What's more, my car is a black sedan. A man who had started car washing before me saw me curiously. His car was a Toyota Lexis, if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, my car now gets sparkling! I wish the weather continues to be beautiful at least for the next few days......

La Science des Rêves

Only one movie theater in Shibuya, Tokyo currently runs this film in Japan: La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep.) The story is that the main character young man falls in love with a girl who moved to the next door in his apartment building. But she is not too interested ted in him. So, he dreams the ideal situation that he wants....and the whole movie is basically his dream...

Well, sounds familiar. Sometimes life goes on as you like, other times, doesn't. That's why you fantasize. My best fantasy is a democratic version of the world that Françoise Sagan depicts, you know.

In an attempt to best fantasize her world, I started to study French really hard....The material is NHK's radio French program. It runs from 7:25 to 7:45 am. My best plan is to preview the text at the previous night, listen to the program while driving to my workplace, review it by CD-ROM, and then see and check the text when I'm waiting while the security checks my car before entering the office building...actually, this works quite well.

Practicing repeating same sentences over and over again reminds me of when I first learned English. But since French has similar concepts with English, so now it's much easier!

Mission Completed

In the perfect weather, my mission was successfully completed. It was a family gathering to go visit our ancesters' souls for the first time since their grave was renovated. My mission was to drive my mom to the gathering in Nagano. After we prayed before the tomb, white arums nearby were sparkling under the sun.

The highways between Nagano and Tokyo were so crowded, but we killed time by chatting and listening to classical music CDs. Speaking of music, my uncle, mom and myself all love Western classical music, which are influenced by my grandfather....no wonder I adore Brahms like crazy.

Golden Week

This is not New York, it's actually Tokyo!

The Statue of Liberty in the picture was originally founded to commemorate the French year in Japan in 1998. Two years later, it came back to France. But because it was so popular, a replica was created in France and returned to Odaiba, a seafront area in Tokyo, in 2000.

It is now the best season in Tokyo -- nice and crisp, not hot, not cold either. In fact, this kind of nice weather is fleeting, as we're expecting the rainy season soon followed by a harsh summer.

In this gorgeous weather, my friend and I went see a movie in Odaiba. The movie was excellent...I'll write about it soon.

Yeah, it's Golden Week!!

Serge Gainsbourg - La Javanaise

Yes, it's April...as this song tells...and you know what, I'm set to learn French really seriously. When I finished reading La Laisse, I reconfirmed how uniquely excellent Françoise Sagan really is. So, my goal is to read her books in original.

So, I tune into NHK's radio French lesson at 7:25 am each morning. The theme music of the program is this song. Tonight I bought flash cards...gosh, this fondly reminds me of when I first started to learn English.......

Talent Is Everything....Almost, Perhaps

When I was chatting with a friend a few days ago, I came to this conclusion.

"After all, talent is everything, I think. If you have talent in a certain field, things will go well because the talent will make making effort make sense. But if you have no talent in other field, even if you make tremendous effort, things won't go well because you don't have the talent that makes making effort make sense."

The simplest example may be diet. Some people need to exercise, try really hard to refrain from eating a lot, and yet they stay fat. But I have never been overweight in my life. Rather, most of my life I've been categorized as thin. And yet I have never been on diet. It's just that I haven't liked sweets and fatty food since I was a little child.

Career would apply, too. Just recently, without any asking, I was offered an extremely honorable mission. I was frankly surprised. From any point of view, that means a top-level success in my chosen field. It's true that I have always put my career on the first priority in my life, and I have made tremendous effort. But that's not everything. I think I am talented in this particular field.

By contrast, there is a certain field in which I have also made tremendous effort, but have had little fruit, if not zero. I come to feel that I am not talented in this particular area....

So, my conclusion is that talent is everything.....well, almost, perhaps.

Car Wash

Over the weekend, my car did a debut of car wash! I realized that a black car needs so much care to look shiny....because once it's rainy, it's all over....but it was such a beautiful day on Sunday, I really wanted my loved one to shine. And it did become shiny! But again, it started raining tonight....ah well, that's life. It's just that a precious thing needs constant love and attention.....:)

A Famous Grocery Store

A grocery store where I go sometimes has gotten a lot of media attention these days.

The Narita Higashi, Suginami store of Summit, a middle-sized grocery store chain in the Kanto area, started to "sell" plastic shopping bags. They charge 5 yen (like 5 cents) for one bag in front of the cash desk. As a result, 89% of customers, including myself, are now carrying their own shopping bag.

If you google this grocery store, you'll swamped by so many stories on this!

Driving Home (2)

This is one of the most favorite scenes on the way home drive. Not sure how many times have I seen it since I was a child. But it looks, or feels to be exact, different when I see the scenary from my driver's seat......I mean, so much more satisfying!

It's Officialy Spring!

Tonight I took guests from Europe on a cherry blossoms viewing tour to the Rikugi-en garden. Founded by a Saitama-area Shogun Yoshiyasu Yanagisawa in the Edo period, the garden was then owned by a Mitsubishi conglomerate founder Yataro Iwasaki. Now it's a public park run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It's cherry trees are always the No.1 level in sightseeing guides. Lit up at night, they were magically beautiful...

Driving Home

When I don't have any particular plans after hours, I usually commute by car. I drive on a street that was used to shoot one of the very first scenes in the movie entitled Lost In Translation. Driving makes me just being back to myself, even after a bit crazy day like today..........

La Laisse

In the Chuo Line back home, I finished reading La Laisse by Françoise Sagan. I was surprised by the last showdown...it was totally unexpected to me.....

It is natural that you want to be with a person you adore. But what if loving someone doesn't mean you are with the person? Do you still love him/her? Do you still want to be with him/her? In that case, is that love after all?

The novel let me ponder over love in another dimension. I was left satisfied after reading the book. Each one of Sagan's work adds depths in my inner life....

It's so 80s!!

Sorry for being like a broken record, but I LOVE 80s music. This Gerge Micheal is so adorable, cool and cute...and so, so 80s!! I like the lyrics of this song so much. Anhow, he looked totally different from now....

Shinjuku--the World's Busiest Railway Station

I like the concenpts of "busy" and "centeral." Shinjuku Station, where I go every day, falls into these two categories perfectly. Somehow, after finishing shopping of contact lenses and cosmetics, I felt that I really liked Shinjuku Station while I was heading towards its south exit....

It is the world's busiest railway station -- about 3.5 million people use it each day. I am one of them. A few years ago, I ran into Mr. Seiji Ozawa, an internationally renowned conductor, in an escalator of Shinjuku Station!! I was amazed, but didn't forget to ask him if he is really Mr. Ozawa and shook hands with him.

Of course, it's exhausting to walk through the crowds, but I love the hustle and bustle of the big city. Shinjuku Station, to me, is the charismatic core of this megalopolis.

Preview of Tokyo Midtown!

There have been new development projects in Tokyo in recent years -- the Roppongi Hills, Maru Building Renovation, the Omotesando Hills, and the latest one, the Tokyo Midtown, will open this coming Friday, March 30.

Using the land where the Defence Agency was formerly built, the Tokyo Midtown is a compound of shops, offices and residents. My friend and I went to its preview tonight. We were impressed by the world-class restaurants....the Union Square Hospitality Group, which runs fine restaurants in New York City such as Tabla (which I LOVE:) and the Eleven Madison Park, both were actually used to shoot some scenes of the popular drama Sex and the City, will open its first restaurant outside Manhattan here in the Tokyo Midtown!!

So, here we went to its opening reception (see picture: from left, myself, Union Square Hospitality Group's President and CEO Mr. Danny Mayer, Executive Chef Mr. Michael Romano, and my friend Charlotte. )

Our collective impression was that the Tokyo Midtown looked like built after learning lessons from other projects stated above. I mean, the Roppongi Hills seems to be built in an intentionally complicated way, sort of...and Maru Building is ok, but not really interesting...the worst is the Omotesando Hills....I think its land was just too narrow for a structure like the Guggenheim Museum.

The Tokyo Midtown looked like a fabulous place to walk around, eat and shop...even Seven Eleven was cool (see picture)...All I need is a gorgeous guy to hang out with.....:<<

Bruce Springsteen - Born In The USA

And this was also one of the music, a song about underprivileged Americans...

I love Music in the 80s!

It seems that ANA does quite good marketing research...its inflight entertainment was excellent! Especially music in the 80s...this was played as the first song with Japanese subtitles in a flight bound for JFK.

Just for the Weekend

I went to the other side of the planet just for the weekend. Some people say it's crazy, but you know what, it was FABULOUS...I saw my friend Anna from the journalism school in NY (see picture), and enjoyed much more....:)

The Significance of Reading Originals

Today is my father's birthday. I drove to my home and delivered a little gift to him. Then my parents and I went for dinner. Our conversation drifted about many subjects and went ashore on French literature.

"I couldn't understand why La Petit Prince is supposed to be a masterpiece," I said to my dad.

"Well, that's because the translation was not good." His voice was very confident.

"Then, if I read it in French, I could appreciate its value?"

"Absolutely."

When he was young, my dad attended an extremely intensive boot camp to learn French and other expertise needed for his work. He actually mastered French in six months -- read
L'Etranger by Albert Camus in original then.

I recently managed to purchase all Japaneses translations of my all-time favorite writer Françoise Sagan's work at online used book shops. The translations' publisher somehow made many of those out of print recently. I don't understand why they made such a decision. But this led me to take her work actually all the more seriously.......

Right now, I've been reading La Laisse. It's a story about a up-and-coming musician and his rich and beautiful wife. She isn't quite happy about his new success, and that affects their marriage. Not to mention my dad's opinion, I would much better appreciate the novel if I could read it in original.

Mmmm.... I should start learning French again....perhaps in April.

Unpredictable.....and Exciting Karma?

I've been feeling like trapped in certain karma.....good and bad mixed...and sure it's somewhat exciting.......

Last Monday night, I had nice food at a reception. But during the midnight, I gradually began to feel sick, and finally threw up really hard (sorry!!) After waking up on Tuesday morning, I still felt not well and decided to take a leave.

I completely lost appetite and almost had fast for the past few days. I got ok enough to go to work finally today.

Two to three cups of coffee are usually my day's starter. But today I would rather have hot green tea. So, I went to the ground floor and tried to buy a can of tea. When I put a 100 yen coin, the vending machine didn't respond. So, I inserted another 100 yen coin, which showed a "100" figure sign. As the tea was 120 yen, I put a 50 yen coin, and pushed the button. A can of tea came, but only 30 yen change.

"Gosh....." It's a bit less than one dollar, but I was uncomfortable with the fact that the machine sort of stole the first 100 yen. I called Coca Cola Japan's office, and explained about this. Soon a person who is in charge of this particular vending machine called me back.

"We're sorry, but we come to your building only on Tuesdays. I'll bring you 100 yen next Tuesday -- would that be ok with you?"

What if I say no.......well, I said, "OK." Then I gave him directions to my office and said, "See you on Tuesday."

As I got back to work, I tried to print out some materials. But the printer didn't function at all. I asked my colleague at the computer office to fix the problem. She always does a great job. And you know what, as soon as she came and moved the printer only a little bit, it began to work....

Well, meanwhile, good karma was going on as well. Somehow I remembered my old friend from college, who is a publishing agent and helped my book to be translated into Chinese and published in Taiwan, sent me the premium but not the Chinese version itself.

I suddenly wanted to see the book....so, I sent her an email, but it bounced back. Then I wrote to a fellow Fulbrighter in Taiwan and asked him to buy a copy and send it to me. He wrote back so quickly -- from China, surprisingly. He is a financial manager for the largest tea company in China. Wow. He is a very bright Wharton School grad, so no wonder having such a hot job! Anyhow, his friend in Taiwan will take care of this, thank God!

And then just tonight, another old friend from college who lost in touch for the past few years suddenly wrote to me, saying "Kei-chan (my nickname among college buddies) -- is this email of yours still functioning?" God, she is so funny....she doesn't even say "How are you?"

Well......it seems like that something exciting in many levels is being conveyed to my world, under this unpredictable weather of early spring.

3Ss for Conferences

Earlier this week, I attended a conference for two full days in a row. When I got back to the office late afternoon and had some water, a colleague talked to me.

"Hey, I haven't seen you lately."

"I attended a conference, which was actually more interesting than I had thought."

"Then, didn't you obey the rule of 3Ss?" he asked something unfamiliar.

"Say that again?"

"Well, when you attend a conference, you've got to smile, be silent and sleep."

Gosh, I laughed aloud....yeah, I think the more technical the conference is, the more people tend to sleep. If the conference room is just too comfortably warm, sometimes it's so hard to stay awake.

But right...the Japanese, especially those living and working in Tokyo, tend to be so tired. Many take like 1.5 to 2 hours each way for commuting in incredibly crowded train. They do much overtime, tackle ever-getting more complicated tasks....and the list goes on and on.

So, boring conferences could be a life saver for them....??

Old Friend, New Idea

Earlier this month I saw an old friend of like 16 years. I met her when she was doing a part-time job at my workplace back then. Now, she is a Fuji-TV public relations representative, like fish in the water as we say in Japanese, meaning the job is perfect for her.

When we chatted about fashion, she said "I'm confident that you'll look great in an ETRO outfit."

So....as I'm a woman of action, I stormed its shop on the Namiki-dori Street in Ginza over the weekend. Then I just fell in love with this jacket! It's now in my closet and awaits the perfect moment.....:)

The Least Favorite Country

"How do you say the least favorite country in Japanese?"

Asked by a colleague, I paused, and pondered over how we say. But couldn't come up with the right words off hand.

He continued, "It's not that I hate it. I like it, but it's the least favorite."

Anyway, he was talking about France. To my surprise, he actually much prefers learning Japanese to French. Wow. Most Americans that I know complain about the Japanese language, saying it's too difficult.

Well, anyhow, his question is actually pretty profound. Do we have a concept of the "least favorite" in Japan in the first place....???

Ageless Beauty

I really think Charlotte Gainsbourg is so cute, pretty and yet approachable. It's unbelievable that she is already 35, given this picture! I secretly started to imitate her....

Popular Among Bosses' Spouces

"Hey, this is XX....how are you?"

I got a phone call from a slightly familiar voice, but couldn't hear her name clearly.

"Well, who's speaking please again?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm XX, wife of YYY."

Gosh, it was our big boss's wife. I remembered chatting with her at a party. Since I had no common interests or subjects with her, for the sake of avoiding uncomfortable silence, I gushed about a waiste machine called "Slendertone" which I started to use at that time. Actually it began to take effect after six weeks. When I talked to her, I promised to tell her if/how it would be effective in weeks....wow, she rememberd that!

"So, did it work? How was it??"

She sounded very friendly. Come to think of it, another boss's wife has been quite amicable to me, too. Well, so is another boss's husband. They all wave to me as they come across my office, often even coming on in and chatting for a while.

Well, that's because I look safe and innocent to them? Well, that's a good thing, isn't it...??