Formed a Trekking Circle

There are 20 people in our editorial department. We are the biggest department in our company, but our office is very quiet. We aren’t banned from talking, but everybody speaks little. It is because of the force of habit rather than our personalities. However most of my colleagues want to speak more at the office. Some of them said that they feel low when they don’t speak and stare at the computer screen all day. I sometimes feel low, too.

Because of this, I thought that if we commune with nature more, their spirits would rise. I asked some colleagues to form a trekking club, all of them liked the idea.

Yesterday, Our four members climbed Mt. Happu-san in Chichibu, Saitama prefecture. The mountain is only about 620 meters above sea level, so it is not hard to climb. However, two of the members, who are heavy smokers, were done in by the climbing. One of them said that his lungs were being cleaned by the fresh air.

We relaxed in a hot spring after climbing and enjoyed the beautiful colored leaves from the bath.
All members were for the plan that we will go again next month.

Labor Union

I joined the labor union when I entered the company. In recent years, activities in labor unions in Japan have been undynamic. Almost all of my friends haven’t joined a union.

However, our union is very strong. We have made a lot of demands to the executive team, so we can work more comfortably than other company’s employees. For example, we usually go home early at 7:00 pm, whereas other company’s employees in Japan go home by the last train everyday.

I joined the union board this month. One of our main roles is to hold talks with administration about rising bonuses. The collective bargaining about winter bonuses began last month. We are very busy because it takes a lot of time to have a discussion to gather the opinions of the union’s members. I must stay at the office till late.The amount that the administration is offering is much lower than our request, so the first discussion broke down. We will hold talk some time, but I feel it is impossible to bridge the gap between administration and us. We might have to go on strike. It will be big trouble in my first years.

The Stray Cat’s Ramadan

Recently, our stray cat “Miko” seemed to be getting fat. I think he’s always hungry, so I always feed him well. For example, sasami(chicken), meat, boiled sashimi, cream cheese and so on. Because of this, he doesn’t like dry food that is good for his health. I thought that these rich foods made him fat, so I decided to give him simple and healthy food from then on. Since then, I gave him only dry food. But he didn’t eat it. His eyes said sadly “please give me more delicious food!” However I gave him nothing but dry food. Usually, Miko would stay at our balcony for some hours, but since then would leave quickly.

One day, I found a interesting article about cat on a website, when I was surfing the net. The article said that cats grow their winter coats in November and seem to grow stout fat, but it isn’t obesity. Some article on another websites said same thing. I realized that I had wrong impression about him.I gave him a lot of meat and cheese his favorite in the night. The hungry cat ate them like crazy. It is very risky to have pets without correct knowledge about animals.

It is difficult to begin gardening in apartment house

Recently, I began gardening. When I was a boy, I was not interested in gardening. I liked sports better than well behaved playing like gardening. However, as time goes on, I’ve become very interested in it.

Almost no-one in an apartment has a garden. They only have a small balcony, that’s mainly used for hanging laundry. I have a very small balcony, too.

I went to a do-it-yourself home center to buy a lattice and set it up on the handrail to hang some planters. With the lattice, I can have a space to grow flowers.

However, other families in my apartment don’t have lattices on the balcony. I fear that the superintendent of our apartment house will tell us to remove the lattice. Normally, I should ask real-estate management firm whether I can set up a lattice on the handrail. However, I have not called to ask them because it might be waking a sleeping dog.

Be careful about hotels in the country

I went to Miyazaki to coordinate a round table discussion on editorial advertising. There were four doctors participating along with some clients observing.

When we do round table discussions, doctors and clients sometimes make unreasonable requests. Some of them are irritable, so I must brace myself for a discussion.

However, this time, the problem was the worker who in our banquet. He was useless! There was only one person available. It was impossible! One hour before the meeting began, I asked him to exchange the table which was already installed for a bigger one, but he didn’t have enough time to do it. I also told him to give the doctors a “welcome drink”, but it took 30 minutes for him brought some coffee. And I had asked the hotel in advance to record the meeting on tape but they forgot to. I feared that someone would fly into a rage and it would mess up the meeting.

Maybe what we asked for was more than he could handle. However, I think that the hotel should have sent more employees to our meeting place.

Luckily, there weren’t any major troubles. In the end, the young boy’s boss apologized to me.

Later, a colleague said that I should be careful when I work at hotels in the country, because many people in the country aren’t as concerned with details. Originally, I grew up in the country, Saga, Kyusyu. I guess living in Tokyo has made me hasty, inflexible and irritable.

Belly Dance

I went to an Indian Restaurant near our office for a drink with my colleagues. They have a Belly dance show at the restaurant every night. Recently, there was a belly dance boom in Japan. I heard that many Japanese women started belly dance training for health and beauty.

Belly dancers wear slinky dresses and Belly dancing has very voluptuous movements. We were very interested in seeing it.

There were two performances. Two dancers performed at the first set. However they were amateurish and fat old women. We felt disappointed. After the performance, some customers left the restaurant. I want to go home too, but I was engrossed in conversation until the second show started. Luckily, a beautiful young dancer walked onstage. We were very excited! Her dancing was very nice. We enjoyed it very much. The Long time we spent waiting was well-spent.

The worldwide fall in stock prices

Recently, many articles about the worldwide fall in stock prices fill the pages of newspaper everyday, but I don’t know very much about the economy and finance, so I can’t understand the seriousness of the crisis.

Some colleague which knows a lot about economic affairs says that we should buy stock now, but I don’t even know where can I buy stocks.

One of them says that the best method to learn about finance is to actually buy stocks actually. He bought foreign exchange (FX) before and lost 100,000 yen. However, because of it, he learned lot, so now he enjoys reading news about the economy. I don’t know whether it is expensive or cheap to pay 100,000 to study finance, but I am interested in buying stocks. Because not only can I learn, I may make a lot of money by fluke.

Stray Cat

For the last ten days, I have seen a stray cat in front of my room’s balcony. When I threw him a piece of cheese, he really attacked it. Since then, he comes asking for food every night.

I have liked cats ever since I was a kid. I had wanted to keep cats, but my mother never allowed me. Now that I’m older, I have not thought about keeping cats. However, I am with him every night and think he’s cute.

Recently he narrows his eyes endearingly, but he sometimes assumes a threat posture when I get close to him. Stray cats are very cautious.I will continue to give him food until I can hold him.

Stay at Shinagawa

I stayed at hotel in Shinagawa for three days from October 1 to October 3. I worked day and night on making reports on a medical conference. Because I live in Kamata, only ten minutes away by train, I had never thought that I would stay at hotel in Shinagawa.

The hotel that I checked into is a luxury hotel and the room is spacious. It has a bathroom with a Jacuzzi. I don’t feel like I’m working. Of course, the hotel is very expensive, so I can’t tell my wife about it. If she hears about it, she would definitely say she wants to stay here.

Jazz Kissa

I went to a Jazz club with my colleague in Yotsuya. I have liked Jazz since I was a university student. I think many Japanese loves Jazz. We often hear Jazz music in some restaurants and eating houses in Japan. And there are many “Jazz-Kissa” which is café which collects a lot of Jazz records and CDs. I heard that the US, the home of Jazz doesn’t have such places. I think Japanese likes collection of whatever they love.
By the way, I enjoyed good music there. But the colleague was weighed down with various worries, so I had to cheer up him whole time I was there.

eggs of magot

We went to Hokkaido last week, so couldn’t take out the garbage. Garbage is collected on Wednesday and Saturday morning, but we traveled there from Tuesday to Saturday. So During the vacation, a lot of garbage bags had stayed in the hot room. This morning, we took out them at last. But there are many eggs of maggot in the place where the garbage bags were. My wife turned pale, because she saw them for the first time. She wiped the floor with alcohol hard before going to the office.

Melon Spaghetti

My wife called me on the phone at 8:00 p.m. and she was in Yuraku-cho, so invited me to dinner. We went to a Italian Restaurant. They sold two kind of spaghetti at a fifty percent discount. One is Bolognese and the other is cold pasta of uncured ham and melon. She selected Bolognese. I like Bolognese too, but I had an interest for the melon spaghetti. I think I don’t mind if it tastes bad, because of 50% off. I ordered it. It had a unique taste. I had her take a bite, and she said “No! No!”. She dislikes it. I ate it all, but I didn’t understand which it tastes good or bad.

Depressed

Today, I felt depressed. 9 days vacation has passed very fast. In this morning, I lacked the drive to do my works. Afternoon, I began to toddle, but I have forgotten the details of my work. My brain worked after a long absence, so I slept like a log tonight.

Nice Hokkaido

Today I came home from Hokkaido. We stayed at the lake Shikaribetsu which is the highest lake in Hokkaido for two days. There are big primeval forest and the air is very clean. My wife and I went a board a kayak, and went to the opposite shore. Foods are very fresh and delicious. The man who works “Shikariberu nature center”, teaches travelers how to operate a canoe, kayak and so on, is from Kawasaki near Tokyo. He said “When I sometimes go back to Kawasaki, I always surprised the dirty air and think I can’t live any more in Kawasaki!” I also feel that I don’t go back Tokyo.

My Birthday

Today is my thirty-first birthday. My wife put all the skill she had into cooking, Salad, grilled chicken, Ratatouille, and so on. We drank a bottle of red wine. I like it better than white wine. 4 days later, August 17 is my wife’s thirtieth birtday. That day, I will cook and we will drink white wine. She like it better than red wine.

Bon

There are a few people in commuter trains in Tokyo during the Bon festival. I will take summer vacation next week, so I must go to the company during it. Usually commuter trains in Tokyo are jammed full. But now I could go to the company comfortable.

move

At 9 o’clock, two men and one woman of the moving company came to our apartment. They started work and many goods in our rooms disappeared into boxes in an instant. After two hours, all of the goods were carried out of the rooms. We are very surprised. The moving expenses are 100,000 yen. It is very expensive but the cost effectiveness is very good.

ecology

There are no air-conditioners in my apartment. My wife and I contribute to ecology. But I have a hard time falling asleep, because our bedroom is too hot. However my wife has a very short time falling asleep. I am envious of her every night.

wash-toilet system

I like a wash-toilet system. When we moved last time, I bought it. But I had a lot of trouble to install it, because I had to do pipe laying work. Today, I prepare tools for removing it. The manual of it, a screwdriver, and so on.

Fire

I will move next Saturday. This time my wife and I requested the moving trader all packaging. So I think it so easy. But today my wife said “We must empty the refrigerator and clean up the rooms till Saturday ! I am busy at Friday, so if you come home early, should prepare the for the moving!”

Lyonel Feininger

I visited to the Yokosuka-Museum of art with my wife. Lyonel Feininger’s works are on display in it. He was born in New York as son of German immigrant. He started his career as a comic artist, later became an artist of abstract painting, This is the first exhibition in Japan which shows Lyonel’s works.