Countdown is about to start for Christmas. As it has been so warm, it is still hard to believe that we only have a month till Christmas. Anyway, I have added a new album in photo section today, titled South bank, London. Please click the link to enjoy the photographs.
Streets are decorated with Christmas lights, and outside are getting darker (pitch black at 5pm).
Incandescent lighting, chilly but crisp air in a suburbia drives me home for a cozy and warm living room...
Hi, how's your day? Sorry but I am a bit too tired to write in English, so the post tonight is in Japanese. I've added more pics to my 365 album. To see the photo, please click here.
Did you see the moon last night? It was amazing! With dark blue background and some clouds streaming, the moon was shining strong...white, perfectly round and very beautiful. I could even see marks on it clearly. It looks rather like rabbits beating Mochi!
In the last week or so, I felt like beating the bush. It maybe something to do with the moon power. Confusion. Typical as we have assessment meeting this time of year.
A friend who lives nearby is into Reiki/Spiritualism, and she helped me a lot to get me out of this ever-lasting emotional maze. I tried a few stuff, watching 'Aura Springs' programme which Green Aya recommended the other day, and I found them really fascinating. To be honest I am still a bit skeptical and do not believe 100% of what I saw. I do believe, however, that such reading or sharing what you fear or feel deep inside with someone you trust seem to put chaos into perspective. Like assuming you had some previous life and the difficulties you are going through have something to do with your previous life, you temporarily release responsibility (and guilt of making mistakes, etc) into the hand of others. If you are religious person, you trust your life in the hands of God, and you pray for God and God will show you the way.
I have had some personal disasters in the past, and made a lot of wrong choices. The biggest mistakes of all is that I hid all those negative emotions and continued as if nothing happened. I should have cried more, take out fear/anger more, as a tiny incident conjures up all that hidden negative emotions which could lead to a breakdown. This time, instead of searching for a God, I am using healing stones with some excercise. Do you believe the power of healing stones? Well, I didn't until I felt it myself. It seems to support emotional balance, and wearing amethyst/Lapis did the trick for me.
Since the last posts, I was spending more time reading blogs in OC. I've added some new findings to share with you...Please look at my spotlights section.
I'm feeling much better, as I decided to give up reading a book. It took me a while to realize it, but it was the reason for this confusion and restless feeling. I am sorry Setsuko-san, but one of your books, Seiiki (聖域, meaning Sanctuary) was a bit too much for me. Have you ever read a book that would leave you confused and helpless? Well, this book has made me feel that way, but I couldn't give up turning a page as the story was so gripping. So good bye Sanctuary, I cannot afford to feel down and out. It is ironic as Setsuko Shinoda won the Naoki Award, a prize given to the most popular writers, with Onnna tachi no Jihad (meaning women's holy war) and I really enjoyed reading it. It was a selection of short stories about women in their 30's trying to find career/marriage/love/life and it was so uplifting. I guess Sanctuary is by far better written/researched and a class above Women's Holy War, it seems to have less appeal than her other works. Never mind. I am probably getting older and become conscious about how and what I spend my time on. I would rather spend my time and money to feel happier/positive. If you know any such books, please let me know...
I found this solar power bag from Mari-san's blog (Watashi to Tokyo, you can find the link in the sidebar). I wish someone like Apple would come up with something like this, with a little bit more stylish design, calling it iBag or something, so that they can in a way compensate shorter battery life of iPods. Plastic Black or White simple design would be nice. I want one if they do make it.
Last but not the least, I found this video really cool. Hope you like it too.
I also updated photo albums, and added pictures taken at Richard Rogers Thames Wharf Studios. I wish I could be in Vienna to see La Vieale de Venezia (thanks Mildz for the information).
The LDP presidential election is to be held on the 20th, but it seems to be a foregone conclusion. The other day I was doing some research and found this. He is rumoured to be succeeding Koizumi, but have you noticed his laptop? (Apple)
Not much happening privately, except planning to have a farewell party for a friend. The relocation was due to her husband starting a new job back in Japan, and though it is a very good news for them I cannot help but feel a bit melancholic...
First of all, thank you for warm messages and PMs - Final good-bye is set on Tuesday. I am slowly getting over the experience...It would be a shame if we stay miserable forever, as she hated such attitudes after all.
* * * * * * * * * *
Good news on Opera land - congratulations Aya for becoming the member of the week. I love a coziness in her place where people of all ages and nationality pop in for a chat. I hope it would stay like that.
Great feature on Opera land - in case you haven't, please take a look at Offspring's album on India. Superb pictures to take your breath away.
New additions to Opera treasure chest - Try speaking English! by Kenji Beautiful travel blog...his entry on Okinawa made me all jealous. I wish I could go to Okinawa!
Another new additions to Opera treasure chest - Hajimemashite by meercat. Photolog of a life in Australia.
* * * * * * * * * *
On Saturday, The times had a feature called Offbeat Japan. It covered quite extensive topics from Anime (Manga), women's only relaxation rooms, gangsters, etc. Unfortunately the music column only featured Orangerange, but there are a lot more.
I will not be able to post for the coming weeks, here are Hirokichi_uk mix of J-pops. Enjoy!
Countdown has started - in eight days we will be in Japan. I should be feeling happy, but something significant happened today that would overshadow whatever happen running up to it.
An ex-colleague of mine died of cancer yesterday. I don't know her exact age, but probably around 50. The news was so out-of-blue, and when I opened the mail from a friend telling me that, my mind rejected what was written on. I just couldn't and cannot believe it!
She was a lot senior than I am, and for the 4 years or so we worked in the same building (for different companies in the same group, we used to go out for lunch, chatted on the way home on a train and all. As I left work for having kids, we went for the separate path, but we got in touch after years, through a mutual friend when I started working again in London.
I remember her as a person with strong and straight-forward character with a very sharp tongue. She was always very positive, objective, criticised people a lot but laughed about hardships. She was also a character easily misunderstood, or feared, but once you got to know he you would see boldness of her speech was in fact masking her gentle soul. She used to tease me saying a child was bringing up children, which was quite right at times as I didn't know anything about bringing up children.
The last time I saw her was about 14 months ago. It was a chance meeting at a train station, and she was telling me a rosy story of retiring in Croatia... and it seems it was the last place she spend her holiday, as she died in her husband's arms after she came back from the holiday...
At the time of writing this, her face flashes in front of me, and she is smiling....laughing very loudly. Though I can even hear her melodic laugh, but I cannot recall her whinging or depressed face. Probably her husband was the only person to whom she showed her weakness.
I heard the cause of her death was stomach cancer. I only wish I had contacted her... She is leaving her husband and her sister. RIP, Noriko. I secretly admired your strength.
You can translate a whole web page, or sections of documents in your language. As this is a machine translation, so there might be reasonable amount of errors, but at least it would help you understand texts written in other languages.
Here you can find Eijiro (英辞郎） Japanese/English dictionary. If you want to translate Englsh words to Japanese, just type in word/phrases in the imput area (box) provided on top of the page.
If you click the corporate homepage from the list, the company will donate 1yen per click for you to any charity they are involved with. It does not cost you anything financially, but clicking every now and then help those charities finance number o
Hope you like it too. 
I also updated photo albums, and added pictures taken at Richard Rogers Thames Wharf Studios. I wish I could be in Vienna to see La Vieale de Venezia (thanks Mildz for the information). 
Parade 
November 2009January 2010
WIDGETIZE