GIARDINO@S-SIGHT , YORU-CAFE

I had a great night with one of my best friend in Kumamoto last night.

She has been traveling all over the world and finally came back to hometown, she is a energetic girl :D

We had a great time together with nice Italian pizza and pasta @GIARDINO and ice cream @ 夜カフェ（YORU-CAFE）.

Takachiho, Hyuga@Miyazaki and summer festival

We left Mifune@Kumamoto to head for Miyazaki prefecture at 9am in the morning today.

The purpose of visiting Miyazaki is to see one of the famous spiritual place "Takachiho-Kyo" and beautiful beach with so many palm tree "Hyuga" . We found very small secret beach on the way and prayed for each one's hope on the edge of the cliff where is known for the place to pray and dream come true. :)

We headed back to Kumamoto around 7:30 and saw the big summer festival in the town,

By coincidence, we could see our high school re-union team was dancing through the main street in the festival! so cool!!

I would like to join next time... hope I am not yet too old.. lol

Thanks so much N,H,A for taking me out!

Aso trip with mom and dad

Me and my parents went driving up to Aso in afternoon today.
Tomorrow is a national holiday so everywhere was so crowded with many tourists. It's beautiful autumn season in Kumamoto.

I left this town, when I was 18years old, and I didn't go anywhere before leave.I was just high school girl who was playing volleyball allll the time and study real hard...
so all tourist spots in Kumamoto looks like very new to me. :)

Tomorrow my friends are going to take me to Miyazaki prefecture yey!

The Power of LESS

I found a book "The Power of LESS" in my luggage, just start reading since today,
The book suggests you to simplify your life instead of overloaded by constant stream of emails,news, requests, phone calls,

Building and making yourself instead of buying it,
Doing everything yourself instead of replying on others,

Do less,not more,but achieve more because of the choices you make.

Simplicity boils down to two steps :

1. Identify the essential
2. Eliminate the rest

I feel like I can do simple life here in Kumamoto, It's beautiful autumn season here , you can see the green farm 2 miles away from the window of my parents house. ;))

Back to Kumamoto

Just arrived Kumamoto tonight and had a dinner with cousin. It's always good to breathe fresh air in Kumamoto and meet my parents,friends,everyone.
I feel like I finally made it to home from long long trip :D but still missing something ...hmm.

My sweet babies are sleeping right next to me, the white and grey cat is Shinba, the black kitty is Nara, My mom took their name from Lion King :)　Shinba needs diet... lol.. too fat! almost same size as a dog..!

US$ was finally recovered today , since JP bank bought so many $ from the market. I thought it's kind of Japanese selfishness to just do that only for saving JP export business, but it's not really permanent solution to fix the relationship between USA and JP... no many changed on US side... so let's see what is going to happen.

Good night!


View Larger Map

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

I like to read self-help article sometimes... if you are interested ;))

1. Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

2. Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.

3. Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.

4. Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
5. Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.

6. Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

Still summer in Tokyo

Good, I didn't miss whole summer in Tokyo. still feeling hot and humid like typical Japanese summer season,it gets cold in the evening.

Some pics from my friend's house balcony, I left my tiny plants to her house, when I went to AZ last time, they are growing really fast.

I had a great time with my ex-coworkers last night, It's been for 3months,well it's not that long, but there are so many things to catch up.

Life is so interesting :) Everyone lives our own life everyday in each places somewhere in the world, and we can always gather up at one mutual spot again to share wonderful time. No matter where they are, no matter what they do, they are always my best friends!

I missed our favorite place, Piadina and Giorgio too. This is where I used to go after work to get glass of wine and Italian pizza and have a nice conversation with coworkers.

Have a good weekend! Good luck for all hard work A!

Back to Tokyo finally, exhausted

I finally made it! It was long long trip again to get to Narita from Phoenix, but as always it's another exciting experience.. Is there anyone who got trouble on both round trip like me? I stopped by 6 airports to get to Phoenix, and this time was only 3 but...stuck at the airport for 3hours and sent to the hotel somewhere in Oregon state for 1night...it was unprecedented crisis,I was so scared and lonely but in meantime it's a valuable experience too.

In return for my hardship, I got great friends on the trip,
2 girls from Chandler are connecting to Beijing from Narita, their seats were right next to me to Portland and stayed at same hotel, had a nice conversation with them all the time, :)

It's good to be back to Tokyo after 3months, I miss AZ though, still ok. Thanks R to take care of me here!

And and..today is very important day for me.. Happy Happy Birthday A!! Wish you all the best! xx

Stuck at Portland, Oregon

I am still at the hotel in Portland, OR... :( I am supposed to land in Tokyo already to see my friend now... huh... =(

I can't even believe it, Delta canceled the flight again, It was supposed to take off at 2pm yesterday,but due to oil leaking from the airplane, they tried to replace the problematic body parts so we had to wait for their progress for 2hours at the airport, and the last announcement from them was that not any flight is available today so we all stay at hotel for a while till next morning...

Portland is much cooler than Phoenix. I didn't see many tall building on the way to the hotel.

It's 5:10am in the morning, leaving soon to catch the morning flight to NRT.
Hopefully they are not going to cancel today's flight.

I am not going to use Delta never again!! ahhh--.

Ok, see you Japanese folks soon. :)

Back to Tokyo

Today is my last day here in Arizona, It's been so long vacation but overall I had a great time with everyone!! Thank you all very very much!!

It was such a nightmare about flight from NRT to PHX this time, the original flight was suddenly canceled due to bad weather in Seattle and Delta gave us horrible replaced flight which is Narita - Haneda - Kansai - Seattle - Salt Lake City - Phoenix , It took 2days to stop by 6airports. Can you believe it?? I was like zombie and don't even remember how I could survive with this horrible itinerary. But it's now one of my great memory :)

Thank you all sooo much for wonderful memories here, Look forward to see you again soon!

Also can't wait to see my friends and family in Tokyo soon!

Love xx
S


View Larger Map

Piranha 3D

The movie was out on 20th/Aug/2010 in the US.It was set on "Lake Victoria" which is fictional tourist spot in Arizona that vicious fish attack people on vacation. City official in the region where the film was shot is Lake Havasu Arizona.I didn't recognize which lake exactly,when I only looked at the scenery but for local people it should be distinctive, he already knew the lake and he has been there before. Hope the movie doesn't affect badly to Havasu tourist business.

These kind of movie goes either dumbest or good, and this one was still ok, I really liked it , though sometimes way too nasty and couldn't even look at the screen,especially with 3D glasses, vicious fish was popping up right on my eyes and grab ripped human's body...gross...

I've been to some lakes in Arizona, Since I got here, enjoyed wake boarding, but for a while, I don't really feel like to go into the water. hmm..

The movie reminds me of "Jaws" and "Open Water", if you like those movie, you got to watch this at the theater.

Piranha 3D

Google Voice

Google produced new service "Google Voice" in the US couple weeks ago,
Here is more info

Tried to call friend's mobile phone in Japan from my computer,
First you should buy credit start from $10 but still very cheap to call even mobile, to Japan It's only $0.11/per minutes, Here is more info,

The voice quality isn't yet excellent but still very clear!

Just one thing, it seems a bug to fix in the future, The call didn't reach to the other phone sometimes, When I called, I heard it's ringing but no answering, and asked my friend later,then there is no missed call history... :( hmm..

What I like most in this service is that if you missed call from someone, the notification email is sent to your Gmail account so that you can hear voice message too, and if you register your local phone, all incoming calls are automatically forwarded to your phone so that you don't need to sit and wait in front of your computer or home phone :D
Also you can register person to contact list group to set which phone to forward for each contact group. if bf calls you, you don't want to miss it, so set forwarding it to all types of phone calls, your friend, maybe you just want to receive only on mobile.. something like that-- :P

Only phone number in the USA is acceptable so far, It will be implemented for Japanese customers soon for sure.

Today is my dad birthday, Love dad and mom!! Thanks always xx.

BBQ party on 29th/August

I had a great party yesterday! Here are some pics from the party. We visited A's sister's house. It's a beautiful AZ style design, 2stories, I lost counting how many bed rooms do they have! Sad to admit but my apartment in Tokyo was as same as their one single closet...lol

I really liked frozen margaritas and nice foods, Thank you A!

Napa Valley Wineries

After passed Golden Gate Bridge, we headed for up north to Napa Valley Wineries.

It took 2-3 hours drive from SF, not that far, It's a amazing drive that you can see California's farming area, the view reminds me of my hometown, especially when there is no houses.

There are so many wineries in Napa Valley, what you should do is that stop by the visitor center to get the map and pick up which wineries you would like to go, also ladies at visitor center tell you lots of histories about each wineries. We enjoyed talking with the old lady there.

We picked up one of the oldest wineries "BERINGER"and most popluar one "V.SATTUI", Both are beautiful places, You pay $5-10 first and you can keep tasting any kind of wine until you get drunk.

Most of wines are you can only buy in each wineries, they don't even transport to Arizona, cz of the climate.

He got 16 bottles of wine and many cheeses.

We left around 4-5pm Friday to go home finally, stopped at Bakersfield and went to HOOTERS bar to check CA hooters girl and stayed hotel to rest, and arrived home around 6pm on Saturday.

It was amazing SF and Napa Valley trip! Thanks A!!

San Francisco Trip on 17th to 21th/August

This time was the longest road trip that we drove up to San Francisco, CA from Phoenix, AZ. It took almost 2days. On the way we stopped by the small town to refrain from all night driving, stayed in cheap motel type of hotel, I said "as long as there is shower I can use, I am fine!" It's just for sleeping for couple of hours, it doesn't need to be fancy! But it was actually shitty than we expected... It wasn't that cheap either. He just moved the chair to shut the front door so that no one can break in..LOL... America, you can't even imagine how dangerous the life here is, It would be much worse than I think? or Japan might be too peaceful sometimes? If you were born and raised in JP, most of countries in the world would be dangerous for you,,, but in meantime it's more passionate and exciting too! so I like both.

In second day, we finally got to SF after 4 more hours drive and checked in hotel at 3pm.

We start walking around Union Square to china town , Fisherman's Wharf.

To be honest I wasn't so impressed about those typical tourist spots, It's still ok but so crowded cz of so many tourists, and the place is trashy sometimes.

I liked the business district near the Oakland Bay Bridge much more! It's a wonderful energetic area where professional people are hanging out. I have a friend from SF, He and his wife are my best friends in Tokyo , very stylish and cool people, I was imaging they used to hang out around this area. Thanks M!!

After stayed 2nights in SF, we head for Napa Valley to try wine tasting! Second day will be in next post! ;) Continuing... :)

Hope you are not bored yet...

Farm Grill Restaurant in Gilbert, AZ

Just got back from outside, I went out with his dad to eat lunch together at Gilbert, AZ.

Gilbert is such a beautiful town that lots of nice houses there, it's very safe and clean, nice neighbors. We had a hamburger , garlic potato and ice tea at Joe's Farm Grill Restaurant .

The restaurant exist right next to the farm , seems like the same owner owns all farm , restaurant and cafe there. Gilbert is modern beautiful town nowadays but it used to be farming town with no houses,malls and stuff.

It would be good to sit outside terrace, when it's cooler, maybe in November :)

I suddenly thought like 'Oh this is what my dad should do for his wasted lands in my hometown.

Growling vegetables and serves them right next to his farm, shouldn't stay with too much organic restaurant taste, otherwise it would be only known for niche market who cares about their health... I will try to talk to him. :)

Thanks A to take me out! :))

27 STUNNING Apple Concept Products From The Future

What would we do with an Apple car? A transparent iMac? Or even an "iPottie"?

I will save up money to buy all amazing apple products in the future!! yeey!

Access from here

Which one do you like most? :)

Just got back from SF, it was wonderful road trip! I love SF energetic vibe and people!!

Droid VS iPhone

Let's take a look at amazing Droid 2 spec!
The 3.7-inch screen,1 GHz processor,512MB of RAM,total cargo capacity of 40GB, and cool body design by Motorola and interface isn't that bad anymore.
Here more details

Incredible!! I am about to change Droid 2 from my iPhone(3G,8GB ...lol)

But there are some topics that make you feel iPhone is still better to have?!

10 Incredible iPhone Photographs - want to know how they can take pics like that, much better than my pics of DSLR...

iPhone Owners Have the Most Sex Partners... LOL - wondering why girls chose iPhone owners as xx friends?? I personally don't really care...

10 Free iPhone Apps To Learn A New Skill In 10 Minutes - "How to save a life"app looks useful. ;D

hmmm.. tough call but I still choose Droid 2 with high spec like a computer!
How about you? :D

One of my favorite town in Arizona

Scottsdale! There are nice shopping mall, many lounge bar out there!
We walked around Fashion Square last night and 5th avenue :) It's a perfect sunset to sit outside and drink and chat ;) Though the temperature is still hot to sit outside sometimes, most of place have shower mist to cool you down, sometimes I feel even cold with it, when you sit for long.

5th and Wine is the beautiful lounge bar, we just found it last night. The place was so packed with lots of people who seem to finish work and came into the bar and having a nice evening there, even if the Tuesday night.We will definitely check it out soon!

Road trip on 7th/Aug to Tucson and Tombstone

We left Phoenix around 10am in morning to head for Tucson to visit Kartchner caverns state park this weekend. It's another awesome trip to see great nature of Arizona.

The camera wasn't allowed in the cave so please look at the video in link above.
It's about 30mins time travel tour in the cave!!

After we drove to another city called Tombstone, The city is known for one of the oldest town in Arizona, I saw many cowboy/cowgirl style people on the street. :)
There are many historical museum , bank, bar remain as it was from long time ago, you can see in the pics!

As soon as we got Tombstone, huge storm hit the town,
It was heavy raining and lighting again, I felt like we were in my favorite drama "Supernatural" :D cool!

We head back to Phoenix around 10:30pm and went clubbing afterward!

Thanks again my bf for another wonderful trip!


View Larger Map