I'm happy about my new MacBook, but there is one problem. I spend too much time playing the games which came with my MacBook! I mainly play 4 In A Row. It's a very simple game and actually I wanted to know the name of this game for a long time. I saw a 3-D version of 4 In A Row at C's favourite bar, and I wanted to buy one for myself. I didn't expect I came across like this! I wonder if I can find one in Tokyo somewhere.

There is a nice cool early autumn breeze in the evening, I can finally sleep without air conditioning. I'm kind of used to the Japanese summer and I never liked it, but this year was amazingly hot and humid. Both our computers died this month and I blame the heat! I welcomed a MacBook Black as a new member of the family last week. I hope I can use this Mac for a long time. The PowerBook G4 which has just broken had a lifetime of three years and nine months and my previous PowerBook G3 was four years and three months old. When I calculated the monthly cost, it was more than I had imagined...

Yesterday the temperature reached 40.9 degrees Celsius in Saitama and Gifu cities, it broke the previous record set in 1933. Tokyo was also really hot, I guess it was about 36°C. People seem to eat more curry when it's hot outside, I see curry ads everywhere. At a local supermarket, I saw Curry Natto for the first time. The small sachet of sauce that comes with the natto has a curry flavour, but actually its black pepper taste is stronger than the curry taste, so it might not really be for curry lovers. Another very weird one I saw on TV was Curry Kakigori: a Japanese shaved ice dessert. The curry syrup (in Japanese) is sweet, but it also has a spicy curry flavour. I can't really imagine that and I'm not sure if I want to try...

I saw the big watermelon was selling for a reasonable price. The sign said there would be a crack inside the watermelon, but I bought it anyway, because it was so much cheaper than the 'cut watermelon' I usually buy. I carried home the heavy watermelon, it was 7.2kg, and I cut it, then I saw the inside was really broken. It tasted good, very sweet, but the texture was a little bit dry. So I cut in small pieces and put them in a freezer. On the weekends I'm going to enjoy lots of Summer drinks, probably Watermelon Margaritas to begin with.

The other day, we went to an Okinawa restaurant and they had Shima-gaff which I had never heard before. It is made with beer mixed with Okinawan sake awamori. C ordered it and surprisingly it was served with some ice cubes, and it was unexpectedly tasty! It had quite strong awamori flavour, but also it was still refreshing beer. The other drink I tried for the first time was a mixture of Shikuwasa 'Okinawan citrus fruit ' juice and Beer. It was very refreshing and I liked it! The only problem is I can't stop drinking!

It's hot and humid. I usually avoid using the air conditioning even when it's very hot, but I had to switch it on all day today. It seems like some people lose their appetite, but I don't. So I cooked tarako (salted cod roe) spaghetti for my lunch. My friend gave me 50 leaves of agricultural, chemical free shiso 'perilla' leaves, so I put lots of shiso and lemon juice on top. Recently I enjoy eating lots of lemon juice in the sauce for cold Somen noodles too. Very summery and tasty. I had about fifty shiso leaves, but only ten are left now. It would be nice to have a small shiso plant pot at home.