I'm not really fond of Nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with seven different kinds of spring herbs) but I cook it on every 7th January. This year I cooked with genmai (brown rice) and I like that the rice don't get too sticky. The seven herbs pack I bought this year contained too much Chickweed, just a tiny bit of Shepherd's purse, cudweed and Nipplewort. are these hard to grow?

Last Sunday, we went to see a sumo tournament in Ryogoku. I really wanted to get the special tickets on the last day of a fifteen day tournament which is very popular, so I bought the tickets as soon as they came out on the market in August. But Yokozuna (grand champion rank) Asashoryu pulled out the tournament due to injury on the tenth day, and another Yokozuna Hakuho became a winner of the tournament on the fourteenth day. So I was a little bit disappointed, less exciting, but we still enjoyed a lot. The sumo plate I found in a shop made me smile, and I think super thinly sliced Sashimi or Carpaccio will be on the plate!

On Friday, I went to the Pierre Hermé Fetish Party in Shinjuku. This event was held by Shinjuku Isetan department store, they are celebrating their first anniversary of the new food floor in the basement. The great thing was that Pierre Hermé himself turned up to the party! He is the patisserie god to me, I had to ask him to sign my book: pâtissier secrets gourmands which was my birthday present from C. He seemed like a really nice gentleman, so I became greedy and asked him to take a picture together too!

It was really nice weather on Sunday, so we went to Komazawa Olympic Park. After walking around the park a little bit, we saw many TV trucks next to the park gymnasium. We were wondering what kind of event was going on, and it was National Women's Wrestling Championship. Hurray! We like martial arts! We had never seen live wrestling before, so we were excited and enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately Kyoko Hamaguchi didn't take part this tournament because of a wrist injury. She is a very famous (her father is also super famous) and strong fighter who won world championships five times. But she was there, watching the tournament, apologizing for her fan club members, and posing for photos. Surprisingly she looked kind of sweet in normal clothes, but as soon as she walked, she looked like a hunter...

Yesterday was Kagami-biraki, I took the Kagami-mochi (rice cake decoration for Japanese New Year's) down. I was very dissapointed about last year's plastic mould kagamimochi, and the year before that I was also quite shocked to see lots of mold on kagamimochi, so this year's kagamimochi is a real rice cake, made of only mochi rice and salt no additives, and nicely vacuum-packed! I made mochi-pizza as usual, it was tasty.

In France people traditionally celebrate Epiphanie on 6 January by eating a 'galette des rois' king's cake. There is a fève, usually a small ceramic figure (used to be a dry broad bean) hidden in the galette, and whoever finds the fève in their serving becomes the King for the day. Two of us is not enough to enjoy this Galette Ispahan from Pierre Hermé, we invited our friends to join us. In Japan putting a ceramic fève to food is illegal under the Food Hygiene Act, so Hermé put one almond instead a figure, and our friend C got the almond. He became a king but actually he has to host the next party. I'm looking forward to the king's party!

I have spent recent New Years Eves with my neighbourhood friends: first at home and then, after midnight, we've been making the first visit to the temple in our neighbourhood. I guess I will do the same tonight, but this time we can ring the big Joya no Kane bell at the temple! I heard that we could get tickets for ringing the bell on the 24th, so I went to the temple to get a ticket at 8:30 in the morning. I was drinking until 2:30 the previous day, so it was quite hard to get up, but I did OK. I will have to be free from desires to ring the bell, but I'm already quite excited! I hope you all have a very happy new year!

This morning C found our Converse were filled with some Christmas sweets. I realized that today is the 6th of December, St. Nicholas Day. In Germany St. Nicholas fills good children's shoes with candy and fruit, but our shoes were filled by C's sweet sister who is visiting us from Germany at the moment. So nice of her! Actually good kids clean and polish their shoes the day before, our shoes are too dirty.

Last weekend's F1 Chinese Grand Prix was also rainy because of the nearby typhoon, but it didn't seem as bad as the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway the week before. You might have read the Japanese news about Toyota's problems already: the GP was really badly organised and the weather was worse than any weather forcasts. We met up with our friends at the circuit and stayed in a bungalow at a camp site. There was a nice natural bath with a Fuji mountain view (although we couldn't see it because of the bad weather!). So this trip wasn't so bad. In November 2006, Fuji Speedway announced that the number of visitors was expected to be approximately 50,000 on Friday, 90,000 on Saturday, 140,000 on the final day of the event. And actually almost exactly the same number of people came to see the event: 52,000 on Friday, 90,000 on Saturday, 140,000 on Sunday. Somehow I don't belive these numbers, especially since I read the incorrect-sounding news about the Japanese GP...

In Japan there were two bank holidays in a row, so lot of people enjoyed their holidays last week, although our three day holiday starts tomorrow! We are going to Fuji, but not for climbing mountain, we are visiting F1 Japanese grand prix! (it has been switched from Suzuka to Fuji this year) We hadn't planned it until last week, but I managed to get hold of the F1 tickets which was officially sold out, and miracly I found the accommodation in the area too. AccuWeather.com shows rain on the weekend, but not the Japanese weather forecast. I want to believe the Japanese one!

On Thursday night, C and I went to Kitasenju to see the Adachi Fireworks Show. We were planning to sit on the embankment of Arakawa river, but we bought beers and snacks on the way and missed the start of the fireworks. So we ended up joining some local people who were sitting on the street in front of someone's houses. Nothing obstructed our view, so it was the best fireworks we've seen in Tokyo. I will come back here next year too! BTW, July 21st was the forth anniversary of LDK. I haven't been updating regularly, but I hope you don't mind my slow pace. Thank you for reading!

I went to the Pierre Hermé Fetish Party (in Japanese) again. The theme of the party this month was 'Ispahan Festival'. C really likes the Ispahan flavour (rose, lychee and raspberry) so he came along with me. Everything was tasty and I had much too much! What a happiness!

I didn't hesitate when my friend offered to take me to the Pierre Hermé Fetish Party (in Japanese). I got very excited when they told us to try a lot of their new sweets. But everybody was so calm and well-behaved, so I told myself to relax and slow down. Still, in the end I tried almost all the sweets on the menu. Herme is still my favourite patisserie!

I bought a box of Serge Alexandre (in Japanese) chocolate. Serge Alexandre is Callebaut (chocolate?) Ambassador in Belgium and winner of the 2003 International Belgian Chocolate Award. At the moment, his only shop in Japan is at Daimaru department store in Fukuoka city. But because of Valentine's day, his chocolates were available at other Daimaru branches in Japan too. I bought this at Sapporo Daimaru and it was ¥1,260.

On February 3rd, we celebrated Setsubun. This year I bought soybeans from Kyoto Mametomi which came in cute packages (different from the past years). I also got a bunch of holly tree twigs at the supermarket as a special decoration for the house.

The 11th of January was Kagami-biraki so I opened our Kagami-mochi (New Year decoration) shaped plastic mould and I was quite shocked to find only four small rice cakes inside. It's quite difficult to cut mochi, so small pieces are easier to use. But I expected more mochi inside. I usually buy the version made out of real mochi from a rice shop, I think it's quite expensive. But I realised that this decoration was even more expensive!

From 8-13 November, there was a France fair at Isetan Shinjuku departmentstore. As part of the fair, there was a talk by Sébastien Bouillet from Lyon. I heard that only forty people could attend, so I was a little bit worried, but I managed to get a ticket. When I entered the seminar room, I was the first person to arrive. Was I too excited?!

Today I went to the three day IDÉE bazaar (prices reduced by 30%-80%) at Aoyama Bell Commons. I was so excited about this massive sale, but I bought only three moleskin notebooks (which were only 30% off). I arrived there just one hour after the shop opened, but almost all the nice furniture had "sold out" tags. I didn't even see the TV cabinet and the lamp which I was hunting for. I wonder what they sell in the weekend. At lunch time, a lot of people were queueing outside the shop without knowing that there was nothing left to buy...

On our last day at the Suzuka Grand Prix, we arrived at Inou station near the circuit just after 9am. There were already lots of fans with crazy/silly look, and my blue and yellow Fernando (Alonso) T shirts didn't look special at all. But Alonso won this GP, even though he started from fifth position, so it was all good in the end. Thank you Alonso! Thank you Suzuka! We enjoyed it a lot! There are more photos on flickr.

Saturday was a beautiful clear day. There was a record crowd of 146,000 for the Saturday qualifying at Suzuka. No wonder the platforms at JR Nagoya station and our trains were incredibly packed. I uploaded some photos on flickr.

We finally went to see the F1 GP in Suzuka, and it was amazing! To be honest, I don't really have a particular interest in cars, but I always enjoy a festive atmosphere, so it was so much fun. We spent three days there: Friday practise, Saturday qualification and Sunday final. It was interesting to see that each day had a different atmosphere. My big mistake was that, because of the rain on Friday, I forgot to put extra sun block on my skin, so the skin on my nose peeled off! I'm too old for that! Anyway, here are some pictures from the Friday.

We finally received the tickets for F1 Japanese grand prix in Suzuka (I ordered a week ago). It's been about ten years since we started to watch F1 on TV. We wanted to watch the race at the circuit one day, and we thought this is our chance. The amazing driver Schumacher, I don't like him though, will retire at the end of this season, and this comming grand prix seems like Suzuka's last one. Actually I'm losing my interest in F1 these days, so I want to party at Suzuka to make a nice ending. We planned everything last week, so it was very tough to find hotel but I managed to reserve a hotel room in Nagoya. Now I just need to resarch about where to eat nice Nagoya cuisine, such as Miso-katsu (deep fried pork cutlets with miso), Ebi-furai (deep fried prawns), Nagoya cochin chicken, and Kishimen (flat wheat noodle) etc.

We went to Miura in Kanagawa prefecture for the wedding party of our good friends. It was a 80's Miami theme party, held at the beach house, so we were so glad that it didn't rain! It was great to see the happy bride and groom with beautiful sunset, nice music, and lots of drinks. Congratulations! I was asked to prepare some sweets, so I chose something I wanted to try for a long time which was 'ma bonne' and 'von de mer' from Chocolatier Erica (Japanese) in Shirokane-dai. They are similar to the one I made before but they were very delicate and quite a grown up taste. Actually I prefer if it's bit more sweet.

I love German bread and German sausages. They are so tasty! I think many Japanese don't know that there are lots of different kinds of great German breads and sausages besides dark rye bread with sour dough and Frankfurter. I'm sure Japanese people will get very excited when they see many bread and sausages in Germany, just like I do every time!

We went to see Konono No.1 at Roppongi Hills Arena (in Japanese). I didn't know about this Congolese band, but they also played at the huge Metamorphose music event last weekend, they seem to be very well known. A few weeks ago, C bought their CD and I liked their music, but the live show was much more fun. I was a great sweaty night!

Yesterday we joined our friends' BBQ party at Mori no Beer Garden (Japanese) in Meiji Jingu Gaien (Meiji Shrine Outer Garden). The main occasion for this meeting was the big fireworks festival which was held in the stadiums next to the beer garden. We couldn't see much last year so we were looking forward to this event.

Last weekend, I visited my parents in Hokkaido and we drove to Furano to see a lavender farm. The lavenders were in full bloom and I almost felt sick because of the strong smell! We enjoyed the great view of the countryside in Hokkaido.

The real Japanese summer has finally arrived in Tokyo after a long rainy season. It is incredibly hot, but I like eating Okinawan 'Goya Champuru' in this weather. It has been a month already since we went to a five day trip to Okinawa. I finally uploaded some photos to flickr!

On the weekdend, our friend invited us to the summer night festival. People were dancing Bon Odori in the middle of tall buildings, and it looked quite different from our summer festival at a local temple, where we go every year. That is because it was held in Japan Defence Agency headquarters in Ichigaya!

We had been very busy for a month, so we went to Okinawa for a relaxed holiday. Everything was the same as when we visited there three years ago, we even had a typhoon again! Doh!

On Saturday, I made more plum wine with a friend who couldn't come to the Umeshu event the other day. I made two different kinds of Umeshu with 750ml size bottles (the big one on the photo is my friend's bottle). One contains 280g ume plums, 336ml barley shouchu and 140g cane sugar (a little bit sweeter than the other day). The other one was made with 280g ume plums, 336ml barley shouchu and 112g pure honey. There were lots of choices of honey at the local supermarket. I chose a pricey Japanese honey at ¥848/250g, but I wonder if I would be able to tell the difference.

This year's season for making Umeshu (ume plum liqueur) has arrived quickly. My friends and I gathered at my place to make Umeshu together, just like last year. As the organiser of this event, I ordered special ume plums this year. The Umeshu will be amazing (hopefully).

Last Friday, we went to see our friends' exhibition at information gallery. I had heard about Hektor, a graffiti output device, but it was amazing to see how Hektor actually draws on the wall. He carefully drew each line, and I like that he made smooth paths in the air. At the end of the event, Hektor drew C's portrait.

We had a 'hanami' cherry blossom viewing party in Yoyogi park on Saturday, April Fool's Day. It had been cold and rainy, but Saturday was a perfect day for a hanami party: sunny, no wind, and cherry blossoms in full bloom! A LOT of people came to see the cherry trees in the park, but we found a nice place and enjoyed the lovely day.

Last week I went to the party of visionaire 48: magic on the 52nd floor of Roppongi Hills. The invitation was a 3D print, we see a different image depending on the angle and the party was as glamourous as the invitation. My champagne glass was never empty and the DJ lady was very gorgeous!

Omotesando Hills, designed by Tadao Ando, finally opens on 11 February on the site of the old dojunkai Aoyama apartments (in Japanese), which were knocked down in 2003, 75 years after they were built. Yesterday, I went to the pre-opening with my friend. The pale green glass wall on the right of the picture is a public toilet! Ando Hills is amazing (all guests got a green wristband)!

We went to Cafe Pause for the opening party of Canadian Style. It was sooo packed! I gave up taking photos and got myself a Labatt beer and some maple cookies. Canada is one of those countries which I really want to visit. This was my first time to check out snapazoo, it was much nicer than I thought. It might be a good gift for children.

Today is Kagami-biraki, I took the Kagami-mochi (sticky rice cake New Year decoration) down. It's meant to be broken by hands or with a wooden hammer (not with a knife, because cutting has a negative meaning in Japanese), but the Kagami-mochi was so hard, looked like a dry heel, and I decided to use the microwave. It seemed much easier than using hands or a wooden hammer. Oh, I did use a knife to scrape off some mold on the Kagami-mochi. I guess it's allowed.

Yesterday morning (just before noon), I had Nanakusa-gayu (Rice porridge with seven different kinds of spring herbs) and I took off New Year's pine decorations 'kadomatsu (simple version)' from the front door. I've been keeping this old tradition every year since we moved to Tokyo. Unfortunately a suzushiro (Japanese white radish) in a handy seven herbs pack from the super market near the station, has almost gone off, but I made quite nice Nanakusa-gayu with a bit of white miso, and I enjoyed eating it with tasty umeboshi (pickled plum) which was from my sister.

Happy New Year! I've been just staying at home during holidays, but I was very busy. I guess it was because I decided to invite many of our friends for a traditional Japanese new years dinner. It was crazy but fun! I wish you all an exciting 2006.

Yesterday, we were invited to a Christmas dinner at our friends' place. I wish I had taken a photo of the whole turkey.

On Thursday afternoon, we went for shopping at a snowboard shop and Apple store etc, then we watched snooker on cable TV with pints at an Irish pub before going to see Peter Jackson's three hours and seven minutes long King Kong. This is what C wanted to do for his birthday. For dinner we went to YanKuq (in Japanese), an Italian restaurant in Roppongi which our friend A recommended. When we arrived there, the waiter took us to their basement bar because there were no free tables. We had a free cocktail in a nice bar.

We had four friends giving their presentations for pecha kucha night on Wednesday. I hadn't been this event for ages, and I was surprised their three big screens and many many audiences. I also bumped into an old colleague from where I used to work about five years ago.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Roppongi Hills to meet up our friends, who haven't seen for a while. We had coffee at the cafe, but I didn't realised that it was Rojak (in Japanese) by IDÉE. I felt the atmosphere was bit different from the one in Aoyama. One of our friend ordered hot herb tea, and it came with a wine glass. It looked cool, but it was too hot to drink from!

Yesterday, I realised that it was the day of the Tori (Rooster) in Chinese calendar, so I went to Ootori Shrine, where the torinoichi fair was held in Meguro, to return the old kumade (lucky charm) from last year. I went there quite early, so it wasn't packed and also there were lots of school kids, mothers, and young children. It was a nice atmosphere.

It has been two weeks already since my good college friends and short-time flatmates from London were visiting Tokyo, so we enjoyed a very long Saturday night. We started with dinner at an izakaya from 9pm and we drank and sung until after 7am! I had to cancel my appointment on the next day. Doh!

After walking around the Yanaka area, we said goodbye to piyo. and her boyfriend. Then Kakako's old friend Linda joined us and we went to play billiards. I got some advice from nodoca, he used to play a lot about 10 years ago. We all enjoyed 9 ball, it was fun!

The Sapporo blogger Kakako from Shin Nichijo-teki Henteko Catalogue was visiting Tokyo. She invited me to an offline meeting, so I woke up very early and we met up in the Nippori area. The weather was super fine, the forecast had been completely wrong! What a nice day! The members were McCOCK and nodoca (they visit LDK), as well as pine, piyo. and her boyfriend, whose names I've seen on Kakako's blog. It was my first time to meet them.

Yesterday we went to the 1st Anniversary Party for Tokyo Art Beat. There were lots of people and I was happy for my friend who was organising this. Tokyo Art Beat is useful site with information about art events in Tokyo. Recommend!

We quickly checked the Namaste India 2005 festival in Yoyogi park. The Chicken Tikka from an Indian restaurant in Chigasaki was great, very juicy. And the stage performances were very exciting.

We met my ex-flatmate from college times. I figured out that I hadn't seen her for more than six years. I can't believe it! It's nice that they are enjoying their first visit to Japan.

In the morning of the third day of our trip, while C was having a hot spring bath (in Japanese), I packed my bags. Staying in a tent was quite a fun, I want to do it again. If we come back to this camp site, it might be nice to do BBQ with a nice ocean view. The nice young lady from the camp site gave us a lift to Utoro Onsen Terminal.

On the second day of our Shiretoko trip (our third wedding anniversary), we couldn't be bothered to either walk for 50min or wait for a bus, so we hitchhiked along the coast to Shiretoko Shizen Centre (in Japanese). Then we walked to see Furepe ('maiden's tears') Waterfall. On the way there, we saw a deer family eating their lunch. I think I've never seen wild animals this close-up. After we came back to Shizen Centre, we took a bus to the Kamuiwakka ('water of the gods') Falls. We were looking forward to take a bath in the hot spring pool on top of the warm waterfall.

The road from Shiretoko Five Lakes to the Kamuiwakka falls has been closed to private traffic until 2010, except between July and September 20. We were lucky to catch the last day of the service!

Apart from Sapporo, we also went to the Shiretoko Peninsula, which was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites this Summer. Hokkaido is huge, so we spent a long time on trains and buses. It took us 6 hours and 59 minutes from Sapporo to Shiretoko Peninsula. There are also flights to the Memanbetsu airport, which I completely forgot about.

If I go on a trip, eating the local food is one of the things really look forward to and we had lots of nice Hokkaido food. Hokkaido is very famous for crab, sea urchin, salmon eggs, abalone etc. Even though we both don't like them much, it's hard (or expensive) to find the same quality in Tokyo, so I ate those foods. I still didn't think that they were great... but I enjoyed eating salmon, sweet corn and Mongolian mutton BBQ, and drinking Sapporo Beer!

O from C's office is leaving Japan next week. So we had a good-bye party at a Korean restaurant in Ebisu. I felt that it was still too early to eat chigae (hot pot dishes), but it was tasty, even though I had to sweat a lot. I also tried a sip of mackoli, a traditional Korean rice wine, and I thought that it was similar to Indian lassi mixed with rice wine.

I haven't updated LDK because we were on a late summer holiday in Hokkaido! After returning to Tokyo, we went to the Tokyo Oktoberfest in Hibiya. We arrived there around 5:30pm, and there were massive queues for the sausage stall and the German beer stall. It was approximately 30-50 minutes of waiting time. How can we get drunk if we have to queue like this? I gave up queueing and went to the Asahi beer stall, but Löwenbräu was sold out, too. We had Japanese beer at the German beer festival, how sad! But C seemed to enjoy it, so it was OK. In Munich, strong ladies dressed up like this and carrying lots of big beer glasses come to all the tables to sell beers. How wonderful!

This is the last entry of the long long Mt Fuji series! I don't think that I will climb Mt Fuji again, but I will list up my equipment list for my memories. I didn't use much of the food I took with me, so if you don't like to carry a heavy bag, I recommend that you buy some instant food and drinks at the mountain huts (but I think they open only in July and August). The prices are as high as Mt Fuji, so you need to take some cash with you. The walking stick costs ¥1,000 and all the stamps for my stick cost ¥3,300. I also spent ¥6,500 to stay at the mountain hut and about ¥1,500 for plastic PET bottles of water and tea.

At Kusushi Shrine, we got red ink stamps (¥300) instead of burnt ones. I also received a goshuin (red ink seal), it was ¥1,000. Our friend K was going to make real espresso for us, but the wind was too strong to use the camping stove, so we gave up! Our plan was to add some Eternal Icicles and bourbon to the espresso! It takes about 1.5 hours to walk along the crater rim, but we decided to descend Mt Fuji before getting completely exhausted!

The hotel worker said: 'If you are an avarage person, it takes 1.5 hours to 2 hours to get to the summit from here'. So we left the Fujisan Hotel (3400m) at 02:20. There were so many climbers outside, they had been climbing all night, I guess. Everyone‘s goal is to view the sun rise on the summit around 5am! I could see lots of stars in the sky, and a queue of head lamps on the way to the summit. The queue was just a single line, the right side of the queue was free for faster climbers (usually foreigners) and there was enough space between people. It wasn't as annoying as it sounds. I decided to join the slow queue and my rhythm was to take three steps, then look at the sky and breathe deeply, then taking another three steps, then try to find shooting stars, and so on. The sky was incredibly beautiful, but I felt stupid because it reminded me of a planetarium!

When I arrived at Fujisan Hotel (these are their stamps), about 20 minutes after C and our friend K, I was completely exhausted. I entered the hut and put down my bag and stick, and as soon as I sat down on a bench, I had to pay (about) ¥6,500 for one night stay including dinner. Back to reality.

I'm getting a little bit bored with writing Mt Fuji entries, and I felt the same during our climb from the 7th (2700m) to the 8th (3020m) station. Although we climbed for hours, the scenery didn't change and the summit was still so far away. But when I looked down, I could see how far we had climbed. There were two songs repeating in my head. One was a 4.54 million sales kid song from the 70's, Swim! Taiyaki kun (Taiyaki is a fish-shaped sweet), and the other was Gandhara by Godaigo (the ending theme of 'Saiyuuki', a Japanese TV series known as 'MONKEY', also from the 70s). Both songs are not very uplifting... I wasn't hungry but it's important to take energy, so I had a break at each of the mountain huts. I felt that there was less and less oxgen, so I opened my oxygen spray can and breathed extra oxygen. But it has no taste and no smell, so I don't know if I was actually breathing pure oxgen! At 17:30, we reached the 8th station (3020m). It was getting dark. At 19:30 we finally arrived at the hut called 'Fujisan Hotel' (which is not really a hotel). It had been 5 hours and 20 minutes from the starting point.

We started to climb the mountain at 14:10, still full of energy. We saw a notice board very near starting point, its English text looked a little bit sad. As we continued climbing, we saw lots of people climbing down who looked completely worn‐out and I couldn't say 'hello' to them (we have to greet people on the mountain). It was scary to think that we might feel like that tomorrow! The 6th station (2390m) was quite easy and quick to reach and staff from Mt Fuji Safty Guidance Centre were handing out notices and a simple map. There are no huts on the 6th station, and we didn't want to let our body cool down, so we continued climbing. It was 15:30 when we reached the first hut on the 7th station, called 'Hanagoya'. These are the stamps they burnt on our sticks.

Our friend K, C and I took a highway bus (in Japanese) to Fuji fifth station (¥2,600 for a single trip) from Shinjuku at 10:55. The bus was fully packed but our reserved seats in the back were quite spacious, it was a comfortable journey. On the way to Mt Fuji, we ate a nice breakfast/lunch, which we bought at Keio department store (in Japanese) in Shinjuku, we saw FUJIYAMA in Fuji-Q HighLand, and at 13:20 we arrived at Mt Fuji 5th Station for the Lake Kawaguchi route (2305m). The sun was strong and hot, burning my skin, but the air was very cold. I've never experienced this weird sensation.

We came back OK from Mt Fuji on Monday afternoon. My lips are sunburnt and my quadriceps femoris were hurting yesterday. I don't think I will climb Mt Fuji again, but I can say that I seriously enjoyed climbing it. I was worried about altitude sickness, but I didn't suffer from it. I can't believe that the weather was nice all the time and that we could see the beautiful sunrise from the summit. And that we managed to climb down on our own (we didn't need to ask for help from horses). Maybe it helped me that I've been swimming 2km a day these days. On the day before our Fuji trip, C found Fuji beer in a shop and he was happy to drink it, but I didn't drink it. I was very excited to climb Fuji, and also very nervous at the same time.

On Saturday, we went the Azabu Juban summer night festival, but there were too many people and I didn't feel comfortable. On the shopping street, there were lots of food stalls, so everyone (including me) was distracted by the food and it was impossible to walk along the street. I was also wearing sandals, so I was worried that someone might step on my bare toes. We decided to check the Bon Dance in a small park before eating, people were dancing in a tiny circle. We joined the circle and danced for one song, then left to find food.

We went to an izakaya in Azabu Juban, where our friend R works, to celebrate our drinking friends' birthdays. I realised that we are all getting old! It surprised me to know their real ages. What had also surprised me was R' handmade birthday cake. He is so sweet and nice, just like his cake!

On Sunday, we visited the Nakameguro Summer Festival, where 23 teams were taking part in a Yosakoi dance competition. I didn't know much about Yosakoi dance, apparently there are only three main rules: Each team has to have less than 150 dancers. While dancing, each team has to move forward and keep the Naruko Castagnettes in their hands. Each team can arrange their music, but they must use the Yosakoi Naruko Dancing Theme. At the end of August, there will be a festival called the Harajuku Omote-sando Genki Festival Super Yosakoi. That sounds crazy.

On Saturday, we went to Isshiki Beach in Hayama with our friends family. We are usually very lazy on the weekend, especially in the morning, but we were at JR Zushi station at 11am! After about a 20 minute bus ride from Zushi, we arrived at Isshiki Beach. There was a blue sky and (brownish) blue sea! It's a nice Summer feeling! I'm quite good at swimming but I easily feel seasick from the waves, so I just enjoyed being at the beach in the sizzling heat. I put sun cream on, but somehow my feet and arms got sunburnt. I have stupid t-shirt and short pants lines! My legs go amazingly red and I have itchy skin!

Oh dear, I went to a good-bye party at our friends' nice hotel apartment and we ended up singing karaoke until 3:30 in the morning. Everybody went a bit crazy, including me I guess. I realised how nice it is to be in a non-smoking karaoke room and we even had a window!

We saw the Sumida River fireworks last year, but we were quite far away. So this year we tried to see the Jingu Gaien Firework Festival (in Japanese) properly. We arrived at Gaienmae station around 6:30pm, there were so many people. It was annoying that a man shouting with a megaphone shouted 'Please, do not stop here! Keep moving!'. He was the only one who was super noisy and it was not necessary at all. Do not put a loud speaker next to our ears! We walked to Aoyama, and there were lots of people at CI Plaza Square. We decided to sit with them, but after the fireworks started we realised that it wasn't a good spot. Lots of people tried to find a place with a better view, but we stayed and chatted and drank beer while watching the top half of the fireworks. Maybe next year I want to see it from inside the Jingu stadium.

Today is our friend Y's birthday. We celebrated last night at Black Lion in Meguro. It's funny that we had her birthday party here last year, too. And we ordered lots of Hoegaarden like last time. It's a bit expensive but I like it! Happy birthday Y!

Like last year, we went to the Bon Odori (traditional dance) festival at Yutenji temple. This year I wore a Yukata (casual Kimono) and I enjoyed dancing, it was fun! After the festival, all the places near Yutenji were packed, so we walked to Naka-Meguro to eat. at JunkAdelic.

Yesterday was my sister's birthday. My sister, my mom and I went to Ginza for shopping, and we had lunch at Wako. We had lots of food and wine, and continued shopping after. It wasn't my birthday, but mom also bought a kimono belt ('obi') and a bracelet for me. Lucky! Mom and I went to my sister's place to stay overnight.

Venus Williams beat Maria Sharapova, and she made it to the finals of Wimbledon. Hurray! She is so beautiful and cute, and strong of course! I'm really looking forward to watch the final tonight. NHK broadcasts Wimbledon from 1am Japan time, so I go to bed around 4am these days. I wake up quite late, so I sleep long enough, but I still feel very tired. I guess human beings should get up with the sun!

After we went to our usual izakaya (which we also visited the previous day!) to eat Lamb and Vegetables with Blue Cheese Sauce and Soup Curry with Five different grains, we went to SuperDeluxe. It was an opening party for Pina Circus and our friend Y from London played music. And I bumped into R who I hadn't seen for a while. She was just a cute girl but she is a grown up lady now! I was also surprised to see Chika from The Plastics took part in our friend's band unexpectedly. The band's singer was also a familiar face from television.

On Sunday, we went to our friends' wedding party on a Yakatabune boat. The boat left Shinagawa at 6pm. As it got darker and darker outside, the groom became more and more drunk. At the end of the party, the groom said "thank you" and started to cry! I have not seen many men cry like that! So sweet! The crying groom and the supportive bride made all of us so happy. Congratulations!

It is Miffy's 50th birthday today. The main image shows how Miffy looked 50 years ago! Her face has been changing quite a lot, and I love it in the 70's. I don't like her current face, she looks too round, but I still think Dick Bruna is a great artist!

The US Grand Prix in Indianapolis started at 2:50am Japan time. My brain was half sleep before the programm started, but a very unusual situation made me wide awake: 14 cars boycotted the race! If I had been there with C, I would have been very upset, even if we had gotten our money back! I can't believe the audience didn't even get their money back.

As I mentioned before, I attended "Just Looking, A Workshop" with my friends on Friday. I hadn't used a sewing machine for ages, but it was fun!

Yesterday, I went to a talk about ballistic missiles, and also UFO. It wasn't a dodgy meeting, it was a Science and Technology Lecture by our Russian friends at Caniche Courage. It was an interesting event!

My favourite interior shop TRICO has moved to a new location, changed its name to mYwaY, and opened yesterday. The new shop is in CODAN Shinonome Canal Court, which is one of the new housing development projects in the Tokyo waterfront areas. It is hard to imagine that these areas (Toyosu/Shinonome/Tatsumi) used to be suburban industrial districts. By the way, TRICO's Harajuku branch STOCK BY TRICO is still in the same place.

Today is the birthday of our friend T who is pregnant, and we had a day early birthday party at Las Chicas in Omotesando yesterday. It was meant to be a surprise party but it didn't work, same as last year. I thought that the building is kind of spacey as a restaurant in the middle of Tokyo, and I found out that it used to be a private house owned by African ambassador. They prepared a table for us on the terrace, but it started to rain just before the party! We moved to inside where we could see the terrace... It was a little bit strange to see our drinking friends just after 3pm, I know them only in the night time!

On Monday, N and I took the Odakyu Railway Romance Car to Hakone. We could have checked the time table to see when the newest VSE (Vault Super Express) Romance Car was running, but I was sleeping for the whole journey, both ways! It didn't really matter that our Romance Car was the old model.

Yesterday, after we went to a home party at our friend's flat, birthday boy N said he wanted to eat Sushi, so we went to Nakameguro to eat Sushi. But he liked An-Kimo (monkfish liver) with Ponzu (citrus sauce) the most, rather than Sushi! For his birthday, I got him a necktie and pre-ordered Macaroons from Pierre Hermé.

My birthday was on the 6th of May and N's birthday was on 7th, so our friend A kindly organised a birthday party for us. It was such a bad weather, but twenty friends gathered at AALAWI (in Japanese) in Ebisu for us! Thanks! It sounds a little bit strange but since I turned thirty, it always takes me a while to figure out how old I am. I'm very happy about the birthday party, but the fact that we have lots of great friends makes me even more happy! I love you everyone! And thanks for all the presents too!

We had a picnic near Tamagawa-dai park. It was a little bit windy but very nice hot, summery weather, and we had the first Pimm's No.1 of this year. I cooked and brought Chinese sweet and sour cucumber pickles shaped like a snake, but they were too sweet! Oops! But the Zuke Katsuo (marinated bonito) Sushi turned out to be quite nice. And I have to try to make the Spinach Quiche dough a bit thinner next time.

On Saturday, our drinking mate got married. I've never seen him that happy! And it made me happy! Congratulations!

On Friday night, I went to see the Autumn/Winter collection at bali barret in Omotesandou, and I bought a silver chain necklace. After that, my friend and I walked to the hair salon where my friend M works. We just wanted to say hello, but I suddenly thought about getting a haircut. While I was getting a haircut, my other two friends, who also went to bali barret, came to see us, so we decided to have a dinner together in Ebisu. When we were at Izakaya, more friends joined us and the four of us became the six of us! After the dinner, we moved to the Spanish style standing bar, and three more friends arrived! Around 1am, I was wondering about the closing time, and one of my friend said 'do you think we choose the bar which closes early?'! We left the bar after 3am and I believe that some of them continued drinking in Ebisu! I love all my drinking mates!

Yesterday, I was invited to a cherry blossom viewing party at our friend's hair salon. It was on the second floor by the Meguro River, so it had a wonderful view from the huge glass window. Unfortunately most cherry blossoms have fallen because of the rain from the morning. This year's cherry didn't last for more than a week!

Last night around 10pm, C and I bought cans of beer and cycled to the Meguro River. There are about 800 cherry trees on both sides of the tiny river. It was a little bit chilly but many people were enjoying cherry blossom viewing parties. Lanterns made my photo very pink. We didn't bring a plastic sheet to sit on, but we found one which laid on the ground to reserve the space for the party. It said 'xxx bonesetter clinic, 9th Apr, 17:30', so we just sat on it. Thanks! C has been super busy these days and we didn't even have time to chat, but we had drinks under the beautiful cherry trees yesterday. He has left for an another business trip this morning!

Yesterday was my good friend's birthday. I wish her the best of luck! BTW, it's difficult to blow out the fireworks. We love you!

Our friend got a driver's license very recently, and he offered us a ride. It was nice to drive around Tokyo, where I usually take a train or a subway. I have a driver's license but I haven't driven a car in almost 10 years. When I renewed my driver's license about three years ago, I was very surprised that the officer told me 'I can't give you a gold card (for a good driver) because you were caught speeding last year'! It was very easy to prove my innocence with my driver licence card number, and the officer found there is someone who has the same name and the same birthday as me! I kind of want to see her.

We went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu to see the OTAKU persona=space=city (in Japanese) exhibition. Everything looks very dodgy, full on Akiba culture! C went to a lecture by Kaichiro Morikawa (in Japanese) who is the commissioner of this exhibition, and I enjoyed this exhibition because of C's commentary. There weren't any explanation for each work, and many people were saying 'wow... ah, what are these?'. I was almost going to explain to them! The other interesting thing about this exhibition is that it was originally shown at the Biennale Venezia 2004 International Architecture Exhibition. And it finally came back to Japan. This OTAKU exhibition will be on TV tonight. It will be on NHK kyouiku (educational TV), Shin Nichiyou Bijutsukan (in Japanese), starts at 8pm, I'm going to watch it.

We were invited to a dinner party on the weekend, and we had lots of great food. I've never tried deep fried olives before, and they were very tasty. I also tasted an anise flavoured liqueur called Goldwasser. It has 22k gold flakes floating in it. Gorgeous! But it was too sweet to drink straight for me...

Last night, our friends told me that they are having a sushi dinner at our friend's flat. She lives very close to us, so we joined them with cheese fondue sets. After we ate, we went to a karaoke just around the corner. We could have sang more but stopped after two hours and 30 minutes.

On the first of January, we invited our friends from England, Russia, America and Japan. Very International. I cooked some traditional Japanese New Year's food and C prepared cheese fondue. My friend gave me doraemon kamaboko (boiled fish paste) on new year's eve, so I put it in ozouni.

Happy New Year! On new year's eve it snowed a lot in Tokyo, it was not nice to go shopping! After I prepared osechi food, we visited our friends for the new year's countdown. At 4am, we all went to a temple to pray for good luck and good health in the new year. Let's have a great year!

On Christmas eve, we went to China Town in Yokohama. Well, I know China Town has nothing to do with Christmas. We had dim sum at Saikoh Shinkan (The site is in Japanese, but the restaurant has a menu in English). There were lots of dishes I wanted to try but the waitress pushed Famous Fried Shrimp Rolls really hard as her recommendation. I thought she might just want to get rid of the dish, but I ordered it, because I couldn't say no! But it was the best dish among our lunch plates of the day. Thank you the tip!

On Wednesday we went to a Mexican restaurant in Ebisu. It was great. We will go there again and again, and I might try to cook their dishes at home.

Today is C's birthday. I received a packet from his mother in Germany yesterday. What a great timing! There were a birthday present and lots of Christmas sweets. The Christmas chocolates from Lindt and different kind of Lebkuchen etc. I love everything! It's so nice that she also put a fir branch inside. Thanks! We are off to a Mexican restaurant now to celebrate his birthday.

On Saturday, I mean Sunday morning, we went to Ebisu Grand Bowl because C wanted to play. I haven’t been bowling for more than two years, but my first throw was a strike! Good start, but the score was below my average in the end... Oh well. There was an Olivetti logo on the monitor above our heads. How cool is that! But I didn’t like the floor, it was too slippery.

On Saturday 18th, we had Bounen-kai (good bye this year party) and C’s slightly early birthday at our place. I got the birthday cake from Au Bon Vieux Temps (Japanese) in Oyamadai. I always wanted to eat their cake. It wasn’t very sweet, but tasty.

Last night, we went to a birthday party at our friends. Our friend K looks a bit similar to the famous chef and recipe book author Kentaro (the son of famous chef Katsuyo Kobayashi), and actually K can cook very well. He showed off his cooking skills. The cakes from the posh French restaurant Robuchon were not very sweet. I wonder if they use less sugar for the Japanese, who tend to like their food less sweet. I want proper sweet cakes! We left kind of early but I had a great hangover. It seems like I'm getting weak...

On Sunday night, our drinking mates gathered at a dining bar in Hiroo to celebrate our friend's birthday, one day late. I like this bar, but there is one thing I'm not sure about. They have a dish called Taraimo salad. Yes, it sounds like the Greek dish Taramosalata (a creamy, pink cod roe paste), but it's not the same! It's boiled potato (called IMO in Japanese) dressed with cod roe (TARA) - even the basic ingredients are the same! It's very confusing, but at least they don't use exactly the same name. I shouldn't be mad.

We went to a classical concert at SUNTORY HALL. C's cousin plays double bass in the orchestra and he invited us to his concert. He prepared tickets for us, they were platinum tickets, ¥21,000 each! Thanks! The conductor was Sir Roger Norrington who is famous for dramatic performances. I don't know anything about classical music but I enjoyed it a lot. The audience was very enthusiastic, the conductor and the orchestra received a big applause.

Yesterday, we were invited to our friends' wedding at Meiji Jingu. We can't normally go inside the shrine where the ceremony was held. (I couldn't take photos in the shirne.) It was very moving! Congratulations!

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Asakusa Torinoichi with a family from London and our friend I, who used to be one of my flat mates in London. It was a surprisingly cold day but I enjoyed the Japanese traditional festive mood. The amazing thing is that this is a 24 hour festival!

Long time no update! We had a busy weekend. Our friends from London are visiting us with their baby! On Friday night, we went to a tofu restaurant called Kyo-tofu Fujino in Maru buil. Thanks K to organize this dinner! We had lots of tiny tofu dishes. The soy milk soft ice cream was a dessert, it was quite nice. Actually now I remember that I had the same soft cream and okara (tofu lees) cookies at TO-FU CAFE FUJINO in Roppongi Hills. I didn't realise that they are owned by the same company. We can buy tofu products from their tofu shop (Japanese).

Yesterday, we went to the reception for Maywa Denki The Nonsense Machines which starts from today at ICC in Shinjuku (today is National Culture Day, a bank holiday!). There were lots of great products by Maywa Denki. I had fun to play some of their instruments. If you've never seen their products, it's time to check out! There will be some events, so check the schedule before you go. You might want to see it but also you might want to avoid it. I'm sure that it will be super busy! After that, we went to Seco bar in Shibuya to meet up our friend Y from London for a week. Thank you for a nice 'matcha' green tea!

We headed to Ashizuri Cape from Kochi. It was an hour and a half by JR train to Nakamura station, and another hour and 45 minutes by bus to the cape. I have to say that almost half of the time of our Shikoku trip, we were traveling, and my eye lids were closed... Ashizuri cape is located at the south end of Shikoku island. It is full of trees and creatures, I even heard the sound of cecada (we usually hear that only in the summertime). We enjoyed the hot spring at our hotel. It had just been refurbished! Lucky.

On Wednesday, 22 September, we arrived at Kochi station at 19:40. After we checked in to our hotel, we went straight to an Izakaya that I found in my guide book. Kouchi is very famous for Bonito fish, so we had lots of tasty bonito dishes! The Katsuo no Tataki slices were huge and had lots of sliced garlic on top. I couldn't believe it! The Shuto mayonnaise sauce, which came with Deep Fried Bonito, was very interesting. Yum yum yum... Sake please!

Back to the Shikoku trip report: On 22 Sep, Sep, we took a JR train from Takamatsu to Kouchi. But we decided to get off at Kotohira station to visit the famous Kotohira-gu shrine (aka Konpira-san). The song 'Konpira fune fune...' is very well known (someone made an English version! great!). It was raining a bit, I was out of breath and sweating, but we managed to climb up 785 stone steps to the main shrine, and 583 more steps to the back side shrine. It was so tough, 1,368 steps in total! But it was nice to see the great view from the top and to receive a goshuin. On the way back, there were some school boys on a training run, they cheerfully said 'hello' to us, but I bet it's sooo hard to run up (it was also a race!) those stairs, and say hello to everyone they meet.

'Mariko Mori: Transcircle (Japanese)' opened at "Koishikawa Annex, The University Museum, The University of Tokyo" (what a name!). The building looks amazing and I found out that it is a former Tokyo Medical School building and preserved as a national heritage. The red wine and nibbles were very tasy as I knew they would be. The Koishikawa Annex is next to the Koishikawa Botanical Gardens (Botanical Gardens, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo). They are 3.5 times the size of Tokyo Dome. After the posh art party, we went to an Okonomiyaki restaurant near Myougadai station with our friends.

Our friends from London visited our flat with their young son. We never had a baby at our place before, and I was wondering if our furniture is safe enough (the corners are too sharp?), but no problems at all! The second family (mom, dad and son) arrived later. Lots of laughs. They are both about a year old, so they don't know anything bad yet, very sweet. After a while, when the babies seemed a little bit tired from playing, the third family (mom, dad, daughter and son) arrived. They liked each other, and went kind of crazy. An amazing kids power!

Before going to the party Swedish Style Sunday Night, I visited our neighbor friends. They received lots of sanma (Pacific Saury) from the family and offered me 4 sanma! I didn't have enough time but they looked very fresh, so I filleted 2 sanma, made into sashimi. It is true that if sanma's nose is yellow, it has very fatty rich flavour. It was tasty! At the party, champagne, vodka, caviar etc... were served to everyone. Thanks for the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo!

We invited our friend for dinner (cooked by chef C) at our flat, in return for the dinner at his flat the other day. We thougth about cancelling this dinner because of the big Typhoon No.22, one of the most powerful to visit Japan in years, was attacking Tokyo. But when our friend visited us, it wasn't even raining much. I guess C went for shopping when the typhoon was very close to us.

Tokyo Designers Block started yesterday. Some friends and I went to see what's going on. The first party was Twinkle Twinkle at Laforet Harajuku (Japanese), organized by the British Council. After that we had some food at a cheap Izakaya. Then we moved to the TDB party at Spiral Garden (Japanese).

We were invited to a friend's home party. She prepared lots of amazing dishes, and I very much enjoyed the Temakizushi (Hand Rolled Sushi) with cooked beef. When I used to live in London, I made Sushi quite often. I usually used vegetable or canned tuna because raw fish (fresh enough to make Sushi) was too expensive. I'm disappointed with myself that I didn't have the idea of using meat for Sushi!
By the way, Congratulations, Ichiro! You have touched my heart!

On the second day of our trip we checked out early, just after breakfast. I wanted to stay longer, but we had to go. We decided to walk around Seaside Park, but it started to rain! I got a free unbrella from Seaside Park staff (thanks!) and we went to see Yayoi Kusama's pumpkin sculpture in the rain. Later on we caught a bus to Honmura to see the Art House Project. I heard from the bus driver that the pumpkin had been suffering from Typhoon No.18, which hit Japan two weeks ago. But it was fixed just a few days ago. The scars left by the typhoon were still visible around Naoshima. Many big trees were uprooted and some walls of houses were broken.

I want to write more about our Shikoku trip, but I feel like I'm trying to finish my homework at the end of long summer holidays... So I'm having a break from Shikoku entries! Yesterday, I went to the onedotzero party at Roppongi Hills. I guess it was a success, but too many people! I'm glad that nothing happened (on the 52nd floor)! The 360 degree night view was the best ever for me. Very sparkling! The onedotzero Japan team has their official blog (Japanese only). It's interesting.

We arrived at the main island of Naoshima, which has a land area of 8.13 square km and a population of 3,705 people. We stayed at Benesse House, which was designed by the great architect Tadao Ando. I love the mixture of the green trees, the blue ocean and the gray Tadao Ando concrete. From our room (202), we had a great view of the Seto Inland Sea! We wanted to take the Cultural Melting Bath (with a swimsuit), but it was fully booked. After dressing up a bit, we had a welcome drink (Champagne) and walked around the building to check the gallery space. I was very impressed with the huge space and we hardly saw anyone in the gallery! Nice. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary (1 day late) in the restaurant. Our meal was described as: 'Naoshima KAISEKI, Mimoza: Unique course meal that introduces Western elements to Japanese Kaiseki. Meat dishes are included'.

After recovering from the seasickness, we moved to Takamatsu city in Kagawa prefecture by train. Kagawa is the smallest prefecture of Japan, but their Udon noodle (Sanuki Udon) is a big thing. The best Udon in the world! It's amazing to see how many Udon shops are in Kagawa. We didn't have a chance to eat at one of the famous Udon shops, but even eating at a normal Udon shop, their hand kneaded noodle was so good. The soup is lighter in taste (a little bit sweetish) and colour than that used in the East (Tokyo) and the noodles are covered with lots of dried bonito flakes. I love it! After enjoying Udon, we went on board the ferry from Takamatsu port to Naoshima Island. It took about an hour, no seasickness this time!

On the first day of our Shikoku trip, after arriving at Tokushima Airport, we headed to Naruto City to see the Naruto Whirlpools. I wanted to see a clear swirl just like a naruto maki (fish sausage with a swirl pattern) in ramen noodle. But on that day the size of the swirl was only medium (a big swirl appears at the times marked red on this calendar). Anyway, we took the Undersea Eddy Current Observer Boat AQUA EDDY. When the boat started to splash and move quite fast, I remembered that I easily get seasick. Oops!

Our friend played a guitar in his band last night at UNIT in Daikanyama and almost all members of our drinking mates gathered. The air conditioning was good in the club. Not too cold, not hot and not smoky. I like it. After our friend's band (he was cool as usual!), Larry Tee from N.Y. played. I haven't danced for a long time, but had a great time being a crazy dancer. It was very empty, maybe because of the bank holiday Monday, but empty is better than too packed. I feel lucky to be in an empty club, is this wrong way of thinking?

After swimming at Meguro swimming pool, we enjoyed the Meguro SUN Matsuri. The queue for the free chargrilled sanma (Pacific Saury) was super long! We didn't even think about joining it. But it was funny to see the long row of grills with lots of sanma cooks on one side and customers waiting with tickets and paper plates on the other side.

On Sunday, I went to a friend's wedding party at planet3rd in Shibuya. The bride and groom were wearing Kimono. Very nice. They looked so happy, and seeing them happy made me happy. Congratulations!

There has been a server problem since yesterday, but I'm back! I went to the bali barret opening party in Shibuya on Tuesday. Everything was red: the shop, the food and even the invitation.

I went to a sushi restaurant in Nakameguro to meet my friends and their son, and their friends from Germany. I haven't seen their son for five months, and he has grown up a lot! I was happy to see their son was rolling towels nicely.

There was a OK FRED magazine party at ICC in Shinjuku. I used to study (and I was born) in Shinjuku, so I feel a little bit nostalgic about this area. But I never feel comfortable being in Shinjuku. There are always too many people everywhere but I find Shinjuku (around station area) is kind of a lonely place. I don't know why.

Yesterday was my friend R's birthday. We wanted to have dinner on a roof terrace, but it was raining unfortunately. After we had lots of drink and food at a restaurant, we moved to our usual izakaya. We watched the Olympic games with a big screen and kept drinking. Sorry R, I think I got too excited to watch games, but it was nice birthday party!

I watched the Olympic ceremony on TV from 2:40am-6:00am this morning, except I fell asleep during the IOC President speech. I thought it would be boring but I kind of enjoyed it. The costumes for the Greek myths performance were simple and nice. Today, I'm going to watch Judo, Men's 400m freestyle, Men's 100m Breaststroke Qualifying, and Women's Volleyball. I will be busy.

Yesterday, I went to see Sumida River firework with my friends. We wanted to relax and enjoy fireworks (and drink), so we avoided the bank area. We saw the fireworks from Hirakawa bridge but couldn't see Pokemon firework. I wonder what was it like... After fireworks, there were too many people around Asakusa station area. We walked toward the Sensouji temple against the crowd, and we had a drink again, went to karaoke after. It was a good long day.

Last night, I went to an English pub in Meguro to celebrate my friend's birthday. I was happy to have pints of beer and nice chips which I miss from London days. It was Monday but I came home after midnight.

It's been a year since I started LDK. I'm surprised that I could continue this long. I've been very busy these days but I tried to make a LDK ice cake in an hour. It looks Horrible?! Anyway, I want to say thanks to all people, who check my blog and leave some comments.

We went to see Maywa Denki at Yakult Hall in Shinbashi. It was the last show for our friend Y (for us) who leaves to London very soon. We had a good time! By the way, the logo of the Yakult Hall is a little bit strange. It seems like parents disagree with something and kid is worried about it.

This weekend, there was a Bon Odori (traditional dance) festival at our local Yutenji temple. There were so many people and I've never seen Yutenji being so lively! I joined the big circles of dancers: men and women of all ages, and I tried to learn dancing by watching other people. My friends saw me dancing very badly, but it didn't matter because we should enjoy dancing! The young drummers on the top of the stage, old ladies with beautiful yukata (informal summer kimono), there were many cool people. I should wear yukata next year.

The owner of the place we stayed told me 'If you don't go for mountain climbing, I will prepare the late breakfast tomorrow'. I was wondering what time that would be, and I was surprised that she meant 7:30 in the morning. I've never had breakfast that early! I enjoyed a proper Japanese breakfast with rice and miso soup etc. I usually don't eat them in the morning.

Last night, we came back from Nikko, which is a great place to escape the summer heat of the city. Even though we were caught in a strong rain shower, this trip was very enjoyable. The slogan for the Nikko Tourist Association is 'NIKKO is NIPPON': Nikko (日光) is the light (光) of Nippon (日本)' I agree with that!

We went to the Arakawa River with friends and enjoyed the Sunday afternoon. On the way to the river from the Kita-senju station, I found an old dango (a soft round rice cake) shop. Their dango were very good! Some very old houses are still seen in this shopping street. The embankment of the Arakawa River is quite well known because of the Japanese TV drama (1979-) Kinpachi sensei (teacher Kinpachi). He was always walking/running here.

I went to a press conference in Harajuku for SOUND X VISION 2004. The work by Cornelius x Groovisions is really nice. When the GAS SHOP was still in Nakameguro, I bought groovisons' DVD GRV1778 which is very cool, but I like the new one even more, because of the story.

We went to a standing bar to celebrate the birthday of the boss from our local izakaya. There was an amazing flower present which was taller than 2m. After that, our friend took us to an Irish pub in Hiroo. It was nice cosy place for grown-up people. They were showing the EURO 2004 on TV. I don't watch football, but it seems like something is happening (or missing?) on this championship.

The F1 racing driver Takuma Sato was on the podium for the first time with a third place in the US Grand Prix! It has been fourteen years since the Japanese driver was on the podium (with also a third place) last time. His driving was so good! I hope F1 becomes more popular in Japan because of him. Hopefully the TV time schedule changes too. In Japan, TV shows F1 only in the early morning. I understand that if it's a live program but usually they broadcast a recorded and edited version.

The other plan of our date in Yokohama was to have a dim sum dinner in Chinatown. Just before the dinner, we had big steamed pork buns from a stall on a street. It was piping hot and so juicy. We also bought some Chinese sweets. My mum used to buy them on the way back from my aunt's place in Yokohama. Sweet memories! By the way, on Friday, we just watched Chinatown on DVD. Jack Nicholson was so cool! I think Roman Polanski's films are great!

I had a date with C in Yokohama. We took a sea bus from Nihonmaru Memorial Park to Osanbashi International Passenger Terminal. I don't see many amazing buildings these days but this was great. The building has no supporting columns and many slopes, it was kind of a spatial art. The colour of the wooden floor was quite faded because of the sun light. But only tiny corners in the shade were still red-ish brown colour. It was a nice place, and lots of people seemed to enjoy sitting on the lawn even there was a 'Keep Out' sign.

The 'BUILDING' project which TRICO DESIGN LOVE! has been working for 2 years is completed. And we went to the opening party. There were many nice details, the concrete walls, a kitchen sink (and a cooker) and a washing machine are behind doors, they chose Pantone colours for the post boxes in the entrance hall. The colour numbers match the room numbers. The 'BUILDING' is in Ichigao in Yokohama city. The price for renting a flat isn't very expensive because of the location.

Our guests flew back to London. Thay had to leave our flat at 6 am, so we decided not to stay up till late on the last day. But we went to Karaoke after we had dinner and drinks at an Izakaya. We sang for 2 hours! It was 3 am when we arrived at home.

On Wednesday, I went to Nikko in Tochigi prefecture with our friends. It was raining a little bit and quite misty, but that made everything beautiful. It's a shame that we didn't have enough time there, we only walked around the Nikko Toshogu temple area. I recommend that you stay there overnight if you want to see lots of the world heritage shines and temples. And Kegon Falls (18 July, we went there!), one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Japan. On the way back to Tokyo, we had gyoza (Dumplings) flavoured snacks in the train. This was a Tochigi prefecture exclusive. Utsunomiya city in Tochigi prefecture is famous for gyoza!

Yesterday, I went to East Gardens of The Imperial Palace with friends. All plants and the lawn looked very healthy because of rain. We had nice burgers for lunch at KUA`AINA in Marunouchi Building. I'm sorry that I didn't to take you to a Japanese restaurant!

We woke up at 4am to go to Tsukiji market. I've been there twice already, but I could enjoy this time too, because the weather was very nice even in the early morning. (But I think I and C had enough of Tsukiji fish market!) We had ramen for breakfast in Tsukiji.

After we had ramen at afuri, we went to a standing bar which our local izakaya opened recently. I could see that the space used to be a liquor shop. There were big fridges, and chairs were inside. We could sit down.

Yesterday, I and my friend M visited our friend Y, and we had a grown up ladies dinner (that's what I thought). I usually drink at Izakaya (pub) or sit in a park/our living room' floor (japanese style), not in front of a table with nice nibbles! Y's room was amazing. It looked just like it came out of a magazine. I want a GE fridge too...

Yesterday was my friend T' birhday, and we had a party at T' flat. P and my birthdays are also in May, so they celebrated for us too. I started to drink from 5pm and finished at 3:30am. I made a resolution not to have a hangover, but I am completely wasted now...

After we ate nice food at The Easton, we decided to move to Hat On Wall (bar & gallery) which opens till late. When we arrived there, there were already lots of our mates. My friends secretly organized a surprise birthday for us. After the midnight, we celebrated Mr. N' birthday and kept drinking till 2am. To think about almost all of the pubs in London are closed at 11pm, we had a very long party. I enjoyed a lot. Thanks everyone! I guess I'm well trained by friends in Japan who usually drink (and also mix their drinks) untill morning. I had no hangover the next morning!

What made me happy while I was in London is that my friends organised a birthday party for me and my ex-flatmate N. My birthday was 6th and Mr. N' birthday was 7th. Thanks! It was the first time for me to go to this pub The Easton. Good food, spacious as a pub, I really liked it.

I came back to Tokyo from London. I chose English breakfast for my flight meal. It came with PJ smoothies and müller Fruit Corner. They are both very London. My flight was kind of empty, and I got four seats to myself, slept a lot.

I took a bus from Frankfurt Hahn airport to Frankfurt train station. The bus was a Mercedes, of course. And the many off-white Mercedes taxis near the train station were a great view.

I've been to Germany for 5 days. It costs £39.85 for a single flight London-Frankfurt. Quite cheap. It was nice to use a staircase to get in a plane, like an old style. No reserved seats.

I'm in London now. It was raining on my first day of London but the weather has been great every day (5 days in a row!) since then. In park, there are full of people who want to enjoy the sun without much cloths on! On Saturday, I went to Duke of Cambridge with my old friends to have good pub lunch. After that we moved to a little park in Angel, had lots of white wine. These days, the sunset time in London is after 8pm. I can't get used to it yet. (because the sunset time in Tokyo is 6:30pm)

Our friend Y invited us to a flower viewing party. We had food and drink with 'auto xylophone' marinka, not cherry blossoms. What a great party. I was impressed with their ethnic food, good fish dishes etc. We enjoyed to meet with lots of people, and we stayed there until 4:30 in the morning. We woke up with a proper hangover today...

We went to the event called 'electric pub' at Secobar last night. I guess electric music fans were very happy to see Thomas Brinkmann playing there as the special secret guest. It was good! I was surprised to see our friend Y there, to see the business of a tarot reading and an aromatherapy were offered on the sofa next to the bar. But the real surprise happened when we tried to get a cab.

Last night, we celebrated our friend' recovery from his illness, and we drunk a lot... There is an old saying 'Liquor is the best of all medicines' but we shouldn't drink too much. In Japan, a moderate amount of alcohol a day is set to 500ml of beer, 240ml of wine, 180ml of sake, 150ml of shochu or 60ml of whiskey. It sounds like we shouldn't go for drinks. But we have to take care of our livers to be able to enjoy alcohol forever!

Yesterday, we were invited to a cherry blossom viewing party at our friend house. This was the 4th hanami for us this year and probably the last and the best of 2004. We had a perfect weather and a great cherry tree in the garden. This year we could enjoy cherry blossoms for a long time because of the recent cold weather.

Our friend's sister and her husband are visiting Tokyo from London, and we had an another hanami 'cherry blossom viewing' in Yoyogi park yesterday. There were many many people having parties everywhere. Amazing! The weather was great, it was ideal for hanami. I was kind of happy that they could experienced one of the Japanese culture perfectly.

After karaoke, we came back home at 6 am woke up at 4 in the afternoon! Awful!! Our friends were having a cherry blossoms party at a park in Yebisu. I didn't feel like drinking but we joined them around 7 pm and kept drinking until midnight. The cherry blossoms at night were beautiful.

We went to the opening of an ELECTRICWIG exhibition at TRICO on Friday. A two spouted teapot, puppet socks with eyes, etc... they made me smile. Trico' choice is always great!

Yesterday, we went to see the cherry blossoms at Komazawa olympic park. The weather hasn't been great these days and the cherry blossoms haven't bloomed much yet, but it doesn't matter because we enjoyed drinking, eating and meeting people. I think about 40-50 people turned up in the end. I tried to make decorated rolled sushi for the first time, but... I can't show what I made! The cooked boiled eggs using the recipe of Naomi Takayama were so popular though. I was very drunk and very happy but I realised that I lost my wallet! Nooo!

We got an invitation for Department of design College of Art, Nihon University (japanese only) graduation show from our friend Y, went to see it last night. It reminded me of my student time. Same atmosphere! We had 40mins before it shuts but it wasn't enough time to see everything, no time to fill in a questionnaire. I wanted to write that Y's work was my favourite. I couldn't believe that I forgot to take my digicame with me. How stupid! We didn't expect to see Y there, but he was there! All's well that ends well. Congratulations on your graduation! Let's meet up for KANPAI soon.

We went to our friends wedding party the day before yesterday. It took about 1 and half hour by a pickup bus from Shibuya to the Japanese style hot spring hotel in Oume city. We could have a bath before the party and it was very relaxed party. The groom got very drunk in the end, and that made us all happy. I wonder how much he remembers the party... Anyway, we won't forget it. Congratulations to both of you! Very best wishes for your happiness!

Today is the luckiest day in the six day Buddhist calendar, our friends are having a wedding party. Also F1 World Grand Prixit 2004 starts today, and Mamoru Oshii' INNOCENCE which my husband was looking for a long time opened in cinemas today. Too many exciting thigs are happening.

Our friend who started to live in South Korea a year ago, came back to Tokyo for a short time. Last night, lots of our drinking friends gathered to see her. I and my husband always have a good time with them. They are very lovely people.

I went to Tokyo Tower Amusement Hall for rooms, the fashion trade show. I was meant to help my friend who is a buyer (and also fashion designer) but actually I was just having fun. I haven't seen him for a long time and it was very nice to chat with him. I was taken back to the old time.

Today is Setsubun. When I was a kid, we threw peanuts with shell in a classroom on Setsubun. We meant to eat the same number of beans as our age. Kids get disappointed by this custom, but it's hard to eat/count beans for my age. I was surprised to know that Oni-ishi town in Gunma prefecture welcomes all Oni (evil demons) which are escaped from all over Japan. They shout 'Happiness in! Devils in!' Very lenient!

Our old friends from London are visiting Tokyo, and we went to see them + their baby. It was a bit strange to see them as parents because I haven't seen her being pregnant! I respect that they are very good parents. Their son was very cute, and I tried to carry him. So heavy! His toy was cute too. It's a puzzle that we have to remove worms from a leaf. Made in Germany.

When I was a university student, I had a sketching lesson by the father of my childhood friend. He told me about Boro-ichi (rag market) in Setagaya, I always wanted to go and I finally did it after 10 years! It was great! Apparently there are about 750 stalls and 200,000-250,000 people visit there a day! I understand that this 426 years old market is intangible cultural assets.

Yesterday was 'Dondo yaki' day. New Year's decorations (kadomatsu or shimenawa, etc) and good-luck charms are burned in huge fires. Rice cakes are toasted on the fire and eaten to protect against disease and illness. People burn their first Calligraphy of the New Year, believing that the higher the ashes rise, the more their writing will advance. There was a Dondo yaki ceremony in the park near our place, so I went there with our New Year's decoration. It was my first time to visit this ceremony.

Yesterday, there was a birthday party at Le' Aladdin 'The Arabian Nights' style restaurant in Shinjuku. We had been drinking for more than 7 hours! I guess about 30 people in total came to see her. It was nice to see lots of interesting people. Happy birthday, M!

I picked up the snowboarding photos that I took with a disposable camera. I hadn't asked a shop to develop and print photographs since our wedding. It was a nice feeling to open the bag, actually. All the photos are super bad (no photos of the pension!) but they remind me of the feeling of beautiful powder snow in Niseko... On the first day of our stay, we had the first serious snow of this season in Niseko. Not many people, lots of snow, sooo lucky!!

We say that eating Nanakusa-gayu (rice porridge with seven different kinds of spring herbs) on the seventh day of the first month of year keeps illness away from us (also ease the stomach after New Year's too much drink & food). I bought a handy seven herbs pack from a super market and cocked porridge for breakfast. Apparently, people believed that young herbs' vitality in winter exorcise bad spirit. My father always mention this phrase in front of porridge, 'Seri (dropwort), Nazuna (shepherb's purse), Gogyou (cotton weed), Hakobera (chickweed), Hotokenoza (cotton sow thistle), Suzuna (turnip), Suzushiro (Japanese white radish), these are the seven herbs.' I didn't know that this phrase was in a book called 'kakaishou' which was probably written in 1362. And people started to eat Nanakusa-gayu from Heian period (794-1192). It is an old practice.

Last night, I could managed to see HAPPINESS exhibition at Mori Art Museum before seeing a film. It was huge (as a museum in Japan)! Our favorite work was a pile of kind of post-it (that's what I thought) in the Desire area. I don't want to mention what that was. Some people might still go there... It should be a surprise! We spend 2 hours there, but it was not enough time to see everything. We passed through the end of exhibition and a great view from Tokyo City View, had a brisk walk to the cinema in the end. By the way, at Tokyo City View, there was a young man from Tokyo Sky Shot who had to break the silence, kept shouting something like 'Would you like to have a souvenir picture in front of this great view?'. No customers. I know he had a tough time but so did we!

Happy New Year! I hope it will be a wonderful year for you! (We got this decoration at the birthday party a few days ago. It's a nice one with a shrimp. Thank you Mrs. L!)

Yesterday was my husband' birthday. We had a party at our place to celebrate for him and other friend together. I bought a cake from Swing where I always wanted to buy some cakes. The cake shop/restaurant, the woman who works there and the birthday cake, everything was stylish. This berry mousse with honey (I forgot the proper name) was so good. The honey makes it very special, I think. Happy birthday for both of you!

Yesterday was my friend' birthday. We have been known each other for 12 years. We both aged a lot!

The first Apple store outside the U.S. opened in Ginza on 30 Nov. I went to see my friend who took a part in the event in a theater on the 3rd floor. The big apples on the building attracts attention even from far away. But a rotating apple logo on the top... having competitive spirit to car industry? Maybe not.

Yesterday, two of our friends had a birthday party together @ FAVELA. The bar was on the top floor of a 7-story building, we could see the whole of Tokyo Tower in the distance. It was a nice room but I personally didn't really like the interior, especially all pictures on the wall. But It was a great party! Happy birthday!!

UPDATE: Following a request by Favela, I edited this post. See the comments for more information.

We are watching all Japanese games of world cup 2003 volleyball for women on TV for this one week. I get very excited! The uniform of the Japanese team is so cool (gothic?). There are 3 differents colors; navy, black and white. I like the black one best, it looks strong. I want to play volleyball!

We had Imonikai by Futako Tama river. I've never heard about Imonikai before but it seems like it is quite well known in Tokyo too. Our neighbour was having Imonikai with a massive pot. It was warm enough to wear only T-shirt today, and there were many people eating + drinking by the river.

We went to Enoshima (very small island) to enjoy lovely weather yesterday. We happened to see freestyle final of the all Japan jet sports championship there a little bit. I was surprised that heavy machines can turn a somersault just like that.

We just have been to Tsukiji market 2 weeks ago, but we were there again this morning from 5:22am.

I went to Meiji Jingu (Meiji shrine) in Harajuku yesterday. There were quite a few people visting even in the afternoon of a weekday. I have never seen so many Ema written in different languages. (Ema is a small wooden board. People write their wish on Ema and hang them up in shrine). Maybe that is because the shrine is located in the middle of Tokyo.

Our friend came to Tokyo (with a lots of presents!) for his business from Germany. I met him at the same time as I met C, so I have known him for more than 8 years already.

We went to the goverment building in Shinjuku. It was raining a bit but we could see a bit of mt Fuji. just a part of the outline... It takes 55seconds to go to the top floor by a smooth lift.

Schumy and Ferrari are the winners of the drivers' and constructors' championships this year again. But we didn't know the winner till the last Suzuka race in Japan. How cool is that. Takuma Sato came back comfortably in the points. I can't wait for the next season! Maybe we go to Suzuka.

We went to a Kiryu-u (our local izakaya)' 7th anniversary party @ Milk from 0am. We left Milk around 2am but kept drinking and eating @ Kiryu-u. Our plan to visit the Tsukiji fish market was kind of spoilt! The taxi fare was about ¥3,000 from Ebisu to the Tsukiji market with midnight extra charge. We arrived the market @ 5:07am. Cold!

We went to see the Sensou-ji (temple) in Asakusa, after kappa-bashi.

1 salmon sushi cost ¥850. Expensive! We saw lots of plastic foods sample in "kappa-bashi" in Asakusa bashi yesterday.

Yesterday, we went to the Prada shop in Aoyama which was opened in June 2003. HERZOG & DE MEURON designed the shop. It looks better with the light when it gets dark.

Our friends are visiting us from London where we used to live. We haven't seen them for a year. We went to our favorite Izakaya for a dinner. My ex-flat mate in London joined us with his new wife, too. We were drinking + eating together @ Izakaya in Tokyo. I can't believe it!

Tere is a matsuri (festival) in our local. Very cheerful tune of japanese drum and flute (which was taped!). Kids were carring a portable shrine on their shoulders.

Okinawa soba, Koregusu sauce, Shikuwasa juice and Awamori. So many things I wanted to take home. But! We decided to come back here to eat those okinawa stuff. It's better to eat Okinawa food in Okinawa. Well, we might go to a Okinawan restaurant in Tokyo though...

I found the restaurant on a tree in the guidebook, so we went to see that. The big tree stood out even from a distance. No way!

The last day in Okinawa, it was a beautiful weather. 11:00am, we checked out the hotel and left our baggage @ the lounge, walked around the Ounoyama park.

We had a fuit mille feuille before noon. Well, it was a beginning of a wedding anniversary, kind of. We had no idea where to eat a dinner, and I asked a tourist information center. They told us to go to the sky lounge bar "dream" (what a name!) which is on the top floor of a hotel so that we can command a whole view of the East China Sea. However, buildings in Okinawa were quite low...

20th September. It was the first wedding anniversary for us. The strong wind was still blowing because of a typhoon. No ships leave a port, our plan going to the Tokashiki island was postponed till next time. We went to the Makishi public market instead.

I had an unexpected reunion with Kibinago (banded blue sprat) @ a fish shop. It is a small fish (about 6cm long) but a silver line on the body is amazing. When I was a kid, I loved kibinago' sashimi which was prepared by hand and arranged nicely on a plate. Unfortunately, I don't see this fish in Tokyo. I didn't know that vietnamese fish sauce Nuoc Mam is made from kibinago.

When we woke up, Typhoon No.15 hit Naha city and it was roaring to the north with strong gusts and heavy rains. TV showed destructed Naha city but it wasn't that bad. We got umbrellas, raincoats and raintrousers from a convenience store nearby. We took a cab to the Shuri castle. The driver said "Even tourists won't go there with this bad weather"

Today's best food was chicken kara-age (deep fried chicken) from izakaya Nakaya. We enjoyed okinawa soba with a bit of koregusu (small red peppers soaked in awamori).

Tursday 18, we woke up @ 7:00am to go to AKA island which is one of KERAMA islands. It is about 40km to the west from Naha city. I've never seen a beach like the Nishibama beach in Aka island. "The Sea is Blue"!

I wanted to try Okinawa Soba (noodle) in Okinawa. We walked around and finally found very okinawan restaurant. The outside was very hot so we ordered cold Okinawa Soba. It comes with refreshing shikuwasa (okinawa' citrus fruit, similar to calamondin) flavored dipping sauce.

17th Sep, we arrived in Okinawa @ 13:40pm. There were two massive fluffy shisa welcoming us @ the Naha airport. It took us 30mins (¥200) from the airport to the hotel by bus. Actual Naha city is quite smaller than I thought. Even walking along Kokusai-Dori (which is a main shopping street) from end to end takes about only 20mins.

Finally, we are on a summer holiday. We go to Okinawa from tomorrow. Hurray! No updating for a while. Farewell!

"Claska", a new hotel, opened in Meguro. It is a renovation of the 34 years old "Hotel New Meguro". "Claska" means "(how) we live" in japanese. It is an 8 storey building and has only 9 guest rooms. The lounge on the ground floor can be used for events, and the first floor is an interesting gallery space. By the way, the police was mobilized because of too many people in the street.

We went to the SecoBar in Shibuya after AXSIS. It was the 3rd anniversary party of the restaurant which is owned by our friend' boyfriend and also we celebrated her birthday. It was a nice surprise that the comic trio (were they barmen?) suddenly appeared on the stage for celebrating. I couldn't stop drunking + dancing and felt so sick on the way back...

We went to the reception for "Nannano? A-POC: A Work in Progress by Miyake Issey + Fujiwara Dai" exhibition @ AXIS yesterday. They gave us badges of a miniature A-POC (A piece of cloth) at the entrance. It's so cute. It looks like a piece of cloth but it becomes a clothes, if we cut along a dotted line (yellow is a sweater, blue is trousers). After seeing the exhibition, we both wanted to wear A-POC... The colorful cocktail bar appropriate for the Miyake color.

I've just came back from 20x20x20 pecha-kucha night (20 people' talk with 20 images slide show, 20 seconds per a slide ) at SuperDeluxe. There were mainly architects today and very good one. I enjoyed it. The Namaiki' performance was ... ! Made me Dizzy!

We went to the museum of contemporary art tokyo in Kiba to see the exhibition of "Ikko Tanaka: A Restropective". Showing lots of posters from 1949 (final work @ the Kyoto University of Arts) to 2000 (MUJI' poster) and many corporate identities which we automatically recognised. I wanted to see more.

Fernando Alonso won the Hungarian Grand Prix to become the youngest ever winner of a F1 world championship race (22 years and 26 days old)! And he is the first Spanish driver to win a F1. Congratulations! This year' F1 is so exciting!

All of the works by Ryota Kuwakubo were absolutely lovely. Carsten and friend enjoyed to play this game too much...

We went to see Crispin and his work @ the digital art festival 2003 in ariake. There were many people for Maywa Denki' performance (including us). And it was nice to see our old friend who works @ the panasonic center.

What a exciting night watching F1! At the very hot Heckenheim in Germany, Montoya was undeniably the fastest driver in the race. He is only six points away from Michael now! M Schumacher finish seventh after a problem with his left rear tyre puncture with 4 laps remaining!! Poor Raikkonen involved in an accident at the first corner... I like your way of speak anyway!!

I baked pretzel (brezel) with my friend yesterday. What a fun! My husband C cooked sauer kraut and potato salad. Yum yum! Our guests also seemed happy to eat german food. I got some eulogies for prezels: "This is a original (genuine) taste" (by my GERMAN husband) "It's better than the one I had in germany" flattering? I need to be trained myself.

Yesterday, I went to see ... Rollins Band! They only played the song of Black Flag (and a bit of Ramones) Yay! Hooray! All the money they makes from this tour goes to the West Memphis Three Defense Fund.

Hurray! Fuji Rock! I went there by the day's trip without any baggage with me. It was a very nice summery weather but the rain from the day before turned the road into mud. we completely got muddy feet.

We went to the roof garden of CENTO COSE (thai restaurant) by the Meguro river yesterday. It was one of our friends' birthday party and we had a lots of drinks from 6:30-11:30pm! The view isn't that great in this time of a year (I think Spring time is good with cherry blossoms) but nice to drink outside anyway. Stairs which lead to the roof reminded me of the london time somehow...

We came back from a countryside in Fukushima yesterday. There were no gas, no electricity. We could see a firefly. Everything was amazing!! On the way back home, I bought a fukushima' well known cake mamado-ru by Sanmangoku. It was OK but not so special...