Baby Goods

The above picture shows things we bought at Combi shop in Sano Premium Outlets and BABiESARUS in Fuchu, Tokyo. :)

• Baby Soft Carrier by Ninna Nanna (Combi)
• Nail Scissors
  
• Water Thermometer
  
• Temperature & Humidity 2 in 1 Indicator
• Straw Mug
• WetnapQuick Warmer
• bucket
• basin

There are still many things we need to buy, but we are going to do so in my wife's home town next month. Actually, she knows a commission merchant for baby goods and we can get various baby things at a low price. :)

Sano Premium Outlets

Today, we went to Sano Premium Outlets in Sano city, Tochigi.



As you can see in the above pictures and articles about Gotemba Premium Outlets I wrote before several times, buildings are similar to each other. Of course this is because they belong to the same chain.



The above pictures explain the primary reason why we went there.
Especially, the above left one, Combi store is only Sano Premium Outlets.
Yes, we need to get ready for the upcoming baby in two month. My wife seemed to be satisfied with shopping there. :o)

BTW, Godiva was also there in Sano, and of course we enjoyed Chocolixir. :o

Curry Lemonade?

I'm not sure if this is a GOURMET entry or not, but anyway I bought an interesting (strange?) drink today.



It's a kind of lemonade with "Curry" taste!?
Could (must?) taste terriblly.

BTW, it's not me who is to enjoy the taste but my wife. Anyway I want her doing so after our baby is born. :o

TOEIC '07 Summer

I had a TOEIC exam on August 5 and got the result today.



Last time I got 60 points down, but this time 45 points up. :)
Listening was almost the same, and got an improved result in the reading section.
Maybe it worked well that I kept reading the 7th book of Harry Potter almost two weeks just before the exam.

BTW, the above right graph shows a time series development of my relative TOEIC scores as I wrote before. Still a quadratic function (y = a*x^2+b*x+c) with a negative coefficient 'a' fits well. Of course, my point is that my long term TOEIC scores curve is still descending. :(

Bon Festival '08

It's 7 years since my father past away.

Bon festival is a Japanese Buddhist custom.
In this season, it's said that spirits of departed people and ancestors come back home and stay several days. To welcome and guide them, we light a torch in front of the entrance of each house.

This is the torch for my father and I hope he will have a happy time at home which he built after one year interval. :)



BTW, I took Lantern festival for Bon festival until now.
But, Wikipedia says Lantern Festival is January 15. Who taught me that? :(

She Fa Ping

Today, on our way back to my home town, we had a cup of ice shavings by:

Taiwan Sweets She Fa Ping (雪花氷)



It's a very hot day today, and it's not too sweet and both of us like it very much. :)

Ichibanya

Well, today I had a meeting in Yoshiwara in the morning.
As the meeting ended around the noon, I and colleagues of mine had lunch around the meeting place.

On our way back to our office, we found a small ramen restaurant, Ichibanya.
Looking at their entrance, I'm not sure why, but anyway I had a sudden inspiration that their ramen could be very good.

And here is my today's lunch. :o


Stamina Tonkotsu Ramen with vegetables and sliced roast pork

The noodle is a bit thick and slightly hard one, and the soup is pork bones and soy source mixed.
I like the bland soup very much. :)

Guin Saga 115

Guin Saga 115
Serpentine Spree
Kaoru Kurimoto
ISBN 978-4-15-030897-1

115!

67th Birthday

Today is the 62nd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

But for me, today is the 67 th birthday of late my father. When I see the ceremony of Hiroshima on TV, it always reminds me that he wore a complex look on his face.
I hope he would be glad looking at his grand daughter in the lantern festival next year. :)

Fan Fan Fan?

As I wrote before, air conditioning of my office is almost out-of-order.
People whose on the aisle side always complain that it's too cold, and people on the window side vice versa everyday. :(

Well, our administration people's solution is the below.



My company joined the Team Minus 6%, and that's why the setting of air-conditioning is a bit high. But the triple fans look like consuming not a small amount of electricity...
I'm not sure what that company is doing as a whole. :o

BTW, the black triple fan circulator reminded me of the Black Tri-Stars of, Gundam. :o

Tsubaki

As I wrote several times, Shin-Koganei Kaido avenue (新小金井街道) is known as a Ramen avenue. Really, there are good ramen restaurants.

Among them, Tsubaki (つばき) is one of the oldest ones, and there is always a crowd of people in front of the shop. One characteristic is them is that there are nothing other than ramen noodles on their menu, even Beer nor dumplings. :o



BTW, it's about 2 years ago when I went to Tsubaki last time.
I went there with my wife at that time, and unfortunately she did not like their soup.
She says their soup was too salty different from my impression. I also thought that their soup tastes strongly, but it's an well balanced recipe of standard pork-bones soup, and it makes sense for me that they have a patronage.



The above is my tonight choice, Ramen with green onion and sliced roast pork. :)

A Maternity Class

Today, I attended at a kind of maternity class for not only mothers but also fathers held by the Kodaira city government.



In addition to several lectures, there they offered several experience courses especially for fathers.

Here are some pictures we took today. :)



The rightmost picture above is a simple holding lesson.
In the central one, I'm trying to change clothing of the baby.
The leftmost one was interesting. The jacket weights about 10K grams, and we can have an experience with a baby in the ninth month. I realised it' difficult even just getting down. :o

As a whole, I was praised very much in the lessons :), and now I'm ready for my daughter due in this October. :)


There were about 50 people in the hall.

BTW, our tutor today, Ms. Kurokawa, mentioned that she stayed in western Japan *a bit* and that's why *maybe* she has western accept. But, she kept speaking in fluent Kansai (western Japan) accent throughout the class, we thought.
Anyway, good job, Kurokawa-san.

Transister Gijutsu '07/08

Again, I bought a magagine with a one-board computer giveaway. :o



Transister Gijutsu (トランジスタ技術) 2007/08

Here is a brief list of one board computers (or just micro controllers?) I have. :o

• Microchip Technology, dsPICF30F
• NEC, V850
• Xilinx, Spartan-3E

Recently, I got an idea to use them finally, but I'm going to write about that next time.
It's a story about a toy with an autonomous control system. :)

BTW, Gijutsu means Technique in Japanese.
I'm not sure why they chose roma-ji instead of a pure English expression...

Harry Potter

Finally, I finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." :)
It took me about two weeks.

According to an article, not a small number of Harry Potter fans seem to be feeling sense of loss. I can understand that, but I'm not feeling so.

One reason why I don't feel that something important was lost would be like the following.

When I talk about the series with friends, I often ask them which book and which chapter they love best. In case of me, definitely the very last chapter, the epilogue of the 7th book.

At the King's Cross station, platform 3/4, Harry sees his children off departing for the Hogwarts. I like the very moment when Harry calls his second son.
I'm not disclosing who is Harry's wife nor the name of his second son, but I believe that everyone who read all the books and followed the entire story would be moved greatly and recalls various characteristic people appeared in the story line.

The feeling above keep staying in my heart for a while, and that's why I didn't fell the sense of loss, I think.

I'm wondering which book people like best and what people feel after finishing the last book...

28 Weeks

Well, from today thatsdone 3.0 is in her 28th week and weights 1381 grams now. :)



Today, our doctor didn't give my wife any picture but a video tape.
Thus, the above one is a picture of my TV taken by my digital camera. :o

BTW, what name should we give her?
That's the biggest problem of us recently...

GONZO DOGA

GONZO is one of Japanese anime studios.
I like their works very much. For example, LAST EXILE.

They seem to have opened their own channen on YouTube recently.

• http://jp.youtube.com/user/GONZODOGA

At first, I didn't understand what is "DOGA" above when I saw an article mentioning the channel. Actually, it took me about 3 minutes to understand "DOGA" is a Japanese word, douga (動画, motion picture). :o

One more thing I thought at that time is a French painter, Edger Degas, because in Japanese there is almost no distinction between pronunciations of Degas and Doga. This is my English level. :(

Ramen Jinanbo Again

We went to Ramen Jinanbo (らーめん 次男坊) again.

My choice was a pork soup ramen with green onion, boiled egg and sliced roasted white pork.
My choice looks like the same with the one when I went to the restaurant last time, but there is indeed a difference, white pork or black pork. :)



Compared to the black pork ramen, white pork ramen is less oily and acceptable for more people.

BTW, Jinanbo (次男坊) means the second boy in a family.
This seems to come from that the owner of the restaurant is the second boy of the owner of Tamazou(たまぞう) in Fuchu city.

Koganei Awaodori

Awaodori is one of the most popular traditional dances.
I didn't know that they have an awaodori festival,Koganei Awaodori (小金井阿波踊り), every year in front of JR Musashi Koganei station.



The above are pictures I took on my way back home Today, and I was surprised because the bus stop I usually use was moved because of the festival. :o

BTW, of course, the Koganei Awaodori festival was held last year too, but I didn't notice it's held there. This is because I was very busy last year in July and August, and I got back home after the festival finished. :o

27 Weeks

From today, thatsdone 3.0 is her 27th week.
Weights 1222 grams, and still ahead of common babies by 2 weeks.
Can be a giant baby. :o

BTW, she is a breech baby at this moment.
Our doctor fixed her position once today, but she restored the breech position
in 15 minutes.
Can be a stubborn baby. :(

TORRONI BACI

Tonight dessert, Torroni Baci.



We bought the chocolate at Fujiya Hotel in Hakone.
That's veery good. :)

Gotemba Premium Outlets : Act2

Well, on our way back to Tokyo, we went to Gotemba Premium Outlets AGAIN. :o

It's a very crowded place usually, and I have to park my car at a parking lot far from the mall and take a bus from a parking lot to the shopping area. :(

But, it's Monday today and there were small number of people compared to week end days, thus I could have a parking lot very close to the central area. :)



The above is a picture take from the nearest parking lot. :)

While I was reading the 7th book of Harry Potter again, my wife spent about an hour and was captured by another purse. :o



The above seems to be the first Slvatore Ferragamo for her.



BTW, we got another Chocolixir again. :o
This time, Dark Chocolate Decadence.

Lalique Museum, Hakone

Hakone area is also known that there are many museums.

For example,

• The Hakone Open-Air Museum
  
• The Museum of The Little Prince in Hakone
• Meissen Museum
  
• Lalique Museum, Hakone

and so many other ones.

This time, we chose the Lalique Museum because the weather was not good, and most of the museums in Hakone are open-air style.
Lalique Museum, on the contrary, is an usual indoor museum, and my wife loves jewelries very much, so we chose Lalique Museum.



Compared to other museums in Hakone area, they seem to have enough funds and keep their facilities in good repair. In this sense, they also have a good (but expensive!) restaurant in the site like the pictures at the bottom of this entry.

My wife's favorite is "Winter Landscape Brooch."



As for my favorite, I couldn't find a picture of that in the catalogue which we bought at the museum shop. But, it's a perfume bottle named something like "Four Suns" in Japanese.
Although is a small perfume bottle made of white frosted glass, its shape consists of four curved surfaces and each of them has a slight bulge which looks like a embedded lense and reflects light. Amazingly, because of the structure, bulges of the bottle looks like shining like four suns without any electricity.
It was really beautiful. :)

Grill Wisteria

The Grill Wisteria is one of restaurants of Fujiya Hotel.
I had a curry and rice dinner course for the dinner.

Some literature says that Fujiya Hotel first offered curry and rice in Japan against the common belief that it's Shinjuku Nakamuraya that offered curry and rice first. I'm not sure and I do not care what is the fact after all, but anyway, I wanted to try their, Fujiya Hotel's, curry and rice. :)



The above left is consomme and the left is the curry and rice with sea foods. :)
Its taste is not so spicy, but not too mild neither. I think the taste stick with the original, old good and a bit naive curry and naive taste when curry and rice was imported to Japan.
Anyway, exquisite taste, I think. :)

Also, here is my dessert.



BTW, Nikko Kanaya Hotel is also famous for their "curry and rice of 100 years."
I guess curry and rice was one of symbols of modernization in those days. :)

A Magician

Fujiya Hotel has a special room named "Magic Room" in the lobby area where guests can enjoy a magic show. :)



I'm not sure if we can enjoy the show every day, but anyway I and my wife enjoyed the magician's a bit verbose magic show. :o

The magician asked me to hand him my marriage ring, and we were surprised the ring moved instantly to his pocket. Besides, the ring was held in his key holder. :o
I'm still wondering what the trick is...

Fujiya Hotel

Fujiya Hotel is the most popular classic hotel in Japan founded about 130 years ago.
It's like Nikko Kanaya Hotel, and visitors can enjoy good harmony of Western and Eastern architectural culture.



The hotel is also well known in Japan because it's along the course of Hakone Ekiden which takes place on Jan. 2nd and 3rd every year.



To tell the truth, I like Nikko Kanaya Hotel better because Kanaya Hotel preserves the original buildings more. But, because of its good location, I mean convenient access to Tokyo, apparently Fujiya Hotel has more visitors including both domestic and foreign people.

The above right picture is the tea lounge in their main building.
John Lennon also visited the hotel and had a cup of tea at the lounge.



The above right is the Flower Palace built in 1939, and the building seems to be a cultural heritage registered to the agency for cultural affairs Japan.

The above left is the main building and there is a revolving door in front of it like other classic hotels.

BTW, there are several classic hotels in Japan.

1. Nikko Kanaya Hotel
2. Fujiya Hotel, Hakone
3. Karuizawa Manpei Hotel
4. Nara Hotel
5. Tokyo Station Hotel
6. Hotel New Grand

Our next target is Karuizawa Manpei Hotel.
Because there is a shopping mall near the hotel. :o

Godiva Chocolixir

In Gotenba Premium Outlets, there is a shop of Godiva,
and here is Today's afternoon tea. :o



Godiva Chocolixir, Milk Chocolater Decadence
I like it veeeery much. :)