スヰートポーヅ

I dont know how to translate that ヰ to English, so the title is written in Japanese this time.

This is a Gyoza restaurant in Jinbocho. I went there today for lunch with my coworkers( now you know where I work).

It's not a fancy restaurant. As soon as you enter here, you can feel kind of good old atmosphere of Showa Era. Customers are mostly businessmen.

This Gyoza restaurant is very famous, even introduced on TV and magazines before. There's always long line outside of the restaurant at lunch time, so we left work bit earlier than usual.

We all had Gyoza teishoku. See the picture below!

I usually dont eat Gyoza at restaurants, so I cant compare with other Gyozas whether this is better than others or not, but this tasted really good. I liked it.

Oh, by the way, I'll move out of my apartment in Tokyo and go back to my home in Kanagawa, so the contract of an internet provider is until today. I cant use the internet for a while. Sorry if I cant update this blog often. I'll try to do so from my office, though.

Coincidence

As I said, I worked this weekend at the event site. The event was successful but it was really fun and tiring to be in charge..... I'm exhausted....

I went to the site to set up on Sat. Other staff was showing up at 14:00, but I got there around 11:00 because I have to pick up our stuff we sent there in advance. I pushed a cart with 6 boxes on it.....

Then, I had plenty of free time till the meeting time, so I went to Starbucks nearby to have lunch.

I called my BF to cheer him up because he emailed me in the morining and said it was a really terrible day at work. I called him at 7pm there. He said he was still working. It doesnt sound very late, but he works from early morning and usually leaves between 15:00 to 16:00, so it was a long day for him.

I couldnt talk to him, but I had 2 more hours to kill. I didnt bring any books or my ipod with me because I was going to talk to him. Then, there was nothing to do......

I started reading an event procedure manual.

I heard familiar voice from behind and looked up.

A foreign guy and a Japanese girl were coming into the room. He looked really familiar to me.

I stared at him for a moment.

When I heard his voice again, I remembered who he is and where we met.

I met him when I went to Disc Golf with friends from Ultimate team.

I have never seen him at the field on Sundays, but my friend told me he is a very playboy. And somehow, he was bit interested in me.

It was really easy to find out that he is a playboy. I could tell from his behavior toward me. He knows how to treat women. I wasnt affected by that, though.

Anyway, I was a bit hesitant to speak to him at first because I wasnt 100% sure it was him. But the more I stared at him, the more I became sure.

I got up to go to a bathroom and when I got out, his eyes caught mine(probably I stared at him too long....)

Then I said, " I'm sorry if I'm mistaken, but I think I know you. You are D, arent you?"

"Yeah, you are Spring-Picture, right?"



I was surprised he remembered me, even my name.

He said the Japanese girl was his student and they were having English lesson. I doubted it at first, but later, I found out by their conversation that he was really teaching. Oops, sorry D. It's because of your reputation that you have created by your own behavior.

We talked a bit, but I didnt bother them for long.



I killed time on my own till 14:00 and left there, said bye to them.



It just interested me how coincidence happens. If I hadnt gone to that Starbucks at that time, this wouldnt have happened. If he hadnt come there to teach, this wouldnt have happened either. There are millions of Starbucks in Tokyo and we both went there at the same time( Aside from that I wanted to see him or not. )

Where is my weekend....

....................

Where is my weekend !?

I have to work this weekend at an event site. This event will be held all over Japan and I'm in charge of one site in Tokyo.

I went to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office with my co-workers in charge of other sites for a meeting. During the meeting, I realized I was so tired and about to fall asleep in the middle of the meeting. I didnt, though.

I'm not so intensely busy with work, but I work overtime recently, so it made me bit exhausted. I went back to the office at 20:30 and left there at 21:00.

I just wanna go to bed, but am doing laundry now because I have no weekend. Ah, it is really hard on me not to have any days off after hard work on weekdays....

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By the way, I talked to my BF today. He sounded better than the other day. I'm so glad. He said his company will have to check the inventory at the end of Feb. It is an once-a-year big event. so he has to change his itinerary of coming to Japan. He said he would come at the begining of March, which is my birthday! He said he wanna spend time with me on my birthday.

I will go to the event site tomorrow to set up, have to walk long, but my right hip joint feels strange. I hope nothing is wrong with it.

I dont know how...

My BF has been really busy at work.

I can tell how stressed out he is when I talk to him on the phone.

Being busy is not the only reason he is so stressed out. There is nothing he can do to make things better. It's beyond his responsibility, but it reflects on him. I think it is a kind of mental anguish to him.

When I was really busy with work and so exhausted in last May and June, he helped me a lot even though we were just friends then( I once broke up with him right after last Golden Week).

He was my anchor to hold on, to keep me from falling apart. Just talking to him on the phone made me feel relieved. He was, and is, my home, where I should belong to. It made me realize that he is THE ONE for me.

Now he is kind of in the same situation as I used to be in. But I dont know how I can help him.

Last night, after I talked to my frined on the phone, I found a message that he left on my answering machine. He said he was in the office alone, so give him a call.

I called him. He said he had a worldwide tele-conference from 6am!(because of the time difference, you know. ) so now working at the office alone. It was about 7:15 there.

He sounded so tired, so stressed, but I couldnt find things to say to cheer him up, to take his stress away, to make him feel better.

I felt I'm so useless.....

Don't I know what to do when he is down even though I'm also THE ONE for him?

Oh, God.... I cant get rid of this thought from my mind. This is depressing......

Lunch Box

I make lunch everyday recently.

I used to go to Tully's or other cafes near my office, but I had worried that I had taken enough nutrition only from dinner. Another reason I used to eat out is because I call my BF at lunch time, so wanted to go out of the office.

I'm such a sandwich eater. My lunch was always sandwiches, but not nutritious enough nor satisfying size. I decided to make lunch.

It is actually good. After I had a sandwich for lunch, I felt really starved around 5pm, but now I feel hungry but not starved. Also, I can consume food more quickly, so they dont go off in a refregerator.

My lunch is not as good as the one my mom makes, but good enough to keep me healthy.

A water pipe froze in the cold weather

It was about 2am on Sunday.

I turned on a boiler to take a shower and turned on the tap.

No water came out.

I mean not only hot water, but also cold water when I turned on the tap of hot water side. When I turned on the cold water side, water came out, but when I turned on the hot water side, nothing came out.

I was in panic. I called a customer service center, which is a toll-free dial, but it said they dont accept phone calls from a cell phone(I have only a cell phone). I called 03- number, but it said they were not in service for 24 hours.

I was thinking......

Then, I texted to my brother, who is a night owl. I hoped he was still awake.

"Are you still awake?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I really need your help. Let's talk on Skype."

I explained my situation to him and asked him to call the service center(toll-free one is open for 24 hours) from a house phone.

I think he didnt want to go out of his room because it was freezing, but he finally did my favor.

He actually had to come back and forth between his room(upstairs) and a house phone(down stairs) to get more information of my boiler's condition. I wanted them to fix my boiler next morning if it was really broken, that's why I was so in a hurry to contact the customer service. He said I need to call a regional service center next morning to get it fixed.

After I went off Skype, I surfed on the website of my boiler's company, then found "Attention! Frozen pipes" section

I felt like I'm so stupid..... Why didnt it occur to me? It was kind of obvious that it might be a cause of this problem.

But you know, I used to live in southern part of Kanagawa. I have never had a frozen pipe problem before.

Next morning, my boiler worked as if there had never been a problem....

Sorry bro. and thank you

yusoshi

I saw my best frined who lives in Dallas with her American husband today. She is currently back in Japan to visit her family.

We met up in Shibuya and had lunch at an Italian restaurant, then went to Shinjuku for shopping. After shopping, we went to a cafe in Lumine, called "和カフェ　yusoshi."

It was really crowded at Sunday afternoon.

We sat by the window. There is a Japanese-style space in the middle, where you take off your shoes and sit on a cushion on tatami-floor. We didnt have a table there, so we sat on chairs. The chair was comfortable but a table was too low to eat. If you just have drinks and desserts, it's OK, but it is too low to eat lunch or dinner.

My friend ordered "Ginger-Toasted-Brownrice Tea(しょうがほうじ玄米茶）" and I ordered peach-flavored tea and we shared "Blacksugar syrup and soybean flour parfait (黒みつきなこパフェ）"

This is "Ginger-Toasted-Brownrice Tea."

This is "Blacksugar-syrup and soybeans-flour parfait."

We already had spoonfuls.....Sorry.

That parfait tasted really good and the portion is satisfying.

But the thing is there is not enough numbers of non-smoking seat. Only counter seats are non-smoking. I wish there's more non-smoking seats available.

Each relationship is different

When my friend got sick at Aoyama-icchome station , I called one of my Ultimate friends(American) who lives in Shinjuku and asked him a favor, which was to let me stay over at his place if I miss the last train to go home.

I thought it was totally OK with him to let me stay over even though he has a girlfriend because it was an emergency, right? But he said " I'm sorry I cant let you stay over here with me alone because I cant explain the situation to my girlfriend."

I said it was fine and understandable. I didnt push him, but I thought he treated me so coolly by letting down my favor.

Then, I thought about our (me and my boyfriend) relationship. If he let his female frined stay over at his place in case of emergency, I would understand it. If I let my male friend stay over at my place, he would understand it, too.

Next day, when I talked to my BF on the phone, I asked him what he thinks about it. He said he would understand it but most Americans wouldn't, or at least they dont like the idea of your BF/GF letting their friend(different sex) stay over.

I thought I did it again. Did what? I thought about things by my measurement, my point of view. Each has different opinion, different relationship with their BF/GF. But I thought his relationship with his GF is the same as my relationship with my BF. I shouldnt have thought like that. I have no rights to blame him turning down my favor.

I emailed him and thanked him later for concerning about us ( he asked me how she was and where I stayed over).

I am also thankful that my BF understands me so well.

I want to know what you think. If your BF/GF let someone(different sex) stay over in this case of situation, would you be mad at that?

What a disastrous Friday night....

My first experience to get on an ambulance occured like this....

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I was going to see my friend for dinner at Shinjuku after work. I finished work for the day at 7:00 and headed to Shinjuku. My frined called me twice while I was on a train, but I told her I couldnt answer it because I was on a train.

When I got to Shinjuku station, she called in again. She said she got car-sick when she went to Azamino to check her new apartment with a real estate agent by a car and cant make it to Shinjuku. I said it's fine, we can have dinner another day.

Then, next thing she said surprised me a lot. She said she wanted me to come over to Omotesando station where she was resting on a platform because she was too sick to get up and needed my help.

At first, I didnt believe her(I'm sorry!) because she sometimes says things in a very exaggerated way to get people's attention, so I thought she wanted to make herself like a tragic heroine this time as well. But there was no way that I could refuse her favor becauese she knew I was free without that appointment after work, you know.

I went to Omotesando station and found her on a bench.

She was pressing her face to her knees and couldnt face up. She said she stayed in a rest room at Azamino station for a couple of hours and threw up many times, then got on a train somehow to go home, but couldnt make it and got off at Omotesando. She had been there for about an hour and half.

I asked her what she needed. She said she wanna lay down to rest. I asked a station staff there was a bed available at their office. Luckily, they offered a bed in the office for her. We put her in a wheel chair and went down to the office, but she threw up on the way there...

She laid down and rested for more than 2 hours. She seemed fine when she was laying and talking to me there.

About 9:30, I went out to buy something to eat. I was so hungry and tired....I even bought a box of cookies for the station staff on her behalf to thank them because they treated us amazingly well.

I was so amazed how well they treated us. When she threw up on the way to the office, she apologized many times, but a station staff said " Don't worry about that. We'll clean it up later. It's our job. " When I gave the box of cookies, they, of course, refused my offer at first, but I insisted.

We left there at 10:30. She said she would take Keio line from Shinjuku and wanted me to come with her to Shinjuku. We took Hanzomon line to Aoyama-icchome and were going to transfer to O-edo line. When we got to a platform of O-edo line, she squated down on stairs and said she won't be able to make it to Shinjuku..... Oh, god....

There was nothiing else I could do other than taking her to the hospital. She has a problem with the digestive system and had a surgery before. I didnt think her condition was in connection with that, but took an extra care. The hospital she had a surgery is in Shinjuku, so we called the hospital and told them about her and her condition. They said they would be ready to accept her at an emergency room.

When ambulance arrived, we explained her condition and told to take us to that hospital. Everybody, like station staff and the emergency services, asked us she had alcohol or not. It was Friday night, so no wonder they asked that.....We didnt have even a drop...(Just a quick note here. The station staff of O-edo line treated us really well, too. )

At the hospital, she was put on a drip and took X-ray and blood test. No indications connected to her digestive system problem. Good.

It was 2:30 in the morning when all treatment was done. No train to go home. She didnt have enough money on her to take a taxi, even to pay for her treatment. Guess what. I paid for the treatment.... She will pay me back, of course, though. What a nice friend I am.....

We decided to wait for the first train, so sat down on a bench in the lobby and talked.

I emailed to my honey at work at 3:30 in the morning here and said I was in the hospital. Of course he asked me why. I told the story and said it wasnt me who got sick, so no worries.

When it was time to leave the hospital, it was snowing outside.

We took the first train and went back home. She looked much better and went home by herself.

I was going to see another my friend today, but we changed the date because of this snow. I'm glad by that because I couldnt have had any sleep otherwise.

I went to bed at 7am and woke up at 2pm. Ah, it was such a disastrous day, but I'm relieved that there was nothing so serious with her condition.

A Report of Black Vinegar Diet

As I told you before , I'm on a Black Vinegar Diet. Here's a report

I dont think it does my weight any good. It is certainly working on my skin, though. Even after I stopped using "Idealist", my skin still looks a lot better than before, very smooth and flawless.

But my goal is to lose weight. I need to try something else

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I havent talked to my BF for a couple of days I called him 3 times this week ( if I remember right), but he is always busy or with his friend, or driving. I really miss you, honey