Last day of 2012

We bought mochi which is Japanese rice cake. I cut them.

This day is the last day of 2012. My father eventually bought Amazon Kindle Fire HD. I started teaching how to use it.

We ate “New Years Eve Noodle” as our national tradition.

last two days left in 2012

I helped changing Shoji which is paper window in traditional Japanese houses.

Nothering special happended other than that on this day. What I did was that I did relax and chill at home.

We ate "new year's eve noodle."

Temaki sushi

I went to a phone shop with my father because he was plan to buy a new “tablet” for using Gooogle map and reading e-books. It was difficult for him to choose one because there are a couple of tablet at the store.

I cleaned up bathroom and old magazine which my father read in this year. This is a part of traditional “yearly big cleaning” events.
Temaki sushi was dinner this night.

And I took Mochi that was booked for new years meals.

Returning home town

I woke up early and used Thunderbird to go back to my home town. I ate crab sushi and masu sushi. Those were my favorite and so good!!

Kyoto visiting

I move to Kyoto in the early morning and met another frined who lives in Kyoto. We went to Kiyomizu temple. It was one of my dream place, so my dream came true!! 

The street of the way back from Kiyomizu temple was beautiful.

We went to Ouchi-gohan, which means home-made meals, and ate traditional Kyoto lunch. It was great!

We went to Arashiyama in the afternoon. It was very cold, but view was quite beautiful.

We move back to Kyoto station where there is a famous green tea café, Tsujiri, and ate macha food.

At night, I move to Shiga where a friend of my previous company lives. He actually has two babies. He and his wife served home-made dinner for me. It was seriously good! I stayed one night at there.

Christmas in Osaka

I woke up quite early. I found a weird Christmas tree.

I went to Kobe to eat Kobe beef. I ate the Kobe beef stake for lunch.

After that, I stopped by China town in Kobe.

It was so fun. There were so many shops and restaurants along the street. I found a vending machine of China Coke.

I came back to Osaka at evening and met another Osaka friend. We went to a kushi katsu restaurant in Shinsekai. We also went to Tsutenkaku, which a randmark of Shinsekai.

After watching the night view from Tsutenkaku, we went back to Nanba where located center in Osaka and drank again.

And then we drank again until about midnight. 

Osaka trip

I did head to Osaka to meet my friends. I used Nozomi, the fastest shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka.

By the ways, because I have niether a smart-phone nor a mobile wifi router during this trip, I could’t connect the Internet. It was quite inconvenient. Only way of communication was on a pre-paid phone. I met my friend who is from Kyoto and ate lunch together. Where we went was an okonomiyaki restaurant. I ate Negi-yaki, which is a kind of Okonomiyaki but most of ingredient is green onion. 

After Okonomiyaki, we went to a small “takoyaki” shop. Takoyaki is basically made of flour and octopus.

Osaka is the famous city for Takoyaki as well.

We ate too much, I though, so we walked to Umeda Skybuilding by food in order to exercise. There are a Christmas event in which I wrote a message on a star-shaped card. The view of sunset from top of the building was fantastic.

We took a rest at the Osaka station with a cup of cappuccino.

I met an old friend who I met at Arizona. He works in Osaka as the CEO of his company. We talked about his business and future plan. His mind made me motivated my future plan as well. 

I played at Minami district for a while.

For night food, I ate ramen at Ramen Kiou (亀王). It was amazing!! I felt like it was the best ramen restaurant in Osaka. 

Seeing off at Tokyo station

I ate Motsu ramen for lunch near Tokyo station.

An American friend left Japan from five month study abroad. We saw off him at a bus stop in front of Tokyo station. Another friend who came from Osaka left after that.

I went to Ginza to go shopping. I bouthg some Japanese products including LINE goods Lol.

At night, I went to Tokyo station to see Tokyo Michiterasu” which is light-projection show using the building of the Tokyo station. It was so fantastic!! I actually watched twice. 

I left Tokyo Marunouchi, and then moved to Shiodome where there is other Christmas lights and events.

It was a beautiful night.

2nd party

We slept only for a couple of hours in the morning. We had blunch at Denny’s becaseu I wanted my American friend to have “Japanese style Denny’s” where I used to work for when I was in college.

We had another drinking party in Ikebukuro. The izakaya was Torikizoku (鳥貴族). That place is one of Izakaya that I wanted to go for a long time. Food was very good!! This time was also “all-you-can-eat-and-drink.” We left ther as the first party place, and moved to Saizeriya to have some soft drinks and desert.

Two of my friends stayed at this night. Actually, we had a chat until six in the morning.

1st party

I found a new ramen restaurant in Ikebukuro, but taste was not good.

I also saw LINE goods at Tokyu hands.

At night, I met my old Arizona friend who came from Osaka because we were supposed to go to a party for another Arizona friend who graduated from the school by this semester. I met other old Arizona friends and one new American whose Japanese was freaking awesome!! Anyway, we had “all-you-can-eat-and-drink,” so we ate a lot and drank.

I left by the “first party,” and then moved to another drinking place where I met my Japanese friends. That izakaya was very good on both service and fish.

At night, three of my friend stayed at my home to do Monopoly because we used to be crazy about doing this game when we were in Arizona. At the first game, my American friend won. At the second game, I won, but it was already 6:30 am. It was very exhausting game ever…

Back to Japan in winter break

In Japan time, I arrived at Haneda airport at night. I couldn't find smartphone rental shop, so I just left for my home.

I was so hungry after midnight. I went to 7-Eleven at three in the morning. There are many “Bento” box, Japanese style lunch box, and those were basically not bad. 

I used to think it is normal. However, there is no similar food set in American convenience stores. I felt lucky I can live in here Japan. It is so convenient!! Probably I will gain weight in this Japan trip.

Returning to Japan

I drove to a local airport in the morning. I actually was worried about using this airport because flights delay quite often in this airport. Fortunately, it was no problem at this time, and then I flew to San Francisco International Airport.

I ate a Chinese noodle as lunch. It was okay…
I ended up waiting for about five hours after that until my flight.
I met an old woman in plane. She was so interesting. We talked a lot. I like this kind of encounter  which I might not have even a chance in Japan. By the way, the food in the plane was better than expected. The aircraft was American Airline but the service was operated by Japan airline. I guess that was why quality of service and food was better.

Final exam of the Fall 2012

This was the day of the last final exam of this semester. It was the in-class case analysis that students need to read a “case” and write up analysis within a given time. This time, I read about a case of Tiffany and Company and analyzed their company structure and future plan. It was fun because I did’t know much about that company even though their brand is very famous.

After finishing the last final exam. I stared preparing baggage for returning home. 

Cooking Okonomiyaki

I woke up for cooking blunch in the morning. I made Okonomiyaki for my Thai friends. I actually had no confidence to make a good one, but it ended up doing well.

I ｒeluctant to say good-bye to everyone afternoon and headed to the airport.
It was almost midnighｔ when I got home. I still feel like Arizona sunset is more beautiful than one in California.

Tucson again + Christmas concert

I drove to Tucson in the early morning to see another friend’s commencement.

I stopped by the book store on campus.

 This was the third time I saw commencement in the University of Arizona. After the graduation ceremony, I took a picture with my old friend.
For lunch, we went to Miss Saigon, the best Vietnamese food in Tucson  and ate Pho. It was good as usual. I met another Thai friend and went to an icecream shop near campus.

We left at 3pm and went to a Christmas concert in Glendale.
That Christmas concert was held in a charch and included singing, dancing, and playing. The member was consisted of local volunteers.

We drank hot apple soda and hot chocolate.


I ate a roost chicken of Fry’s, which is my favorite food in Tucson, as night snack Lol