The Beginning of Fall

Sigh, I've left this blog unattended for so long.
I noticed my last entry was right before the March 11th Earthquake that struck Japan.
It certainly was a life-changing experience and I'm ever thankful to have lived through it.
Hopefully, recovery and restoration efforts wont be hampered to much by a government
that is unsure on how to approach anything efficiently.

Last week we were also pummeled by Typhoon no. 15 which resulted in us getting out of
work early, but not early enough to avoid being completely drenched.

Now, we are into a new week and fall seems to be right around the corner. Hopefully
the salaryman in me can muster more energy to put into this blog.

Cheers!

Longing for some warmer weather

Its now March.
Spring should be coming but we are hit with a snowstorm today.
This kind of weather always makes me want to go somewhere warmer, but unfortunately, the salaryman life/salary affords no such luxury at the moment. Instead, I cooked up an Okinawan feast of stewed pork liver, stewed pork belly, bitter gourd stir fry, pickled onion shoots, fermented tofu, bonito sashimi and various other goodies to remind ourselves of warmer places. Being an Okinawa theme also meant we had to have Awamori, the liquor of Okinawa. Through rather terrible sanshin playing, lots of food and alcohol, it was a wonderful distraction from the cold weather we are still experiencing.
On another note, less and less of my friends seem to be around as of late... I do miss long vacation time...

Busy Busy Busy

Things have started to get busy after New Years - preparing for a trade show in a product that I have no confidence in really has me at my wit's end. In addition, no one listens to me until things start to go wrong. Oh well, cest la vie....
I'm off to Oregon again late March so the final chapters of the Yakushima trip will probably be fully documented when I'm there. Its not that I dislike Oregon per se, its simply the living and working situation once there which is the blight of my existence. Oh well, life throws curveballs at you every now and then.