SOBA BOKKOU

SOBA BOKKOU Originally uploaded by kenic.

i had soba today. do you know soba? soba is a kinda noodle, traditional japanse one. i like it. it's quite simple and tastes good, but it's not very easy to find a good one here in okayama. generally said, udon is common in west japan, soba is in east japan. but if you try you sometimes find one gives you satisfaction somehow. YUMMY!

wireless mighty mouse

wireless mighty mouse Originally uploaded by kenic.

i bought a new mouse. but this mouse has no tail. um. it's the new wireless mighty mouse, it works via bluetooth. the shape is almost same as the normal mighty mouse except the point of the "tail". it uses one or two AAA batteries, even it works with two of them, the weight is not too heavy, but just an acceptable weight. i like it, you should buy one also ;-)

ぶっかけうどん

とろろぶっかけ.

well, i write all about foods everyday... :P this is udon called ぶっかけ, it has lesser soup than normal udon. it can be serve hot or cold. you know, ぶっかけ is not a X rated word, there is another word to mean "ぶっかけ" here in japan. i can't write it here you know, it's a public place...if you want to know what it is, just call me. anyway, i like ぶっかけうどん, it's always yummy. this kinda udon is called sanuki udon from kagawa ken. here okayama ken is next to kagawa ken so it's easy to find nice udon shops.

lunch

the meshiya Originally uploaded by kenic.

i had a lunch today at "the meshiya" means "the food shop". it's like buffe you take foods you need by youserlf. the main customers looked like construction workers, probably they feel easy this kinda place. today's foods are: saba, tofu, okra, iwashi and sushi. about 900yen. tastes not bad.

LUNCH

LUNCH 20060822 Originally uploaded by kenic.

well, long time no see... ^^; it's busy on summer every year...i don't know why. well, it's the lunch today...konbini bentou. umebosi, gohan, daikon, potatoe salad, ganmo, koimo, egg, korokke, saba...

again school cafe.

LUNCH TODAY Originally uploaded by kenic.

i had lunch today at the school cafe. again. well, perhaps it looks much, but it's not actually...each dish contains just small amount.

i thought that things here in japan are high price, especially when i lived in tokyo. but you know it's just 535yen. the lunch is not very gogeous, but ok. and 535yen is also not very cheap, but it's also ok price. (when i was 20 and a student in nagoya, i used to have a lunch at like 300yen or 350yen).

and look at this picture, it's a pic from flickr...the group "campus food". the one is from Leeds uni. they are almost the same price. i would like to say "everything in the uk is high price!". you agree with me, eh? :>

french sugar

french sugar Originally uploaded by kenic.

i drink coffee everyday to keep me wake up. usually, mainly for a financial reason, i use pre-packed coffee beans with paper filter to drip it. it's cheap and tastes not bad...i thought so lately. but on last sunday, i need coffee when i was home suddenly and you know, i didn't have the same beans as the office there. so i made an espresso coffee with moca. moca is the one to make espresso on a stove. the bean was old, and i guess it is not good condition, but still tastes nice. after that, i can't drink the paper dripped coffee anymore....at least i don't want it now -_-;;

i don't need an electric machine to make espresso, moca is enough nice for me. but at the office, it might be dangerous to use gas stove (because i have burnt a moca before, i made espresso and forgot to turn off the fire and put the moca on it...for a while...like 5 mins and it burnt.....i don't have enough confidence not to do it again anymore....).
so i bought an electric one at amazon. i will come soon...

before it comes, i need beans and sugar. first, this is the suger. it's made in france, this kinda sugar is good for espresso! :>

i am looking forward to have the machine!

school cafe

school cafe Originally uploaded by kenic.

i'm back from long holidays that is a sequence of national holidays and weekend, called "golden week" here. it was from 29th to 7th.

my brain doesn't work yet...i need time to be back to the real world ;P anyway i had a lunch at a school cafe today. in this season, the school cafe is more crowded at lunch time than normal. newvies still don't know how to avoid it and have nothing to do in lunch time yet....it will be better on next month.

the lunch is from up left, renkon, gyunyu kan, misoshiru, down left, nanohana, toufu, gohan.

chinese dust invades...

kousa 黄砂 Originally uploaded by kenic.

in this season, from march to may, we have kousa sometimes. kousa means "yellow dust", it comes from china (see wikipedia: asian dust). when it comes, the sky clouds even it's a fine day. do you see it in the pic?

it's not very serious here in japan, because it's a bit far from chinese desert that is a source of the dust. it makes the sky clouds, cover cars by small amount of dust. but in china or korea, it's near by the source, so they say it's more serious. a korean paper says that when it's very serious, they can't see a builing just 1 km ahead. is it true?

i belive that the days we have the dust are incleasing lately, it might be because of chinese economical progress. gee.

today's meal

today's meal Originally uploaded by kenic.

today, when i woke up in morning, i felt something strange on my throat...i was afraid that i caught cold. i shouldn't go out in this kind of day...so i cooked it by myself. pasta and tako. i found penne, tomato can, aspargus, bacon and garlic in the stock, so i didn't have to go out to buy them (even there is a super market in front of my house, 2 min by walk). tako, the left one is you know octopus. it's edible. actually it's yummy. no doubt. the one is in the refreg and i had to eat it before it gets damaged. olive oil + garlic + salt + pepper and put it in the microwave for 30 secs. quick and yummy.

memo pad and pen

RHODIA, BIC et SAILOR Originally uploaded by kenic.

I like RHODIA's memo pad. this one is No.11 size. RHODIA's paper is easy to tear off and nicely thick having block lines in purple color. I used to use writing cards to take memos but they are too thick and not easy to handle. after i found that RHODIA is better than it i'm using this.

and pens, orange ones, they are cheap...BIC baller pens. I like this crappy looking. and also nice to draw. the white pen is sailor, this is also nice but i don't find a shop to buy this. (i can't say this loudly but i...took this at a restaurant when they passed it to me to write a feedback...shut!!!)

lunch box

bentou Originally uploaded by kenic.

On Monday, 17th Apr, I bought a lunch box at a small shop (convenience store) near by the office I work at. In this 10 years, I had eaten a lot of this kinda junk food, konbini bentou, so i's really bored to have this...but on monday, I have classes at a highschool so i don't have much time to go out for lunch...no choice.

anyway, mame daifuku (the white one beside the ohashi) was nice. candy rules ;)

abunai

abunai Originally uploaded by kenic.

He/She says a word "dangerous" perhaps about getting in the fence. There is a tower for electricity. I wonder if it's just a normal sign like "DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE YOU KEEP OUT OR YOU DIE", the message would be more straight and stronger. Anyway, He's cute. Cuteness covers harshness of the real life... Is this the japanese way? Cuteness is spread over this country.

okonomiyaki

okonomiyaki tachibana Originally uploaded by kenic.

okonomiyaki tachibana Originally uploaded by kenic.

I had okonomiyaki at lunch today. It looks a mess rather than great but tastes nice. There are two main styles of okonomiyaki, one is Kansai, the other is hiroshima. This is Kansai-fuu. I like it kansai-fuu better than hiroshima, perhaps because i had been living in kansai area (nara ken) for two years.

When i was living in tokyo, a canadian guy i knew on internet came there. We were going to had something for dinner there, i thought what would be good to have for him. He didn't have so much experience in japan yet so japanese thing would be nice in my idea. So we went to an okonomiyaki shop in bubaigawara (tokyo). In the shop, even after the okonomiyaki came to him, He didn't show any expression on his face (NERD!). So i asked him if he had ever tried it. he said no. but he had seen it ranma 1/2...an anime.......YOU NERD! ^^;; hihihi

GREENWICH

GREENWICH Originally uploaded by kenic.

I visited london last year for a week including the day of the underground terror attack. I was there for an international scientific conference in greenwich. They usually take place the conference at the london collage in the central london, but the last year was the only exception I've experienced. Did they know what was going to happen?

On the Next July, I have to go to the london again for the same conference. In this year, It returns to the central london. I hope there's nothing wrong happening. god save the queen, god save the sex pisols, god save a japanese boy :P

working place at the university

iMac Originally uploaded by kenic.

I bought a new macintosh, iMac with intel core duo two months ago. This works fine and faster than PowerBook G4. Here in Japan, somebody had guessed the intel cpu would mess macintosh, but it was not so.

Current Mac's OS is Mac OS X, and this is almost the same thing as the old NeXT STEP, the OS works on NeXT computers. Mac OS X's developing toolkit is called Cocoa, this is almost the same thing of NeXT STEP. The developing tools, like the "interface builder" is also from NeXT STEP, not a new thingy at all.

NeXT had a CPU developed by motorola at the first, but after it became obvious that the NeXT failed comacially, NeXT STEP was ported to other platform, like IBM PC clones. NeXT STEP had a mechanism to share one executable with some platforms...this is called universal binary.

Old men, like me (and maybe you too) knows this story so no wonder that Macintosh with intel will success. It's not that bad to listen to old men somtimes, heh? ;-)

lunch yesterday

lunch today Originally uploaded by kenic.

so i had lunch at school cafe again. from top left, nanohana, okara, ocha, gobou no kinpira, (bottom left) misosiru, gohan, oden. 500yen.

hanami

SAKURA Originally uploaded by kenic.

un stagno e sakura Originally uploaded by kenic.

obento Originally uploaded by kenic.

It's really nice day today...a bit windy but still nice. So, I went to a park with lunch boxes (jubako in japanese) to see sakura with my family. It is called HANAMI means watching flowers. We took a bus for 5 mins, it reached to a park. We walked around...people were having fun in spring. Somebody were playing tennis, football, jogging, just walking....also doing hanami as we do. We sat down beside a pond. There are some sakura in bloom. It's really feeling good having lunch outside when it's this nice season. Yeah, hanami is always at outside, but at a cafe or restaurant, it's not common to have it outside, especially here in the small town. This is not tokyo. It's not a common japanese style yet. Even when a cafe has some tables and chairs outside, sometimes it's "not allowed" to have it there. PERCHE? I can't get the reason why.

anyway we had lunch under a sakura tree...onigiri and some stuff...like chikuwa, tamagoyaki, takuan. I like'em all.

Aftre we finished it, we went to a cafe by walk. Because we felt like missing dolce ;-) It's also nice to walk through the park to the cafe. The cafe was with a table outside and we can't have it there ;P even it's really beautiful season this time, and they don't use it....when are they going to use it? non capisco. anyway we took cake and tea, it was nice.

mr. robotto

mazda face Originally uploaded by kenic.

I don't recall when He started being there. I noticed the existance of him, He was already there. He looked like the captain. He's silent, but He always gazes me watching my driving a car.

domoarigato, mr. robotto....^^;

sakura

sakura Originally uploaded by kenic.

sakura is still in bloom. Last two days, it had rained, so i was afraid that sakura would be finished. (It happens often that raining makes ending it). But it's still ok. Sakura trees are really beautiful on this season. after blooming finished, new leafs come out, it's also beautiful.


SPRING - G.M. Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring --
When weeds in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. -- Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

LUNCH

today's lunch Originally uploaded by kenic.

I had a bit late lunch today at gakushoku (school cafeteria). Well, it was about on 13.30. I didn't check its price...I guess it was like 450yen or 500yen (approx. $3 or $4). The Dishes are: (from top left) okara, renkon, misosiru, (middle left) ocha ;P, komatsuna no ohitasi, oden, (bottom) rice. I'm afraid that it's lack of protain....especially when i'm doing weight training. ok, I will take some protain powder later ^^;;

TABU

TABU Originally uploaded by kenic.

I like candies, well you might say that's the reason of 194LB ;P. I like licorice...this TABU candy from italy made from licorice. It's not widely seen here in japan selling candies contains licorice. So when I go abroad I always buy this kinda stuff. The name is also nice...TABU...what i like exactly...hehe.

This must be the site of the maker of TABU. It isn't much infomation anyway.

handayama

handayama Originally uploaded by kenic.

It's really fine day and warm today. I found that it was even too warm in a car when I drive for lunch.

Lately, I'm studying in an university....on a doctoral course. When I say this, people often think I'm going to be a doctor...medical one....but it's not for MD but Ph.D. I like University...well it would be more true if I would say I like almost all kind of schools. To say the truth, I like them including from Highschool to Driving license school. Anyway, It's time to start a new semester this time here in japan. There are many newbies in the campus and ex-newbies also to get somebody joining their group activities. (I saw some students wearing football (THE AMERICAN ONE) uniform and giving ad papers around. I didn't know that there is a football team in this univ.

It was really long time ago when i was a newbie, at least when i was it, it was still 20ct anyway. But this season, begining of Apr, it makes me remember when i was, what i felt. Time waits for no one. Am i too sentimental? ;-)

sakura

sakura Originally uploaded by kenic.

it was a strange weather yesterday. in morning, when i woke up and looked outside though a window, i saw the road is wet. hm, it looks like it rained. then it started sun shining then suddenly it got dark and rains a bit. the sun shows her body betweeen clouds shortly then started raining hardly this time, then rumbled thunder once or twice. is it the spring storm?

i heard that sakura bloomed already in tokyo on tv news. but it doesn't in okayama yet. okayama is located a bit south than tokyo, but it's warmer in tokyo than here. yesterday, i saw a sakura tree on a path i was going to gym. it looks like going to bloom soon. i always find that spring has come when i see sakura blooms. i like it.

raining

raining Originally uploaded by kenic.

it has just started raining now...spring raining is called "harusame", it sounds like not strongly raining...just silent. but it rains like beating somehow. i like raining anyway if it doesn't happen that often.

newer is...

i go to gym lately to fit. one year ago, on march 2005, my weight was 88kg (194LB). i thought it's too much for my height 173cm (5 feet 8 inches). the most famous and biggest gym brand is konami sports in japan. there is konami here in okayama also, near by the okayama station. i used there for a year til this march, and i decided to go to a local one from Apr. why? the price is almost same, konami is better at its location but it takes holiday on tudesday. GEE...it's quite inconvenient. the local one is located a bit outter of the city than konami is, well but just few mins by car. and its off day is just one day in a month, there are many strength training gears, wider place to strech, cheerful sfaff, it has even bath! (konami has only shower booth).
and this is the last and the biggest reason, I LIKE TO CHANGE THINGS! newer is better ^^

i went to the local gym (OSK okayama) today for the first day, it was nice....i divided my body parts to train. it was the "leg day" today so i trained my legs (just two of them, you know). it's really fun to work out...anybody want to join me? ;>

today's menu:
biking 20mins, leg press, leg extention, leg curl.

you live there? i live here.

i'm living here in japan, coz i'm a japanese. i've thought that it must be fun to describe what happens here on a small island in the far east....so let's start now.