San Gregorio State Beach

Last Saturday, I went for enjoying driving along the highway 1 from Half moon bay to Santa cruz.
This morning, weather was rainy but it changed to sunny afternoon, so I decided to do it.

At first, I went to the Russian ridge open preserve to see if I can enjoy a walk, but the ground condition was really mad due to the morning rain. This was obvious for me before getting there but I did not want to think so in my mind. Therefore, I changed my plan to enjoy a drive. Some mountain bikers enjoyed there though.
I was actually taking highway 35 north and the highway 84 west, and got to the highway 1. This route was not first time for me but this direction was so, because I usually take an opposite route. Therefore, I was feeling that every field view is really first time. When I turn left to the highway 1, I noticed that a state beach, San Gregorio, is just there at right side, and I parked my car at the parking without knowing about parking fee which was turned out later. This beach is really good because a lot of restroom, benches for rest are available in addition to beautiful beach. After enjoying everything for about 20 minutes, I went back to the parking, but I found something a envelope on the front window of my car unfortunately. When I opened the envelope, I got a letter telling me that this parking place charges me $8.00 and I have to pay it. I really wanted to say, "Oh my god, what the hell is this !? " If I have known it, I  had passed this beach and wouldn't have parked my car there. When I got out of the parking, I notice that there is a small sign board in front of the open gate telling guests about the parking fee. So, this is my fault that I did not notice that sign before entering the parking. However I have a reason for that. From my experience, I have been to a lot of public parking along the highway 1 ever, but everything was free except this time.

Anyway, this was good experience that some parking is not free. I definitely have to keep this in my mind.

LIMITLESS

Do you know a movie, named LIMITLESS.
I did not know this until Netflix suggested this to me. Last Sunday, I was browsing Netflix and looking for something interesting movies. Finally, I selected this movie because a package image really attracted me and made me feel that this was exciting and interesting seemingly. From my conclusion, this selection was really successful for me. A story is simple and easy to understand, which help me understand English even though I did not show subtitles.

The story is about a man who was a struggling writer but his life changed suddenly after he came across his ex-brother-in-law. The ex-brother gave him a tablet of drug which let him access to a brain 100%. According to the ex-brother, a typical human can use its brain up to 20%, however it allow you to use it 100 %. Actually our brains remember everything which we have seen, but we can not remember them because we can not explore our brain 100% by ourselves. He was not doing well at his work, so he tried it with a sweet temptation. After that, everything started to go well at first. After he could finish his novel faster, he realized that he could be out of a novel writer and could be more than that and could afford to earn more, like a money dealer. The story goes up and down a lot ,,,,.   
If you want to know what would happen next, it`s better to watch it by yourself.
I believe that anybody wish once that we could use our brain 100%.

The hot spring in 5 colors

During the short trip to Japan, I went to a hot spring in Nagano prefecture. The hot spring name is Goshiki onsen. Go means five, and shiki means color, and onsen means hot spring, so five colors hot spring. Precisely, color of water surprisingly changes day by day in one of five colors, depending on the circumstance around the hot spring. When I went there at the end of December, it was heavy snow storm in the area, so many customers except me cancels a stay, so it was like that everything was for me temporarily. And the color which I was enjoying is dilute black at that time.

When I was in Japan, I used to enjoy hot springs around Japan. Hot springs always makes me feel better, removes my daily stress, refreshes my mind, giving me vitality for next day, and makes me believe that I`m gonna come again. Fortunately, We, Japanese, can enjoy many hot springs around Japan from the northern part to the southern part. So We can expect different type of hot springs every time. Another good point I`m always thinking is that drinking a beer immediately after enjoying it is really good taste. It`s because much water is lost gradually from a body during staying a bath, and a body naturally needs water. So that`s why you can taste it better than usual.

I have an episode about the onsen which I stayed this time. Please have a look at the picture above. You can see that an old man enjoys the onsen with smile. He is the owner of the onsen and 92 years old now. As I mentioned before, a customer was only me so I could talk a lot with people who work in the onsen. He is one of them. When I was talking the bath, he came and spoke to me. At first, he said to me that he was involved in the world war II and worked at the border between China and Russia to monitor Russian enemy. At that time, Russia was Japan`s enemy. He was a little bit higher position, so he was staying away from battles and collecting information about Russian which was sent from field agents. When Russian enemy was attacking his location, it was just announced that Japan was surrendering and the war was over. Therefore, he unfortunately lost a lot of his friend, but fortunately could survive the war.

Temporary return to japan

Here I will write what I felt about the terrible earthquake crisis when I went back to Japan.

Since the end of December, I had returned to Japan temporarily for 2 weeks. This was first time since the horrible biggest earthquake hit Japan last March. This left us terrible disasters. One of those is devastation of tohoku area, and second of those is nuclear radiation problem around the sea side of Fukushima prefecture which Japanese people have to live with it for more than 30 years because the half life of Cs, main radio material, is around 30 years. Due to the former crisis, many people died unfortunately and many places were broken totally. As our ancestors fully restored devastated area in World War II, I strongly believe that people in Tohoku are sure to restore their loving place over time. However second crisis continue to be issue for long time, which even our descents will have to deal with.

So I was wondering what people think about it and how people live with it in Tokyo. My home town is almost Tokyo and the side of Fukushima prefecture, so amount of accumulated Cs is not negligible according to published results.  So I am really concerning my friends living there and having small children because nuclear radiation effects on a body is more effective for small children. Regarding my family, if I say I do not worry them, it is not true but it is partly true because they are already old enough to be less influenced. As we know from Chernobyl case, most awful thing about nuclear exposed effects is that results will come out later as cancers, like 5 or 10 years later.

When I got to my home town and spent a few days, I surprisingly realized that nobody cares about it on the surface, and nobody shows his/her feeling seemingly. At first before I returned, I was thinking that there are a lot of signs for helping Tohoku, and activities for financial support, but it was not so. I was feeling like that all most people forget the earthquake and nuclear radiation, and think that it is already the past event. One of reasons would be that nuclear radiation effects never come out a the moment as I mentioned above. However, as a minimum action, people do not try to eat any foods from Fukushima to avoid internal exposure. This is right action but I am really sorry for people involved in food industry around Fukushima, This can not be helped any more. We do not have anything about that.

 I did not visit at this time, but people behavior would have changed if I approached to Fukushima.

Very good Patagonia down jacket

Last November, I was fully taking advantage of current exchange rate between US dollar and Japanese yen when I bought a Patagonia down jacket.

http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/patagonia-mens-down-sweater?p=84673-0-889


When I came to the bay area, I did not bring any jackets of mine because I heard that the bay area is warmer even in winter than Tokyo in Japan and jackets are not necessary. However that`s not true somewhat . It is certainly true in the daytime, but in the morning and night we definitely need jackets because temperature often goes down to 40F in this season. That`s why I decided to buy a jacket.
When I told so to my colleague who likes outdoor activities, he really recommended a Patagonia down jacket. According to him, it`s designed for outdoor usage but I can wear it in daily life, and it`s light so it`s easy to carry and store. As you can easily imagine, it is more expensive than other competitive products. I placed much value on lightness so I decided to try it. First of all, I googled it ,and found that a Patagonia special shop is located in Santa Cruz near to the exit of highway 17. At one day after thanksgiving, I went there while expecting thanksgiving sale, but unfortunately the shop did not have it. However I found a favorite jacket there, furthermore I could find XS size which just fits me perfectly. I decided to buy it immediately because it`s really difficult to find good size clothes for me in a lot of shops in US. Evey time I can not find good size clothes I wish I were a little bit taller. And I wish so every time I read motorcycle magazines and catalogs because almost all motorcycle seat is higher for me. However $200 price of that seemed to be expensive for me, so I used Japanese credit card because Japanese yen is obviously stronger than ever before compared to US dollar. One dollar was equivalent to about 120 yen 5 years ago but it is about 77 yen now !  
Anyway let me tell you how the jacket is. It`s is really light and hold warmer air inside the jacket and keep me comfortable during walking. When I went to the office with the jacket, everyone told me that this looks light and easy to walk.

I really like it and I am considering to buy some clothes more.

Thanksgiving day

Key words ; thanksgiving day, turkey day, whole foods, cooked turkey

Thanksgiving day was the first time since I came to US. Things which I got to know about the day are two. The first one is that family members come back and gather home. Second one is that family typically enjoys to eat a roast turkey together with gravy and cranberry sources. Therefore I tried to follow the manner mentioned above. Firstly, I was thinking to cook a roast turkey from scratch, but as I checked how to do it, I got to feel like that it is difficult for me to do that easily just by following manners available in internet because it takes much time to complete every complicated process for more than 6 hours since a turkey is put on a oven and it needs a lot of staffs like sources, a dedicated oven board. Immediately after realizing that, I decided to ordered a cooked turkey because I wanted to experience a perfect cooked roast turkey. And at that time I was thinking I would cook it by myself next year if it is delicious.

During 2 weeks before the thanksgiving days, local radio advertisements were all about the special day which included a organic turkey pre-order at whole foods market. So I went to the whole food nearest my house and tried to order an organic turkey, but unfortunately it was sold out but a non organic order was still be available. My family is only my wife so I wanted a small one but 10 pounds size one was minimum. It is obviously too much size for two peoples, but I ordered that size reluctantly because I really wanted to try how taste a roast turkey is.

(This is just an aside but I sometime see a herd of turkeys in the Racho san antonio park)

At the day, I went to whole foods at 11am and picked a roast turkey with an instruction paper to warm an cooked turkey in an oven. At whole foods, I bought gravy and cranberry sources, and a wine additionally. As soon as I got home, I started to pre-heat a oven and put the cooked turkey but it was a little bit tough work because the 10 pounds turkey was heavier than I though. 2 hour later, everything was ready on a table finally. I remember that my expectation was highest at this moment. Soon after one bite, I was positively feeling that it was very happy for me to experience a traditional food, and at the same time I was negatively feeling that I expected too much and chicken taste is better for me. I did not want to admit that because the ordered turkey was expensive but it was honestly true for me. Finally I realized that likes and dislikes depend on person, and the difference of cultures because a lot of American people continue to do like this annually.

Much part of the turkey was left over but don`t worry about that. I enjoyed that with a fried rice and sandwich later.

Taste was not what I expected,however I thought that this was great experience totally.  

Dosa party

Have you ever heard of dosa ?
I knew what it is first time last Saturday.

Dosa is traditional food in south India, which looks like crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. Ingredients are vegetables, and dosa is typically served with some soup.
Here is a example picture of Masara dosa from wikipedia.
Link

Last Saturday, our boss in the group, an Indian guy, invited team members and families to a dosa party at his house. According to him, he did a similar party last year and he got a lot of favorable comments from many people so he decided to do it again this year. I replied to him that I would join his party with pleasure without making sure that my wife wants to go, as soon as I got a invitation email from him. Mainly there were two reason. One reason was that dosa was first time for me and my wife. Another reason was that this was very good opportunity for me and my wife to communicate other families in the company. Although I told that to my wife later, she was willing to join with a promise that I never forced her to speak English. It is because she is extremely shy. On the day of the party, we arrived at his house at 6:30 on time. However other people did not come yet and we were surprisingly first. I thought and he told us that this is true Indian time which means that if party is announced to start at 6:30 in advance, then it actually starts at 7:30. This is funny point of a sense of time between Japanese and Indian. If start time is 6:30, then Japanese always come punctually and a party typically start on time. At first when I came to a bay area office, I was very surprised at that, but I spontaneously got used to that over time. As can be expected, everyone came by 7:30 and the dosa party started. At first I tried Masara dosa which ingredients are mainly mushed potato, onion etc. I ate it with curry type of soup. This taste was amazingly very good and I have never experience such taste before in my life. My wife tried mysore dosa which is little bit spicy. She was also surprised at delicious taste because it is first time for her as well and beyond a expectation. Before the party, we worried about its taste because as far as I know, dosa is food for vegetarians and a vegetarian party is first time for us. Finally we were very happy to be abe to enjoyed it this time, and decided to go Indian restaurants which serve dosa foods. If this party will be taken place next year, we are willing to join it.