Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve

 Two weeks ago, it was rainy weather at Saturday, so I could not go outside for hike, but the following day looked fine as far as I could see around the area where I am living. When I look at sky, it was totally fine weather, so I could not help but go for hike at new place immediately. Every weekend, I try to walk at new place to explore the Santa Cruz mountain running from south of SF to Santa Cruz. This time was Purisima Creek Redwoods open space which is close to Half Moon Bay. There are manly two gates available. One is at the high way 35, in other words, Skyline blvd. Another is located at side of Half Moon Bay. I, off course, headed for the closest gate at the highway 35 from the distance point of view. I took highway 280 at first, but I came to have bad feeling as I approached to the destination. It obviously looked foggy along a ridge of  the mountain. However I still wanted to go there to see what was going on actually while thinking that I never know until I get there because this open space is at other side of mountain. When I actually got there, It was slight foggy as less as sun shine can come through fog. So I decided to try this trail with some expectation that fog goes away gradually as I walk. As I mentioned before, my start point was at the highway 35, and my plan was that I go from the start point to the gate of other side which is a middle point and return point coincidentally, and come back to the start point by a different trail clockwise. I was noticing soon that it was difficult to walk that day because ground was really mad due to the rain of the previous day, but I could manage to do that by trying to step one by one on less mad ground. On the way to the middle point, it is downhill all the way from 2000 feet to 500 feet, which shows me flat way and steep way. Especially at this day, it was really difficult to walk at steep down hill because it was easy to slip, so I had to pay attention to that one step by one step. On the way, surprisingly, I could see a banana slug at first time which is unique  at North America pacific coast. This is large type of slug, and the color is really bright yellow which is the reason why it is called banana and also I could fined easily in the forest. The size of which I saw was amazingly more than 20 cm. On the return path, as you can know easily, it is obviously uphill all the way. At this time, it was already 4pm, and it was dark due to fog, which was against my expectation. So I tried to walk briskly to get back earlier while fearing of darkness even though it was really hard to go up along steep uphill. On the middle of way, suddenly, I could hear something approach us with some noise. At first I could not figure out what it was and I was really afraid to come across dangerous animals in the slight darkness due to fog. I finally recognized that they were a white and a black big dogs which were as big as their face is close to my waist and turned to be Labrador retriever later. At first, I was scared of those dog, but they were surprisingly friend with me by wagging their tail. A problem was that my wife is really scared of a dog because she has a trauma before. She actually saw her friend bit by a dog in front of her. So she still have such fear in her mind. Therefore what I did at that time was to attract dogs` attention to me and let her walk 3 meter behind me. As I walked by doing so, I say a guy come from the opposite direction, and I asked these dogs were his, but his answer was no. According to him, they were following him from the gate which were heading for. He noticed my wife was scared and kindly took them with him by calling "Common guys !"

Finally we got back to the gate which was starting point, and time was almost 5:30pm, and it was really dark. As far as dogs are concerned, I do not know why they were there. I figured out later that dogs are prohibited at the open space, so I guess that someone intentionally left them here because of some reasons.

Unexpected thing is that my wife was scared of a dog, but dogs I came across was friendly to us. It seemed so impressive to her, and she is starting to say finally that she wants to have a dog. For the time being, she has nothing special to do at weekdays, so it is good idea to have a dog for her, but we have not had a dog, so we definitely need to check and know a lot of necessary things.

Medical Check : I do not want to take a bood check seriously

Do you take a medical check regularly ?
I did it actually a few weeks ago because we, Japanese, are supposed to take it annually, as long as we are employed by Japanese companies. It is because employers must make employees take it according to Japanese law. However, I`m not sure about this in the case of self-employment, but it is likely up to oneself.

It was 2010 October when I took a medical check last time as a check for departure for US in Tokyo, and more than one year has already passed. Therefore, I was urged to take it here by a department of accommodation and works last month. Here is not Japan, so we generally have a concern that foreign doctors understand what Japanese regular medical check means because I have heard from my colleagues that a medical check is arbitrary and it is up to people and  a health check here is not done until you feel something wrong. An idea of a medical check is to be able to detect a initial health problem as early as possible, and avoid the risk of fatal problems as much as possible which is too late to cure. I have such a concern but I can fortunately take a similar medical check with Japanese case because there are a few hospital here which Japanese doctors run. They are originally from Japan and were trained in Japan, and they have a license here and were trained in US as well. So they really understand what a regular medical check is.

A few weeks ago, I took it actually in some hospital, although I was reluctant honestly but I had to to. I am under 30 years old so I was supposed to take basic checks by consulting with a hospital people, although a number of check lists generally increase when I get older. Check items were a physical body check, an abdominal ultrasound check, an urine check, a stool check, a blood check and a X-ray check of chest. Among these check lists, I don`t really like a blood check and hate it in other words because I have a trauma about it when I was small. A new nurse failed to draw my blood many times and I was really feeling pain physically and mentally. Since that time, not every time but  I sometime feel dizzy and become pale and go white. And as I had feared, I felt so this time. I`m always fine physically but not fine mentally.

Results do not come out yet, but I really hope to pass it and do not take reexamination, especially, a blood check. Every time when I take a medical check annually, I strongly think that  I have to eat health foods and do exercise in order to avoid health problems as much as possible, although this idea gets less day by day.

Celebration for a birth of my collegue`s baby

Last December,  I and my wife visited a house of my Indian colleague to celebrate a birth of his baby boy. He was born last September, so I waited for around three months until his baby got settled. As far as I know, it generally takes around three month for that. Usually we bring something for a child when we visit somebody for a celebration. This time, this is not japan, so I though some religious things are not appropriated, so I decided to bring Japanese fairy tale book throughout which Japanese children can know what good things are and what bad things are. However, his child was just born, so this book is not useful now, but will be later. The time when I visited him was before noon, so he kindly served us real Indian food. Since I came here, I often go to Indian restaurants with my colleagues and I thought I already got used to it, but it was not. The foods which I ate at his house were really hot, although he said to me that it is moderate in India. We, Japanese, typically like hot foods because Korean kimuchi, hot food, is very popular. However we can not handle hot Indian food which generally contains a lot of spices. I have another episode about that. When I went to Korean place for lunch with another Indian colleague. We tried to tofu soup food, and I tried mild spicy and he tried hot spicy. Even mild spicy, it is out of my capacity, but he said to me that his choice was not hot, and this hot taste is equivalent to mild taste in India. At that time, I strongly realized that we have different kind of stomach essentially.

The lesson here is that I can not handle real Indian spicy food. I do not hesitate to choose mild taste when I enjoy Indian food.

Wine tasting at first time

Ridge vineyards

Last weekend, I could have experienced and enjoyed wine tasting finally. Since I came to California, everybody always recommends me to do it, and they say it is because California is famous for vine production and wine tasting in vine yard is really great. And a recommended place is always Napa. Honestly, I am a little bit reluctant for that because Napa is far from my living place, and I am actually beer lover. So I was always wondering if it is worth a lot to go there and enjoy wine tasting. However, when I was looking into the Google map around Santa Cruz mountain, I found wine yard in south bay area and the place is easy to access from my house. So I decided to try it immediately, and I did it last weekend just after enjoying the mission peak walking, although I was already exhausted.

When I got there, the tasting space was really full with people, and I had to wait for about 10 minutes until vine tasting space was open. There are 3 courses for wine tasting here, and it was first time for wine tasting, so I chose the lowest course for 5 dollars just in case. I could actually enjoy 4 kinds of wines, but every wine is red. I do not know how to enjoy red vines. So I could not enjoy it honestly. This wine yard must be good because a lot of people visit there. However it just does not mach my preference.

My first experience of vine tasting was not good so I am wondering if I go to enjoy wine tasting somewhere someday. And I am strongly realizing that I am a beer lover anyway. Next time, I want to enjoy beer tasting.

Mission peak hiking at Milpitas CA

(*) wikipedia

In the middle of week, when I talked with my Indian colleague about hiking, we decided to try the mission peak together at the east bay. He is very familiar with hiking, camping, but he stopped to do those outdoor activities because he got a bay and he took care of his wife until his child got settled. It is almost 4 months since his child was born, so he thought his baby is already stable and he can go for a short hiking. So I woke up earlier than usual at last Saturday and headed for there with him. When I got to a parking, what I came up with first was that I might not be able to make it seriously because I could see the peak of mountain, called mission peak, but its altitude looks very high, which I had never tried. However, I did not have a choice not to try it since I was already at the start line. Finally we headed for the peak at 9am while I was having something worry in my mind. From my experiences, if we don't know what a trail is like, it often excites us for unknown things but it worry us mentally at the same time, which sometimes makes us feel tired physically. I think that everyone has a experience once like that first time is hard but second time is easy. The same think was happening to me. As we walk, I realized that it would be really difficult to walk this trail in summer because three is no trees along the trail and no shade for rest, so we could easily suffer from heat stroke at higher risk. A story is totally different when it comes to hiking at west bay, Santa Cruz mountain. It is because there are plenty of trees giving us shade for rest and protecting us from sun shine. However, it is yet February and temperature goes up 65F at maximum, so it's no problem though water is definitely necessary. As we went up more, we could see and enjoy whole view of Silicon valley area, although it was a little bit foggy over the Santa Cruz mountain at other side. One hour later from the parking, we got to the final stage which is apparently steep, which made us feel tired just by looking at that. However, from experiences, we already know how we can feel after finishing it. So we headed for the peak step by step while we were feeling like approaching goal gradually. And finally we got it. When we looked around the whole view of bay area from the peak, we could feel great achievement. In the middle of way, I was wondering if I could make it and was finding a return path, but I seriously thought that it was very good that I did not give up. If I have given up in the middle of way, I would have regretted this strongly.  

Hiking is beautiful, it gives me power from nature and spirit for exploring what a trail is like.

Zen Meditation

Have you ever experienced meditation ?
I had not actually ever.

I was invited to attend a mediation class by my friend since last year, but I couldn't make it unfortunately because I was a little bit busy and the class started earlier evening.
Last week, I could finally experienced meditation at first time. The class is usually supposed to start at 7:30pm, however vege food is served from 7pm. I couldn't make it, though. At that day, I reached a place 10 minutes before its start, but I was surprised that attendees were not only Asian people but also people from many countries. At first, we chanted the Hannya Shyngyo together. After that, we did meditation while a teacher monk instructed us how to do that physically as well as mentally. This meditation took 20 minute, but this was really good for me because my stress was gone totally by doing this like as the teacher told us. Recently, I am suffering from much stress in my jobs, so it is really good to find ways to control my stress somehow. I realized surely that meditation is one of them. After finishing meditation, we could take a lecture about Buddhism idea for one our from same teacher. This was also amazing because the lecture presentation was really perfect in terms of documents as well as how to speak to people. This was not only a lesson for Buddhism but also how to do an English presentation. Finally the class finished at 9:30pm.

This is very educational for me, so I would like to continue to take this class. Surprisingly, this is free. Off course, some donation is expected by common sense.

Income tax return paper working

Today, when I left the office around 8pm, I noticed that my colleague was still in the office and was doing something in the copy room. It was really rare to see him at this time because he always leaves the office before 7pm. He looked tired of something, so I was really curious about what he was doing and asked him about that. He answered to me that he was struggling to prepare and file a tax return.

I was sorry about that because companies take care of it in Japan as long as he/she is employed. On the other hand, I got to know this since I came to U.S., but employees have to prepare and file a tax return in U.S by themselves. It looks that it is really cumbersome in U.S. and it is really easy in Japan, but there are pros and cons behind that. People in U.S. have to know system of tax in order to do filing even if they do not like to do it, and it takes long time for paper working. However, people can naturally understand what taxes really are instead of that. On the other hand, Almost all  employed people in Japan do not have to take long time for paper working because companies do a filing instead of employees, but they do not know what taxes really are unless they are willing to understand it by themselves.

I am working in U.S., so I have to do it, though.