Keyword of the day: younger girls!

The last day of September was another cold day in Tokyo.

This day was dedicated to young girls!

Shinobu Moromisato at 21 wins her first Japanese major title prevailing over champions and veterans (on the left)
Aston Machan, a 3 year old filly wins her first GI title beating well experienced colts and mares (on the right)

The Sprinter Stakes (GI)

Aston Machan was at front all the way to the end...
she was a strong rival to Vodka at last year's Juvenile Fillies (see http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/12/dutiful-daughter.html)
the three year old fillies are really the strongest generation in years!!

the protests continue on in our country as we have many displaced ones of this troubled country (pic from Jiji)

The UN envoy is reported to have met Aung San Suu Kyi at Rangoon. Let's see if it could have improved the situation!

No way out!?

The brutality in the Southeast Asian dictatorship continued and my working hours is mounting!
Is there a peaceful way to solve this mess in Burma!? Probably not. To reach a hopeful ending for democracy could be quite brutal. Do we want to see more bloodshed!? Of course not!

It was a cold day with rain in the morning, and staying in my office through lunch hours, the only way to change the mood is to eat better food...

curry and naan... something for the better!
thanks to my younger collegue delivering this to us caught up in the news center

Evil as ever!

We learned quickly today that the fatal shot on the Japanese journalist was fired at close range. It surely was not just a warning shot! How evil can this military regime be!

I have to be thankful... really thankful...

I'm living in a peaceful environment and I can have a beer before going to bed... I'm not a citizen of an evil empire, but it is our mission to free the innocent ones in captivity, living in a violent world!!

Hoping for a peaceful end...

In vain...

Turn of events to a very very dangerous stage...

the result: a dead Japanese video journalist!
FIRES on us!

In the morning, when I was heading to my office, I saw...

two doves kissing...
I thought it was a good omen...
BUT...

P.S. (for the record)
a periodic medical check-up day...
Today
Weight: 65.5kg Blood Rate: 124/73

April 2007
Weight: 63.7kg Blood Rate: 156/95

gained 2kg... but my blood rate is back to normal!

Catastrophically terrible...

I'm quite sure it was one of the worst days of my life.
Terrible... catastrophically terrible...
In the morning I couldn't stay awake as I dropped off to sleep for a couple of hours around 5AM. I hardly remember Iranian Prez Ahmadinejad's speech...
I had to work all day till night and with each hour...

the situation at Burma worsened... reports of clashes, turmoil and sadly... deaths...

The chance to win the pennant for the Tigers collapsed completely tonight...
I missed the bus, and a road construction blocked my way home taking a cab...
Nothing went as I hoped today.
NOTHING!

A long long night...

I started out from the morning. I knew I should have slept more, but I was worried about the Burmese protests.

a building was getting scrapped up in Kitashinjuku...

But Abe's cabinet did not get scrapped up, as 15 of 17 Cabinet members were reappointed... nothing fresh...

tens of thousands of monks and protesters marched to their road to democracy... bloodshed is the last thing we want to see!

A long day at the United Nations General Assembly started at night in Japan. I would rather watch its digest in the news rather than following it live... oh, it will be a long long night at overnight duty.

Sinking...

After spending a splendid night at Tokyo Bay, I had to work...

oh, good thing I always have a folding umbrella... it started to rain, just after I started heading for my office...

While working on the Burmese protests at night shift. the most shocking news was that the Chunichi Dragons had lightened their Magic Number 7 for the pennant. The Tigers are now sinking with their fifth straight loss... oh... like the ship is sinking...

A fixed race!?

Working in the day shift, the biggest news of the day was the election of LDP's head, the next PM of this nation.

It was worse than boring to watch a fixed race...

as all the morning papers had written, it was this old man who prevailed... let's see if he can prevail in the rough waters ahead!

Tired... but working...

It was my day off, but I was working from morning to night.

hello, doggy! a rescue dog that was dispatched to Niigata after the earthquake!

Alcohol, alcohol...

I had so many frustrations today, but that's that.
Forget it, man!
Maybe having a headache because of a hangover, I had a bad start this morning...

At night, I went out to have drinks with my colleagues sharing the same year of entering our organization (=doukis: see the glossary in the sidebar). It's difficult trying not to be a child and be an adult. But with so much burning curiosity, it's so hard to be quiet at bars.

Well, tomorrow I have a job to finish. A job that nobody will be interested in. But who cares! I'm full of curiosity!!

so which one shall I start with!? hmm... to counteract some of the alcohol, I should start with the right one!

Making a vow...

Looking at the sun from my room at 6AM. The editing process finished just before 5:30AM. I'm was so sleepy, but luckily I was able to sleep well into the afternoon.

good morning... but I'm going to sleep, baby!

At night I went out to drink with young bureaucrats. Together we swore we will try to make a better world and vowed never to be shortsighted. With turmoil, it's our chance to start making changes, and at my age, that's an offer, rather than an obligation!

Cogwheel with a value...

It's obviously hard to work all day without going outside and meeting your sources updating any info you're interested in. But there are so many restrictions you must apply to. It's not so easy to go outside Tokyo just to update info. There's also many commitments to handle.

So I must move effectively each day...

hello, Tokyo Tower!

Do you think that's BS!? Well, with so many expectations, it's not all tragic to work like a cogwheel of a clock. Because we're working as a team, we can always find out how to work things out. As a member of an organization, I feel I should be able to say so even when I'm not drunk...

Still having hope!

Another close one that could have turned either way!

saying "KANPAI" to the team still on the top! one mistake could have changed the order of the top three teams!

	Team	W	L	T	Pct	GB
1	Tigers	71	56	4	.559	-
2	Dragons	70	58	2	.547	1.5
3	Giants	73	61	1	.545	1.5

My day could have turned either way, but after a meeting, and the night shift job, I was still standing with hope. Light showers late at night have lowered the temperature significantly and even without an umbrella I was able to walk through the streets with a smile.

Gold rush in the end...

Working in my office from the morning... the alarms of urgent news from Kyodo flashed thrice...

The Japanese Judo team in Rio has finally nailed a gold... three golds...

including one for this mother of a child... her 7th World Judo gold!

No one was even close when I was watching television till today! And hey, that won't happen in Beijing, right!?

This is what I need when I'm tired...

something that turns a hot bath into a hot spa!

Winds of the city...

Tired as hell, I fell dead for hours today. I think I had too much sleep, but I couldn't help it!

In the evening...

wandering the Tokyo-Yurakucho area... still hot... but the winds from buildings were pleasant... won't they brush off my worries away...

Not a satisfactory day...

I decided to work...

Because, I have so many things to do...
But I just can't concentrate...

Yes...
I'd like to do something else...
I'd like to be with someone else...
I'd like to be somewhere else...

But it's my job to take some time at my office to think things over.
I might not have spent a satisfactory day, but I need these kind of days to get through crazily busy days yet to come!

While working I was peeking at the game!

YES HAMACHAN!
but still with the Giants 1/2 a game behind and the Dragons 1 1/2 games behind, nothing's predictable!

PS
Happy Birthday, MOM!
I wish your life will be filled with happiness...
yeah, with DAD.

Nothing's "not serious"

Good for Indonesia, the casualties from the quakes doesn't seem catastrophic.
Still, many have lost their homes and their livelihoods and no disasters of this sort could be not serious to anyone... especially for me covering these kind of news for years! So to be sure to cover what is needed, though it was supposed to be a day off of me, I decided to work today... but only after taking my fatigue off by resting throughout the morning to make sure I wouldn't fall dead at my office! ;)

Being a little relieved, at night, I was able to keep my promise to treat a youngster going to the States to study with a send-off dinner. I hope he will have a good time in the West Coast, and I felt a little envious, he could still go on an adventure!

On the other hand... the race for premiership doesn't seem serious at all to me...

the matchup is just a show on TV... so to be a premier of this country, you have to be a relative of some famous politician!?

Not again...

In the morning... another tsunami warning in the Indian Ocean... but at least it was a limited one!

a M7.8 quake this time! but no observed tsunamis! phew!
(there was a M7.1 later on in the afternoon too)

Yesterday's M8.4 quake generated tsunamis all over the Indian Ocean as PTWC had observed a 120cm tsunami in Indonesia and a 72cm tsunami at Oman. But there were no catastrophic damages of tsunamis reported and the death toll was slow to rise in Indonesia.
I hope it stays that way so we all can have a peaceful weekend, and give all our air time to the politics division covering the LDP turmoil with the resigning PM being hospitalized and the candidates for premiership already on their feet!

I'm so sleepy, but the coverage will continue... I have to wake up and follow up on Thursday!

the magnitude was revised to M8.4 (from M7.9, and 8.2) by the USGS...

The nation with the highest number of quakes!

I was so tired to go on, but as I was trying to write up memos about what I want to cover at my new post, breaking news about a large quake came in...

at 11:10 UTC (20:10 JST)... another big one at the coast of Sumatra Island of Indonesia, the nation with the highest number of big quakes!