Another day gathering infos...

After writing more winter greeting cards till 5AM, I slept for about 6 hours, and woke up just in time to make it to a lunchtime appointment with a scholar.

going out to the water front of Tokyo... a beautiful but very windy and cold day at the bayside!

Returning home and sleeping for less than 3 hours, I rushed to my office to participate in my last overnight shift work. It's still Chinese dumplings that were manking the news, but I must try to find some time to do my work!

Imports from the nation of dragons...

Our nation in the far east was in chaos today because of frozen dumplings imported from the gigantic nation of dragons. It was evident that the poisoning caused by China-made "gyoza"s will be the top story until Super Tuesday.

But for me, it was just another day to gather information to get ready for my trip.

The other big story for the day was...

the handball qualifier match for Beijing! there were so many people lined up at the gymnasium to watch the match!

I watched the match live on TV, but sadly the Japanese men's team fell short of winning against the rival Koreans to qualify, but surely millions have become much familiar with the sport!

Eating whatever I can NOW!

After working till late at night, I went out to get something to eat.

Our choice:

sashimi: delicious raw fish! with Japanese sake!

I'm sure I won't be able to eat these at Baghdad, so I gulped as many as I could that really satisfied my appetite!

I'm going to bed...
but I'm depressed to see this...

yes, my toe saying hello!
oh well..
cheap socks never prevail...
that's why I bought four pairs of socks yesterday!

Last weekday to relax?

My last journey to this place for a while... I hope...

the Iraqi embassy!

Finishing off the last procedure for the preparation of the visa, I was set to go to Iraq. I will be heading to the country in a week and this will be my last week in Japan for a while.

It was supposed to me my day off, so after staying at my office to take care of some paperwork, I went out to Shinjuku to do shopping. Buying shirts, socks, and underwear, electronic goods, books, and a Double Whopper with Cheese!

Back at home, I wrote a little more greeting cards, but that was it. It's perhaps my last weekday to relax. If I do the best, I might be able to relax a little more in the weekend, but let's see!

Lucky enough...

Ovennight, there was no sign of lightning hitting us and I was able to finish off nearly 100 cards before getting home. My colleagues in charge of the American news were assembled in full force to cover Obama's win at South Carolina and I was lucky enough to slip away and get some sleep.

I slept till around 7PM and after taking a bath and doing my laundry it was time to go back to work!

all right, let's finish off another 100!

I haven't reached my goal yet, but I'm quite enthused when I write messages to people I care about. Here I go!

P.S.
They say the final bout between Hakuho and Asashoryu was a great fight, but I missed it so I stared at the news programs showing the bout.

I was in doubt when the older grand champion was passive at the end. did he lose his stamina at the end, or was it something else? (pic from Kyodo)

It surely is the Ryu-ho era (they say it's the Ao-jiro, the "blue" and "white" era, colors included in their names) as we predicted (http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/03/and-another-era-coming-by.html), but where's the Japanese wrestlers!?

Another breaking news at night, that a 38 year old governor has given birth in Osaka. What the heck is going on in the west!? The website is not updated yet (http://www.pref.osaka.jp/en/index.html), but I will be watching it to see the change! Like people who support Mr. Obama, there seems to be a craving for change in this stagnant world.

Using time wisely!

It was a weekend of overnight duty, but I had to use my free time as wise as possible. But I slept till it was 3PM. Usually, a big mistake...

I'm invited to a home party tonight, but before I go, I had to finish off a very important job.

making "kanchu mimai hagaki"s ("winter greetings postcards")!!

Since I missed sending "nengajo"s ("New Year's Greeting Cards") this year, my only chance to say hello is by sending these cards. But they have to be sent before the first day of spring in the traditional Japanese calendar, which is the 4th of February this year. I think I need to write at least 200 cards this year keeping the numbers the lowest as possible and I'm running out of time!

I rushed to the party and had a great time with mouthwatering food with delightful wine and champagne. But I had no time to fool around with Moët-chan, I always look forward to meet (this is how she looks: http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/05/again.html yeah, beautiful girl isn't she?).

I was a little drunk, but was sober enough to work. Good thing I did sleep for about 11 hours. It wasn't a mistake after all!

Getting ready for...

In 10 days, I will leave Tokyo to go to another nation in turmoil.
I'm not ready at all and it's always a battle with the time factor.

In this nation, I hear that they have a new flag...
BUT no one knows when the new flag will be in effect!
A nation that can't even decide when they can hang out a flag...
What a nation that would be!

the old flag...
with 3 stars and "Allahu Akbar"
the new one will be without the 3 stars, they say...
but who knows when we can see it!?


another flag that was discussed...
what would've happened if they chose this one!?
a completely different image!

I was so ineffective this week!
To get ready for my trip to a troubled area...
I need to work harder these coming several days!!

Back into another rotation...

Without any confidence in myself to stay awake, I rushed to my office to get into the day shift.
It's not an exciting job to do and all day it was quite uneventful, so I just worked flatly...

Though I would have liked to have a splendid dinner with beef like someone who gave me an e-mail having Sukiyaki, I tried my best to get the same kind of dish!

yup! it's beef all right! 100% beef... I hope...

Whiteness in the city!

After finishing overnight duty, I had a crucial interview with one of my bosses, and whatever I said today could have changed my life. Let's see which way things will turn for me...

There were puffs of snow falling on our city, and though I was expecting a more soggy type of snow, it was powdery enough to make the city white.
I returned home a while before noon...

my car...

a view from my home...

It's more snowy than Feburary of 2006 (http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/02/two-mistakes.html), but not as snowy as January of that year (http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/01/snow-in-capital.html http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2006/01/what.html) .
But maybe this is only the beginning!

At night, almost all of the whiteness was gone with cold rain falling on the city. I went to Shinjuku to get drunk with the younger. (drinking with the same members on this night http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2007/09/making-vow.html it's funny I'm taking a photo of the same view from my room!)

I feel a little comfortable, but I realize that I have little time to get ready for my next voyage!

Greatly inefficient...

We were drinking till 2AM, and there were some exchange of words last night that all comes from stress. I was not involved in the quarrel, but surely was in the middle of the argument... Sensing I would not be able to straighten my mind in the morning, I decided to change my plans and go to sleep all morning. My plans changed even further when I decided to sleep more till I felt right.

I finally left my room at around 8PM to head for overnight duty. I stopped by Shinjuku to get a hand on my favorite dish...

yup! my favorite hamburger! yummolicious!
a meal for 740 yen in Tokyo, 35000 Indonesian Rupees at Jakarta!
(http://hide3diary.blogspot.com/2008/01/dead-meet.html)

Hanging around Shinjuku, it was not that cold as expected...

the digital thermometer said 6 degrees Celcius... cold? warm? hmm...

What an inefficient day it was...
I hope I can be a little more productive tomorrow!

A bad takeoff, but a safe landing...

I woke up just in time to make a call I needed to, and made it on time to an impromptu appointment.

I expected it will be a bad day when I just missed the subway train...

oh I can still hear the sound of the train leaving!

It was more skeptical about my fate when I couldn't find my important papers at my office. I had to get to my house in the afternoon to find out the papers weren't there either...

The tide seemed to turn to the better when I finally received the necessary entry visa for my next business trip in the evening, and found my papers in my locker. I was able to fill out my papers for my last trip and my next trip on time, and I was able to go out at night to a drinking party.

I hope things will go for the better!

Freezing!

I didn't see it for myself, but my mom told me it was snowing!
Oh well, I slept all morning and tried to stay warm in a comfortable air-conditioned room.

a view from the apartment... you can see a small hill where the famous tomb of Emperor Nintoku is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Nintoku)

Finally after waking up at around 1PM...

my request for lunch!
a Kansai flavored ozoni! (rice cake in white miso soup)
I'm so happy to eat this!

After lunch, we went out to see my grandma which was a nice idea.
Now it was raining and also helplessly freezing.
I was shivering each time we had to go outside and feel the chill!

sorry Love-chan... we can't take you out... bye-bye and see you again!

After returning home to relax, time flew by instantly, and it was time again to head to Kansai Airport and return to Tokyo.

A brief but relaxing weekend. And... BACK TO HELL!

Weekend in Osaka...

I was supposed to be in overnight duty today, but I was able to take this weekend off (my colleague offered me to trade our overnight duty days and I gladly accepted the offer).

I slept all morning, as I was so tired working just for two days, but I didn't hesitate to get on a plane westward to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents.

here I am at Haneda Airport heading to Kansai Int'l Airport!
I will be taking the same route in about two weeks to kick off another long business trip...

Arriving at Osaka, I spent a pleasant time with my parents. It was the first time I visited them at their new apartment.

having a hot pot with kimchi... this will warm me up!

It was so cold today... I hope I won't catch a cold!!

The most painstaking procedure...

After drinking till late at night, I was practically dead in the morning, and I started fighting through the paperwork of my business trip from the afternoon. It's always a pain in the neck and perhaps the most painstaking procedure to balance out my expenses with the confirmed budget.

fighting with four currencies! very complicated!

After going into the night shift I continued the task but called it quits late at night... Oh I'm not going into the fresh week clean!

Back to normality...

Waking up just in time, I rushed to my office!

oh... I'm back... cars and buildings... yes, I'm back...

I took the taxi on my expense as I was almost late and I almost forgot it was a special day...

how can I forget 117 ("ichi ichi nana" meaning one one seven)!?
pic from Kyodo

It was a very depressing day though... very... Well I don't really want to discuss it! We went out to get a drink and we had many thoughts today. It was my first day of return to work in Japan this year, but in a sense, it will not be a day I will forget!

Updating my blog!

All night, I was fighting with all the photos I'd taken throughout my trip.

It was my second day off but after sleeping till just after noon and going shopping nearby, I went to my office to say hello to some of my colleagues and my bosses, as I did not meet them this Monday, which was a holiday.
After doing the least I can do for work, I went out to eat some beef bowl which was another junky treat I wanted to taste, and then straight back home to start updating my blog.
I've been writing my diary everyday on my notebook computer while I was on my month-long trip, but I did some edit as I posted a month-ful writing of my blog diary!

yes, these were written while I was at those three countries!

I hope I can finish it before tomorrow morning, because I have to take part in the shift job first thing in the morning!

Staying home!

Well, after hearing the bad news in Afghanistan last night, I did not go to my office, but checked the international news websites to ascertain that the terrorist attack at a prestigious hotel was not too big a deal. Of course I knew it was not a small matter at all, but after I went to sleep from about 4AM, I could not wake up till late in the afternoon to see the updates. But I made up my mind to take a rest and stay at home. I needed some courage to stay calm and forget about the news for just a while! It was my day off and I had to take a rest!!

Staying at my room...

I just munched on junk food! my favorites!

Oh yes I had my favorite sushi yesterday, so today it was junk food time!

Back to my home country!

Leaving Bangkok, I was flying with a plane with one of the best equipment, but this old businessman on my left went to sleep right away and was wildly snoring. And my neighbor on the right was not snoring, but he was groaning and he also tossed and turned, kicking my right foot once in a while.
Am I unlucky or what!?

I switched on the entertainment system right away and started watching Bourne Ultimatum while eating my second dinner in about four hours. (I already had a full meal in the previous fight from Lahore!) I finally slept for about an hour and after I woke up, at around 6:20AM, we landed on Japnaese soil where it was a holiday, the third day of a three day weekend.

no one around the luggage claim turntables at this early hour!

I headed to my office and after I said hello, I swiftly jumped out of the building to take the rest of the day off! After spending a pleasant time, it was time to eat sushi for dinner and take a good night's rest!

But late at night, I was informed that a terrorist attack was confirmed at a hotel in Kabul.
Oh please...

Good-bye Pakistan!

Islamabad Day 17
I have no idea when I will be here again, but I hope it would get more stable than now... I really do, because I'd like to visit more places in this country! Mohenjodaro, Rohtas Fort, Peshawar... you name it!
In the morning, I left the Capitol city of Islamabad for Lahore... It's always a little bit sad to leave some place you stayed for a while even though there are suicide bombers everywhere!

taking the PIA for the first time... only to Lahore!


here I am again in Bangkok's international airport!
let's get some souvenirs!

My last full day in Islamabad...

Islamabad Day 16
A cloudy day... and in the morning, the lights went out again... Oh, see what Mr. Musharraf has accomplished in his reform! We have generators to bring back light to our office, but I hope he has many gadgets to bring light to many citizens with nightmares!

even the fish have lost their light! say something to the President guys!

It was another greatly peaceful day. And I stayed around my office to get ready to leave the city. Well I really didn't acheive anything this past week, but what the heck, it's better than going back to Japan to get back into the shift job.

my last dinner... Pakistani style!

My last night in Islamabad... sayin' good-bye to the stove I've been together for more than two weeks!

oh I'll miss this warmth...