Summer heat exhaustion?

We call this fatigue and suffering "natsubate" in Japan. I'm not drinking liquid when I'm at my office, but I'm crazily drinking water and soft drinks when I'm at home and sweating it all out when I'm sleeping is one of the causes, but how can I wither away the thirst in this heat!? It's much better than living in Dubai, but much hotter than my native country... Of course, incomparable to the Bay Area!

I was very happy when I saw today's dish on the dinner table!

unagi don! a rice bowl with boiled eel!

I hope this will fight off the exhaustion!

A fresh week...

Three weeks have passed after the ugly developments unfolded... I'm sure it's not going to be a stable week, but at least it's a start of another one. I'm so tired that now, even sleeping for more than 8 hours seems not to help at all!
My staff, except one of them, are taking days off by turns and I've also asked an assistant to come part time for help. It's too bad, no one can take my position so I could take some days off... It's really sad to know that's the position I took and as long as it's impossible to let anyone get a visa to enter this nation, I will just have to work until my batteries run out!

PS
A nice dinner!

oinari san!

Dead all day...

We arrived in Tehran before 5AM and after returning to my office, and to my room, I think I went to bed at around 7:30AM where my wife was sound asleep...

I couldn't wake up until after 3PM...

Today, I really felt sorry that I had to leave my wife alone right after she came a long way to this foreign land... I'm sorry, but I hope she gets used to it... I know there will be more times that I have to leave her alone... But here in Tehran, I could be staying around much more than the other correspondents around the world. I'm also hopeful that she'll make lots of friends that someday she'll think I could be away, knowing many ways to enjoy her stay here!

PS
Today is the 13th day of Farvardin, and as 13 denotes bad luck as it does in many other Western countries (amazing!), it is said that people should not stay inside and take the bad luck outside. So people in Iran just go outside and picnic all day with their family and friends. Well, we stayed inside all day so let's see how bad our luck will be... Tell me how bad could I be by already being sent here which I believe it is one of the worst luck I ever had in my life!

PPS
Today we opened another tool to keep us busy...

Wii Fit!

The next plane after 24 hours!

We arrived in Tehran at around 4AM... Getting back to our office at 5:30AM, I finally went to bed at around 6:30AM...

I was very sleepy and I wanted to sleep all day, but I couldn't... It was all because I took a vacation, so it was even inappropriate to, as it was just a regular weekday... It was also inappropriate that I only had today to get ready for a business trip to Europe and I had to make the major decisions for us to get us on the plane without any problems!

The day passed by so quickly and I only had time to sleep less than an hour and a half... I first thought of sleeping on the sofa, but I decided to take a nap on my bed...

PS
There were lots of people at the Imam Khomeini International Airport, presumably filled with people returning back home from Nowruz vacations!

So fast...

After 9 o'clock I finally woke up... It was around six yesterday that I fell asleep, so that's... 15 hours of sleep!
I still felt quite drowsy and the day went past so fast!
I had to fight with my computer... it runs into so many freezes and hang ups that I seriously have to think about what I should do to make it usable...


these error messages... it's making me crazy!!

PS
It was the last day at work for my wife in Tokyo... I wonder how it would feel if I'd quit my job. I surely wouldn't cry and if I'd decided to quit, I'm sure I'm not worried about my future, but rather seeking a dream...
Well, the heroine of the story is my wife today and from the bottom of my heart, I told her "Otsukaresama!" (meaning something like "Thank you for the hard work" we always say at the end of work in Japan).
I hope she'll spend a nice time until she will leave Tokyo to join me here... of course I'm hoping she will have a much better time spending time with me!

Burnout Syndrome!?

I think psychologically, I'm experiencing a "Burnout Syndrome". I see in wikipedia, reporters are included as the more prone to burnouts! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_(psychology))
Sadly, concentrating on big projects and returning to normal times is what I've continuously done for perhaps the whole 14 years as a reporter. The first year being posted in Kobe right after the Great Hanshin Earthquake, the big issue of a 14 year old murderer in Suma Ward of Kobe in 1997, the development in the Air Pollution Lawsuit of Amagasaki in 1999-2000, the murder of 4 innoncent family members in Setagaya Ward of Tokyo in then end of 2000, and in the five years as a member of the disaster coverage team, the earthquakes and floodings... covering the Self Defense Force dispatched to the Middle East, the Horiemon and the Tokyo Air Pollution Lawsuit while working at the court... the three long trips abroad in my first year as an international correspondent... All has caused a burnout effect on me and I've went through them luckily with the help from God that it was not followed immediately with a greater topic.
This time the Presidential Election of this country is still four months away and though I have to seriously get ready from around April, there will be the Nowruz (Iranian New Year) vacations in late March and my wife is planning to join me at that time... So please... I'm seriously hoping a great issue will not bother me for a while... please...

Relaxing at nighttime finishing off earlier than usual...

having rice is one of the luxuries... a humble and modest luxury...

Still very tired... very...

I woke up in the morning as it is a habit to wake up around 8AM, but after checking my e-mails finding no important messages, I went right back to sleep. I finally woke up before noon time, and after fighting a little with my computer, I couldn't resist going to bed again... I was still very tired after sleeping another two hours. I don't understand why, but I would like to get rid of this drowsiness and maybe taking a vacation leaving this place for a while would help, but I'd rather like to go with my wife after she arrives here next month. Unlike many others, travelling alone is very boring for me and it would be really stressful if I wander anyplace alone...
After talking to her in the afternoon, we could not resolve our case about when and where we should go as we had no clue when the authorities of this nation will grant her a multiple visa... This is the major problem we are facing and we might have the answer tomorrow. Sadly it might be too late because surely all the flights would be booked with many Iranians fleeing the country for vacation... A very tough situation here!

In the nighttime, I fought with the piles of newspapers I hadn't reorganized for months... some papers were old as last October's and it took me three hours just to pigeonhole two piles of them... oh I'll do the other pile tomorrow... I'm so tired...


a pile of papers to fight with!

And I probably woke up like this!

fwaaah...

One more to go...

The long journey of coverage will finish tomorrow morning. I was tired again today but had to stay up until 11PM as I had to record a radio report for the morning show in Japan. After my staff left the office before 7PM, I decided to take a nap for a few hours before waking up before 10PM. I didn't know if I were awake enough to do the job, but at least I wasn't feeling too dizzy like the Finance Minister at the G8, and managed to do the job. (Well it's not easy to get access to alcohol anyways, so there isn't a doubt about the reason I were dizzy!)
With tomorrow morning's live coverage, the coverage of the 30th Anniversary of the Revolution will finish... finally...

PS
I received a post package from my sister living in the US...


yeah they surely opened it and checked it thoroughly!
how challenging could it be getting a gift from a country without diplomatic relations!?


but the book... a Christian one... was okay...
wow... very interesting...
Well... Thank you for the gift!

Stagnation

We're back into the stagnant period. I'm still tired and didn't feel like working...

I participated in the Japanese Association's meeting of the board of directors and I felt relieved it is the last one of this fiscal year. After becoming a member of the board, I only missed one meeting!

Since the end of last week, the weather is becoming better and the temperature is rising. I sense that spring is coming, but my heart still remains cold as ever. Maybe I'm just tired as I couldn't resist falling asleep on the sofa of my office after my staff left...

After I woke up, the President started talking on Channel One, and though I couldn't understand Farsi, it seemed not too important... it was rather quite conspicuous that he was coughing too much... Please Mr. President, you should take a rest like I should...

PS
I probably was sleeping like...


this!
(pic I found in the web)