First day in months!

It was another precious day that I did not step into my office... A very rare occasion unless I'm abroad and it's physically impossible to go to my office! It was possible as both in Japan and in Iran, it was a holiday!
I spent most of my time together with my wife and taking a nap in the afternoon... what a pleasure! On the other hand, I'm feeling how much weight I'm gaining each day recently... I want to blame it on the fact I'm not being able to do my job of journalism, but it's rather because I have too much stress, I can't stop eating and drinking!

PS
This isn't too much right!?

just some yakisoba and rice!

Last day of a six day holiday!

It was my mistake to sleep until 11AM! The day went by so quickly as it was around 3PM when I finally finished writing about 50 more cards!
Trying to finish the holidays in a nice way, I asked my wife to accompany me out for a walk in the park... I'm sure she was the one who would have loved to, but I knew she was worried if I'd finish writing the greeting cards on time!
The stroll in the park was pleasant. It was warm and many families were picnicking running around with soccer balls!

Pics in the park... so peaceful...

nice day to take a walk!

many people were enjoying the day in their own ways!

and the favorite family sport is soccer! we spotted a lot of girls kicking the ball wearing the skarf on their heads!

so many beautiful flowers!

sakura!? cherry blossoms!?

In the nighttime, we decided to setup the game console that my wife bought in Tokyo. So many of her colleagues and friends gave us softwares and peripherals for the console as a "marriage gift" for both of us and as a "retiring gift" for my wife!


it works fine!
we had a tough time to be used to the remote controllers!

PS
In the morning, reports of Japan winning the WBC was already out... It seemed to have been a very exciting championship game and I was quite sad I couldn't share the excitement together with my friends in Japan and the US... Oh well, someday I'll get to go to see a game in the future! Inshallah!

Nowruz greeting cards!

Starting from yesterday, I used most of my time today to fill out the Nowruz greeting cards... I tried to "squeeze" down the number to under 200, but still it took me all day to write about 120 cards...
I wrote the address on the envelope and then wrote some comments inside the card, but without my wife's help putting the cards into the envelope and writing "AIR MAIL" it would have taken more time!
I'll finish the rest tomorrow...


the cards...


it's still quite visible with sun at 6:30PM...
It didn't get dark until well after 7PM!

No disturbance!

It was such a nice day... no, not the weather... because there was no disturbance from Tokyo! Well, maybe I should be ashamed of myself hoping I don't have to do my job as a foreign correspondent, but who cares!
Spending time at my home, I almost forgot that there was an one hour difference on the clock! On 12 o'clock midnight today, the clock jumped to 1AM having the Daylight Savings Time in effect from today.

adjusting the clock!

After setting the clocks, we left for a walk to the north, heading to a hotel to have a nice lunch.


there were quite a lot of people out in the streets!

We decided to have a Thai meal!

some spring rolls...

and green curry and beef with mushroom sauce!

finished with coffee!

and the Haft Sin on the table!

The weather seemed to turn to the bad, but thank God while we were having lunch, it became sunny again!

this is how it looked while we were having lunch...

but it seemed fine later on when we started back towards home!

We stopped by a supermarket on the way back...
You can find some Japanese imported food here...

curry package...

and soy sause... ones on the right are made in China...

but also Snapples!

Last day of the Year!?

It's quite hard to explain as I myself do not understand how it works, but today is the 29th day of the last month of the Iranian year and tomorrow we will welcome Nowruz, the Iranian New Year's Day, but still it will be the 30th day of the last month... So in fact, today is not the last day of the year. It's complicated because Iran is in its leap year and the usual 29 day month of Esfand has 30 days as I have mentioned yesterday.
It's still a holiday in memorial for the day that the oil industry was nationalized on 1951, before the Shah of Pahlavi returned to power by an US backed coup d'etat overthrowing the popular PM who initialized the oil nationalization.
Thanks to this holiday, Iran has now entered a six day holiday, though with my job it doesn't seem to be that much of an advantage without any tickets to take me abroad or at least inside the country... Still it was the first holiday for me and my wife and we worked together to clean up our rooms filled with goods. Opening up the closets and wardrobe drawers filled with my clothes was an important task for me!
The internet in our room was dead and I had to ask my wife to spend some time together in my office where the internet was fine. We didn't have time to spend some time outside, but with 5 more days of holidays, I'm sure we will have a chance to do so soon!

In the holidays... I was always eating alone...

now that has changed!
It's so nice to eat meals together...

And


"at home" meals are also nice!

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!

Day to rest...

I had some work to do... to get ready for a live broadcast I have on Thursday... but after waking up once in the morning, I went back to bed...
I slept for more than 10 hours today... Still I was so tired...

My staff's friend brought me some "Imam Hosseini lunch" you can get in the streets like you can on Ashura Day, as today was another important holiday called Arbaeen. I didn't have the strength to call on my staff to work today to cover the event so I missed the event that should have taken place outside...

I had the lunch...

let's see...


not bad!

I went outside for a walk...

just to Vanak Square...


A RARE VIEW!
no cars today... empty streets!

I walked only for an hour and I was so exhausted... I'm still so tired!

Spending the day slowly and happily...

タイトル：ゆっくり、そして幸せに日を過ごす…

Waking up late and taking a nap again in the afternoon at my parents'.

I heard there was a roller-coaster accident at an amusement park in northern Osaka, but I decided not to think about having a hand in the coverage. There's enough brilliant reporters in Osaka, and I seriously had to take a rest.

At home though, it was very disturbing to see that the Tigers were going to lose their seven straight.

Spending time here in Osaka relieves me, but still there's many things to be worried about, and I feel restless...

but this is a real treat: having Dad's sukiyaki for dinner again!

実家で遅く起きて、午後にはまた昼寝した。
大阪北部の遊園地でジェットコースター事故があったと聞いたが、取材の応援に入るのは辞めた。大阪には優秀な記者が十分いるし、マジで休まないといけなかったし。
しかし家でタイガースが７連敗するのを観るのはとってもウザかった。
ここ大阪で時間を過ごすと気が楽になるけど、悩み事はたくさんあるんだ。そしてそわそわしてしまう…。
写真：でもこれはご馳走だわ：晩飯はまた親父特製のすき焼きだい！

My choice: GO WEST!

タイトル：俺の選択：西へ！

Last night, I fell dead at around nine, and that made me wake up at around 2AM. With no sign of falling into sleep, I decided to watch "Troy" starred by Brad Pitt, which I had recoreded a week ago when aired on TV.
And after I woke up, I went to see "Babel", also starred by Brad Pitt. It was quite a difficult movie to understand, but at least I won't lose out in conversations after the working days start.

昨夜、夜９時頃にオチた。そのせいで午前２時頃に目が覚めた。全く眠れそうになかったんで、先週テレビ放送されたのを録画していたブラッド・ピットの「トロイ」を観ることにした。
起きたあと、これもブラッド・ピット主演の「バベル」を見に行った。理解するのに難しい映画だったけど、少なくとも仕事が始まったときに話題に付いていかないということはないだろう。

In the evening, I headed west, as I'd decided to leave Tokyo just briefly.

arriving in Shin-Osaka just before 8 PM.

Spending time with my parents was my choice to spend the rest of my precious vacation!

夕方には、西に向かった。ほんの少しだけ東京を離れることにしたから。
写真：午後８時前に新大阪に到着した
貴重な休暇の残りを両親と過ごすこと。それが俺の選択だ。

One last day of rest...

タイトル：休暇の最終日…

Waking up before noon, my last day off flew by so fast... faster than an arrow...

I went to the movies to watch "Lucky # Selvin" (titled "Lucky Number 7" in Japanese). I love films where everything fits into place at the end, and this one fooled me to the end. Entertaining, it was. And pleasantly I have spent my last day off with a reason...

In the evening, I got a haircut, and went to the press club with my car to bring many of my belongings to my base camp from tomorrow.

at night taking a peek at the new TV serial drama... watching TV relaxes me too...

Oh, these three weeks... have I had enough rest!?
Anyways, I shall truly return to the battlefield. This time the endless heat shall continue till March.
Yes, I better be ready!!

昼前に起きて、最後の休日はあっと言う間に過ぎ去った…弓矢より早く…。
「ラッキーナンバー７」を見に行った。最後にすべてが理解できる映画は好きなんだが、最後まで騙されたね。面白かったよ。とにかく最後の日にちゃんとした理由で、楽しく過ごせたよ…。
夕方には紙を切りに行って、基地に明日から必要な多くの物を持って行くために記者クラブに出掛けた。
写真：夜になって新しい連ドラを覗き見しながら…テレビを見ると落ち着くんだよね…
ああ、この３週間点十分休めたかな！？
どちらにしろ、戦地に戻らないといかない。今度は、３月まで限りのない熱気が続くことだろう。
そう。準備できてない訳にはいかないんだ！！

Reluctantly...

タイトル：しぶしぶ…

I woke up just before noon and headed eastward right away.
And... here I am again...

at Nakayama RC with my elder colleague!

It was disastrous... I had no payback at all today! boo...

After the races were over, I reluctantly headed to the press club and then to my office, first to check out the greeting cards sent to me, and secondly to search for things I can do throughout this week to mitigate the burden I must face when I really have to go back to work next week!
Oh yes... there's so much things I can do!
And of course, privately, I must clean up my room! And that's more of a burden!!

正午直前に起きて、すぐに東に向かった。
そして…またここに来た…
写真：先輩と中山競馬場に！
大惨事だった…きょうは全く払い戻しがなかった！ぶー…
レースが終わったあと、しぶしぶ記者クラブに向かって、次に職場に向かった。とりあえず自分宛の年賀状を見るのと、来週マジで仕事に戻らなきゃいけないときに少しは楽になるように、今週のうちにできることを探すために！
ああ、そうだ…本当にたくさんやれることがあるよ！
そして勿論、私事としては、自分の部屋を片づけること！それはもっと重荷だ！！

Cold outside, warm inside!

タイトル：外は寒く、中は暖かく！

I woke up so late this afternoon. I watched the high school rugby football championship...

Osaka's team over Fukuoka's team... Tokaidai-Gyosei HS was the best bet for the title and they fulfilled their mission...

High school rugby tournament is more popular in the Kansai area than the Kanto area, not just because the field of play is at Hanazono rugby football stadium in East Osaka City, but as two Osaka teams made it to the semifinals, the teams are better in the west.
Most of the excellent players advance to colleges in Kanto, and the situation switches when College rugby tournaments, as now, Kansai colleges rarely advance to the finals.
Well it's always great to see a Kansai team win the championship!

きょうの午後、すごく遅く起きて、高校ラグビーの決勝戦を見た…。
写真：大阪のチームが福岡のチームを破った…東海大暁星高校は最有力なチームだったが、使命を達成できた…
高校ラグビーは関東より関西の方が人気が高い。試合会場が東大阪市にある花園ラグビー競技場だからという理由だけじゃなくて、大阪の２チームが準決勝に残るように、西のチームの方が強いからだ。
優秀な選手のほとんどが関東の大学に進学して、大学ラグビーの大会で状況は逆になる。今や関西の大学が決勝に進むのは珍しいくらいだ。
まぁ関西のチームが優勝するのを見るのは嬉しいことだね！

At night, I had a pleasant dinner at Ikebukuro. It was freezing outside with fairly strong winds, but I was warm inside, especially in my heart!

夜になって、池袋で楽しい夜ご飯を食べた。外は強めの風が吹いて寒かったけど、中は暖かかったよ。特に心の中はね！

Back to base!

タイトル：基地に戻って！

I arrived in Tokyo at night taking the Shinkansen from Shin-Osaka.
So many greeting cards were waiting for me, and the last thing I did this day was to was to write back to those who I haven't sent to... I had to write about 25 cards, mostly to the members of my organization!

新大阪から新幹線に乗って、夜には東京に着いた。
かなりたくさんの年賀状が来ていて、きょう最後にやったことは、送ってない人たちに年賀状を返すことだった…。２５枚ほど書かなきゃいけなかった。ほとんどが職場の人たちだったけど！

Still in Osaka, I woke up early this morning and said good-bye to my parents and headed to Yodo, Kyoto in the rain!

First of all... to see my POG No. 1 draft pick's debut race.

Asterion!
at the 3rd race of Kyoto
sadly she finished 5th in the race...

大阪で、今日は早く起きて、両親にお別れの挨拶をしたあと、雨の中、京都の淀に向かった！
最初に…ＰＯＧのドラフト１位の馬の初戦を見るために。

写真：アステリオン！
京都の第３レースで
悲しいことにレースでは５着に終わった…

At the main race, Kyoto Kinpai(=Gold Cup)...
I rooted for Asterion's elder brother...

Fusaichi Richard!
the ending was even worse than his sister... he finished a disappointing 13th!

I luckily had a bit of the quinella ticket, and broke even today...
At Nakayama RC, Chelsea the Best had finished 14th at the 5th race...
Oh boy... for the horses I root for... it was just a disaster!

Well... maybe all my bad luck had been shouldered by my dearest horseys!!
The rain stopped falling in the afternoon, and I didn't need an umbrella till the end, as it had stopped raining in Tokyo just before I arrived. It really helped, as I didn't need to use one hand to hold an umbrella! Thanks guys! And see you again!

メインレースの京都金杯で…
アステリオンの兄を応援…

写真：フサイチリシャール！
結果は妹よりひどかった…期待はずれの１３着に終わった！

幸いにも馬連をちょっと持ってたから、きょうはトントンだった…
中山競馬場では、チェルシーザベストは第５レースで１４着に終わった…
あ～あ…応援した馬にとっては…大惨事だったよ！
まぁ…俺の不運が全部愛馬たちが背負ってくれたんだよ！！
雨は午後には止んで、最後まで傘は必要なかった。東京でも到着する前に止んでたから。傘を持つために腕を一つ使わなくて済んだから本当に助かったよ！ありがとよ、みんな！じゃ、またな！

Last night in Osaka!

タイトル：大阪で最後の夜！

Sleeping pleasantly till noon, before the evening come, I went to Umeda(=JR Osaka Station) to meet my douki colleague working in Otsu.

from the Osaka Terminal Building (known as "Acty Osaka")...
http://www.octb.jp/english/search/detail.cgi?id=01602
I have so many memories here... both good and bad...

気持ちよく昼まで寝て、夕方になる前に、梅田（＝ＪＲ大阪駅）に行って、大津で働く同期に会いに行った。
写真：大阪ターミナルビル（「アクティ大阪」として知られる）から…
ここにはたくさんの思い出が…良いのも悪いのも…

We were joined by another douki colleague, returning to Tokyo tonight, and hopped on the "Hep Five Ferris Wheel" (http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2763615-hep_five_ferris_wheel_osaka-i)

a beautiful sight from the Wheel, but unfortunately with three guys riding it! yeah, I surely would've ridden it with a gal!

東京に今夜戻る別の同期と合流して、「ＨＥＰファイブの観覧車」に飛び乗った。
写真：観覧車からのきれいな夜景、でも悲しいことに男３人で乗ってるっちゅうのが！ああ、そら女のコと一緒に乗った方がええわな！

And after walking around for a bit, we stopped to eat a Osakan dinner!

with Okonomiyaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki) and Yakisoba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisoba)!

そして少しだけ歩き回った後、大阪のメシを食べることに！
写真：お好み焼きと焼きそば！

My douki took me home way over to Sakai City with his sexy BMW and after wishing him good luck, I spent one last relaxing night at home.

exchanging glasses of wine with my Dad!

Good night Osaka... I shall return!

同期がセクシーなＢＭＷで堺市の家まで送ってくれて、幸運を祈ってわかれたあと、家でリラックスできる最後の夜を過ごした。
写真：親父とワインを酌み交わしながら！
お休み大阪…また戻ってくるさ！

Slowly spent...

タイトル：ゆっくり過ごした…

I stayed at home reading materials about a civil suit seeking judgement on March, and returned to a little bit of reality. But a little bit only.

At night... back to television... to be entertained. Today, my younger brother joined us, and we had a splendid dinner together at home!

SUKIYAKI controlled by the "hot-pot king"!
who's the king?
of course... it's DADDY!

家に残って３月に判決が出る民事訴訟の資料を読んで、少しだけ現実に戻った。まぁ少しだけね。
夜には…またテレビに戻って…楽しませてもらうために。きょうは、弟も合流して、家で一緒に楽しい晩メシを一緒に！
写真：「鍋奉行」にコントロールされたすき焼き！
誰が奉行かって？
勿論、親父さ！