Goodbye Kyoto!

May 1, 2009 - Despite the beauty of Kyoto, it wasn't enough for us to want to stay. We never had time to enjoy that beauty anyway, because we were so busy. We worked like slaves, Mars' back got worse over the years that he slaved there. We were more than grateful to be out of the hellhole! But before we left we took some great photos of everyone including the cook of the restaurant we both frequented during lunch. Everyone cooperated during the photo shoot. They looked like normal people even though most of them were secretly monsters!

White Day

March 14, 2009 is one of the happiest day of my life! This is the day when the guys give back to the girls for the chocolates they gave during Valentines day. I baked Kiyo a chocolate cake during Valentines Day with the help of my professional baker housemate Kay. Kiyo had a part time job that day and he wasn't able to finish early so he apologized for the food was not ready yet when I arrived at his house. He was still cooking then and the air smelled great! He cooked steak and prepared a delightful looking salad. He prepared a something cheesy and creamy for dessert(I asked him for the name but he said he doesn't know what it's called). One thing that amazed me the most was that, he bought new set of plates and bowls just for the occasion. The presentation was spectacular! But I was more touched when I tasted the food and it tasted heavenly! I thought if I had died in that instant, I would have died happy! Definitely!Thank you Kiyo!

Meet the Parents

January 18, 2009. Kiyo and I went together to Sanda to meet with his mother and attend his brother's Ensemble Contest in Awaji Island. We rode the subway until Osaka and transferred to the JR Line for Sanda. It was a long trip to Sanda As we passed by more and more mountains, I started to feel how far the place really is! Kiyo's house was a little far from the station so his mother came to get us from the station in their yellow car. We got in the car, his mother smiled at me. They talked a little on their way to the house but they were talking in regular Japanese speed so I couldn't make out most of what they were saying. His mother offered that we should eat in the house first, since we ate only a little and the event would last until 6PM. when I got into their house, there I met Kiyo's father. I guess Kiyo's looks is a combination of his mother and father. The his nose, eyes and the shape of his face are from his father. His lips are from his mother. His father asked me a few questions about educational system and work. They were harmless impersonal questions so I felt a little relieved. When we finished eating we started out to Awaji Island. When we got to the contest place (it looked like a mini opera house), we were able to listen to the brass band before the percussion group. Kiyo's brother is from the percussion group. They were the last one to perform. They won gold but they were not qualified to join the next contest. The contest was actually a preliminary contest in Hyogo area to decide which group will perform in the higher category contest. When the contest was over we headed out to a rest area near the large bridge connecting Kobe and Awaji Island. His mother treated us to Royal restaurant there. She also bought Takosenbei omiyage for me and my co-workers. I think she is very sweet and kind. It's too bad that I couldn't speak much Japanese, I would have wanted to talk to her more and learn more about Kiyo.

Jin's Birthday

September 20, 2008 I treated Jin to a dinner on his 26th birthday. It was a great day. I wore a skirt that day. (I can't remember the last time I wore a skirt, maybe around 5 years ago? hehehe :P) I met Jin at the central exit of JR station around 5:30 in the afternoon and gave him his birthday gift there. My reservation in Bali Lax was for 6PM but we got there a little earlier than 6, around 5:40 maybe.
Luckily they were still able to accommodate us. They placed us in a little room above a small flight of stairs. It had a great ambiance and a sense of privacy. The lights were great too.(It was dark enough to vanish all my blemishes! (hahahaha)
We were given a time limit of two hours for the place.(I've never experience time limits before, in my country there's no such thing unless it's an eat-all-you-can place.) We started off with a salad, then we ordered a few recommended dishes. One was marked with 3 bell peppers but wasn't so hot. Another one was marked with only 2 but it came out hotter than the one with 3 bell pepper mark. (Talk about inconsistency! Menus can lie!) But to be fair, most of the dishes tasted fantastic for me.(I was high, so maybe you shouldn't take that as a logical judgment. hehehehe) I loved the way Jin's face looked when the lights went out and happy birthday song was played. A female staff brought the dessert birthday set with candles. He looked like he was about to bolt and run but he was smiling as the staff was climbing the stairs.(What a sweet shy boy he is and what a BADASS I am for making this comment! hehehehe.) After dinner we strolled around the streets near the restaurant and then checked Softmap for a short while. After which we were disappointingly going to the station. He said he wanted to see what was inside the gift. The truth is I was a little disappointed that he was more interested in opening the gift than talking to me. In fact, of all the dates that I have been to, this one is the shortest. On the way home, we parted towards the platform. He didn't try to give me a kiss goodbye. I couldn't let it end that way, so I asked for it. It was the first time for me to ask a guy for a kiss. But I didn't tell him that. After I kissed his cheeks and said happy birthday I felt awkward and embarrassed so without glancing back I headed out to the platform.
I guess with him there'll be a lot of first times stuff that I will experience.(Maybe later, a first rejection too. :( ) That night I sent him an email asking if the gift was of the right size.(I bought him a soccer shirt) He replied (which rarely happens, mind you!) that he was very happy and that he will cherish the picture taken during the dinner and also the gift. He reasoned he wasn't a playboy so he hasn't been kissed for quite a long time. This made me feel a little better after asking him for the kiss.
And so the day ended like that.

Dinner with Addtech People

From left to right : Kawai-san, Sugawara-san, Nishino-san, Me, Jin, Mizugai-san, Morohashi-san
The night of September 10, 2008 we went out to dinner at a place called Watami.
It was located on the upper floor of the McDonald's near the office.The event was graced by 7 people including me. At the beginning of the event I didn't know the name of the guest of honor(the new Addtech employee), at the end of the dinner, I still didn't.(I'm such a badass, really!) It was only after I ask Jin when we were heading home that I learned his name(Kawai-san). I felt funny the first time I heard the name because I thought it was the same word that meant "cute" in english. It wasn't, thank God! (nyahahahaha) This guy made a weird comment or was it a joke? I'm not really sure, but he told me if it was possible not to include his face or cut him out when I post our group picture on the net because some agents are after him. At first I really thought it was a joke so I asked him if it was. He said it wasn't with a really serious face. So I got serious too and said OK. But my mind was saying stuff like "dude, are you for real?! C'mon! If you're so scared of these agents why are you even out to dinner with us?!". And then another half of my brain is thinking, maybe he's just a really good joker, poker faced joker. ahihihihihi. :)
That night during dinner I asked the guys a few stuff and they replied.
A few facts I learned that night:
Misugai-san is a very amiable guy, he is cheerful and very jolly. His hobbies are reading novels(Higashino Keigo) and playing the piano. He said he has been trying to learn since 2 years ago but he still can't play until now. (I think it's a joke, I think he's just being humble.)He was the liveliest guy there during the
entire dinner. His refreshing personality put the crowd in a merry mood. He recommended a few places for sightseeing which I asked Jin to remember for me(Japanese names are always hard to remember for me) but sadly, the next morning when I asked him he couldn't remember them too. His favorite actress is Winona Ryder from Alien 4.(She happens to be one of my favorite actress too. We have the same taste in women Misugai-san! hahahaha). He recommended me to watch Tegami[手紙] movie.
Morohashi-san said his hobby is playing soccer. He is Jin's teammate in soccer. He also loves rock and roll. He mentioned many bands that he liked but I only remembered 3 which are Sum41, L'Arc en ciel and Hoobastank. He was there last year during Hoobastank concert so I said I was there too! It would have been nice if this guy and I were close friends. I could have a concert buddy, someone I can go bang my head with during concerts. He said his favorite actress was the girl in Beverly Hills 90210, but he couldn't remember her name. At that time, I couldn't remember either. But now I do, she's Jennie Garth. I think I've seen her recently in "Dancing with the Stars". She's a contestant there but she got eliminated.(too bad!)
Kawai-san's hobby is playing PC network games. I forgot the title of the game that he mentioned he was playing. His favorite actress is the girl in Full House(the American TV series) This is pretty much all I remembered about him since he didn't talk much during the entire dinner.
Sugawara-san's hobby is reading novels. He likes science fiction type of books. He said he like Lord of the Rings!(Me too, COOL!) Every morning meeting that I make a speech, I think he is the only guy who understands me. When I was asking them about movies that they can recommend, I also shared that I have watched Hutaru no Haka[ホタルの墓] which was a really sad movie. I don't know what the Japanese title of that movie was, he was the only one who was able to properly translate it. This guy is probably an English genius. :)
Nishino-san is my Project Leader. He is a genius and a saint! His hobby is photography, I learned this from way before, during Tanaka-san's welcome party. Lately he didn't have much time to indulge in his hobbies though. He mentioned before that his favorite actress is Meg Ryan(I love Meg Ryan too!) He recommended the movie "Spider". I remembered he mentioned before that he likes suspense movies.
Jin's hobby is playing soccer and printing CD/DVD labels. He said he doesn't have a particular favorite actress but since he liked the movie Bio-Hazard, I assumed he likes Milla Jovovich(Sugiura-san and I like her too!) Although he didn't talk much during the dinner, I know more about him than the rest of the people there since we sit beside each other. If I were to write all the things I know, perhaps one blog won't be enough. hehehehe. :P One particular phrase that I couldn't forget among all the things that he told me is "hitori ga suki" which means I like being alone. (He has spoken this phrase so many times that it makes it hard to forget them!)
I hope he doesn't mind having me as a friend though even if he likes to be alone.
I also learned that night that Sakakibara-san's wife just gave birth to their first child. Congratulations, Sakakibara-san! I've known for a long time that Sakakibara-san is very caring and dedicated to his wife. I often see him softly talking to the phone during the end of the working day. I'm pretty sure that he was talking to his wife then. :)
All of us except Misugai-san headed out to the station. We parted before the ramp towards the station with Sugawara-san and Morohashi-san heading towards Hankyu and us(Jin, Kawai-san, Nishino-san and me) towards JR. Nishino-san lives only around the area so he didn't need to ride the train.

Photo Fun

I was bored out of my mind and decided to have fun with the picture editing website that Lu shared to us during the yakisoba party. I didn't upload my picture. I uploaded his instead.

Jinnouchi-san

He is my seatmate since August 18. Finally, I have someone to talk to in this awfully quiet place! He's turning 26 this coming September 20. He is very kind. I'm very grateful that he is willing to talk to me despite my very bad Japanese speaking and hearing ability.
We talk everyday and usually I am the one asking him questions. He answers them quite diligently and honestly so I'm pretty glad about that. Nowadays, I don't worry anymore when I get sleepy. He makes each conversation interesting and fun that I always end up laughing afterwards. During the first day that he sat beside me, he helped me with my Fedex package delivery problem. Fedex required some document to be faxed and he went with me to the manager's room and pleaded for me so that I can send them.
As I got to know him more and more each day, I realized how kind, hardworking and responsible he is.
Jinouchi-san, for all the help you have given me, THANK YOU.
May you have the best in life!
Stay cool, dude!

Takagishi-san

Mayuka Takagishi is the name of my new friend in the office. She graced us with her presence last week June 30, 2008. At first I wasn't able to talk to her much but on Thursday of that first week, I finally gathered my courage to talk to her and ask for her name. Since Lu left the main office, I have been feeling down and depressed. And so I was very happy and excited when she arrived because it means that there will be another woman in the same room and the same office that I can talk to. When we went out to lunch the first time, she told me that she will be assigned to Fujitsu Ten the next week. That moment made me want to cry and laugh at the same time. :P Oh, what irony! I was finally happy but the feeling was snatched away in just a split of a second. Oh well, that's life...
We didn't let that fact hinder us from knowing each other though. We decided to eat lunch together and talk as much as we could before she leaves the main office. She loves to eat cakes, which is convenient for me since I love to eat too(anything but fish!). She likes the color pink and she dreams of becoming rich. She also likes Pachinko and goes there almost everyday(she should meet Hotta-san because he is a pachinko addict too!).

For our first lunch together we went to Mother Moon Cafe near the office. It was a hidden restaurant in a sense because it was fronted by a home furnishing store that made it invisible from the outside. The food there was great but what I loved there was the lemonade. It tasted like the ones I drink back home. We shared a fruit tart there. It was the best-looking strawberry topped fruit tart I've ever seen! It tasted just as sweet as it looked.

We also had lunch at the Tooth Tooth Garden Restaurant at the 11th floor of Sogo Hotel. The garden was very pretty and the dessert was fantastic! I only wish these lunches and meals together could last forever but sadly once she goes to Fujitsu Ten in Kobe we will not be able to do these things anymore.

I hope someday she can come back and be my eating partner. Together we can explore the great world of delicious food and mouth watering desserts!:)

Tanaka-san's Welcome Party

Yesterday, we held a welcome party for Tanaka-san.
The newest addition to the Addtech family. He now sits in the chair that used to be occupied by my previous groupmate Masuda-san. Masuda-san got transferred to Renesas. All of the 6th floor people came except for Lu. I ask a lot of questions that night which includes stuff like age, hobbies, favorite actress, civil status. Here are their answers as far as I can remember:
Nishino-san: He did not say his age but he said "I'm not young!". (Me too, we two were probably the two oldest people in that table.) His hobbies include watching plays. He's also interested in photography and sometimes he brings a camera along to take pictures. He does sports through console games(hehehehe). His favorite actress is Meg Ryan.
Sakakibara-san: 24(kotoshi 25) He used to like Pachinko but now he doesn't do it anymore because he has no time. His favorite actor is Nicholas Cage. I wasn't able to catch his favorite actress though, he went out ahead of us to go to the hospital.
Tanaka-san: 20. I couldn't quite catch who was his favorite actress but he said he liked the girl from american idol. I mentioned Carried Underwood first but he said no. When I mentioned Kelly Clarkson, he thinks that's probably her name. He likes anime specially Macross Zero New Frontier.
Sugihara-san:26. His hobby is playing volleyball. He plays in a tournament the whole day on Sundays and dates his girlfriend on Saturday. (This guy is good at speaking english and he is talkative too.) He likes the girl in winter sonata, Choi Ji Woo.
Sugiura-san: 24. He likes to play PC Games. He plays around 4 hours a day and claims that he doesn't need sleep. :P His favorite games include counterstrike. He also likes anime and his favorite actress is Milla Jovovich.
Hirai-san:20 He likes anime, bikes (though he doesn't do racing). He also likes Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter. He didn't mention that he like Emma Watson though. (This guy could be ***. Maybe he really is with the reply he gave!)
They said the most famous foreign actors in Japan are Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Arnold Schwarznegger.
That night Sugihara-san shared about his Filipino friend Ryan who is a project leader in Fujitsu Ten.
He described Ryan as playboy. He recalled Ryan saying that he liked many women.

Yumi-chan

I met Yumiko Kubota-san in Addtech. She is a cute girl who is around my height (around 5 ft).
She is also of the same age as me. I was walking alone towards to office one morning and
she tapped me on the shoulder and greeted me. I was surprised but in a good way so I smiled and greeted her back. She was hesitant tap my shoulders at first because she wasn't 100% sure of who I was. But it turned out to be me so she was relieved. We got on the elevator together and that day marked the beginning of our friendship.
I think Yumi-chan has always been interested in learning English. I can see her eyes sparkle and her sincere smile everytime she learns something new like new phrases and new expressions. It makes me happy to be able to teach her stuff because I can see how much she appreciates them.
The only regret I had about talking to her was that it happened too late. The time we became friends, only 3 days were left before she had to leave the company.(Her contract period ended).
So we only spent a few days eating lunch together. But I was quite happy during those lunches.
One time she danced the moonwalk dance for me and I thought she looked really cute then
and I couldn't help from smiling. I had the chance to go to her house.(I forgot the name of the place but I still know the way to get there though, it's 4 stations via subway from Sannomiya).
I met her boyfriend who gave me a Linkin Park/Jay-Z CD. I think they broke up the day after I went to her house, it was a shock to me but then she already told me before that her relationship with him has been ON and OFF, ON and OFF for a long time.
On her last working day in Addtech(Friday), we decided to have dinner together. We had pasta and talked about a lot of stuff including the people in the office. We also ate at some places near Sannomiya when we had the chance to get together.
We also had a chance to go to Karaoke once just the two of us. There we practiced Japanese and English songs. It was a refreshing activity for me. From the few conversations I had with her I learned that she loves SNOOPY, she has a lot of snoopy stuff in her house. She likes to dance and go to karaoke which is good because I do too. And she likes ----------san. Hehehehe. Lucky guy! So many girls like him!
Although Yumi-chan is great with people(I think she is extremely friendly and it's contagious). Sometimes I worry about her because she often feels pressure from her family and I think sometimes it makes her feel alone.
Don't worry Yumi-chan, I believe in you. You can do anything! Anything you want, anything at all.

Addtech Welcome Party

April 18, 2008 Lu and I attended the Addtech Welcome Party for the new employees. It was held in the busy section of Sannomiya but I couldn't remember the name of the place.
I know how to get there though.
The place was not a "tabehodai" place but a "nomihodai" one. I guess almost everyone in the company loves drinking more than eating. That evening we sat in the table with the company seniors. They were a gay bunch of people, most specially Ueki-san. He along with Takeda-san were both very kind to Lu and me. White boy was also there to add to the merriment. I met
quite a few good people during that party. I also went with some of them to karaoke afterwards.
I even took pictures of some of them. Here are some of our pictures during the party:



Here are some of our pictures during the karaoke:

Another day in Paradise

Yesterday(December 16) I once again had the pleasure of visiting Tomo-chan and his wife Shoko-chan in their warm castle. While heading there we talked about a lot of stuff like the
current working places of some CMK members that I know and of course music. Tomo-chan then showed me his "Daft Punk" keychain. He told me he just went to their concert this month and now he's crazy about them. :) He also told me about this advertisement inside a train about a museum show which features "CSI" like stuff. I'm definitely interested in going with them. I just hope that when I go there, somehow there would be an english version of everything so that
I can understand it. :P
First, we all went to the supermarket to buy stuff for Okonomiyaki. Shoko-chan picked all the necessary ingredients while the only stuff that Tomo-chan picked out were 2 packs of kinakomochi candies. :) (It made me happy actually since he gave one pack to me hehehe :))
(Shoko-chan is so reliable and responsible! Tomo-chan is such a lucky guyto have Shoko-chan as his wife :) )

Another picture of the coolest couple on the planet!
When we got to their house Shoko-chan started preparing the ingredients for the Okonomiyaki. She was the one doing all slice stuff while Tomo-chan and I were just warming out butts in front of the TV. (Really, Tomo-chan is really a lucky guy, but then so am I! :)) Then a little while later we started the cooking session. Tomo-chan is undergoing a change of diet, I think he's switching to an almost vegetarian diet. That night he made me a vegetarian onigiri, and it tasted fantastic despite the fact that it was mostly consist of vegetables and sea food stuff! (no fish, mind you! :))
And so as the night went on I was able turn over two okonomiyakis, ate about 3 big slices of them along with a bowl of salad and many other stuff. (Of course the I took a picture!) At the end of the evening my stomach felt like bursting.

Here's the first okonomiyaki that I personally turned over!

Here's another one!
As usual we had the regular Nihongo "Tomo-chan" version lesson. (These nihongo lessons are not exactly for business deals but Tomo-chan's lessons are very handy in making people laugh.)
Alway a pleasure to be with the coolest couple on the planet!

Enkai at Tomo-chan's

June 24 - At around 2pm I met Tomo-chan with his wife Shoko-san in Hep Five and went to his house thereafter. It felt nostalgic and ecstatic to see them again after a long time. They live a little farther from the city proper specifically in Izumi-Fuchu (I'm not really sure though, hehehe). When we got there, we left some things and immediately went out towards the supermarket which was just about 5 minutes from their house. This is the door towards Tomo-chan's castle (ka-suru) :)

In prelude to the feast, I took some pictures of their pet rabbit "ranchi" (I'm not quite sure about this spelling though).

I also took one with Tomo-chan and his Takoyaki machine.

On top of the TV was their wedding picture when they got married in Guam. I wanted to take a clearer picture but my cellphone camera resolution is quite small. It was a really great picture. They both looked young and happy.

We talked about a lot of stuff including their plan to go to India in the coming month as well as the coming Summer Sonic concert. I hope we can go to the concert together. That would be really swell.
Here's a picture of the couple:

I often see takoyaki being prepared in shops and it looked easy but the truth is, it's not as easy as it looks. There is a technique for turning the takoyaki to make it into a perfect circle.

Here is a picture of us during the feast.

Later that night we watched a show on cable TV which featured the "man-turned-woman" people in Thailand. It was interesting and it felt great to watch it together with them. It made me think that it has been quite a while since I've had an open discussion of anything.

In conclusion, the night ended with me going home feeling great to have shared a moment with one of the most generous and coolest couple on the planet. Thank you both for a great evening. ;)

Minamikata Karaoke!

June 15, 2007, "Thank God it's Friday!" For the rest of my スリマスター colleagues, they are probably saying something different like "Thank God, it's payday!"
We had plans to go to Karaoke later that day and so I was very excited. I've always loved karaoke. Even if I can't carry out a single note properly, it never discouraged me to shout and sing my heart out. I'm quite the boldface one when it comes to the hoarding the microphone. hehehe. :P

At around 8:30 PM we arrived at the Karaoke place which was on top of Mos Burger near Minamikata Station of the Hankyu Line. The party consisted of Taku-chan, Naoki-chan, Tanabe-san and of course, me! The food arrived not long after we sat down and we started munching while browsing the pages for songs to sing.
After stuffing ourselves we started the singing streak. This time I discovered another secret star powered singer! Before it was Yoshi-san when I had an all girl night out in Namba. This time it's Taku-chan. May it be an English or a Japanese song, name it and he can sing it!

And I don't mean just the literal type of singing, I'm talking about a performance level type of singing! Way to go Taku-chan, keep at it! Maybe someday you might even earn more money through singing than tapping the keyboard.

Naoki-chan was another surprise when we sang Mariah Carey's Hero song together. It's refreshing to discover a guy who can sing a Mariah Carey song and a Japanese one at that. He might look a little boyish/girlish because of his hair (I call him a girly boy :P) but he's a really sweet guy. :)



Tanabe-san didn't sing a single song that night. He owes me a whole set of songs. It's probably really hard to convince this guy to sing since sober or drunk, he said he never sings...hmmmmm...
It was another great night of full fun, new discoveries and money consumption. It was worth every cent even if I go poor for the rest of the week. ;)

A Night in Namba

The CMK women invited me to join them for dinner and other fun stuff last friday (February 23) at Namba.
We eat at a shabu-shabu resto near Dotonbori. It was a "tabehodai" or eat-all-you-can resto. At first I was pretty excited and I ate a lot. But as time went by the food didn't stop coming so I was getting a little hyped and I thought "How the heck do we eat all this?!". There was just too much food. It would've been great if I could take out some and cook it at home another time. hehehe, Fat chance! So finally time was up and we had to leave the resto (there's a time limit to tabehodai restos here). Then came another shock to me, the bill was huge! (Next time I'll definitely think twice before going to a tabehodai like this.)

After that meal by stomach was so full that I was having difficulty breathing. We then took a ride on the "kanransha" (Ferris Wheel) near there. There were only three of us inside the ferris wheel car(Yoshi-san, Hirata-san, Me).


It had a really great view of the city and the ride itself was awesome since it has an aura of being in a spaceship. I took a picture of the view from the top most point. Really cool.

After which we had our picture taken at a "pirikura" and then we head on for a one hour karaoke. Yoshi-san did a great song number in there. She sounded fantastic.
Eventhough I went broke after, the night was fun. I wouldn't mind doing it again if I have enough finances. hehehehe