My school recently had a 10 day Obon holiday, and my friend and I decided to go to Taipei. It was a wonderful holiday – we went sightseeing around the city, took a day trip to the beautiful Taroko Gorge, and ate some amazing food! Taipei is quite like Tokyo, but a little slower-paced, and the trains aren’t so busy! I would definitely recommend visiting Taiwan, and it was very easy and cheap to fly there with Air Asia. The only slight difficulty with travel was a super-early check-in, which meant we had to go to Narita airport the night before, and sleep over there! That was my first time having to do that…and hopefully my last!

it was worth the hassle though, and I’d love to go back and spend some more time there. This photo is a view at night from Taipei 101 – like Skytree!

I’m a mosquito magnet. I step outside for two seconds with an inch of bare skin, and bam, big red bite. Worse, I go to sleep with my windows closed, my room newly clean, and I wake up with bites. What’s going on?! To repel the sneaky invaders at home, I’ve finally purchased the quintessential Japanese bug zapper: a mosquito coil. I also got a cute little pig container to put it in, just to make repulsing my night time attackers more fun. Mosquito coils are essentially sticks of incense shaped in a spiral, and slowly burn in toward the center. The smoke they let off repels bugs. They also make my room smell like a temple, but for no more mystery bites in the morning, I’ll take it. If you have the same problem, pick up mosquito coils at your local 100 yen shop or a Tokyu Hands, and see if you can find an adorable pig for them too.

I am not talking about Independence Day.

It is my 4th article for July.

Before July ends, the Thursday just passed, I had 2 interesting meetings.

The guests of both meetings, they both can speak more than 1 language.

The 1st guest, he saw me, and got disappointed, because I am not male.

He asked if I can speak Japanese, but I insisted to speak ENG with him to keep him down.

However, partly also because, my business JAP is not good, right?

And later my boss came, he did all the talking, …

I wish I can do some of those and I think I would feel very good about it …

The 2nd guest, she was just like me, experiencing how JAP locals look at our JAP level.

Through her, I see the mistakes I made while talking with the local JAP.

1 thing I learned/realized is, EVEN THOUGH you have always KNOWN that you level will never be able to compare with the JAP locals, don’t talk like you are skeptical about what you are trying to say or feel shy about what you are trying to say, …

… actually, it is A LOT more 格好いい when you just speak with confidence even though you made shit load of mistakes or even when your insensitive opponents are giving you a horrible expression when they cannot understand your words.

KEEP EXPLAINING like you made no mistake and DO NOT need to feel bad or do unnecessary apologies.

Really, they are NOT needed if you want to make the whole process smooth.

The fact is, you are talking to people that cannot even speak more than 1 language and if they know more than 1 and are sensible, you know they will never do any expressions that made you feel bad and made you not able to continue the conversation smoothly.

なんか、自分の足りないところ、ずーーーーと分かったんだけど、after I met with those 2, it actually gave me reasons and motivations, to … improve.

I can live by just fine with what I have now, and continue making progress sloooooowly, 自然に、でも、それは、本当に嬉しいことでしょうか？

そのまま、このペースで、本当に大丈夫でしょうか？

それを考えてしまって、決心もモティベーションも、突然出てくる 。。。

One of my blessed day.

It was good, and was with someone that can bring you true happiness.

Geez, believe me that was some really good meat.

Even the place that served it was not an authentic restaurant but more like a cafe?

But the atmosphere was AWESOME!

Can see the rainbow bridge from far … and has the 川 next to you …

Night time, sooooo romantic …

ah, not to mention there was no one else in the restaurant but us, … like we reserved the whole place …

That is where I go when I received the monthly voucher …

THAT was a good piece of salmon hamburger …

決まってるでしょう、when you see something you like for sure at the first sight, in order not to LET OTHER PEOPLE get it before you, or, run out of stock, you buy/get it immediately.

Come to think of it, just like relationship, right?

You not take it now, later, he/she just wont be available.

This star was one of my “love at first sight”.

So I got it the first time I saw it, even though I realize, I probably will never wear it cause it is hard to match it with ANY clothes.

The thing is, a couple days ago, I suddenly saw the store had this out AGAIN, and 50% off.

This beautiful scenery is from the 16th of the building where my company is.

But my floor is 1st floor …

One of my fav. snack.

But expensive.

I think.

This is kind of like the highlight of my life.

It shined, a little. And had some very very beautiful memories, things that I never thought would ever happened. on 21st? まあ、とにかく、there we go. Hope it will be a good start for real, finally.

And tomorrow, Monday, I had to work on something about iphone at work … not that I particularly dislike the project but i seriously not care much about the co-worker that was handling the project … geez, another reason not want to go to work but just cannot not go … not enough 有給 left …

oops, i just finished my gin …

I LOOOOOVE this egg … the way they made this, half cooked, sooooooooooo delicious!!!

Look at this milk green tea, it taste good and looks good.

I always ordered this when I was with my beautiful student.

Look great!!!! or just I am a good photographer!!!!

Maybe because the place that I lived before, was SOOOO lack of this, I really cannot help but order green tea favor everytime I see it available.

This year, Mount Fuji was made a World Heritage Site. I was planning a second climb – this time during the day, rather than a sunrise hike like I did last year – and kept hearing people warn me how crowded it would be. But honestly, doing a daytime hike, it felt empty! If you’re hiking Fuji for the first time or just want to dodge the crowds, I would actually recommend a daytime hike. You can stay in the Kawaguchiko area and take a bus (2000 yen round trip) from Kawaguchiko Station to arrive at the mountain by 8:30am. As long as you can get down again by 9:10pm (the last bus to Kawaguchiko Station) you can do the hike in a day. My 67-year-old dad and I did it in 10 hours, so if you’re reasonably active and don’t have a problem with high altitudes I bet you can do it too. The daytime hike is lovely, and more peaceful than scrambling up the mountain in the pitch black of night. Give it a try!

Just now, my work has its holiday season. This means that every few weeks, we have a holiday or long weekend off from work. It’s great, means we get to relax, and we can also get out and about and see lots of places!

In July, I had 1 week off. So, I decided to fly to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam. I didn’t know much about the country, other than I like the food, and they wear those triangular bamboo hats… It was an adventure filled with discovering new things! When I first arrived I didn’t like it – so noisy, so busy, full of motorbikes, and strange smells from all the food vendors! But, on my first full day I did some exploring and realised what a vibrant and interesting city it is.

I took some day trips too. The first was a full day excursion to the Mekong Delta. We took a bus, then a series of boats. We visited a floating market, a bee farm, an exotic fruit farm, and we were taken on a trip in small rowing boats (the pic is me in one of the small boats). It was a great day, and I made a good friend on the trip. I started to look forward to the rest of the holiday…..

Have you tried kakigori, or as I like to call them, the fanciest snow cones? They’re a staple in Japanese summertime. Kakigori is a bowl (rather than a cone) of shaved ice, with sweetened milk or sugar water and toppings like fruit, mochi, and adzuki beans. I get my kakigori from a little mom and pop shop on the corner that also does roasted sweet potatoes in the winter, but there are fancier, sit-down cafes that do kakigori too. If you’d like to try it, keep an eye out for flags with “かき氷” written on them, or sometimes just “氷.”

Summer in Tokyo is the worst. I say this as a former resident of Phoenix, Arizona, where it got up to 110 degrees F (43-44C). But Phoenix summers are okay because I never actually went outsider: rather, I went from my house to my car to my destination, air conditioning blasting all the way. But in Tokyo, if you have to leave your house, there’s really no escaping the weather.

1) Sunscreen! It’s a little hard to find, but check out a shop like Tokyu Hands and just buy the stuff meant for kids who are going to be running around outdoors. It’s often less perfumed and doesn’t contain “whitening,” whatever scary chemicals are involved in that.

2) Higasa, or sunbrella, or just your regular, not-see-through umbrella, opened up to shade you from the sun.

3) Wet wipes. If you can’t read Japanese, look for the pictures of people sweating profusely or wiping their pits. These are often at the front of drugstores and in the toiletries section of conbinis during the summer months. These are fantastic for when you reach your destination covered in several layers of sweat and humidity. Wipe it off, improve your smell, and cool down a bit faster as your skin dries.

4) Undershirts (Airism from Uniqlo) or spare shirts. Sometimes you just need to change when you get to school or work or you’re going to be gross the whole day. Do it for yourself, do it for the people around you.

At the end of the day, there’s probably no way short of a door-to-door car service to avoid the summer heat. But with a little preparation, you can suffer a little less. Good luck!