Opened a bottle of wine...
Yeah, something needed for today... when the weather was awful since typhoon is around!

Plus, Japan Series (Japanese baseball, moron!) is now open today...
My favorite Dragons vs. Marines.

Perfect to watch the game with glass of wine. Hahaha.





2008 bordeaux wine tonight.



octopus dish...



some vegetables...



This cheese... tasted a bit funny... not French one??? Hahaha.

Now Day 2... the Boston Career Forum.
Yesterday:s statistics are here...

3800 students looking for job were here yesterday!!!
Oh my god! Tons of them... more than I really thought.



Below is the list of school mostly represented.



Waseda? Keio? Sophia? All flew from Japan to look for job... Gee.
Never thought that I would do the same. Hehehe.

Too bad that I do not find many T-birds... of course not!

Very few schools from Southern. Only Duke on this list...
What about William & Mary, Univ. of VA, Ga Tech... Not popular among Japanese students?

My first experience - the Boston Career Forum.
I spent so much time in US, never looked for job via such forum.
Maybe I should have done so for better career???

Never know...

Funny thing... I am now at recruiter side... representing my firm to give interviews.

Supper was dinner... farewell dinner???
That was because I will be leaving for US...



I will make California and Massachusetts... sorry, NO Phoenix or North Carolina.
My trip is a bit longer than a whole week...

Wait. Am I going to Massachusetts? That means it will be pretty cold... I’d better be well-prepared.

So MoonFlower called tonight’s dinner as Farewell. Oh she must be happy to see me go or what?
Hahaha.

She renamed it as “Good Luck” dinner later.

So wish me luck!

Training is given tonight.
How did it go?

Worked-Well:

Time management. Delivered it entirely within given time.
I finished last slide at 3 minutes to 9pm. Perfect timing.

Improvement Needed:

Message delivery.

55 slides were used in the session.
44 out of them - from last year... the 1st time I conducted this training.

My strategy -

Old slides - same message as before, make it short and simple
New slides - go deeper than old ones. Give more examples.

Did it work? I guess, it was so-so.
That was rather poor because I lacked practices beforehand.

I wanted to do so; however, I barely executed practice.

Like any presentation how-to book gives such message... Practice is everything.

Trust me, it’s absolutely true.

Usually in my project, I will do rehearsal about giving presentation.
This time, it was internal training... I had to defer this task to other project-related tasks.
(This is my official excuse, okay!)

Next time, I promise that I would do better job...
Let’s keep fingers crossed that I will be awarded another opportunity next year. Hahaha.

You probably don’t know there is one branch in Tokyo... only one in Japan to be precise.

Ruth’s Chris Steak House.

I happened to get a chance to go there for dining tonight.
Man, steak was great... but



Onion rings are HUGE!!! I just had one piece... not whole dish.



I couldn’t have skipped the dessert... Cake gave me additional calories tonight.
Full stomach with maxed out calorie scale... man.

Interior of the restaurant... much better at “Lawry’s” even though cost range is much higher at Ruth’s.

Maybe I should give a big try to “Hooter’s” which is going to open 1st restaurant in Japan...
Cannot wait!

Today, I came to use iPad on my presentation.
I didn’t plan to... it just happened.


Visual is “cool” to present to client
Easy to be understood


My finger was dried out... scrolling wasn’t that smooth
PowerPoint slides shown on iPad screen has small fonts... difficult to be read
Heavy file slowed iPad down

I can be better prepared for next time. Learned a lot.

For supper, I dropped by a new ramen noodle shop.

“Kurofune” (or *black ship*)

Ordered miso soup base noodles.



It was okay... very ordinary one.
Still my usual place, “Sawa,” is better. Much better. Way better. Hahaha.

I may go back once more to try soy-source base one... as last chance? Maybe? Hehehe.

2 more days to go for this week. Then, I come to US!

Ideal destination for the day was “IDEMI SUGINO,” a very famous cake shop.
However, it was closed when we got there by car. Hmmm.

I asked MoonFlower to come up with Plan B... and we decided to drop by a nearby hotel.
It was Hotel Seiyo Ginza for coffee and sweets.

The coffee lounge wasn’t full yet... when we got there at 2:30pm.
So we ordered cake set.





Montblanc cake... This was awesome! You don’t want to miss this if you come to this place.
I had the last one for the day... I had no hesitation and asked for the last one.
Made right choice.

After the Hotel, went to DIY shop for ordering some rack to be used in the storage.
Once delivered, I would have to build it up... oh boy... another trouble coming for sure.



Supper after taking bath.
Chicken and cucumbers.... appetizer. Could be the main.



Pasta... the last and final. Source was REALLY GOOD like MoonFlower could open a restaurant.
Loved it.
I should (will surely) ask her to fix this again so soon. Hehehe.

Saw a movie... “Knight & Day.”
Totally misunderstood it as “Night and Day.” What a misunderstanding... Hahaha.



If you like Tom Cruise... you’ll like this for sure.
If you like Cameron... doesn’t bother you too much if you see this movie.

If you hate Tom... don’t even think about watching. Hahaha.

It is fun and somewhat crazy or unreal. I should say, this is mix of James Bond and Mission Impossible.



Dinner takes place at “Veicolo,” an Italian restaurant, for MoonFlower and me.
We hadn’t been there for quite some time. It is 3rd time visit for me.







Ate too much!!! Good food. Love pizza... like those.

Wow... already closed out for application? Hmm.
Yesterday, my firm made an announcement about holding a training session next Friday.
What about it? Part of Supply Chain Management serious, it is FULFILLMENT.

Who is the trainer? Oh boy... it’s me, moi!!!

Today... around 3pm, the admin made a call... the session is fully reserved by many applicants.
Who are they? Young consultants in the firm... from consultant to manager.

What do you want to learn from me? My favorite color?
18 people are coming to take the session.

Is material ready? Of course not.

Am I ready to give a presentation for TWO and HALF HOURS??? Of course not.

Hmm... this is the worst.

I’d better spend this coming weekend (particularly long one until Monday!) for preparing myself and material.
Oh gee... this is a nightmare.



Supper at home. Beef and sweet potato. It was PRETTY GOOD!



Red pen... not normal one. This is the pen for touch panel... like iPad.
Cool... very smooth writing on the screen!!! Cost 900 yen and got a free coupon for it.
Good buy for iPad user for sure. Still works great on iPhone, too.

Already new week!!! How was your Monday???
Mine... pretty long. I was in the office up to 9pm... that wasn’t of my intension. Rather, I had no choice.

Good thing was that I made the deadline for presentation material submission to someone in US.
I had to collect ideas and slides from people in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

Then, I combined all into one package... done some cosmetics on them... and submitted the package.

“Oh WAIT!”

I received a email message screaming for it.

One in South Korea wanted to add one more slide to the package.
She asked me to give her extra 30 mins... so I did.
Though, that extra came up to me after an hour and half. Hahaha. Not big deal, though.


Today, KDDI introduces new phone... smart phone called “IS03.”
This is KDDI’s 3rd smart phone.



Does this have definite advantage to Apple’s iPhone??? I doubt it.
Probably, this will strengthen the Apple and its brand for more market share.
That means this will bring another success to iPhone in terms of skimming pricing strategy... RIGHT? That’s what it is doing all over the world...

Once smart phone and iPad become so common into our daily life, Apple will come up with something new and attractive. That’s how thing goes here, right?

Oh finally... I refilled the ink to my fountain pens. Yeah, five of them.

Hi, folks!
I am quite happy to let you know... the dining set (table and chairs) is now set at my home.
Look at this:



So cool!!! I loved it.
MoonFlower actually did the all selections... surely she did a great job!

Last Sunday, the table was delivered... but another one is delivered today to replace the 1st one.
Somehow, we found several dents on the 1st table. Must be damaged on the way to this place.

Shop didn’t ask any question and ordered another one for us.
So today, the deal is finally complete.

This time, the condition was great. No complaint.

I found a great deal... a new movie coming up... it was of Wall Street.
“Wall Street” the movie from 80’s is one of my favorite for sure.
I even have copy in my iPad / iPhone!!! Hahaha.



Now, Wall Street 2... Gordon Gekko is back (actually from the prison)...
So cool... cannot wait to see that movie.
This is sure thing.

FINALLY --- the moment has come!
I am a big fan of Chunichi Dragons... a professional baseball team.

It came to a big pennant!!! Won the Central League Championship!!!



So there is a celebration taking place at home tonight.

Not champaign but wine, though. Hahaha.



Dinner is obviously Italian...
Did we go out for dinner? No!!! This is what MoonFlower fixes.



Followed by the salad. Small one.



Tonight’s wine... French.
Bourgogne wine... a bit more expensive than usual range of prices for wine.





Tastes really good!



Stil, ham...



Main... pork steak. Yum... really good.
MoonFlower bought Japanese one, not imported.



Finished the dinner with pasta.



I ate SO much... I was SO full. Hahaha.

Friday... weekend is just around the corner!
Well, my Friday didn’t finish quite early. Rather, worked until 9pm or so.
This is because there was a training session... on Procurement.

This topic is somewhat relative to my topic, Logistics.

In fact, I have to give a training in two weeks and tonight’s training is right before mine in a series of Supply Chain Training at my firm.

The training was very interesting and there were 20-some consultants attended.
That means I should expect that many consultants coming to my training? Oh boy, that would be a nightmare... Hahaha.

Anyhow, after that training, went out for quick drinks.

Seven of us got together over drinks.
All familiar faces to myself... yes, they’re good friends.

Fun... because lots of laughters while having drinks like beer and champagne.

Started late like 9:30pm and made the last train for the day to go home... so only several hours... but full of fun for sure.
I should plan that kind of gathering after training for sure. Hahaha.