No personal events in this weekend at all since I had to dedicate myself to sorely work.
Too much of tasks… I am definitely swamped. No doubt about it.

In addition to yesterday, I spent time for today to work.
I should be deserved for RAISE!!!
This is 10th year of my consulting career… but in recent years there was no raise at all.

No wonder that I am indeed financially challanged…



Since MoonFlower is out of town, my food support comes out of grocery and convenience store. Hahaha.
Not much of supper tonight. Just simple.
However, it does come with canned alcohol beverage. Not that bad.



Main dish is tongue beef. Pretty darn good!
Easy supper it was really. Hahaha.

Well, still I do not see the end of this crazy work tunnel yet. Will see how that would still work.
This coming week is tough and even to be concluded with steering committee.
Oh boy, full of stuff for this week… again.

What's up, folks? Now Sunday is almost over.
It means that Obon week - Japan's summer vacation time is coming to an end.
Did I enjoy? Yes, I think so. Mostly I got relaxed so much. That is important, right?

Part of my joy - I spent about two hours to wash my lovely car in this morning.
It turns out that my car looks clean and fine… as were a brand new car! Hahaha.











This is 2 year and 2 months old car. Odometer indicates about 16,500 kilometers. Just about 10,000 miles.

Weather forecast says that it would rain tomorrow… so what? I do not care…
Once this car got cleaned… that is what matters.
Of course, it would get dirty soon…

From tomorrow, everything is back to normal.
I have to resume my work and am sure that I would get busy…
Two domestic trips are already being planned for this week. To Kobe (again!) and to Kyushu.

Well, I have full energy to make those business trip to be successful.
Wish me luck!
See ya.

Nothing to do during this Obon holiday for me.
Well, MoonFlower and I agreed to go shopping since each of us wanted something for living.
For me, my aim was of shoe. Wanted to buy brown shoes for work.

Something what I planned is not what I actually do. You know what I mean.

I wanted to buy shoes.. but I actually bought…



brand new suits for work.
Good choice, I believe. MF gave me a green light for buying it.
I received only green light. Unfortunately, not any fund. Hahaha. This is usual.

Brown leather shoes remain on my shopping list. I have to start saving from today on!

Supper was at home and we picked up a bottle on the way home.





Cava sparkling wine for supper tonight.
Lovely dog was part of home entertainment.





Still relaxing time for Obon week continues… till tomorrow.

Not highly expected… just wanted to check out the latest Terminator.
Though, it was quite fun movie. More than expected.

Maybe because Mission Impossible was such a great movie… whatever coming after that would be okay or mediocre.
I was wrong… really.
Good movies can be back-to-back.



This is surely another "do-not-miss" movie. Recommended.
However, the story was rather complicated.
Still human vs. robot (Terminator) is base concept.

It was only the "change the past."
Now "need to change the future as well."
Hmmm, already complicated.

If you see the movie, it will make sense. Hahaha.

Maybe next movie is going to be okay or mediocre. Will see.

Bon - Japan's summer vacation week - just started even for me.
I woke up earlier than usual and drove down to Chiba.
Fortunately, the traffic jam that I went into was light case and I spent just extra 30 mins. Not bad… at all.



Then I picked up MoonFlower at her mother's home and we headed down to cemetery for prayer.
Tons of people including lots of children were seen in the cemetery park today. Typical Obon scene for sure.

After this, we went out for errands. MoonFlower needs to buy many things for home.
I had to beg her to stop by a cafe for break and even offered to buy her drinks.




Big sweet drinks for two!
One is with creme on top and the other comes with ice cream. Big difference, right? Yes, indeed.

Then final stop was at grocery store.



No wine… just beer tonight.
Two import beer for us… along with dinner place such as:



pork dumplings!

MoonFlower and I made them home tonight. Wonderful plate it was.
Very relaxing home tonight. Perfect start for Obon period. This is to continue…

New watch? Another watch? Of course not!
Just brand new strap.
Received what I ordered online today.



Since Tokyo's summer is simply too severe, need some sweat-measure.
Yeah, now my GaGa Milano watch comes with silicon strap and ready to be worn even on typical summer day.
Today it is just the beginning. I put this on my wrist to work.

Pretty cool this is!

Never thought that this would be that good match.
It was surely good buy. How come I didn't do so much earlier.

There is a variety of colors for strap and I could have chosen others like yellow, brown, etc.
My choice was black.
Yellow was a good match to the color of index. Though, not suitable to the business, I thought.

Brown was not bad at all… but black seemed to be more versatile for my kind of usage.

It was just right. Perfect choice.

Maybe from now on… at least for a while like a month or two, this is my main watch for work and even weekend!

Business trip to Kobe because of an event taking place for whole day.
My attire was just like this:



Blue x Gray fashion.

I was more like supervising the event rather than organizing since young consultant was doing that role.
Well, I had to be a big support in order to ensure the success of the event.
Yes, it went well. Thank God.

However, that young consultant didn't reach the confidence out of the event because of reaction made by participants.
30 or more of them had to listen to him for more than 4 hours and questioned him from different points of view to see what they need to do after his lecture.
Must be a good and necessarily bitter experience to him.

Let's say that this is part of the process that my teammate needs to go through in order to step up.

On my way to a business event for tomorrow.
That takes place in KOBE and I finally caught a bullet train around 8pm.
Very crowd train because everyone is on summer (so-called "Obon") holiday this week!



My late supper was out of BENTO box that I bought in Tokyo Station right before on-board.
Along with Suntory's Premium Malts beer. Not bad. At least some relaxation to myself.
From Tokyo to Shin Kobe, it takes about 2:40. I got some nap in addition to fulfilling my stomach.

Wish me luck for tomorrow's event!

Another big movie just up and we checked it out, already!
It is Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible. "Rogue Nation."
This is 5th movie of the series, as you already know.



Japan's opening is just this weekend and we selected this for late night movie.
Started at 22:30. Pretty late, right.

The movie was quite exciting and I believe that this is the BEST in the series.
If not seen it, you definitely do not want to miss it.

During the day, I stopped by Audi dealer.
No particular (!) purpose, though.
Talk to a sales consultant about new car… I found out that new TT is just coming up.



Man, I'd better to do test drive!!!
Late August or early September… new TT is to be available in local dealership.
Maybe I come to receive a call from that gentleman for time availability to the test drive.

I cannot wait!

HOWEVER, this feeling of excitement does not mean that I would buy another car.
That is not a chance… please note. Hahaha.

Good friend of mine handed a free baseball ticket for tonight and I rushed to the Tokyo Dome after work.
To be precise, I had to suspend the work for this event.
I asked one of my colleagues to join.



When arrived, the game was at the top of 3rd already.
This is not ordinary professional baseball game.

Sponsored by Suntory for charity, all retired pro came to play a game just tonight. Annual event.

All legends in Japan's pro baseball played… aged mid-30's up to 60's. LOTS of fun.
My friend / colleague loved that game and so did I.
I want to come to see this even next year, too.