Monthly Archives: February 2011

Rainy Day

It rained all day.  The rain was not so cold.  We might have another snow in Kofu, but that could be the last. Bachelor students were preparing for their presentations starting tomorrow.  I am sure they will be OK, but they are worried. Katya seems to have a pollen allergy.  She complains it is because of the geography of Kofu, a basin, surrounded by the mountains.

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Spring has come

After the breakfast, we played tennis for two hours.  Kofu city let us play for free. It was a very warm day.  The temperature was close to 20 C.  Katya played in a T-shirt. After a light lunch, we went out for a walk.  Ume blossoms were at their best. Katya took pictures of herons. For dinner, I cooked crab-cream spaghetti.  It was successful. The French white wine was very well balanced, and I enjoyed it.  Katya did not like it; for white wines, she prefers German. Now we are watching tennis on TV.  I am sleepy over the drink.

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smart needs repaired

I went to my office in the morning to reserve the train tickets on the web for the American professor. Then I first went to Kofu station to buy them and to Konaya Hotel to pick the professor up. We had our last talk in Starbucks, and he left Kofu to Tokyo, Narita, and to the US.  He will be back to Japan in September for conferences. Katya has been talking about the malfunctioning of smart these days.  She suspected that it was because of the battery getting weak.  Katya and Maya-san took smart and I, mini, to Super Autobacs, an automobile shop. It has been quite a while since … Continue reading

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School Year is Ending

In the morning, we continued the rehearsals. At 1 PM, the American professor gave us a one-and-a-half-hour talk.  From 3 PM, we had interviews for high school students who are applying to our university. From 6 PM, five professors of ours, including me, and the American professor had dinner in a Japanese restaurant. At 8 PM, I came back home and ordered a pizza. At 9:20 PM, Katya came back from her work. We had pizza together.

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Dinner with Illinois Professor

There were another rehearsals for the graduation presentation of 12 senior students.  Presentation is 7 min for each, but we were with them from 8:30 to 17:30.  We will carry out the second turn of rehearsals tomorrow. In the evening, I went to Kofu station to pick up a professor from Illinois, USA, in whose laboratory, I passed my sabbatical for one year.  I see him once in a while at conferences. I took him to Konaya Hotel near Kofu station. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant in the hotel over a bottle of Yamanashi wine.  We talked a lot. He will give us a lecture tomorrow.

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Wedding Anniversary

We had a farewell party for a Korean PhD student, who is about to leave Japan, at a Japanese restaurant. to let him enjoy Japanese foods. During the party, I sneaked out because it is our wedding anniversary today. I brought cakes and Katya, too. Is it The Gift of the Magi? I get sleepy when I am drunk.

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Points 15 times more

In Japan, the fiscal year ends in March.  February and March are the months when stores try to sell and wipe out their stocks. In a drug store, “Sun Drug”, near the institute, they were holding a 15-time-point sale, meaning 15% discount. Being a mile-and-point collector, there was no choice for me not to buy. I bought sweet cookies and took them home.  Katya concerns about health and did not like the idea of buying cookies for points.  Maya-san was curious.

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Back to Work

I work on Saturdays, so last weekend, I took two-day off. I am back to work. I brought some sweets that I bought in Tateshina to the office workers in the institute. Katya put the flowers from Tateshina in a vase. In the evening, Katya talked with her Russian parents and her younger brother, Nikita, on Skype.  Everybody seemed to like the posts of our wedding anniversary. Today, Katya did not use her head phones but used PC speakers to let Maya-san listen to them.  Katya said to me that Maya-san noticed their voices and was puzzled by them.  Unfortunately, Maya-san does not figure out what the PC screen is … Continue reading

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Back to Kofu from Tateshina

After we woke up, I headed for a hot spa, and Katya prepared for herself. We met in front of the buffet restaurant at 8:30 AM.  We had to wait for several minutes. Breakfast was OK, but coffee was not very good. So we went to the hotel lounge. Katya had an espresso, and I, a cafe au lait. We checked out and went to Shimosuwa to say hello to my parents.  We gave them an Apple Baumkuchen bought in the hotel.  We said good-by to them and went back to Kofu. We headed for Noah Vet Clinic to pick up Maya-san.  In the clinic, they have a pet hotel.  … Continue reading

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Wedding Celebration in Tateshina

We got married on February 23, 2008.  We went to the city hall of Kofu for the marriage registration.  On the evening, we stayed in a hotel, “XIV (ekseev) Tateshina”.  We had dinner in a French restaurant in the hotel. We have been going to the same hotel and having dinner in the same restaurant for our wedding anniversaries.  Today, Saturday, February 19, 2011, we are staying in XIV Tateshina without Maya-san; my parents had visitors, so Maya-san stayed in a dog hotel this time. We arrived there at 5:15 PM, checked in, and entered the room: a mixture of a bedroom and a Japanese tatami room, as usual in … Continue reading

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