100 yen Shoes

There was a flea market in Koudaisai (TITech festival), and I went there without any intention of buying something - just escorting Yoshirin and Aki who were in the mood to do shopping. Out of the blue on of the seller looked at my feet and asked, "what is your feet size?"
"28" (Japanese shoes are measured in cm)
He grabbed one pairs of shoes and hand it to me.
"Try it. If it fits you, you can get it for free."
I was quite puzzled, but I tried the shoes anyway. It was a little bit large, but it suited me well.
The guy looked happy. "You can have it then"
It was a good shoes and it felt not right if I just took it like that, specially remembering that the guy was there to sell thing.
"C'mon, I can't take it just like that. Let me buy it"
The guy paused for few seconds before replying, "Okay, here is the deal. Can you do rock-scissor-paper? Lets play it. If I win you have to pay the shoes for 100 yen. If you win, you can take it free"
Seems like a good deal, so we did it - and he won.
Anyway, it was indeed a good shoes, and it's still a good deal even if I had to pay for it.
(And come to realize it, there's good person and luck waiting for you almost everywhere...:-) )

Troll in Pajama and Birthday Present

In the picture above, Pecolin (my homestay mother) wore peko-chan t-shirt that was a present from me. And, actually I got the t-shirt from Fujiko-san.

Pecolin's birthday was getting closer, and I still didn't have any idea what to give her. I then mailed Fujiko-san for some advice - for she often has good one - and lucky for me that this time she also had. She told me to visit her house, and I went the first time I had the chance.

After some 'important' chat (such as the fact that Moomin are actually trolls (Fujiko-san just came back from a trip to scandinavian countries) and that even though most of them don't wear anything in everyday life, they wear pajama when they go to bed :-) ), we started to talk about the present. I can't tell the detail here for I had promised Fujiko-chan to keep it a secret, anyway, in the end she handed me the t-shirt and told me to give it to Pecolin.

"Are you sure you don't want to give it yourself?", I asked her.
"No. It's okay. I usually just give her birthday card. Anyway, you're her son, she'll be glad to receive it from you. And told you what, I will act as if I don't know about the t-shirt at all."
So it went as we planned.

Several days after her birthday, Pecolin was wearing the t-shirt to a small party and everybody was asking about the t-shirt.
"It was a birthday present from Awan", she replied proudly.
"Really? How could you get the t-shirt? I think it should be hard to find...", the next question was addressed to me, and I just smiled full of secret.
Fujiko-san came late to the party, and when she spotted me, she frantically waved and said "Long time no see!".
Great act.
And I think I need to find Fujiko-chan a great birthday present next year... :-)

(About Peko-chan: it is the mascot of Fujiya, a cake chain-store in Japan. When Pecolin was a kid, lots of people said that she looked a lot like Peko-chan, and that's where she got her nickname).

The Ace

It was the tournament season for green sox (my baseball team), and since everybody seemed reluctant to wear no. 1 jersey, I wore it. Anyway, now I can brag to everyone that I am the ace of the team... :-)

Furuzawa's Firework

Fujiko-san invited me to see firework in her house. Actually the firework was held in Tokyo bay, while her house is in Magome (if you never been to Tokyo, the two places quite far from each other), so, in order to be able to see the firework, we went to the top of the building (Fujiko-san lives in 5-story mansion) and stand among the antenna and water tank :-).

Here is one of the pictures...

Body Fat Percentage

When my lab wants to throw solid waste from experimental room, we need to report its weight beforehand. And since our lab doesn't have balance big enough to measure in the order of few kilograms, it usually becomes a problem when the disposal season comes.

Lucky that Makii has body balance, so we use hers to measure the weight. Anyway, the body balance is quite sophisticated, and it can also measure the body fat percentage. Makii offered to measure mine, and I 'boldly' accepted the offer. And the result is... 5%.
"I think I need to add some more weight", was the first comment that came from my mouth.
"I wish I have the luxury of saying something like you have just said", commented Makii.

Birthday Pudding

UNESCO fellows threw a birthday party for me (well, not only for me actually :-) ) and because there was no birthday cake, Carmela used pudding as birthday cake...
Overall it was a great party. As far that I can remember, that was my first birthday party involving lots of karaoke :-)

Playboy in Cinema

I went to watch movie with Yoshirin and Aki at Shibuya, and that was the first time out of my hometown that I went to a cinema with free seat - the earliest you come, the best seat you can get.
And after looking around, I notice that Playboy magazine is one of the spensor of the cinema - the name of the magazine written close to the screen.
Well, at least we not went to see 'that kind' of movie... :-)