The Number 23

(it might NOT there is what happened in the end...)

i saw the movie "The Number 23"" on November 23. how coincident! actaully, not.

the movie is staring Jim Carrey. the director is Joel Schumacher, & the moview is Schumacher's 23rd movie. how coincident! actually not.

anyway, the story is about a man who finds himseld in a novel named "the Number 23". both the man & the man in the novel are getting obsessions of "23".

***
what I liked about the movie was it was a kind of a costume play movie.

i mean in the movie main characters played their another roles, like Carrey played the main character "Walter Sparrow" and the directive "Fingerling" in the novel. or Virginia Madsen played both Carrey's lovely wife "Agatha" & sexy girlfriend "Fabrizia" in the novel; Fabrizia was so hot (for men).

by the way, Jim Carrey is muscular & actaully good looking with cute eyes, right?

anyway, also Logan Lerman played as as his son "Robbin", & surprisingly Carrey & Lerman are very similar in terms of their body shapes, like their balance of face size & arms (or heights). Lerman will be good looking, too.

***
back to the move, it had many fun word-reword plays, like the author of the novel "23" was Topcy Krett, comes from "Top Secret", but i couldn't find all of them, but anyway i enjoyed the movie:
http://www.number23.jp/

i can't reach him.

it's not about a love life; it's about boxing.

last night, i had a boxing class as usual. but not "usual" was we did demo fighting with my boxing teacher, & he is a world ranker!

that means i couldn't reach him. no, not at all.

***
it was not really fight, & only a half round, which means 1 minute & 30 seconds. BUT, it was so hard to try to fight him, of course.

first, i basically couldn't follow him. i mean during a fight, boxers should move to reach the other & not to be reached the other. i tried to reach my teacher for hitting him, but i couldn't move as fast as my teacher did.

also, i realized that my fighting distance to my teacher was kind of far. i guess i was afraid to be close to him. but it was a kind of my point, too. i like to have certain distance with the other & hit him by using my arm length...but last nigh it didn't work well.

***
of course, all of my boxing class mantes couldn't reach my teacher, but i could say it was a good experience & actually so fun!

maybe next time i will be able to reach him :D

what's wrong with me!?

i was so embarrassed today @work...with my english ability...

***
FIRST, i received one e-mail from a person in english.

at glance, i thought this person was E-san in china, then i was concerned some issues on her. the e-mail said something about projects/management on the company's direction, or something.

however, i totally misunderstood what she said & actually who she was, & e-mailed this person, as E-san.

after a while, i still felt something, then i told that to my co-worker A-san, with forwarding the e-mail.

simply A-san told me like, "hey, the sender, she isn't the person you e-mailed to. she is N-san in another department..."

OH, NO!!

i called her (N-san) immediately, & explained i misunderstood & asked what she wanted...

***
NEXT, i didn't understand a word my boss used.

my boss called me & asked something. he exactly said, "how to retrieve the data?"

"(...'retrieve' the date? what he is talking about?)" <- that was in my mind.

my boss repeated, "how to retrieve the data?"

"(...retrieve? what did i do with the data??)" <- in still my mind like this.

my boss finally said, "HOW DID YOU GET THE DATA?"

"(OH!! I SEE!!)" <- of course, in my mind this.

i pretended nothing happened between my boss & me, then answered, like...

"yes, i asked an ID control department the data. basically i requested to get the data by e-mail blah-blah-blah..."

***
in my way home i bought "reader's digest" for pushing up my english...i was thinking my english is getting worse & worse.

or this morning i woke up one hour earlier than usual, so my poor brain already didn't work well by this after noon...

will we have a karaoke party?

this week, my co-worker A-san was quite busy, i think we both did good jobs & last night was friday night, so we had a quick drink. (also, i had a free coupon for one glass of italian wine :D)

then our conclusion was, "we will have a karaoke party!!"

***
we're getting to have a party season in this year (means december to january, right?), then our team would have a couple of parties (maybe?) with several combination of people.

one party could be a karaoke party :O & at our karaoke party i will try to sing english songs...maybe? actually through conversation with A-san, somehow we (means A-san & me?) will try to sing duet song(s) in ENGLISH.

if we sing, i like to sing "cursin''", from "duet" which i saw at the other day. in the movie huey lewis & gwyneth paltrow are daddy & his daughter, & they sang "cursin'". it was cool.

check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-ZGrYSRBs

***
in return, A-san asked (?) me to sing with her "a whole new world" from aladdin! she is such a dreaming girl!

youtube told me this; they are so cute like in love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi_Ocd9IALc

***
of course, i've downloaded those two into my ipod :) let's practise!

i'm crazy about musical!?

the original title for today's blog was "i may have 100 friends in a company?", but i changed my mind.

originally today's blog was something like...believe or not, yesterday i have sent 100 e-mails to peope in my company, then i got overslept this morning. (by the way, thank you, Y-san. you made me awake this morning.)

but!! last night i got three e-ticket for musicals in NY, & i found a funny review of one of musicals i will see there:
http://www.broadway.com/gen/general.aspx?ci=543629

***
this review is in broadway.com. i've decided to see the musical "Avenue Q", but i wasn't sure that the musical would be worth. i was looking for new about broadway strike, then by chance i found it.

Avenue Q was the tony winer in 2004. the story about people who live in "Avenue Q", but they are basically loosers. actors & actresses play with their puppets, so it seems like a play for children, but it's not at all.

the show is also about real issues, like sex, drug, unemployment, gay, etc,. sounds interesting, isn't it? i'm looking forward to see it.

more information:
http://www.avenueq.com/

***
by the way, one of amateur reviewers, Vincent, is cure, you can check his profile in the website (click his name).

kiss has come to my place - part. 2

since i got my digital camera, i've been taking many photos. but somehow, i feel a kind of uncomfortable to use it. (but i guess i got some good pictures, anyway!)

then i thought that it was because of the lens i use. (maybe it was just matter of my camera skills...)

***
i've been using a sigma standard to zoom lens, but because the lens is for "standard", i can't be close to objects. i used to use a film camera with a macro lens so that i could take pictures of flower or food in hand-reached closely distance.

i'm so an everything-with-in-one-meter guy, i guess...

anyway, i asked a friend who uses a same CANON's one & love, i think, to use it about lens. i believe her husband answered that, but she recommended a macro (actually, it's marco-ish) lens by sigma.

***
then yesterday, i went to a bic camera in shinjuku to checked some macro (or macro-ish) lenses. then i chose a sigma one that my friend recommended, which is 17 - 70mm F2.8 - 4.4 macro.

i didn't know about camera at all, & now i know F4.4 means little bit darker than F2.8 or something.

"YES, I WILL."

「○○さん、怒ってるのっ！？」

that was the first thing my boss said to me before our small meeting. i didn't mean that, but i e-mailed my boss like that.

***
my boss & i had discussed several different issues via e-mails, & sometimes words in our e-mails were too dry (?) or too business-like. in other words, our e-mails were getting their sounds not so polite or something.

then, my boss ordered me to do something. it was understandable, but i was stressed out. then i said in one e-mail like,

"YES, I WILL." (<- look. they are all capitals.)

it sounded, 「分かってますからっ！！」(<- actually, my boss said that to me exactly in japanese!!) he, as a native english speaker, explained the sentence looked upset.

i used that twice, & in fact, i was upset at first. but the second one was kinds of joke :P

by the way, i brought him two portions of じゃがポテト when we had the meeting; potatoes are my boss's favorite. & of course, he was so happy to get them :D

***
today's conclusion is "a good communication makes a good relationship", right?

step back & straight

this evening, i went boxing practice since two weeks ago, & sooooo good to feel it.

***
sometime, i feel just annoyed or feeling dull to go there because of tiredness after work. then i skipped two boxing sessions.

however, i got stressful day today @work, so i really would like to puch (someone?).

today's theme was step back & something, like "step back & string" or "step back & one-two".

when i did mitt (means to punch teacher's mitts), actually, my teacher S-sensei said to me, "your punches have sharpness (in japanese, "kire") today. it's getting good!"

***
i've been feeling still soooooo good :D

season of vines

we've got the season of vines, which is november, i think.

***
after work, we (W-san, A-san & I) went to drink a couple glasses of wine to a sagafredo@our workplace.

now segafredo has a special wine fair, called "novello":
http://www.segafredo.jp/home/home/index.html

novello means new, & then turns to a festival of new/young wine in italy, like beaujolais nouveau. beaujolais is a specific area in france, right? but we can drink novello's wine (young wine) from all areas in italy.

this evening we got four kinds of wine, which were:
- novembre sicilia from sicilia
- ducale novello veneto from veneto
- valfieri novello monferrato from piemonte, &
- tini marche from marche.

unfortunately i don't know names of wine so well. but you know we can just enjoy drinking them :)

***
the photo is about a glass of wine, & caprese, olives & prosciutto.

i'm very very careless...somethimes?

usually, i pay attention things around me, like daly tasks or e-mails for other business people.

however, sometimes i don't think or i can't see things in front of me.

***
for example, this morning i brought amenities from he hotel in okinawa, as souvenirs for three of my coworkers. it was just because the amenities looked very nice & made in france.

the amenities were cleansing, face lotion & face creame or something. soooooo the items shouldn't work separately. but, but, i just gave each one for each coworker...

***
or in okinawa, when i picked up a phone, i realized that a cable of the phone was kind of short, then i dropped the phone...twice...even i knew the cable was short.

***
or this evening i realized that i bought monthly pass of which i didn't expect way. (i should buy "uchi mawari", but i bought "soto mawari", something like that.)

***
or what else? maybe to be continued...

fly to the island: weekend traveller - mission #1

weekend traveller:
a guy who loves traveling around the world on a weekend. his purpose of each travel should be very specific & intensive.
he doesn't forget enjoying en route, as well.

***
since my hobby would be traveling-on-a-weekend, i was planning to travel somewhere, especially out side of japan. however, my first destination was okinawa with three of my friends, T-san, D-san & Y san; that was so relaxing-nice.

***
the organizer & our tour guide:
Y-san, he has oprganized this travel for us. he is a jal mirage master. when he is on board, a flight attendant always comes to his seat & says "welcome to the flight, mr. XXX. please do not hesitate to let us know when you need anything." wow! i'm impressed :O

the flight: jal - class j
this time, Y-san reserved class j seats for us. i hadn't tried it before, actually i usually don't use jal. but, look! if we pay ¥1000 more, we could have this spacious seat. i was confutable on the plane.

the hotel: the busena terrace (http://www.terrace.co.jp/busena/index.php)
the hotel was located in busena cape, 90-min from naha airport by car. it was an open-air hotel & out side of daily life.

actually, the friends & i didn't have any special activities there. we just stayed there & relaxed, meant enjoying hotel file!

we took a walk in the hotel & sea side. we eat in the buffet; they served nice foods. in this morning, we went to a small aquarium (海底水族館) for watching fish under the sea.

it was nicely an unusual weekend for me :)

***
one more thing. we did sora-ben on the returning flight. i ate "juice makunouchi", which was a okinawa local food lunch box. a flight attendant said to us, "looks delicious."

an innocent could do anything he wants...

once my co-worker Aquiko-san pointed at my attitude of being innocent, then said like this. what exactly she said was, "無知って怖い。"

unfortunately today i did again.

***
starting by one e-mail from someone who sounded NOT so hight position. it was about a sort of "reports", & the someone said to me (<- not to my boss) directly, "please do this by november XXX" in his e-mail.

at that point, i didn't know who the someone was, & i thought he was one of engineers handling the issue. however, it was so wrong. in italian, we could say, "errato! errato!"

"he" was actually the vice president (or something) of our group (<- not "my company") in technical side.

what i was done to him was basically comparing bad-cordination of his organization...not exactly like that, but if i knew the person was in a very hight position, i could use more polite languages. i guess it was too casual to ask him.

***
then, i got phone calls from two of his sbuordintes, P-san & K-san, who were in charge on the issue.

"sorry! but i already did! & what i said to him was true in fact!"

i wish i could say so, but i really didn't say that. i just said, "i didn't know that... i'm so sorry."

***
the photo is about today's my lunch, unagi-ju & oinari-san. it was yummy :D

a name i have

recently, i had a conversation with a friend about "name". she has a quit unique name, so do i. & i like it.

***
it pronounces very normal, but my first name has three chinese characters. i think each chinese character is meaningful. they are: ocean, ambition, & respect (for people). it's quite nice, isn't it?

the charas sound like "big words", but since was born, i'm using the name, of course. that's why very comfortable to hear that, as my name.

***
actually, my family name is quite unique, as well, so usually, people call me by my family name.

But! if it's not in japan, people call me my first name normally, like "yoshi". one time when i introduced my name "yoshi", a boy (univ, student?) said to me,

"wow! you have a same name of the little dinosaur!"
it's yoshii in super mario :D

***
by the way, i also have an english name, which is "joe". my canadian grandma calls me, like this.

first, she called me joe, i didn't realized that. i though she said "yo(shi)" cause she had a low husky voice. but when my friend asked her what she actually said, she explained reason why she called me joe.

in jewish (yes, she is jewish), "y" & "j" switch each other their pronunciation in english, so "yos" turns "joe" somehow...

***
i like someone calls me "joe". it' sounds like joy, means delightful & fun, right?