it's that time of year again...

Cool Biz starts today. Satoshi has been anxiously awaiting the start of it. I've written about it here. You could hear him count down the days and get hyped up over not wearing a tie and long sleeved shirts.

Also about this time last year, I made rakkyo. This year, I am going to try another method and recipe.

Will let you know how it goes in a couple of days...stay tuned.

p.s. remember I told you about the ob-gyn? Well, the results are in and I'm okay. I have no idea why they could not call to tell me this.

Friday, Satoshi was off so I dragged him with me to the doctor. We waited in the waiting room for about 15 minutes. They called my name and within 10 seconds, I was done. You should have seen the look on Satoshi's face (what, you finished already??) Anyway, I'm glad the second doctor agreed with the first that there was nothing wrong...until next year's mammogram...

Have a nice week.

cool biz

It is the first day of June. Ask Satoshi and he'll excitedly tell you that it is the start of Cool Biz.

For about 4 months, men in most companies can discard their neckties and suit jackets and put on short sleeved shirts, in other words--business casual. The Cool Biz campaign started last summer here in Japan. Since room temperatures should be kept at 28C (82.4F), it is necessary to do away with neckties and suit jackets. (They actually did experiments to see what the body temperature of people were with and without neckties on!) Of course, this campaign has come with some opposition, mainly from the Federation of Japanese Necktie Unions (yes, they actually have an agency like this!)

I think the hardest part for Satoshi when he came back to Japan in 2001(after living in Hawaii for 5 years, with business dress being aloha shirts and slacks) was reverting back to his suit/necktie. Of course, if you ask me, most of the office workers here in Japan have no need to wear a suit to work. Sure, if you are always in contact with clientele, then maybe, but if you are just cooped up in your office, at your desk, then business casual would definitely be a very economical and sensible choice.

In summer, women also use sun umbrellas. I have a couple myself and use them almost year round. One that I have is a black umbrella with an aluminum coating on the inside to make doubly sure that no rays come through. A lot of women in the Kansai area also have a gadget attached to their bicycles in order to hold up their sun umbrella while they ride their bicycle. Since the traffic rules are really fuzzy(non-existent) here, I don't ride a bicycle. This is a photo of a bicycle with the gadget in our neighborhood.

Lastly, something foodie...I got these Moonstruck Chocolates a while back from my Aunty M1. This gift pack has 5 different bars, 3 of which are a dark chocolate blend (yeah!) There is a milk chocolate, dark chocolate, dark chocolate variado (with ancho chili), dark chocolate espresso bean and ivory chocolate bar. I took the dark stuff and passed the milk and ivory to Satoshi.

One more day until the weekend!

trying to save the planet?--a little venting

During the summer, the Japanese government had a campaign to cut down the emissions of greenhouses, it was called "Cool Biz" (I think it stood for Cool Business). This campaign encouraged everyone to raise the temperatures of their air conditioners to about 28C (82F) and dress a bit more casually: no necktie or jacket.

Satoshi's office participated in this and he was so happy because he really hates to wear neckties or as the businessmen (or salarymen (as the Japanese call them) here call it "kubiwa" or neck rope...If you ask me, I really don't know why all these businessmen have to wear suits anyway.

If you aren't dealing with clients face to face, why do you need to dress up? (I guess I think this way because I'm from Hawaii and the guys usually just wear aloha shirts and dress pants for any event (work, weddings, funerals)). Anyway, you could tell which companies didn't participate in this project, they were the ones carrying their suit jackets over their arms or in their hands. (need a hanger?)

Well, in October, the Japanese government came out with the winter version..."Warm Biz". This project encourages everyone to lower the temperatures of their heaters to about 20C (68F) and dress warmer--wearing a sweater or vest over a dress shirt, using thermal underwear, etc. Satoshi's office isn't really participating in this project, so it's back to wearing ties and suit jackets for Satoshi.

At home, we're also trying to do our share, our heater is set to 20C. I wear MANY layers in the house and try not to use the heater during the daytime. Our apartment faces the south, so our living room area gets the sun all day long. It usually gets very warm and toasty, so I usually don't turn the heater on during the day.

My suggestion to the government if they want to help to save the planet---cut down on the number of people smoking...

It seems there are about 70% of the people who smoke here (maybe it's just because there are 8 times the population here than in Hawaii?)

Some restaurants here "provide" smoking and non-smoking sections---um, if I'm sitting in non-smoking and the customer sitting at the next table is in the smoking section, can you actually say that you have separate sections? I think they need to have their own room to smoke in and not come out from it!!

I guess you could say I'm a bit peeved by smokers here mainly because most of them have no manners, they throw their butts into the storm drains, rivers and where ever they feel like it. If smoking is not allowed in areas, they take out their portable ashtray (it looks like a smashed paper cup) and smoke a way.

Sometimes a smoker is walking about way ahead of me, but the smoke from his/her cigarette comes to coat me...(ugh, and I just washed my hair!!) I have stopped hanging our clothes outside because there is someone on either the 1st or 2nd floor of our building that smokes and "perfumes" our laundry...

For you smokers out there with manners, good for you, but I think you should still try to stop. Food will taste better (and I'll be able to enjoy my food too if I'm seated next to you), and the fish and plants that live in the rivers and streams will actually be able to "live" , the amount of pollution that flows to the ocean from the rivers and streams will decrease and save the animals and plants living there--helping the planet all together.

There, I think I've gotten that out of my system...for now...