Sunny weekend Today I woke up around noon, ate tuna pasta and went for a jog. The weather is so nice, not too hot, not too cold, with a beautiful sun. So I went to the beach in the south. A band was on the stage and playing familiar songs. I was listening to it for a while, with a beer. It was a beautiful day. I'll miss these days in the winter. I wanna enjoy the beautiful season more and more. I should work less, probably.

A Wild Sheep Chase I haven’t logged in italki these days. I’m still staying in the Long Island and struggling to learn English, although I’m not sure whether I’m making a improvements or making no progress. Recently, I like to listen to audio books on the bed. I listen to “A Wild Sheep Chase, ” which is written by Haruki Murakami. It is definitely a masterpiece. I really like the story. This book can be recommended to the people who would like to start reading Haruki Murakami. However, the words in this novel is a little difficult for me. Usually I fell asleep before I knew it when I’m listening to the story. For now it’s functioning just as a lullaby...

Weekend This is my first weekend in this visit. It's getting warmer and the weather is really nice. Certainly I feel like going on a walk, lying on a grass and spending my time doing nothing. But for now I'm swamped with work. I really curse it! Sustaining a good balance between work and life is difficult for me. I tend to focus on working, but too much work stresses me out. I hope to become a more optimistic person who do not take mistakes too seriously. However, optimistic people would never think that they should be more optimistic. Life is difficult...

Long Island Last Sunday I came to the US again from Japan. I won't have a chance to go back to Japan at least for several months. Here in Long Island, the weather is very nice when it's sunny. Today it is so a beautiful day that I'm tempted to forget about work and just go on a hike, but I don't think i can. Why the life is full of duties? But I'm starting to feel a bit differently talking with people here. People here seem to be more optimistic compared to Japanese people, somehow. I'm curious about why, but have no answer. Talking with optimistic, encouraging people make me feel a lot better even if the amount of work is the same. One reason why Japanese people are pessimistic may be that we lost in the war. American or European industry have been always ahead of us, so we had an inferiority complex to them. The positive side of the feeling is that we worked very hard to catch up with US or other countries. The negative side is that we still constantly feel that what we are is not what we should be. It is quite stressful feeling in this way. I did not realize that feeling until I came to the states.

Back in Japan I'm temporarily back in Japan from the end of March to update my visa. I have enjoyed a lot of sushi, sashimi, and other Japanese foods. I also started Japanese calligraphy that I used to learn when I was a child. I only have one week until my departure to the US, so I'd like to enjoy Japanese things as much as possible. Tomorrow I'm gonna attend a one-day sushi school. Although sushi is a famous Japanese food, people usually do not make sushi themselves. I'm really looking forward to learn the art of sushi.

Thai restaurant Today I went to a Thai restaurant with my colleagues. The dishes were quite good! We tried tom yum goong, pad thai, duck basil and yellow curry. Somehow the restaurant was almost empty. I hope the restaurant do not go out of business. As for work, things are not going very well. I have so many things which I do not feel like doing! Some problems are too difficult for me to attack! But I wanna believe that I am making a gradual advance. uhhh...

first notes Just started italki! Since this is the first time to write notes, I'll talk about my life here. I have arrived in the US in this February and started living here. Where I am staying is the countryside. During driving I can find deers feeding on grass and we have to be careful not to run over them. The biggest problem for now is that I really miss Japanese foods. Seasoners typically used for Japanese foods are hard to obtain and some of the foods available in the supermarkets are not familiar to me. It would be beter to learn to cook dishes like people here usually eats. It would also be good to find some good Japanese restaurants.