Christmas decorations

I went out for a drinking party with friends yesterday. That was my first drinking party with them in a while. I drank much. I also talked with friends in Japanese and in English. It was fun! I got back to home at 2:00 the night. On the way to home, I saw lots of Christmas decorations on a street, on a department store, at a park in the town. I was alone at that time, of course. Those're indeed beautiful though, but those annoy me sometimes. Christmas decorations always remind me of the fact I'm alone and many things I have to do by this year's end. Those never cheer me up!

Narita Airport

Narita Airport might be one of places with a mixture of deep emotions in Japan. I think most people are there for sightseeing. Some people might be there to be a student of a Japanese University or to be an employee for a Japanese company or to meet friends or family. In any case, each and all in the airport has particular emotion like anticipation, joy, anxiety and grief. It seems as if they're all standing at a crossroad in their life. When I am watching the my friend's plane and many other planes at the observation deck in the airport, I feel they encourage me. Get a life!

Two Sonatas of Frederic Chopin

I listened to Chopin's two Sonatas today. He wrote three sonatas for piano in his life.
The first sonata was written when he was a student in Warsaw. I don't think it's so bad though, but quite few pianists play that sonata quite infrequently. The other two sonatas are really famous pieces. If you would like to be a pianist, you would have learned and played these sonatas. Those require your quite high level of piano techniques for playing the sonatas. I used to struggle with the difficult part in those. I especially like the third movement in the third sonata.

Do you ever know this Japanese word Hakanai? I haven't yet found the perfect English translation for that, though. The word means sweet separation feelings for your beloved thing (or person who has just passed away) which has extremely short life. I feel fleeting tranquil and sweet moments whenever I listen to the third movement. It sounds as if I were in fresh open air in autumn for me.

Italian Night 2

There is no relationship to the title though, but I practiced the piano after a long time today. I have known my piano technique is a little bit unusual. And I have wanted to check my piano techniques by video or something. Today, I asked my friend to take a video of my piano performance. Checking my technique was interesting. It was obviously my performance, but I felt as if it was other player's performance. My big problem of the techniques is inefficient motion of my wrists. It exhibits loss in conduction of power from upper arms to keyboard. Checking the technique by video in detail provides me some interesting discoveries.

Now, let get back to the subject. Today, my friends and I had a dinner party at my place. About six people came and enjoyed dinner and conversation. I made lasagne for the first time. Trying the new recipe was fun! Because my friend gave me a lot of tips, I could make it. I learned a lot of things by him.

Ingredients : (Apply for four or six people)
- 24 lasagne.
- g 240 Cut Tomato.
- g 100 Tomato puree.
- g 200 Ground pork.
- 6 pices Mushrooms.
- Mozzarella.
- Mixed Cottage cheese and Cream cheese. (instead of Ricotta cheese)
- An eggplant.
- Garlic.
- Olive oil.
- Prosciutto ham.
- Basil leaves.
- Parmesan cheese.

Preparation:
1. fry up garlic, mushrooms and eggplant.
2. fry up ground pork.
3. boil up cut tomato with basil leaves, oregano, olive oil and tomato puree at least 20 minutes.
4. boil lasagne.
5. put these in a baking dish in order.
As the first layer:
lasagne, the mixed cheese, the tomato sauce and prosciutto ham.
As the second layer:
lasagne, the mixed cheese, ground pork, the fried up mushrooms eggplants and the tomato sauce.
As the third layer (top) :
lasagne, the tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan cheese and basil leaves.

After dinner, some of friends enjoyed my piano performance a little bit. Though, I haven't practiced the piano recently, I enjoyed it anyway.

Sightseeing in Tokyo

A view from an observation room of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building reminded me of my leisure activities of 2006 such as, Yokohama Bay area, Mt. Fuji, Mega Web in Odaiba, Mt. Mitake, Mt. Hinode and other spots. Luckily, weather was clear fine and I could see distant mountains. And also you can see full view of metropolis of Tokyo, adjoining cities, mountains and sea. The view from the observation room has an appearance of complicated layout of a lot of buildings - less tidy Tokyo. And you would find many sightseeing spots and landmarks from the flood of buildings. Every time I found a location or a building I had been to from the observation room, it reminded me of pleasant time.

After that, I went to Honda Welcome Plaza Aoyama(Recently, it's just been renovated) . I enjoyed looking at brand new motorcycles and cars. To get on a motorcycle is my dream. I was looking forward to seeing ASIMO(It's a robot, my friend's cup of tea), but he wasn't there.

After that, I went to Kawai Omotesando (Piano showroom, recently, It's just been renovated too) . I tried New SK-GX(Concert Grand Piano). I don't really like other Kawai pianos which have reasonable price. The sound is pretty good, but I feel the depth of their key is only a little shallow. It causes struggling with forte control. But the SK-GX is the only exception of all Kawai pianos. I was entirely satisfied with the SK-GX piano sound.

Going for a walk

I go for a walk around my apartment early in the morning sometimes. I do it when I'm looking for some new ideas or feeling short on ideas. Walking brings me fascinating, unexpected ideas and discoveries sometimes.

Hiking in Mt.Mitake and Mt.Hinode

I went hiking in Mt.Mitake and Mt.Hinode in Tokyo with my friend last Friday. I hiked in the mountains for the third time. Hiking in the mountains provides me with different impressions every time. We left Atsugi at eight in the morning. The nearest train station to the base of the mountain is Mitake station on Chuo line. The station has unique and traditional looks.

After we left Mitake station, we enjoyed cable car riding from the base, Takimoto station (233m) to the entrance of hiking course, Mt.Mitake station (831m). The cable car climbs up a slope having maximum grade 47% in about six minutes. Weather was perfect for hiking. It was cool and we were getting refreshing slight breeze. The mountains were covered with beautiful autumn colour of foliage. I felt refreshed by the beautiful sight and cool breeze.

There is a small town near the summit of Mt.Mitake. The town has nostalgic Japanese town looks. There are small shopping street, restaurants, shops, inns and old style houses. If you were there, it might remind you of your hometown. Obviously, The heart of this town is MusashiMitake shrine and it's also a symbol of this mountain.

After the paying my respects at the shrine, we visited Nanayo falls (seven steps waterfall) and Tengu-Iwa(a huge rock). The waterfall and huge rock surrounded by greenery have mysterious atmosphere. After that, we walked toward the summit of Mt.Hinode. The hiking course was very easy to walk. Breathing fresh autumnal air put out my daily busy work from my mind and made me relaxed. I was walking enjoying beautiful scenery of mountain and a conversation with my friend.

After two hours walking, we arrived at the summit of Mt.Hinide at last. The summit was like beautiful well maintained garden. There were many kinds of trees there and leaves of each trees have particular color. I enjoyed magnificent view from the summit and took many pictures. If it were clear fine day, we could have seen skyscrapers of Tokyo from there.

After we went down the mountain, we went to hot spring TsuruTsuru-Onsen. We enjoyed a relaxing soak in the hot spring. And we had a dinner and enjoyed a local beer at a restaurant in the hot spring place. Drinking a beer after taking a bath was great!