Explore Japan

Near My Office 1

2006-10-22T20:53:00.000-12:00

My office is 20minutes walk from Shinjuku station, a bit far. But I like walking as it's good for my health.

I see many foreign tourists around my office as there is tourist information center and Tokyo Metropolitan government office near there.

The Metropolitan government office consists of three main buildings. The highest one is Tokyo Metropolitan Main Building No.1, 243 meters (797 ft) high with forty-eight stories and there is a observation deck.

There must be ideal place to see Tokyo's dynamic view and get more tourist information at the information center.>

Came back from holiday.

2006-10-04T14:49:00.000-12:00

I just came back from honeymoon.

I've visited:
- Paris: The new Arc de Triomphe was amazing!
- Nice : Sunny and hot ! We had delicious dish of Nice Salad.
- Verona: Beautiful..... Verona is the best! We stayed at a confirtable B&B and they served delicious cakes and sandwitches for brealfast.
- Venice: Crowded ... We stayed one night in Murano island, where is famous for venetian glass, peaceful and quiet.
- London - Felt at home. We had a big parlla with best friends.Thanx Cris!
- Lankawi - Beautiful sea and reasobable prices. People have service spirits and never force someone to buy.

Although my company allowed me to go as it was honeymoon,probably I can not go such a long holiday as long as I work in Japan. I wish Japanese society will change and we will be able to take long holiday by law..

Thanks to all friends who gave me very useful information to make it come true!

Corporate website

2006-08-24T17:27:00.000-12:00

We launched an English version of corporate website.
http://www.virtualcom.co.jp/eng/index.php

The pages are created by Joomla, Content Management System (CMS).
The pakage is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody, so it can nt meeet our needs perfectly. So, our technical team integrated this CMS to suit for our essential categories.

There are so many technologies in internet industry...
I will try to catch up with them as they are very interesting and usuful.

Translation Tools

2006-08-22T22:23:00.000-12:00

How do you think about accuracy of Translation Tools ?
I used to use English to Japanese translation tools such as Yahoo!. But I could not understand translated Japanese, grammer is completely wrong..

I think even if translation tools have been improved, it would be impossible to translate English to Japanes perfectly.. Japanese grammer is so complecated that only native Japanese can translate. If someday, a parfect translation tool is released, I will lose my Job.. but I don't thing we will have the day.

I wonder if you translates from Spanish, Italian, German or other languages to Engish, is it readable??

Sweet Wedding Cakes

2006-08-16T02:01:00.000-12:00

These are their original cakes.

	This is our real wedding cake.
	A towery cake. Can you see Mickey & Minney mouse in the cake?
	It is designed like a book. The cake itself is strawberry and cocoa mille-feuille.
	A frouits and cream gondola cake on the sea.

Wedding Ceremony 2

2006-08-06T18:28:00.001-12:00

We had our weddin party at Hotel Miracosta, located in Tokyo disneysea. Thank you to all Miracosta Staffs for their services, kindness. During our preparation, we requested many things for food, drinks, flowers, dresses and so on, But they had tried to meet all our requests and realized our unforgettable party.

I would say there is a special hotel as not only it is located in Disneysea, but also there decoration, dramatic stages, the chapel.. everything!
My husband likes the main entrance.There is like a catsle with a fountain.

I love their entrance hall(Lobby). At the first time I've been to there, I just tilt my head back to gaze at the ceiling.

I'm sure we will visit there quite often to have a lunch or dinner.

Wedding Ceremony 1

2006-08-01T19:13:00.000-12:00

It was the most happiest day in my life!
Everyone, my friends, family, colleagues, was there and celebrated us.

I was impressed by our friendship. My friends surprised me by dancing and my Mom's letter.
They contacted with my Mom secretly and read her letter to me. It might be the first time I've got such a impressive letter in my life. Of cource I cried a lot... There are so many touching scenes on the day. I will write more stories later.!

Getting Married..

2006-07-24T17:50:00.000-12:00

Today, I submitted a marriage registration form to our city gorvernment. My surname has been changed to "Takeda". Sounds very strange..

Our wedding party is comming in 4 days at a Hotel called Miracosta in Tokyo Disneysea. Hope it will be a sunny and wonderful day.

We already have planned for our honeymoon and booked the tickets.

September
18 Tokyo > Kuala Lumpur(Transit) > Paris(Arriving in the morning 19th)
19 Paris
20 Paris
21 Paris > Nice by train
22 Nice > Monaco
23 Monaco > Milan
24 Milan > Vinice
25 Going London from Venice by rianair or easyjet
26 London
27 London > Kuala Lumpur(Transit) > Langkawi island
28 Langkawi island
29 Langkawi island
30 Langkawi island > Kuala Lumpur(Transit) > Tokyo

.... as you can see, so hard schedule. but must be big fun!
My itenerary from 20 to 24 has not been decided,, the above is one of our ideal tours. If you can reccomend any destination, hotels, transportations, please let me know !!

Karaage Recipe

2006-07-18T21:27:00.000-12:00

I always cook Karaage(Fried Chicken) when we have visiters to our home, as my husband requests and I assume no body hates Karaage. Japanese Fried Chicken is not like that in London. It's soaked in mainly soy souce and Sake and tastes Japanese!

I would like to introduce my Karaage recipe.

Ingredients
- 400-500g Boneless chicken legs
- 5 tablespoons Soy souce *
- 3 tablespoons Sake *
- 2 garlic cloves *
- 1 tablespoon ginger *
- Some starch

Recipe:
1. Cut Boneless chicken legs into bite-size pieces.
2. Soak the chickens in all seasoning* and leave it for an hour.
3. Mix with starch.
3. Fry them in deep oil.

Ryokan (Japanese Inn)

2006-07-13T21:32:00.000-12:00

Ryokan is Japanese traditional accommodations with Japanese 2 meals and hot spring baths. They have a Western-style guest room but mainly composed of Japanese-style room.(Room with straw tatami mats) and you can experience to sleep on Futon(mat on floor).

The interesting our custom would be Hot Spring communal baths. Around my hometown in Shizuoka, there are so many sources of spring and easily find public baths without staying a Ryokan. But for me, it is the most relaxing weekend to stay at a Ryokan and immerse myself in a large bath in tranquil atomsphere after a Japanese healthy dinner.

If you are looking for Japanese accomodation, no way to miss Ryokan.

Foreigners in Japan

2006-07-04T14:36:00.000-12:00

We had been isolated country in our history and have got own Japanese culture. Nowadays, Japan is becoming more international and we see many foreigners on streets.

Accordig to statistics in 2004 by immigration officials, the number of foreigners in Japan was over 1.97 million (1.55% of our popularity of 120 million) and reached the record.

Nationality	Polulation	Percentage
Korean	607,419	30.8%
Chinese	487,570	24.7%
Brazilian	286,557	14.5%
Filipino	199,394	10.1%
Peruvian	55,750	2.8%
American	48,844	2.5%
Others	288,213	14.6%
Total	1,973,747	100%

I'm interested in foreign people working in Tokyo, as I was like them when I wan in London. A way to know them is a free magazine called Metropolis .Metropolis is the only magazine that has its distribution of 30,000 copies independently and there articles about Latest News, Food & Drinks, Festivals, Music and so on are interesting for me as they are written by foreign writers from their points of views.

There are some Japanese comunities in London also and I could find some Japanese free magazines like News Digest and Japan Journals, although I tried not to read... as they were not good for my English improvement...

What I would like to say above... I've learned that our (your) comunity is everywhere all over the world. So do not have to be afraid to go and live abroad .

Get Around in Tokyo

2006-06-29T17:04:00.000-12:00

Rail service within Tokyo is extensive, safe and convenient. It is important to bear in mind that several railway systems operate within Tokyo - JR East, the two subway networks, and various private lines.

There are automated vending machines at all train stations. Fares are based on distance, and the minimum fare (1-3 stations) ranges from ¥110-¥170 depending on the line. If you can't figure out how much it is to the destination, you can buy the cheapest ticket and pay the difference at the end(there is no penalty in Japan).

Most train lines run from around 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. During peak hours they run about once every three minutes; even during off-peak hours it's less than ten minutes between trains, similer as London.

If you have a chance to get a JR line, such as Yamanote-line, please try to get the first carrage. You can see huge buildings passing from the front window and interesting train driver's seat.

How to Enjoy Sushi

2006-06-26T16:08:00.000-12:00

My friend in London sent me an interesting site. This Video explains how to order and eat Sushi at a Sushi bar in Japan with English subtitles.
What a unique and interesting !

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4946101556303618610&q=sushi&pl=true

Disney's Magic

2006-06-25T18:39:00.000-12:00

I love Disneyland very much.
When I was a high school student, my dream was to be Ariel on Parade and thought seriously to go to ballet school to learn lithe movement ... so silly.

Last Saturday I went to Tokyo Disneyland to see Electrical Parade Dreamlights. The 700-meter parade is Featuring popular Disney characters and Disney animated films, such as Toy Story, Bugs Life WInnie the Pooh and so on, with over one million lights.
The lights and music are amazingly beautiful and just I felt like dreaming.

A bad point of Tokyo disneyland is always crowded compared with Disneyland Paris. Maybe because of our popularity and their atttractive facilities. We have to wait for more than an hour to get an attraction, whereas only 5-10 minutes in Paris. If you are in London, go to Paris Disney to see Fantillusion, the previous parade of Tokyo Disneyland.You can watch it from the front row!

Samurai Blue 2006

2006-06-22T17:49:00.000-12:00

Japanese eleven's World Cup was over last night. Japan vs Brazil: 1 - 4 , It's desappointing, but expectable result to the Brazil team.

I think it's miracle if Japan wins Brazil !
Despite of such a difficult game, everyone cheered Japan from far away from Germany at 4:00 am Japan time!

I woke up at 4:40 by my neighbour's huge cheering voice, claping.... It was just the time Japan went ahead through Keiji Tamada's left-foot goal.

I was impressed by their patriotic spirit, not the goal.... I hadn't known they love football so much. You know? I've never heared any noise from neighborhood by the block of flats has sound insulation, although my neighbours have babies. My sleeping was dusturbed but I didn't feel it was nuinance at all, or rather I felt happy and interesting.

The results of Japan team was not great preasure, but I'm happy for sense of togetherness to cheer them!

Starbucks in Japan

2006-06-21T16:05:00.000-12:00

Starbucks is very popular in Japan too.
You might feel Japanese Starbucks cups are small. The size range is, Short, Tall and Grande(Grande is the biggest one), whereas the US size range is Tall, Grande, Venti.

Japanese original Frappuccino is "Greentea Frappuccino". The US Starbucks has "Greentea Frappuccino". But the taste is like Melon as it mixed with Melon syrop.

During my stay in London, I worked for Starbucks UK and I made so many Frappuccino. One day, my Japanese friend brought Greentea powder from Japan, so I served "Greentea Frappuccino" to my colleagues and everyone liked it! (of cource, can not tell to the boss)

Actually, you can make Greentea Frappuccino at home.

Recipe for Greentea Frappuccino
Ingredients:
1. Green tea powder
2. Condensed milk (depending on sweet tooth)
3. Whole Milk
* Decolate with Vanilla icecream or whip crean on top if desired!

Mix 1,2 and 3 together with mixer.

You can find Greentea powder at Japan Centre in Piccadilly Circus.
Please try one!

Japan is...

2006-06-21T13:14:00.002-12:00

What is your image of Japan and Japanese?
124million of Japanese live in a small and tiny island.

When I lived in the UK for a year, I found we have got strong and deep characteristics compare with the other countries.Of cource, all countries are different.but our difference is obious..maybe it it because we are Asian? or our history?

I would like to introduce our daily life, my interests and travelling topics in Japan!

Summer is coming!

2006-06-21T13:14:00.001-12:00

Japan is now on Tsu-Yu(Rainy Season), but I can feel summer is coming soon as today is 30 degrees, so hot!
We have a plenty of enjoyments in summer, such as Swiming in the Sea, festivals, Summer holidays, fireworks...

My enjoyment in summer is going to festivals with Yukata(Casual Kimono). The name "yukata" comes from the word "Yu" (bath) and "Katabira" (under clothing). The main difference between a kimono and yukata is the fabric. Yukata are made of cotton and less formal. Kimono are made of mainly silk and more formal and luxuary than Yukata.

You can find casual Yukata at souvenior shops or clothins shops and it would be a good souvenior or night ware for yourself