SOFTWARE, JAPAN, SELF-ACTUALIZATION AND

Baby and mother returned home this weekend.

Saturday was hectic for me - I spent the whole day cleaning the apartment, washing clothes / curtains / sheets / pillow casings, and shopping for groceries and things we needed for Mia.

On Sunday, Ayako and her parents came to Chiba by car bringing Mia and a larger-than-expected load of stuff we’d collected for Mia. Presents, clothes, and general supplies for a baby surprisingly take up a lot of space.

On Monday, 2 friends / classmates from University days stopped by: Matthew (Bennet) and Yuki. It was a nice chance to chat, share photos, and luckily watch Mia sleep (no crying)

The rest of this week looks like an early workday and early return home. Ayako needs a break occasionally, and I like to hold Mia while she’s still so young.

What did I do over the Christmas / New Years break?

I went to Gunma, where my wife’s parents live.

We ate and drank with family to celebrate the new year. This year, we returned to the fugu restaurant at the top of the tallest building in Maebashi.

A tail of fugu inside this warm Japanese sake.

Went well with this raw fugu. I wrote about my introduction to fugu, and how I conquered it in two forms here.

And I spent most of my days just holding Mia, looking at her eyes as they explored the world around her.

Rob pointed me to this video and asked the quintessential question: “WTH?”

I agree…

It appears to be a bunch of really random stuff. Although, I must say there is a strange pattern of including things that say “mimi” みみ also sometimes written ミミ　which can mean “ear” and there are several weird large-eared faces all throughout the video - including the first and second-to-last clips.

Two of the funnier parts, to me, were the bear-headed boy dribbling a basketball (of course) and the guy with stomach aches - they called him ゲリボーイ which means diarrhea boy. First time I’d heard that word used, lol.

**UPDATE**
Found this (more info in the comments):

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

Mia is now 1 month old! Her little hands have gotten bigger in these last 4 weeks.

Shen from Def Tech, a famous Japanese recording artist, and the first Japanese group that I ever listened to (because my brother-in-law Makoto bought me their album several years ago).

This meeting was by complete random chance. My coworkers and I planned to go to a Chicago style pizza place, that I had been recommending, for dinner on our last day of work before the new year. However, when I called to make the reservation, it was all booked so my coworker made the suggestion we go to a California style pizza place he likes in Roppongi called Pizzakaya. Pizzakaya was a cool little pizzaria, but it was only half-full that evening. The other large group of people there were celebrating the birthday of a friend (a guy named Daniel Saito who works , interestingly enough, for MySQL Japan) and Shen was there amongst his friends. It took me a little while to finally recall where I had seen his face - on an album cover and on TV - and surprised myself that I was right. Shen was cool enough to let me interrupt for a photo and for a couple autographed Cookpad business cards too.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Tech

“My Way” is my favorite song, but I enjoy all the music on the two albums I own - upbeat and positive lyrics make them highly recommended to anyone that’s into that genre.

I also have to recommend Pizzakaya (funny name that’s a shameless mashup of the word Pizza and Izakaya). The pizza selection and toppings were great (we ate a pizza called “The Big Russell” - lol), the microbrew comes in pitchers, and the atmosphere was way better than any other pizza place I’ve been to in Japan. Check it out if you’re hungry for pizza in Roppongi.

Kentucky Christmas, notice the biscuits have holes in them.

A bottle of Paul Masson that my father-in-law bought on his honeymoon trip to the US about 30 years ago. We had a couple glasses Christmas night, it was really good

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I did, and I’ll share some photos over the next 7 days (including one of my “Kentucky Christmas”).

I’m really tired, and have been short on time, but I went ahead and pre-scheduled some posts to automatically publish over the next 7 days. During that time, I’ll be in Gumma with family, Ayako and Mia

To all those travelling, be safe and stay warm!

Wishing all of you a very merry Christmas!

We may be enjoying a “Kentucky Christmas” here shortly.

Christmas 2012, hurry up!
I can’t wait. I can’t wait. I can’t wait.

We just got our new business cards at COOKPAD, and they are without a doubt the coolest cards ever. Why are they so cool? Let me list the reasons:

• high on color, low on fat
• each employee has a unique card, gotta collect ‘em all
• on topic “in-your-face” bottom-up marketing tool, everyone’s a salesperson now
• recipe on the back makes ‘em actually useful outside of basic contact information
• direct QR code link to the recipe on COOKPAD so you can share a link, post a tsukurepo, or leave a comment
• celebrates food, fun, and cooking first; business second
• the photos make people hungry, which will shorten business meetings
• the perfect low-tech reminder at the supermarket when you’re shopping for ingredients
• Japanese and English versions of ingredients and recipe instructions
• they taste great on toast with jam

And they are just in time for the end-of-year parties and family gatherings. There will be plenty of opportunity to share a business card and spend some time cooking together