Hina-matsuri

The old custom of Japan, “Hina-matsuri”(ひな祭り) day will come.

March 3rd is the day, and a lot of  Japanese families, especially which have female children, display the antique type dolls.

The photo is a such kind of dolls.

We call them “Hina-Ningyo” (means hinadolls).

A kind of stage event is not held.

This festival is held at each house, and they usually display dolls, drink a sake, eat sweet snacks, and pray their children to grow up healthy.

The beginning of the event is not clarified, but it is said the custom seemed to occur about 1000 years ago.

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University’s entrance examination

Now it’s February, and it’s  a time of colleges and university’s entrance exam.

My office is locatd next to the university.

This week, I saw many high school students who try to take an entrance examination.

They are eager to check their reference book even when they are walking.

Go for it, challenger!

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A Dish of February

As I wrote before, I cook a meal once or twice a month.

I made February’s dish last Saturday.

Here is a photo of the dish and the menu;

1. A chineese-style omelet with rice (We call it a “Tenshin-han”)

2. Soy bean soup

3.Fried lettuce and carrot with ground meat

My wife and children seemed to be satisfied with  the menu.

Well, what I will make for dinner next month…?

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I bought a tire chain!

Last week I bought a tire chain for my car!

Before that, I had no winter tire, and no tire chain, so I could not go to snowy mountains or northern prefectures with my car.

I was surprised when I went to the automobile parts shop because there were so many kinds of winter chain!

I bought an easy type, easy to set up, made by rubber band.

I was satisfied with the chain because it was easy to fit.

To my sadness, my plan to the mountains had to postponed because my son got a fever.

I must make a schedule to go, or I would not go to the snowy moutains this season!

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Time management

After finishing my last marathon race, I haven’t been able to go jogging.

1.My wife has returned to her job.

My wife had been taking a child-care leave.

She returned to her job on the 1st of Feb.

So we have to make time to care for our children in our home.

2. A pile of tasks

In Japan, many companies have the end of fiscal year in March.

3.A new blog

I have opened my new blog which related to Movable Type, a blog software.

My private time is robbed by it.

I have to manage my time more laconically.

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Movable Type Hack-a-thon

I participated in the web developers event last Sunday.

It was called “Movable Type Hack-a-thon”, a developers’ event for blogging software called “Movable Type” (hereafter “MT”).

I think some people know the name.

MT is famous software for blogging, but nowadays it is frequently used as CMS software in Japan.

MT is also known as the rival software of WordPress.

I use both, but now I tend to use MT for my job.

I developed a work flow plugin.

The people who gathered at the event were really awesome developers, and I would never be able to surpass them in developing. Yes, they were really great developers.

I took part in the event for the first time, but it was an interesting experience for me.

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I finished the Shinjuku City Half Marathon race!

Last week, I participated in a half marathon race named “Shinjuku City Half Marathon race”.

As the name suggests, the race was run around Shinjuku prefecture, which is one of the biggest cities in Japan.

It was my second race in Japan.

I finished the race within two hours.

My time was 1 hour and 50 minutes.

The race was tough, but I was satisfied with my resulting time!

I uploaded my race tracking data, so please click and see if you are interested.

http://bit.ly/cha9uP

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Blog publishing media in the US

I read a book about the blog publishing media in the US and Europe.

The book said Gawker Media, which has some blogs specializing in various genres, had success in the Internet publishing world.

It also said Gawker’s most famous blog publishing medias are “Gizmode”, “Kotaku”, and “Gawker”.

In Japan, there are also some blog medias, but apparently they are relatively smaller than the US’s blog medias.

Some medias are running under the license of foreign blog media brands, like “Gizmode” and “Lifehacker”.

How about your country? Do you have your favorite blog publishing media?

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Google’s mobile phone didn’t get initial sales

A few weeks ago, the first mobile phone produced by Google, the “Nexus One”, was released to the market.

A lot of people, mainly those who are involved in the  internet and mobile industry, watched this event with great interest.

According to the internet news media, the initial sales of the Google phone amounted to twenty thousand in the first week.

I was surprised by this number, because the iPhone, which is the largest competitor to the Nexus One, had sold over two hundred and fifty thousand in first week, according to this article.

http://blog.sohaya.com/2009/11/12/opening-weekend-iphone-vs-pre-vs-droid/

It is unexpected results because I thought that Google’s latest mobile phone would get more large number.

IPhone had a fanatic fan who is also an Apple mania, and probably they bought an iPhone when it came to the market, but Google’s phone hadn’t maniac fan like Apple, so the sales result was not so big.

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