10km Challenge

Since my high-school age, I've never tried a mid-distance running around 10km. The high-school from which I graduated compelled male students to run 16km (called "10 mile race") as a part of physical education though, after the graduation I have been enjoying a short-distance running typically of 5km. My typical running pace is 4 min 30-45 sec/km.
According to Wikipedia, it is said that the distinction between jogging and running is the speed 6 mph (10 minute per mile pace, 10 km/h, 6 min/km). Thus I'm a runner so far.

This morning I felt a slight hungover　due to drinking a bit heavily last night, but I wanted to switch on my body and mind with vigor. Then I took 10km run. It took 48'43" for 10.02 km. Here is my nike+ipod record. Not so fast but no so bad. My wish is to run a half-marathon faster than 2 hours/20km. It seems doable, doesn't it?
See below for my record and 10km course.

This is it! for Sake lovers.

Sake means “liquor“ in Japanese, made from rice. That is the rice wine that represents Japanese spirit of the culture. For further information on the spirit, please refer to this web site. http://www.japansake.or.jp/sake/english/index.html

Nowadays, Japanese rice wine (hereafter “sake”) is loosing popularity in Japanese diners. That consumption has declined 40% over the recent decade. Can you guess why? Sake and Japanese original cuisine had a good marriage like cognac meets chocolate. As French cuisine got influence Japanese “light and lean” taste and very sophisticated presentation in dishes, Japanese cuisine, on the other hand, got a westernized a bit heavy and fat meet to some extent. (but it is still lighter than other cuisines). As a result, thus, we needed another marriage for new westernized Japanese cuisine. The new partner to that marriage is 'shochu' (white distilled liquor) made from potato, rice, or other various materials, which is growing in this decade.

I still love sake and I’d like to introduce a Japanese restaurant in Tokyo downtown, who devotes all the foods to appetizers for sake drink. The owner, Mr. Ohno, designed everything just for Sake lovers at affordable prices. Very unique restaurant it is and thus I’ love it. The reservation is strongly recommended, while Friday is first-come first served basis ( 5:30PM or after 9:00PM you may have a chance to get a few seats if you are very lucky).

According to http://www.att-japan.net/modules/tinyd1/rewrite/tc_37.html
it is described as:
Shimbashi Koju
Shimojima Bldg. B1, 1-2-17, Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
5 minute walk from JR Shimbashi Station
Tel 03-3575-0939
(If you want to really master sake, you should visit Shimbashi Koju. Its range includes many kinds of sake from the more famous brands to those much harder to come by. The food here is relatively cheap but delicious making it a popular spot for sake fans. So much so that reservations are again recommended.)

Here is a day story of my life.
Feb 16th was my special day. I had a very important presentation to the CEO, CFO, COO and other board executives form 8:30 AM in Tokyo. After having 30minutes discussion, fortunately I made it, and got through their approval for my project. Thanks friends and colleagues. To memorize this morning, I took two pictures from my Tokyo office. Tokyo Bay was shining and beautiful.
In the evening, I went to Shimbashi Koju, very casual, inexpensive and affordable Japanese sake restaurant as mentioned above, so as to celebrate the progress of my and colleagues’ achievements. At 6:30PM, unoccupied seats welcomed me. Toast to ours! Let’s call it a day!

High School Class Reunion Party

My new year started with a high-school class reunion party on January 3rd at Himeji Castle Hotel. Thirty years have passed since we left Tatsuno High School, where it had 10 classes at each grade, and 450 students, of which I was one. One hundred fifty old boys and girls out of 450 (which is 1/3 participation ratio) plus our former teachers got together and enjoyed the party. The details are posted on a blog site (unfortunately in Japanese) by party organizers at http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/tatsuno_31s.

Thirty years have carved out several figures:
1. Our teachers have retired or are getting retired soon in a few years. They were younger, at that time, than the old boys and girls in 2009. That reminds me to think about that our days are being counted.
2. Generally speaking, it seems boys have got older in their appearance (say, spare tire, lower belly, or losing hairs) than girls. Boys’ fatal disadvantage is that they (including myself) can’t use cosmetics! Let me point out that girls cannot decorate their tone of voices. The tone of voices in 1979 was of high-keys!
3. I forgot many old girls who were next-door neighbors. It was a shame on my memories.

I really enjoyed chatting with my old friends, by recalling back episodes in my high-teen period. It was a fun and also a kind of bitter chocolate taste.

Apart from that main topic, I’ve got one observation on our communication structure.
Here in Japan, we don’t have a nation wide social network system (SNS) like Facebook in spirit of “connecting and networking the people in general.” In Tokyo area, around 30 (out of 450) high-school graduates are registered to a mailing list and using it for communication in our daily life. The entire connections of our old boys and girls, however, have not been well-organized yet so far. Of course, we are connected by high-speed optical wired networks and broadband wireless networks with cellular phones. The issue is a lack of application-layer communication organizing system. SNSs are very popular for younger generation, say generations X and Y. The coverage is limited for elders. The communication structure can be improved further by introducing a facebook-like communication organizer. Here is a good research topic to tackle.
Related to this topic, I had an interview from a tech writer last year. The interview was well summarized into the communications of the ACM 2008 December issue.
See, for your information, http://mags.acm.org/communications/200812/?pg=20