Studio Ghibli

I watched the movie "Karigurashi no Arrietty" last week.

The movie was produced by Studio Ghibli, an animation studio in Japan. The studio is well-known as Director Hayao Miyazaki . If you like Japanese animation, you may know him. He created good animations such as "Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind," "Laputa:Castle in the Sky," "Spirited Away," etc

Rain

source by MoMA

It rained all day. I sat in front of my computer all day. Because of that rain, I finished many to-do list of tasks.

It will be clear tomorrow.

motivation 3.0

Have you read "Drive : The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" ?  The book was written by Daniel Pink who worked previously as Vice President Al Gore's chief speech-writer from 1995-97.

The book title is "motivation 3.0" in Japan. It's translated by Kenichi Ohmae.
The book provides new motivation 3.0.
 - Motivation 1.0
     It's the most basic motivation such as survival.
 - Motivation 2.0
     It's the carrot-and-stick approach. Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money.
 - Motivation 3.0
     To put it in a nutshell, I think that it's intellectual curiousty. And motivation 3.0 is built upon 3 elements which are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.


I think my motivation is about 2.5 at this time.

graduation party with former business associates

Former business associates celebrated my graduation last month. I worked with them for about 7 years. And I had been influenced by them. For instance, I've never been to Thailand and I didn't know how the country is. So I didn't go there to work. I was scared to work in Thailand. But they were different. They enjoyed trying new challenges. I remember the time when I changed my mind little by little.

I left the company a year ago but I want to keep in touch them.

For your information, this cake was made by Sucre-rie which is very popular in Tokyo.

Kindle

I bought Kindle e-book reader released by Amazon. I've heard from my friend that Kindle is good.

I don't have to go to the book store because my Kindle have 3G & WiFi. I tried to buy Kindle e-book with 3G from the web. Before, I was carrying around thick books when I went out. Now, I don't have to since I have Kindle.

Why isn't Amazon not selling Kindle in Japan? If they will release it in Japan, I think it will become a huge product. This time I directly ordered Kindle from Amazon USA.

If you have a chance, you try to use it.

Kiva

I'm continuing to make loans on Kiva. It forgot to post on my blog...

Aomori - dinner -

Aomori - Nebuta -

Nebuta festival takes place in Aomori City from August 2nd to 7th every year. When we arrived in Aomori City, it was the end of Nebuta festival. So We went to see the huge paper lanterns. It takes almost a year to create the Nebuta. It's about 5 meters tall! Moreover it's a wooden frame wrapped with Japanese paper.

In fact, I've been to Nebuta festival 10 years ago.

Aomori - the Sannai-Maruyama site -

Aomori - hot spring -

We went to Asamushi hot spring (浅虫温泉). I enjoyed a relaxing soak in the hot spring.

Aomori - lunch -

My friend took me eating place. There is famous for seafood. There were a lot of autographs on the wall. 

Aomori - return road -

I stopped at a small store on return road.

Aomori - Aoike -

There are several ponds in a corner of Shirakami mountain range. One of them has blue water. The pound is Aoike(青池). The second picture is a normal pond. Aoike was a mysterious pond.

Aomori - Shirakami mountain range -

I rented a car at Aomori airport and I went to Shirakami mountain range. It took about 2 hours from Aomori airport to Shirakami mountain range. The way has a beautiful road along the coast so I looked at the beautiful scenery.

Aomori (青森)

I went to Aomori prefecture to meet my friend in the university and to see Shirakami mountain range(白神山地) , a World Heritage site. It took about 90 minutes to get to Aomori from Tokyo by air.

My friend lived and worked in Tokyo until last year. But he came back to his hometown to take over his father's company.

115 Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay

I went to the exhibition of "115 Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay" at National Art Center, Tokyo last month. I think the exhibition was spectacular. Put simply, some of the pictures have appeared in school books.
The art museum was very crowded and there was a long line. I had to wait for about 90 minutes.

Graduation

I've gone to a school for two years. At long last, I could have enough credit for graduation. It made me very happy that the announcement about credit earnings and a graduation.

I will go to a graduation ceremony next month. And I will have to looking a job. But now It may be said that looking for a job is a severe environmental.

Sashimi over rice bowl

I took my friend to eat in a Japanese restaurant. The restaurant is famous for sashimi over rice bowl. He was satisfied with the taste but an oder is not enough so we went to eat again in another restaurant.

Buruno Murani

I went to Buruno Murani exhibition at Yokosuka museum of art. The works were fun to see.

The museum is located near by sea and it also has a cafe. Please look a picture above. There is something artistic about this picture. 

I enjoyed my time. Moreover the Musée d’Orsay exhibition is taking place in Tokyo. I want to go there.

Kiva

source: Kiva.org

I made 4 loans.
This picture is one of them. The bird attracted a attention to me.