Let the real vacation begin!

After all the family obligations, Dawn and I were finally on our way to Atlanta for our vacation. We spent 3 nights at Crowne Plaza Hotel, a nice hotel where I got a hell of a deal. We were somewhat unprepared and underplanned for what we wanted to do there, though: we didn't bring a street map for Atlanta; the Georgia Aquarium was so crowded that they were only accepting reserved ticket visitors, and we couldn't get in; we had to decide where to eat minutes before dinner. Considering all that, we still did pretty well enjoying ourselves.

Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Very interesting display of evolutions of different species in Georgia regions.

CNN Global Headquarters. We took the "Inside CNN" tour. Very neat. Highly recommended.

World of Coca-Cola Museum. Coke was invented in Atlanta! Even if you are not interested in history of Coke, you would most-likely find this place fascinating. Of course, we are very easily amused...

'Tis the season of Presents

I am not a Christian, but I do enjoy the customary gift exchange of Christmas season... Mostly, the receiving part of it. For the past several years, I had not had to do much with shopping for others except for my own parents, but this time, things were a bit different now that Dawn is in the picture.

I didn't have time to shop so I had asked Dawn to do the shopping for me using my credit card. The arrangement worked out pretty well... at least for me.

We spent Christmas Eve at Dawn's parents', Christmas Day at Dawn's sister's and 26th at Dawn's sister's ex-husband's (father of Dawn's nephew's). It was probably the busiest holiday season that I have experienced in the recent years. Here are a few pix:

Dawn's mom gets a Dyson vacuum cleaner!

Dawn was very excited to have received a toaster oven from her parents.

The boys got the Basketball Goal for their new house!

A bit of sightseeing...

After the closure meeting, we had a little time to do sightseeing in Nagoya. I was raised in Nagoya, but after 9 years, I'm no different from the first timers:

Nagoya City Hall. Nagoya is a city of 2.17 million people. I guess you need 2 skyscrapers to govern a city that big...

Nagoya Castle. Although rebuilt 46 years ago after burnt to the ground during WWII 60 years ago, it is still an impressive structure. The golden dolphines on the top of the roof make this castle distinguished from the others.

Jay on the golden dolphin... I think he looks like Will Sasso from Mad TV...

What do you think?

Toilets in Japan

Just a couple of pix of TOILETS in Japan:

"Hole on the floor" This always sparks conversations.

"Washlet" Shower toilet in my hotel room. Heated seat and butt shower ro bidet. It's strangely addictive.

Land of Rising Sun...

I've been in Japan for 2 full days now for business. The flight was long (13 hours) and it felt longer in my coach seat... I didn't move from the seat for the entire duration of the flight. Somehow, I didn't have to go to bathroom... Well, the damn flight attendant didn't come around often and left us all thirsty so I didn't have enough fluid in my system. I was so dehydrated by the time I got off the plane at Centrair Airport in Nagoya.

I am accompany my boss and 2 other Americans (Jay and Debbie) to interpret. It has been more exhausting than I had expected. All day long, there is not much private time that allow us to sightsee except for what we could see during the transit.

Jetlag has taken the toll on me and I keep waking up at 4:30am and getting tired around 8pm. The tight schedule during the day isn't helping either.

This morning, we went to Denny's for breakfast. The menu is nothing like you would see in American Denny's: eggs, salad, toast, coffee and juice... or rice, miso soup, salmon and natto... I hadn't expected that, but they were pretty good. I told Jay that I had not met any American who liked natto (fermented soy beans). Jay naturally ordered it to try it. I braced myself for the scene he was gonna cause when he gets grossed out. Jay actually finished it claiming that "it was OK". wow... what a weirdo...

Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving Weekend was different from the last several ones. Obviously, my life has changed much with Dawn's reappearance in my life, and with it comes the need to balance the time among different parties: my family, her family and her friends. It's just that I have not had many acquaintances that I care to spend time in different occasions for a while.

So, this time we had Thanksgiving dinner at Dawn's parents, Friday and Saturday at my parents and another Thanksgiving dinner at Christie's (her roommate/landlord) parents. As busy as it was, it was nice to have the sense of belonging back.

Boys horseplaying at Dawn's parents'.

From left: Noah's, Dawn's, Johnny's, Chris's and Mason's. Mason is 14 (both age and shoe size)

Dinner at my parents'.

Dawn making herself at home with wine, my computer and my dad's cardigan...

Louisville Rendez-vous

Dawn and I have made Louisville a rendez-vous location since it's located 1 hour from her and 2 hours from me. I have lived in this city for 1.5 years right after college, and I didn't have a good impression because I never grew to like my first job. Now, I can be more objective about the city, and I think it is quite a city with a character. I took some nice pix while we were there, and here they are.

When did they build Hard Rock Cafe in Louisville?! This used to be a lame Galleria mall! Now the structure is called "4th Street Live" housing some trendy bars and a live stage. COOL!

An evening view on the Ohio River. Nice picture from my point-n-shoot cam, I think.

Cherokee Park. Dogs are running around freely! I don't know if this particular area is supposed to be the dog park, but dogs get along well with other dogs when not on leash.

"Jack" and me. Jack is just a friendly dog who just happened to be there. Obviously, he is a good judge of character.

Dawn and a rotweiler. There is no such thing as a scary dog here. A lot of "horseplay", but they are all playing nice.

3 dogs with 1 stick.

Dawn is completely content with the mild weather, the scenery and the dog poop she is lying on (totally kidding). It was a near-perfect day except for the fact that the it had to end.

A very wonderful weekend, indeed! I long for another one like this.

TMI Management Academy

My employer 'forces' leadership positions to take a few required training classes. Management Academy is one of them. I have been avoiding it for the last... um... 9 years, but they finally caught up with me, and I finally ended up going there in the backwoods of Cumberland Falls, KY. The training was surprisingly fruitful and, more importantly, painless. I actually enjoyed my week of the training. They asked to keep the contents of the training hush-hush for the future trainees, so I won't talk about it in details. But here are some pics from the week.


Cumberland Falls, KY. The only place in the world where you can see "Moonbows"! No, I didn't get to see one...

The morning starts early, but the breakfast tastes better when surrounded by the beautiful nature.

I won't elaborate what we are actually doing, but I ended up hurting my back in this activity...

Talk about bonding...

Another of the activities. This one is in a classroom, but it was a very intense experiment.

My classmates! Strangers when we arrived, the best of friends when we left! We learned so much about ourselves as well as each other. You gotta love it when things exceed your expectations!

TMI President's Cup

ATS Team arriving at Quail Chase Golf Course, Louisville, KY, after 2.5 hours of driving.

ATS Team practicing at the driving range before tee-off.

Award Ceremony. Sorry, no pix from the actual round. I was too serious about playing. I won my match, but ATS lost the chanmpionship by 1 point!! Agh!!!

ATS Team after the tournament. Runner-up 2 years in a row.... Maybe next year...

Araco US Open

Mr. Naito, the President, speaks before tee-off.

KK accepts trophy for his strong runner-up.

The Leaderboard.

I came in 13th...

One More Day in Paradise City

OK, to call Torreon a paradise city is a stretch, but it has been a pleasant stay, nonetheless.

Today was the last full day here. We visited 2 sister plants in the city. The visiting party consists of 3 different experts: Manufacturing (Mr. Okura), Quality Control (Mr. Hayashi) and Production Control (myself). Once we were in the plants, we were on our own agendas to discuss, investigate and learn 'stuff'. These plants being our sister plants, we were pretty much free to roam around anywhere.

We were asked to comment our perspectives on their operations. I thanked them for the opportunity to observe their operations again and also commented on some opportunities for improvement. I was not comfortable being critical of those who have been nothing but hospitable, but it was all good when Mr. Okura seconded my comments and Mr. Hino, the plant manager also told his staff to take the comments to their hearts.

We then headed to the golf course. Yeah, yeah, so this was, after all, a boondogle. Hey, it's once a year thing, with approval of the vice president, Mr. Okura :-). The golf game wasn't pretty, though... :-(

The dinner was at "Pampas do Brasil Restaurante", a Brazilian restaurant. You sit down and they would keep bringing all kinds of meat on 'swords' and ask you if you want it. If you want it, they would shave a piece of meat on your plate. There were many kinds of meat, and if you don't pace yourself, you may not be able to taste evrything, and you do want to taste everything, because everything tastes so GOOD!

We stuffed ourselves pretty full before we left. This is always a good finale for a wonderful memorable trip. Tomorrow morning, we have to leave the hotel at 5:50AM... Yikes!

Another Beautiful Day in Mexico

Today's agenda included visiting 2 other plants near by, but both of them declined from being visited at the last minute, so we ended up having a whole day to kill.

While we were still in Monterrey, we decided to visit "Cola de Caballo" - Horse Tail Waterfall. This turned out to be a extraordinary place:

The morning temperature was really comfortable in this mountain region. Although this is a tourist attraction, we were the only group there, and the quietness added to the serene atmosphere created by the cascading water. Water seemed to be very clean and clear. The amount of water is amazingly voluminous considering that we just had driven through a desert to arrive there. Seriously, where is the water coming from?

We left the place. After walking around the souvenir shop area (I didn't buy anything) and eating lunch, we headed back to Torreon. I slept through most of the way, it felt as if it was a short trip.

We then had a dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Although some stuff is unbearably hot to me, most of the stuff was really good.

The girls are Yuko and Mieko (from left to right). They are the interpreters for our Mexico plants. I wish I could speak Spanish like them. It just sounds so fun to be able to speak it.

We, then, headed toward the mountain where the giant Jesus statue is looking over the city of Torreon (like in Rio de Janeiro). The view of the city lights was a gorgeous. OK, so I may be an atheist, but I can appreciate that the citizens of Torreon feel a little more secure with their supreme figure watching over them 24/7.

Mr. Hayashi is being ecstatic about Mexico. This is his first visit, and he just can't hide his excitement. This is my 3rd trip, but every one of them has been a new discovery and new excitement. Obviously, having a gracious host is one reason that we get a such good impression of this country, but I think Mexico has something that makes you happy. The difference will be so apparent when I arrive in an airport in US. People just aren't happy as Mexicans. Anyway, this country does people GOOD.

Hola! once again

This post is sent from Monterrey, Mexico. I'm once again on a business trip to Mexico, and as always, I've been enjoying my time here.

I arrived in Torreon, Mexico last night via Dallas-Fort Worth. The whole trip took only 5 hours, thanks to the new American Airlines newly established route from Evansville, IN to Dallas. My travel companions are Mr. Okura and Mr. Hayashi. It's Mr. Hayashi's first trip to Mexico.

Today's agenda included transit from Torreon to Monterrey and visiting 2 affiliated plants. The scenery along the way was really dynamic:

We drove through a desert between mountains. Joshua Trees, cacti and other vegetation really make you feel that you ARE in a desert. The mountains shoot up to the sky from the seemingly forever flat surface of the ground. Mieko, our interpreter told us that the region used to be the ocean bottom. I guess this is what the ocean bottom looks like with trees and cacti.

We visited the 2 plants both of which I found very interesting and educational. I took some pictures, but I can't show them for the confidentiality reasons.

We dined at a Japanese restaurant in Monterrey. We stuffed ourselves with all kinds of stuff. Yeah, I'm a happy guy.

And tomorrow, I will wake up feeling really smart, because I'm staying at Holiday Inn Express!