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!

Introducing: My Avy!

This is a kind of belated entry, but I have traded my 2003 Toyota Avalon for a 2005 Avalon during the Memorial Day weekend. It's been 2 months and I absolutely love it.


It has the impression of the recent Cadillacs or recent Nissans: Bold.


The side view kinda reminds you of new Chrysler 300M. Maybe the windows?


The dual exhaust and the rear air spoiler give it a really sporty feel.

This is a Touring edition. The suspension rides a little stiffer than my 2003 for the reason.

The interior is a dark grey leather trim. This is my first leather trim vehicle. It is really nice except on a hot summer day after you leave the car out for a while. It can get brutal in there.

I added the options of Moonroof and JBL sound system. The seats are really comfortable. Even the rear seats recline. It feels really roomy.

It has 3.5-liter engine with 280 hp! It does have a very good pick-up and it is very quiet. Yet, the gas mileage is awesome. I have clocked 34 MPG.


The right lower corner shows the average gas mileage at 34.1. Sorry about the blurry picture. I took this while I was driving.

The 2003 model had the "geezer" impression and I used to get all kinds of smart-ass comments from people (although I loved the way it rode). The 2005 has both the form and the function. People actually turn their heads for this one. It's very easy to get used to a good thing!

Moving Day

When my brother 'G' moved in with me, he dropped most of his stuff in the rented storage. He has been paying rent for the last 2 and half years. Since my parents has use for some his stuff, we have decided to vacate the storage and move his stuff into their basement.

G and I headed to our parents' on Friday night arriving in the wee hour. We still had to get up early enough to drive 1 hour to arrive in Lexington by noon. This ended up being a family affair, and all of us drove down to Lexington. Here is Mom:



Dawn offered to help and met us up Lexington. We rented a truck and got work. It was a hot day, and we all got sweaty, but we accomplished what we came for.







All done!

My body hurt for the next few days...

Trip to Lexington

After the NY trip, I quickly jumped into my car and drove 4 hours to Lexington, KY. Dawn, my former girl friend from several years ago, and I made a plan to spend a few days together. Christy, her roommate/landlord graciously agreed to let me stay in one of her bedrooms for the duration.

We had pizza with her parents. They were getting ready to go to South Carolina for a vacation. They are looking for a property for their retirement. We had a good conversation as we had had several years ago.



For the next few days, we pretty much spent time talking, walking and eating. Here are few pix:


Pretty cute photo, I think. But my head seems humongous compared to hers.



At Jacobson Park.


From left: myself, Dawn and a spray bottle...

As you can see, we had a pretty good time. One thing that the camera doesn't capture is some of our discussions. Dawn is "between relationships" and I am pretty much "PERMANENTLY between relationships". Inevitably, our conversation started to consist of the possibility of "us". Distance proved to be the only obstacle and I left her place promising with each other that we would look into ways to overcome the obstacle. hmm... this is getting interesting...

Leaving Big Apple

I was supposed to get up at 3AM and be ready to leave by 4AM. I set my cell phone to ring at 3AM before going to bed. Well, that doesn’t help if you are really tired, I guess. I must have slept through it. Tee came knocking on the door and said, “hey, you ready to go?” at 4AM. I got up and got myself ready in 15 minutes. Pretty good for a half-conscious man in the wee hours.

I had Tee take me to the Long Island McArthur Airport (ISP) in Islip, NY. It took us about 45 minutes. I like smaller airports (like Lexington, KY or Evansville, IN or Long Island), because there is not much waiting in line when you are checking in. You don’t feel the impact of the “tighter” security. As expected, I got through the check-in very quickly.

I am writing this entry in Atlanta, GA. It’s 9AM now and my flight to Evansville won’t depart until 12:15PM. More than 3 hours of layover… I’m going to try to catch some shut-eye if I can, but Atlanta Airport is a pretty busy and noisy place. I can’t seem to find a comfortable chair, either. I guess I will just try my hardest not to tire myself too much waiting around…

Hot Summer Day in New York

3rd and the practical final day in New York is about over. It has been a very effective trip to my pleasure. Today's itinerary included a souvenir shopping in Manhattan, going to the Yankees' game and eating crabs on the City Island.

Shopping for somebody else is... not really fun. Call me uncompassionate, but I don't know why people expect souvenirs when people go on trips... I hate feeling like I'm obligated, but I got it done.

Then we were off to the Yankee Stadium.



It was a hell of a hot summer day to watch a baseball game. Today, New York and Baltimore were playing. It was a crazy game with many homeruns, walks, deadballs, lead changes, etc. Tee accidentally got us the "alcohol free" seats so we weren't able to drink our beers at all (he was thinking "Free Alcohol, not alcohol free...). We were able to survive the heat and actually enjoy the game. In the end, Yankees won 13 to 8.







After the game, we were pretty tired, but we headed for the City Island for dinner. We made a gross miscalculations in amount of food we would be able to eat in one sitting. But I thoroughly enjoyed what they had to offer.





We headed back to Tee's house pretty satisfied. The sun was setting and I took this picture of the City from the car:



It was a pleasant drive fitting of finale to my travel.

Tomorrow, I have to get to the airport by 5AM. Hopefully, everything will go as well it has with everything else.

I'm loving it!

I'm just about finished with the 2nd day in New York. You know, if there is one thing that makes New York different from any other cities, that's diversity. Obviously, being from Vincennes, this is a huge culture shock, but definitely a positive one.

Upon arrival yesterday, Tee has taken me to a Japanese restaurant (Isao Aoki, a Senior PGA player, was there). A very good way to start my stay in New York. We, then, drove around the City. I was just amazed by the sheer amount of people in Broadway in the middle of the night. The night scenery was beautiful, also. We didn't do much else until this morning.



This morning, Tee and I went to a driving range. We went to a Korean restaurant where I had a Snache Bibimbap. I normally don't like very spicy stuff, but somehow I like spicy Korean food. After getting our belly full, we cruised around a Korean town of Flushing. Many many people!! And white people are definitely the minority here. Here are some sights from the town:






We head to another kind of Japanese restaurant that specializes in 'Yakitori', a skewered chicken meat. For a excellent price, we got ourselves pretty full.




We then headed into the City again.







We finally situated ourselves in Flash Dancers, a premiere gentlemen's club... I ended up dropping more than $200 at the place. We had great time there. Diversity of dancers couch-danced for me: a Texan, Chinese, Puerto Rican and Venezuela-English. And everyone of them is wicked awesome!! You'll never get this diversity in Midwest.

I'm starting to hate Indiana-Illinois area more and more...

New York, Here I Come!!

I’m at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport typing this entry. I have no free connection to the Internet so I need to upload this later.

I’m on my way to New York to see Tee Sato, a friend from my high school and college years. I was his best man when he got married in Japan back in 1995 (I think). He since then got divorced, and has been living in New York since February this year. The last time I saw him was back in 1996 when I visited Japan. Neither of us are good at keeping in touch, usually consumed in our busy daily lives.

Thankfully, he got hold of me when he moved to New York, and now we are in touch again. While I was planning on going to Italy during this week, my inexplicable reluctance, lack of experience in planning a trip and busy schedules pretty much shot the plan to hell. Tee invited me over a week and a half ago, and I was able to get the plane tickets pretty quickly.

I have my new digital camera with me, and I plan to take bunch of pictures. If all go well, I should have a pretty good travel journal compiled by the end of this trip.