2:48 p.m. The U.S. Open Tennis has started yesterday Japan time, with Kei Nishikori as the 4th-seeded player for the first time in Japanese tennis history.

Still, no TV station except for WOW-WOW on cable tv is going to broadcast the tournament live, as far as I know. Don't they ever learn? I understand there are risks, seeing from the TV station's point of view, but don't they ever WANT to broadcast something that we want to watch? Perhaps NHK might do it if Kei keeps winning and makes it to, let's say, the top 8. Though I'm afraid they're going to use the recording just like last year, which is not exactly what we WANT. Well, at least not what I WANT.

The End

Caterpillar

3:04 p.m. And today, it's Toho Jackal who's looking more like a write-off.

After losing the Sapporo Kinen in 8th place, Toho Jackal, the former Kikka-sho winner and also record holder of Kyoto 3,000m, was planned to run in Kyoto Daishoten, a prep race for the autumn Tenno-sho. However, the crew scratched him off the prep race and announced that they were going directly for Tennno-sho.

True, the horse has gone through tight schedule last year, but to see him perform so poorly makes me wonder if he'd ever be back in his best shape.

The End

Caterpillar

1:31 p.m. Must confess that I haven't made up my mind for the Sprinters' Stakes yet as I've been quite exhausted this week. But will be glad if you viewers make good use of my words to win the first G1 race of this autumn season.

Bel Canto is the most favored, which seems natural considering her previous two wins in a row, but the current win odds 5.2 to 1, only suggests that the fans are being suspicious. Personally, I think Straight Girl might perform better at least than the last race, though it wouldn't be an easy task to break through from the inside especially, given the rider, Tozaki. So I'd rather keep her in 2nd or 3rd place of my trifecta, if you ask me.

Meanwhile, Mickey Isle drew a good barrier where he can go up front checking on the speed of front runners such as Hakusan Moon or Active Minoru. He's fresh back from a break after screwing up his mile G1 challenge in Yasuda Kinen, back to shorter distance where he proved he can perform better than the mile distance in Takamatsuno-miya's 3rd place. Still, I'm not sure if I could trust him... yet. Thought of making him a win bomb, but he turned out to be too favored, so I've ditched that idea. My temporary current decision will be, to key Straight Girl in 2nd, 3rd, Mickey Isle on 1st and 3rd, Bel Canto on 1st and 2nd, well, and perhaps Ukiyono Kaze, Uli Uli, Tee Half on 3rd place.

Good luck to you all, and don't forget the Rugby match against Samoa tonight! We've got to win this one.

The End

Caterpillar

9:23 p.m. Straight Girl has won the Sprinters' Stakes.

Come to think of it, she had all the necessary conditions she needed to win: an inner barrier, idealistic racing schedule, a firm turf, and a moderate lap. Meanwhile, Bel Canto had lost 8 kg since her last race. It seemed like a slight loss, but actually she'd lost 20 kg in the past couple of days since her training. Regarding the fact that she had to travel to Nakayama from Ritto Training Center in Shiga, losing this much weight in such a short time meant nothing but trouble.

I couldn't win, though I wasn't that far off the mark. Besides, our rugby national team has won the match against Samoa last night, so I'm in a relatively good mood even though I'd lost my first autumn grade one race.

The End

Caterpillar

2:47 p.m. By the way, this year's Grad Prix le' Arc de Triomphe has been run last night Japan time. There were no Japanese horses entering the race, but I was interested in how Trev might perform. Would she win three years in a row, or would some other horse beat her? One thing I knew was that Trev was a tough horse to beat.

Speaking from the result, Trev finished in 4th place, unable to catch the winning horse Golden Horn, who secured a good postion in the front in such a slow lap race. Trev, on the other hand, charged from the outside though barely missed the 3rd place by a tiny gap. It was Trev's performance that caught my eye though, rather than Golden Horn's. Golden Horn had a lot of advantages being light-weighted, having good position and an effective racing schedule, while Trev was forced into a difficult position. And I have to say that it only made Trev look greater.

The End

Caterpillar

1:34 p.m. Must finish this up in a flash.

Cow is currently out for his daily shopping but will be back soon, and this computer would be occupied the minute he gets back. I have two sessions of meetings this afternoon, which means I'll have no chance of regaining control of this computer today. Darn.

I am entitled to use this desk-top for work, though it seems a bit cruel to me to take away Cow's only current enjoyment, so I tried the best I could.

The End

Caterpillar

1:33 p.m. I received a greeting card from a friend via e-mail. At first I thought it might be another spam, but decided to take a look at it anyway. Contrary to my suspicion, it turned out to be a simple message of "Thank you." Oh yes, my friend had been depressed lately, and I had sent a message of encouragement putting in the best I could with what little vocabulary I had. I was deeply moved by the simple, but honest and straight message of "Thank you."

Because we both grew up in dysfunctional families and still suffer the aftermath, we've been licking each other's wounds through e-mail and Skype. We had to satisfy ourselves with such means and meeting face to face once in several years, as we live in different countries now. But over the course of decades, we've kept in touch as friends. And I hope to stay that way no matter what happens.

The End

Caterpillar

1:54 p.m. Have just learned from another friend yesterday, that Def Leppard was coming to Japan next month... wh..why didn't I know about this earlier?

The tickets have been on sale since June 20th, which means that I'm totally left behind and there's no way I could get a good seat. And, the price for an S seat was announced as 13,000 Yen on the promoter's official website. 13,000 Yen! Don't think I've paid that much when I went to their show last time, are the prices being raised?

Of course, I'd love to go and see Def Leppard. But paying 13,000 Yen to see Def Leppard without Steve Clark (sorry Vivian Cambell, have got nothing against you, it's just that I've been a Lepps fan since when Steve used to write the music)? It makes me wonder.

The End

Caterpillar

2:38 p.m. Eishin Hikari seems to have drawn an outer barrier for the Mainichi Ohkan scheduled to run on Sunday, 11th. Hmmm... perhaps it's not anything to worry about, as he would most likely take the lead, but the race is on Tokyo tracks. Remember, he's got a record on Tokyo turf.

I have been trying to write and stupid Cow keeps bugging me with irrelevant questions about the movie version of Toshokan Sensou grrrrrr....#

The End

Caterpillar

1:52 p.m. In order to win the Mainichi Ohkan, Yutaka Take must ride Eishin Hikari at a skilfully and subtly timed lap.

Considering the track condition of Tokyo turf around this time of year which tends to get very light and fast, dropping the lap to medium slow would be the best option for Eishin Hikari in my view. That way, he might get a chance to win. If the lap becomes higher, it will give advantage to horses like Isla Bonita or Clarent who perform better when the last 3 furlongs take more than 35 seconds. On the other hand, if the lap drops to a slow, Eishin Hikari would probably overtaken by stalkers who pride in instantaneous speed, such as Vincennes or Ambitious, in which case inner barrier horses would also gain an uuper hand.

Either Eishin Hikari would go at a perfect pace and win an easy race, or he would be beaten by Ambitious with Isla Bonita apologetically coming in 3rd or something. Fresh 3-year-olds perform tend to perform in this race. Personally, I don't want Eishin Hikari to win this race because I'm looking forward to seeing him win the Tenno-sho.

The End

Caterpillar

9:26 p.m. Eishin Hikari has won Mainichi Ohkan to secure his entry in the autumn Tennno-sho.

The race went on pretty much as I'd expected, with Eishin Hikari making an excellent start and dropping the lap to an average-slow, while Ambitious had screwed his start. That was everything for Ambitious, you can't a slow race if you fail at the start and stay behind. It only indicates that there was some damage from his previous race, Radio Nikkei-sho. Still, the horse has shown that he's got speed. If his condition improves, there will be races to look forward to.

As for Eishin Hikari, he won't have an easy race like today in Tennno-sho. In order to perform well, he will need to recover from today's damage in 3 weeks and, run with the same lap time as today. Nevertheless, he will be targeted and marked, also favored. It's going to be a tough race for the horse.

The End

Caterpillar

9:04 p.m. I stayed up till almost 5 in the morning to watch Japan's last game in the rugby World Cup against the United States. The fact that we couldn't make it to the finals was a let down, however, I am proud of our national team's performance. They have shown us everything they had, no gimmick. Nevertheless, we weren't good enough to make it to the finals. Watching Australia's game against Wales, I felt there was a huge gap between the top teams and us; they were much faster, tougher, and stronger. Teams that go up to the top 8 or top 4 were playing in a different level.

I don't know how much we can improve in the next 4 years, but we shall grow those precious seeds that Eddy Jones has sown and work hard to come back to the World Cup again.

Oh, and before I forget. Kyoto Daishoten, the prep race for Tenno-sho, finished with that annoying Lovely Day earning an easy win. Lachsys positioned too way behind to win in my opinion. Besides, she didn't have anywhere to go when Take charged in on the inside, because other horses also did the same. She'll perform better in the Queen Elizabeth Cup. One And Only just proved that he was even more helpless than yesterday's Isla Bonita.

The End

Caterpillar

1:45 p.m. I've had a good weekend, watching Anime all day and enjoying the rugby World Cup to my heart's content.

Now I must folow in the footsteps of Eddy Jones and start working hard. I am not too enthusiastic about my job, but I'll do my best and see what I can come up with. Will also try pursuing other options, something I can be passionate about and make it my lifework. After all, our rugby team had given me that much courage.

The End

Caterpillar

12:27 p.m. Shonan Adela who had scratched off from the Rose Stakes, a prep race for Shuka-sho, has been announced to spend another 6 months away from the turf due to a newly discovered injury. This means she has completely lost her chance in winning a classic fillies' race.

It is true that you can't avoid injuries when it comes to racing horses, and many a great horses have come and gone. Sadly for Shonan Adela, she's practically wasted her career and probably won't be able to make a come back, at least not in the top category, as it is essential for young race horses to pile up experiences of tough races, in order to learn and grow.

Well, it'll only make the calling of Shuka-sho more easier. All I have to do now, is to lool for the horses to match Mickey Queen.

The End

Caterpillar

2:23 p.m. My friend in Germany has given me a Skype! call yesterday, and told me that it was snowing there.

I've been wearing short-sleeved T-shirts all day, with my denim jacket staying in my backpack till I get home. With recent weather information that two new typhoons are coming up by the beginning of next week, I just couldn't imagine how cold it must be in Germany. Hmm... different place, different weather.

The End

Caterpillar

2:33 p.m. I've taken a peek at the Shuka-sho barrier draw between my meetings and it turns out, that Mickey Queen has drawn post number 18, the outer most barrier of all barriers...

On Kyoto race course where Shuka-sho would be run, it is said to be a huge disadvantage to start from outer barriers because they would not only have to run longer distances than inner barrier horses, but it would also be difficult to control the horses especially when they're clilmbing up and down the slope on the back stretch. To win a Kyoto 2,000m turf race, it is critical to have good control over the horse while passing the slope, so that the horse doesn't use too much stamina and is ready and focused when the moment comes to sprint for the wire.

Unfortunately, Mickey Queen has drawn the outer most barrier, which might become a disadvantage to her winning the race.

The End

Caterpillar

1:52 p.m. From fear barrier number 18 might become a huge disadvantage for Mickey Queen, I've checked out the past results of Kansai TV Rose Stakes winners.

After 2007 when the race distance was shortened to 1,800m, there are no Rose Stakes winners that won Shuka-sho from post number 18, although there are 4 horses that came in 1st place from post numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively, with two of them starting from 12. Well, that was the barrier I wished Mickey Queen to draw, as it would be ideal considering her strong points.

The highest possibility in my opinion, is that Mickey Queen might be reconciled to 2nd or 3rd place unable to catch the front runners because of the barrier, especially if the lap drops down to an average or slow. In that case, the horses blessed with advantage would be the ones having instantaneous speed, starting preferrably from inner post numbers and going up front such as Dear My Darlin', Tosen Victory, Let's Go Donki, or Earth Lies. If the lap becomes fast, there will be chances for longshots.

The End

Caterpillar

10:01 p.m. It turned out to be the latter. The first 3 furlongs flew by in a flash of 33.8 seconds, a lap even faster than most mile races. 1,000 meters were clipped with a daring 57.4 seconds, record-breaking lap.

It was Mickey Queen who won, but apart from that the race went wild. 2nd favored Touching Speech barely made it to 6th place from behind all others, while the 3rd favored Let's Go Donki sank in an insulting 17th place. The rider on Let's Go Donki couldn't control her when the horse fought so hard to go up to the top, so she could have used up her stamina in the fight.

Again, I didn't win but am feeling optimistic because I had been aware of a result like this. If I had spared more time on calling the race instead of helping Cow with his online game, I could have won it. Well, it was a good prep race before Kikka-sho. This week, I will win.

The End

Caterpillar

3:05 p.m. In order not to make the same mistake twice and win Kikka-sho, I need to analyze what I missed at Shuka-sho.

I knew that it was going to be a wild race if the lap was fast, though couldn't exactly point out the horses that would be advantaged by it. Looking back on the results, here are what seems to be common among the top 3 horses: Shuka-sho was the 2nd race after their summer break of 4 months, their prep races have been run on Hanshin tracks, and they saved their strength in the prep races. There are some differences between Mickey Queen, Queen's Ring who were the regulars of the fillies classic races and Maximum de Paris from a lower category, but the important points I think, is that they were all quite fresh without much damage from the previous race, and that they'd had experiences of tough races. These two factors combined, can often lead to longshots in a high-lapped race.

While I was enjoying my egoistic analysis, Goldship crews have announced that the horse was not going to run in Tennno-sho, but start from Japan Cup. Aw. That is a let down.

The End

Caterpillar

1:21 p.m. It seems that JRA has announced that they are not going to hold a public barrier drawing for Arima Kinen this year. Well, they are thinking of holding a public drawing, but in some different style from last year's, as the the first two horses have drawn the best barriers to finish in 1st and 2nd place in Arima Kinen 2014.

Seriously, they ought to come up with a fair and better idea. I mean, who can say last year's barrier draw wasn't fixed?

The End

Caterpillar

12:36 p.m. The Orionids meteor shower is going to be at its peak from tonight to early tomorrow morning!

Perhaps it was last Sunday or the night before, I happened to see some meteors shooting across the Orion belt while I was taking a smoking break on the veranda. Well, I thought I caught a glimpse of some meteors but then, I decided it couldn't have been since I couldn't come up with any autumn meteor showers at the time. As I came across the news of the Orionids, I finally recognized that they were actually part of the meteor shower, just that it'd come a bit early. That means I must have been lucky, though I recall I didn't win ths Shuka-sho...

The End

Caterpillar

3:39 p.m. It was as though there was a thin screen pulled down over the Orion.

Skies over Tokyo was cloudy last night, and although I could see the twinkling of the stars through them, I couldn't catch any shooting stars. But the crisp, cool air around me felt comfortable against my skin, and it made me hope that some day I would like to enjoy the Orionids meteor shower lying on my back, preferrably on sweet green grass. Mmm... how wonderful that might be!

Hopefully, I'll make that dream come true in several years. As for now, I'll keep myself busy with my job and errands for Cow.

The End

Caterpillar

1:49 p.m. I am pissed!

I am completely pissed off because one of my clients have cancelled a meeting without notice. I haven't been sleeping well lately, thanks to the growing noise from the radio in the next room, and I've only had a couple of hours sleep last night. Still, I got up and dragged myself to work because I had an appointment at 10:30. And my client doesn't show up? What kind of joke is this!? I called after waiting 15 minutes, and got that annoying message of "This is NTT docomo. The device of the number you have called is either turned off or at a location you cannot reach." No answering service, huh? Around noon, he calls me back and tells me that he'd been out, so I did my best to hold down my anger and reminded him that we had an appointment from 10:30 to which he said, "Oh, yeah. Well, can you reschedule it to compensate?"

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "COMPENSATE" YOU IDIOT!? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO HAS TO COMPENSATE!!!!

The End

Caterpillar

1:25 p.m. O-kay, let me throw my anger of yesterday into the past and focus on tomorrow's Kikka-sho.

Although I've been drained after work yesterday, I squeezed out what remaining strength I had and scruitnized the racing form, but am still torn between Lia Fail and Real Steel. Lia Fail is a powerful horse so if he can take the lead and control the race, he might be able to perform well however, he would probably lose that chance in case when some other horse comes to bug him, as he is not the type to show strength in a packed group of horses. Real Steel bears the risk of distance. I can't help thinking that 3,000m is too long for a Deep Impact descendant. Besides, he's just come back from an injury.

Given that the two most favored horses both bear risks, I'm beginning to think perhaps it would be a better idea to forget everything, shut my eyes and key Satono Rasen to buy other horses on a wheel including Wonder Atleta as my dark horse.

The End

Caterpillar

5:11 p.m. That was a blow, a huge blow.

After pondering for a couple more hours, I decided that Lia Fail cannot come before Real Steel, all things considered. So I keyed Real Steel on my trifecta together with Satono Rasen who didn't seemed to be in a rather bad shape, but had a good barrier which can push him up within 3rd place, if Iwata stuck to the rail. My trifecta consisited of Real Steel, Lia Fail and Satono Rasen, though I'd bought some exacta just to be on the safe side, keying Real Steel in the 1st palce and Tanta Alegria, Kitasan Black, Beruf, Albert Doc in the second. And Real Steel is beaten by Kitasan by a neck!

Man, that hurt.

The End

Caterpillar

2:01 p.m. Really, why did Fukunaga ride Real Steel exactly like the prep race, when he's supposed to beat the horse he'd lost against in it? Such an honest question must pop up from everyone who bought Real Steel.

But then, I was stupid enough to key Real Steel (with Fukunaga as its rider) on the first place of my exacta, not second. That was apparently, my bad.

This week, I will have to refresh my mind and start all over again. My stance for calling the race must change as Tenno-sho is a mixed race beteween 3-year-olds and older horses, I will have to check my notes again and build it up from there.

The End

Caterpillar

2:23 p.m. Halloween, Halloweeeeen, everywhere Halloween. I thought there weren't such event as Halloween in Japan?

We do have an indigenous and traditional event in September of the Gregorian calendar, called Chouyou no sekku which seem to have a similar efect as Halloween. However, times have changed. Backed up by the furious commercialism of manufacturers, travel industries, amusement industries, etc., etc., obviously there are far more Japanese who want to join in on the fun of a costume party, than to learn about the tradition itself, furthermore, about our own local traditions. Shame.

Though many of us also seem to have forgotten our beautiful culture of shame, too. Wonder what Ruth Benedict would say if he was here today?

The End

Caterpillar

2:20 p.m. While I'm being embarrassed by the Halloween frenzy, let me confess that I still haven't come up with a solution to watch Flash movies on my iPad mini.

Recently, I've been interested by drawing trainings such as 30 seconds drawing or negative space drawing. So I tried accessing posemaniacs only to find out it was in Flash, which meant that I can't make use of the website on my iPad mini. Of course I've considered downloading Puffin web browser, though the free apps have time restrictions. On the other hand, launching up my PC every day just for this training is too time-consuming.

Wonder how everyone else is watching Flash contents on their Apple device?

The End

Caterpillar

2:07 p.m. Have given in to temptation and bought two pots of green called Sansevieria lorentii.

According to Wikipedia, they are also known by the name "snake plant" while in Japan they are known by the name "tiger's tail" from the distinctive stripes on their sword-like leaves. I've been wanting to get one of these to keep in our workplace, not just as part of the interior but also for improving the environment. "A study by NASA found that it is one of the best plants for improving indoor air quality by passively absorbing toxins such as nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde," again, quoting from Wikipedia.

Perfect for our office :-)

The End

Caterpillar

3:07 p.m. Oh golly, they're still there.

Two old women have been talking outisde our door for more than an hour now. And all they've been talking about is gossip; who fell sick, who is hopitalized, who is dead, who closed the shop, who is being disliked by their neighbors. I am sick and tired of having forced to hear meaningless talks and radio noises as I can't concentrate on the things I have to do NOW.

Hah, a chuckle there, and 74 minutes have already passed. Won't they move in on their day? How come it never occurs to them, that it might be a pleasant passtime for themselves, but the loud ranting can be annoying to some people? Nearly 90 minutes of my precious time have been wasted when they finally said goodbye and left. Aw, good grief!

The End

Caterpillar

2:16 p.m. Okay. Satono Crown or Ambitious? Lovely Day or Eishin Hikari? Looks like there's a lot more to brood over.

The fact that Ambitious is pushed up to the 3rd favored in win odds is concerning, taking into account that he hasn't even run a grade one race, though Cow seems to think Ambitious is the mysterious dark horse this time. As a matter of fact, the horse is favored so it wouldn't be a "dark" horse, though. Besides, I don't like the way he's screwed his start in the prep race, Mainichi Ohkan, as it often tends to be a sign of fatigue. I shall choose Satono Crown over Ambitious, then.

The choice between Lovely Day and Eishin Hikari is the most difficult for me, as Lovely Day always slips in to crash my victory. I don't recall a horse that had performed well in Tennno-sho after winning both Takaraduka Kinen and Kyoto Daishoten, but he might do well if Eishin Hikari leads the race at an average clip. Still, it won't be easy for Lovely Day. Hmm... might as well take Eishin Hikari, keeping Lovely Day in 3rd place so as not to stop me winning. So there you have it. My call would be Satono Crown on the key, with a wheel of Lovely Day, Eishin Hikari, Stephanos plus some more.

The End

Caterpillar