3:06 p.m. In order to make a good decision, one needs to be calm and controlled, be able to see things objectively from different perspectives. And to be calm and controlled, I guess I'll need some psychological approach here.

Now there's another task added to my personal aspiration of improving my lifestyle. Think will drop by the library and search for some useful books.

The End

Caterpillar

4:21 p.m. Have been forced to stand with a styrofoam board while Cow took snap photos of himself for his boat license with his lap-top's web cam. Looks like he's decided to print the photos on his own instead of spending several hundred yen at a machine.

Had to move the table in the office to help his photo shoot, then adjust the makeshift reflection board this way and that until fussy Cow finally released me a little before noon.

Geez, why does he have to make it such a big deal? It's not going to make him look any better.

The End

Caterpillar

1:57 p.m. Defending champion Danedream has scratched off from Prix de i'Arc de Triomphe, due to detection of swamp fever at Cologne racecourse, where the horse is trained. Meanwhile, Nathaniel who came in second last year, is also withdrawing from the race because he was found to have a high temperature on Tuesday.

Looks as though they've all chickened out except for Camelot. What a pity. It must be a discredit to the world's most honorable race.

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Caterpillar

3:47 p.m. Was enjoying reading Jeffery Deaver books though am afraid have read all I can find in libraries, except for The Bone Collector, because I've already seen that one on TV.

I'd bought a Sara Paretsky paperback with a gift book card and saved it for such occasion, but have finished that too. How can I face the longer nights without any mysteries? How? How?

In my agony, have signed out a Japanese book on relationships at the library. Do not think that will help, though.

The End

Caterpillar

3:28 p.m. So I've ended up with three self-help books from the library...

Since I signed them out, I've started reading one of the books but it hasn't been very interesting so far. Finally it dawned on me that I had no intention to follow the instructions given in the book, because I was not seeking advice in relatioships. No, no, I didn't want to read any self-help books on relationships, I wanted to read books about kinesics, preferably in English.

Then why am I left with three uniteresting books? Well, who knows. One of them might actually turn out intriguing.

The End

Caterpillar

2:30 p.m. Cow has come back from his daily shopping at the supermarket, and showed me two 1,000 yen bills that were mixed in his change. One of them was an old bill with Souseki Natsume's portrait printed, and the other was the familiar bill with Hideyo Noguchi's portrait on, currently cicuiting the Japanese market.

Hmmm. It's funny how we forget the designs of uncurrent bills or, who's portrait was printed on them. We can tell the difference when we lay out and compare the old and new bills against each other, yet when we see them apart, both of them seems familiar. Suddenly I notice that I haven't been paying much attention to the design nor the portrait. I must have been too caught up in spending them or saving them.

Was thinking of posting a picture of those bills here, though decided agaist it from fear of being used for counterfreit. Risk management.

The End

Caterpillar

7:32 p.m. Prix de l'Arc, Prix de l'Arc, Prix de l'Arc. TV Fuji is broadcasting Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe tonight from 10:00 p.m. Hmmm. Just like Deep Impact's time. That doesn't automatically mean Orfevre would win, though (just like Deep Impact's time). Anyway, must set HDD recorder. I might witness a moment that'd go down in Japanese horse racing history.

11:36 p.m. Oh, no. Solemia has overtaken Orfevre at the last fifty feet or so. Does Olivier Perrier know what he's done?

The End

Caterpillar

9:28 p.m. Shinya Yamanaka has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work in developing and establishing reprogramming technology of iPS cells. Am very happy that his innovative challenge has been highly accepted, also very proud to have another Japanese Novel Prize winner.

Orfevre has unfortunately been outwitted by Perrier's astounding and fearless strategy, which I must admit, was brilliant, though am sure it will be marked as another step of the challenge that Japanese horse racing has yet to achieve. Well, it could be said that it was very much like Orfevre, in a sense that the race would go down in our memory.

The End

Caterpillar

1:48 p.m. Cow is out to renew his boat lisence. He said he was going to eat lunch at a fast food Soba chain rumored to be good, so am looking forward to find out what it's like.

2:59 p.m. It turned out to be disappointing, according to Cow. He'd ordered a tendon-soba set large size, however, the amount of rice was less than that of Tenya's (Tenya is a tendon fast food chain) regular size, while the soba and tempura were not particularly good.

Apparently, fussy Cow was not satisfied to have been made to pay 680 yen for such food. His conclusion; Tenya is definitely better. Well, thanks for the sacrifice and the advice.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. Have finally started taking vitamin c tablets to improve my pustulosis. I've been drinking vegetable juice which is said to contain various vitamins necessary to keep me going for a day, including vitamin c and something called biotin, also known as vitamin h. Have been trying to sleep early and get up early, though I haven't been very successful. However, the results haven't been rewarding.

I've gone through some research and learned that most skin problems are caused by degradation of the environment inside the intestines, which almost automatically means that the composition of the intestinal flora is unbalanced. I've been drinking the former mentioned vegetable juice besides taking an antiflatulent called Miyari-san, but apparently, that wasn't enough, especially while I can't quit smoking. Not that I have any intention to quit.

Two small vitamin c tablets I took this morning, has so far been doing an impressive work on my palms, and am convinced this was exactly what my body needed.

The End

Caterpillar

4:32p.m. Have overslept today. Fine weather, comfortable to sleep in. Too comfortable, I should say.

Perhaps I might have been moving in my sleep like these dogs. Sleeping Dogs.

The End

Caterpillar

4:08 p.m. Since I've been taking vitamins, I decided to do a little search about nutritional components that are lost by smoking.

Vitamin C would be lost by the rate of 25mg per cigarette, a lot of vitamin B12 is used to detoxify harmful substance of cigarettes, as well as vitamin B1 which detoxifies acetaldehyde, while the absorption of calcium drops rapidly as a result of the loss of such components, and the activity of folic acid will be restricted to low level.

In order to supplement the detoxification of cigarettes' harmful substance such as nicotine, tar, and acetaldehyde, we need to take in; vitamin C, cystine, vitamin E, niacin. For your information, edamame contains a fair amount of all of these components. Hmmm, that sounds like good news.

The End

Caterpillar

2:00 p.m. Speaking of nutritions, I think Nori (dried seaweed, the black thing wrapped around some sushi or onigiri) contained all of the mentioned components to detoxicate harmful substance of cigarettes, but I also think I've read it somewhere that eating excessive amounts of Nori can cause certain diseases, perhaps you should not rely on it.

By the way, Gentildonna has drew the 14th post in the barrier draw. Generally, that is not a very good position since horses starting from the outer gates tend to rush off, due to the geographic feature of the course, however, I think the horse knows how to control herself.

Thus, my mind is on Gentildonna for now. And maybe I'm Yours for 2nd or 3rd place.

The End

Caterpillar

3:00 p.m. I was confident. I'd done a good deal of searching and thinking in order to figure out which horse would be best to pick out as Gentildonna's rivals. Was quite sure that Gentildonna would win, followed by Verxina, so I placed my bet on a trifecta wheel, keying Gentil in first place, Verxina in second, with Aromatico, Ice Follies and I'm Yours in third.

3:53 p.m. This is the first time I'd ever won a trifecta at JRA. The payout won't be great, but still, a win is a win.

The End

Caterpillar

3:03 p.m. While I was humbly enjoying my victory of my first JRA trifecta, Cow had also won his bet of trios which happened to be his first grade one win in the past two years.

Not to mention I congratulated him as I came in, but his mind already seems to be on Kikka-sho held this weekend. Right now, he's scrolling through the data of past winners.

The End

Caterpillar

3:41 p.m. Cow has been reviewing the spring classic races, Satsuki-sho and Japanese D'erby. I've been pushing Goldship, the Satsuki-sho champion, especially after I'd learned that his rival Deep Brillante (Japanese D'erby winner) is going directly to Kikka-sho, without running any prep races.

Kikka-sho, by the way, means we're calling on Mr. N-jima as usual, and that would probably lead to another evaluation meeting afterwards at the usual Izakaya. I've been trying to improve my pustulosis of my palms before that meeting, because those weekly meetings at Izakaya can do damage to my health condition.

My pustulosis has been getting better considerably, since I've started taking vitamin C tablets around last Tuesday. Have also been trying to eat more vegetables, in order to take in more dietary fiber.

The End

Caterpillar

2:33 p.m. Heavy rain is predicted for this evening, so have worn my rain boots today though it was actually sunny in the morning and, even a little hot.

The last time I wore them must have been some time in the spring, and I recall now, that I thought I felt my socks dampen on my way home. I've wondered if there possibly could have been a leak at the time, and made a mental note to check the boots for any holes or cracks afterwards.

As usual, my mental note has been long lost since then. That is why am feeling uneasy about the rain this evening.

The End

Caterpillar

4:02 p.m. The D'erby winner has scratched off from Kikka-sho. Today was the day of the barrier draw and I was looking forward to the announcement, however, as I logged on to Yahoo! JAPAN, I was greeted with the terrible news.

Now that's a let down. Especially at this point. I recall reading that the horse was coming out real good in his training only yesterday, and now this. Kikka-sho might turn out to be a wild race with his drop out.

The End

Caterpillar

4:02 p.m. The D'erby winner has scratched off from Kikka-sho. Today was the day of the barrier draw and I was looking forward to the announcement, however, as I logged on to Yahoo! JAPAN, I was greeted with the terrible news.

Now that's a let down. Especially at this point. I recall reading that the horse was coming out real good in his training only yesterday, and now this. Kikka-sho might turn out to be a wild race with his drop out.

The End

Caterpillar

2:07 p.m. Okay. So it's Kikka-sho tomorrow. Kikka-sho without the top four horses of the Japanese D'erby, which only pushes Goldship up to the most favored.

Because all the other popular horses had scratched off, look what it's done to Goldship's odds. It's 1.4 to 1 as of this afternoon.

I've been looking forward to key Goldship on a wheel of longshots since I've ssen Satsuki-sho in April, and now, this. Daunting.

The End

Caterpillar

9:38 p.m. I blew it. Had thought that the only chance for horses with lower level careers to stand up to Goldship would simply be to make a head start and take the lead. So have bought a wheel of front runners, BB Japan, Tagano Big Bang, with an additional Mount Shasta and Cosmo Ozora, just in case they were actually faster and tougher horses than I'd thought.

The result, you might already know, was disastrous. It was an easy win for Gold Ship while the second and third place went to Sky Dignity and Yuki Soldier, respectively. Cow and Mr. N-jima had both won, leaving me feeling miserable and useless.

The End

Caterpillar

3:04 p.m. Have just watched Cute pandas playing on the slide to lick my wound a bit.

Can't sit around whimpering for my losses, I've got to pull myself together, analyze where I'd made the wrong turns in order to avoid making the same mistake again, and focus on the next race which is Tennou-sho. Yeah, cheer up. My lucky horse Curren Black Hill's going to be in it. Let's make sure I get this one right.

The End

Caterpillar

3:29 p.m. There's an old piano in our living room. No one plays it any more, and it's become a display rack of family photos. On the piano sits photographs of my sister and her kids in various photo frames.

Last night I noticed a new photo among them. It was actually a postcard, probaly made as a New Year greeting card which dated back to forty-two years ago, according to the handwritten date that my father had put down at the bottom of the card with ink. My parents were smiling at the camera, with my mother holding a little girl in her arms. No sign of the other younger child.

True, I wasn't born yet at the time, but it wasn't the nicest thing to see at the end of a long day. A family history proudly displayed on the piano, only without me.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. Apple has finally released iPad mini, so I've got to go and check out the spec. Soft Bank and au seems to be carrying the LTE version, looks like.

Also, have got to look into the past Tennou-sho data, as well as prepare for the meeting with my client. So much to do before 3 o'clock when there's only thirty-eight minutes left.

The End

Caterpillar

4:08 p.m. Haven't had the time nor energy to go and gather information about iPad mini.

Have learned last night that Amazon is finally releasing Kindle in Japan. That's an additional something to go on my To-Do list. I wonder if I'm ever gonna get to the bottom of that list.

The End

Caterpillar

3:38 p.m. The barrier draw for Tennou-sho has been announced yesterday afternoon which Cow had already helped himself to while I was having a session with my client. I stopped by the library so as can use their computer to catch up on the news I'd missed and do some searching, but have dozed off in front of the computer.

Focus, focus. Must concentrate on Tennou-sho. There's only a couple of days left till it runs. And the weather! They say it's going to rain in the afternoon on Sunday. What to do?

The End

Caterpillar

2:32 p.m. Focus... Was going to, but couldn't resist watching this video. ATE team rescue another baby elephant from a well. Good job, really.

Okay, okay, the Tennou-sho. My heart is tilting towards Curren Blackhill since he's won me some money when I'd secretly gone out to buy Mainichi-Oukan. However, the horse does have risks. It's his first time to run 2,000 meters, first time to run against older horses, he usually runs in the front and, he's the most favored by 2.7 to 1 as of this afternoon. That's quite a risk I've listed up here.

The End

Caterpillar

9:23 p.m. I decided to key Rukership since I thought he was the most likely to come within third place, though I was a bit worried about his blank after the Takaraduka-kinen. As I learned that he'd gained 18kg, my decision became shaky and in the end, I'd given in to the desire of choosing the safer choice, Dark Shadow as my key horse.

And look what happned. Rulership came in third and Dark Shadow 4th... It didn't matter anyway because I didn't have the winner, Eishin Flash on my wheel.

The End

Caterpillar

3:01 p.m. Good thing we don't have a G1 race this weekend. Am also having Saturday off (only because it's a national holiday). I shall take this advantage to finally proceed with my room cleaning, then put away my fan, wash and dry my heating carpet cover and down jackets, maybe my down comforter, too, return the libraary book and work on my Python.

Well, just to list a few.

The End

Caterpillar

3:37 p.m. There was an article on Yahoo! JAPAN about a sweatshop CEO. Actually, an interview. "Employees are enemies," says the interviewee, "what's important is to hire them cheap, make them work without having them complain, and get them to quit when I want them to." Companies run by such extremely biased managers are known as "black" compaies in Japan.

Cow has been rambling about this article, expressing his shock and disgust for this manager. I told him that although resultingly, what he'd been doing seems to have put him in a similar position. To this, he countered that he was just doing what he wants to, satisfying himself with whatever he can get and not wanting or seeking for more, which in Cow's view was totally different from the manager in question.

True. Cow doesn't enjoy torturing me or othre people, he just doesn't want to work.

The End

Caterpillar

2:49 p.m. Looks like they've made a compilation video of the top 10 "Guilty Dogs."

Not to mention, the most treasured number one went to THAT FAMOUS dog.

The End

Caterpillar