2:30 p.m. While the Red Sox has been parading in glory, the Yomiuri Giants has been driven in to a tight spot in the Japan Series.

The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles has taken the lead by 3-2 in game count, and surely, they're bringing their ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka a.k.a Mah-kun, for tomorrow's game to finish the Giants off and become the Japanese champion.

It's definitely going to be a tough game for the Giants, since they've been posting a losing record against Mah-kun throughout the season. But if the Giants win, the remaining games are going to be exciting without doubt. At this point, I don't really mind which team becomes the champion. They've both fought well. I just hope that the final game doesn't finish in a frivolous error or a ridiculous wrong call.

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Caterpillar

1:56 p.m. No G1 races this weekend, but might as well check out the Argentina Cup as it is one of the prep race for the Japan Cup. Must make use of the lesson from Tenno-sho. If the race is run at a slow pace and the winning time results as relatively fast, there may be a chance for the winner to perform well in the Japan Cup as well.

A little less concerning, but I also want to see through which team wins the Japan series, Touhoku Rakuten Eagles or the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. If the Eagles win tonight's game, they'll be the champion. If the Giants win, they'd be tied in game count and there will be another match. I'm counting on the latter. I'm hoping for another nail-biting game since it's the weekend and I can enjoy it at home on TV.

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Caterpillar

11:00 p.m. The Touhoku Rakuten Eagles has won the Japan series in a standing ovation. They took the lead in scores at early innings, and their pitchers Norimoto and Mima, both did a great job shutting the doors against Giants' batters. Sending Mah-kun up on the mound as closer on the final inning was also effective to top up the win.

I can't help but think that there was some symbolic meaning in the winning of the two baseball teams in Japan and in the U.S. The Boston Red Sox winning the world series after that terrorist explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and Rakuten Eagles' winning of the Japan Series after the Touhoku Earthquake, though the latter was not exactly on the year of the tragedy.

As I think I've said before, I'm not a Red Sox fan nor an Eagles fan, but am happy about their victory, especially if the message of ‘B Strong’ together with hope and courage, has been sent out and spread through the hearts of those who had been met by hardships.

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Caterpillar

6:29 p.m. I'm not feeling well. I've been having symptoms such as runny nose, coughs, and sneezes since the end of last week.

I thought I was having allergies. I'd just seen it on weather news the day before the symptoms started, that some harmful material called PM2.5 was to be brought from the eastern coast of China, on the seasonal wind blowing eastward. This PM2.5 was said to cause allergy symptoms to develop more severely, thus my first call of allergy.

But then, there was also a chance that these symptoms could have been caused by cold. So I've done a little search on how to distinguish cold and allergy from the symptoms, but the best answer I could find was this: if the symptoms subside in about 3 to 7 days, it's cold. Otherwise, it could be allergy.

Simple. Though hypothetical. I took some over-the-counter cold medicine, and pulled out my heating carpet. If I get better, then it must've been cold.

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Caterpillar

2:52 p.m. I'm getting terribly sleepy. Don't know if it's because I'm taking cold medicine, but am merely minutes away from nodding off.

3:14 p.m. I revived myself by doing a little stretch. At least I've leanrned somtehing from the willpower book. That drained out willpower can be restored with light exercise. I can't be sleeping, I've got lots to do.

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Caterpillar

2:33 p.m. It's good to know that our folk hero has been picked up in the world-famous New York Times.

Yuki Kawauchi, widely known as "the civil srvant runner" here in Japan, has appeared under the headlines of "Japanese Civil Servant Runs Marathon for Fun, not Profit" an article about the New York City Marathon held on November 3rd.

Unfortunately, Kawauchi couldn't achieve the goal he had set before the race of finishing within 6th place (the best position ever to be achieved by a Japanese runner in the World Marathon Majors races), dropping behind when the pace got faster around the middle of the race to finish in 11th place. Still, it seems he has gathered a lot of attention through media and according to Yahoo!JAPAN, a lot of cheering comments were exchanged in social media such as Twitter.

I'm happy that his style is being accepted around the world. Running for fun, not for money.

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Caterpillar

2:25 p.m. After four days of taking cold medicine, my sometimes runny, sometimes stuffed nose, coughs and sneezes have subsided. My nose still gets clogged a bit, but much better than last week, as I can breathe through nose.

So that solves it. It was cold, not allergy.

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Caterpillar

2:39 p.m. The barrier draws for the Queen Elizabeth Cup has been announced. Meisho Mambo, the Shuka-sho winner is in 3, Virxina is in 9, lat year's defending champion, Rainbow Dahlia is in 13, Denim and Ruby is in 14. I have no idea which horse is going to win. Well, at least, not at this point.

I've always wondered why the name of the race has been the Queen Elizabeth Cup. Shouldn't it be Princess Masako Cup or more likely, Empress Michiko Cup, considering that the race is for 3-year-olds and older female horses? Why did it come to be named after a foreign queen in the first place?

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Caterpillar

1:44 p.m. I've just picked up news that Denim and Ruby has weighed less than in her last race, when she had been weighed on Thursday.

That's not a good sign. It's definitely not a good sign especially when her father is Deep Impact. Data prove that children of Deep Impact perform quite badly after consecutive weight loss. Denim and Ruby weighed 446kg for her first race this autumn, Rose Stakes, which was after a four-month blank since she'd run in the Japanese Oaks. She's lost 4kg by Shuka-sho, so if she's lost another couple of kilograms, that would be a constant minus.

The crew might puff her up a bit by tomorrow, for the weighing took place on Thursday, but constant weight loss could most likely be caused by fatigue. Maybe I could leave her out this time.

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Caterpillar

10:18 p.m. Another loss for the Queen Elizabeth Cup. It looks like Meisho Mambo is a mighty good horse. Am pretty sure she'd put up a good fight against Gentil Donna.

Have watched The Deathly Hallows Part 2 that I'd recorded last week to cheer self up. Think it was the best in all the movie series. It's a pity. If all the other episodes had been created with the same amount of energy, time, and well, of course, budget, they'd all might have become much better. I didn't like the earlier ones that seemingly had to cut out details, probably restricted by one of the three I'd mentioned or all three, perhaps, in that matter.

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Caterpillar

2:17 p.m. I just looked up and found out that it was June 14th, 2011 when I bought my HDD recorder. And it was only yesterday, that I'd leraned I could start watching recordings from where I'd left it the last time.

Up until last evening, I've been fast forwarding the recording to where I'd left it the last time I've watched it, whenever I had to quit watching before the recording came to the end. There didn't seem to be any buttons indicating the very function I needed in such cases, so I've never thought it was possible. But yesterday, I had to stop watching Harry Potter, at the part where Harry was meeting Dumbledore in a whitened out King's Cross Station. I turned off the device, dreading to have to fast forward more than half of the long story. But then, as I came back and turned the recorder on to resume, I noticed an instruction shown at the bottom of the screen. Carefully reading it, I realized for the first time that it said, "Please press the PLAY button to start from the beginning, ENTER button to resume from the part you left."

Oh, god. Why didn't I realize this? Can't believe it. For nearly two and a half years?

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Caterpillar

3:47 p.m. It's cooooold.

The high temperature was hitting 30 degrees Celcius in mid-October, and we've been having typhoons as late as 2 weeks ago. Now we're suddenly thrown into winter. Brrrrr.

Meantime, Yeb Sano, head of the Philippines delegation has made a remarkable speech in the COP 19 meeting held in Warsaw, that "he will stop eating until participants make ‘meaningful’ progress." Mr. Sano also said, "What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness, the climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness right here in Warsaw." Typhoon prompts ‘fast’ by Philippines climate delegate

You're right, Mr. Sano. I don't think I can fast, but I agree with you. We have to act NOW.

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Caterpillar

1:44 p.m. So what can we do to save this planet from climate crisis?

Joe Smith says, that Americans could reduce 13 billion pounds of used paper towels to 728,770,000 pounds a year, if they can go without using one paper towel per person per day. That's a 44 percent cut down. And the way to make this a reality is so simple; just SHAKE and FOLD! Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel.

Am not sure what exactly I can do to stop climate crisis, but I think this can be a good start, as we use paper towels in Japan, too. Let's start today, folks!

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Caterpillar

3:01 p.m. As for myself, I do use paper towels at home, yes. But I only use them to dry my thermos bottle and to wrap used coffee beans, so that I can reuse the beans as air refresher after they're completely dried and re-roasted.

The paper towels I used for drying my thermos bottle are usually dried in the course of a day, to be used again for the same purpose, while the paper towels I used for wrapping up coffee beans, are also dried and reused several times.

I'm afraid that these small efforts of mine might not make any difference, because JoOusama is spending paper towels, toilet paper, any resource you can think of, as if their sources were limitless. Still, I'm determined to stick to my own style. At least, it's better than having me do the same as JoOusama.

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Caterpillar

3:40 p.m. I wish I had a mother like the moms in these photos. Post About Moms.

Wishful thinking, yes, but sometimes you just can't help it.

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Caterpillar

2:37 p.m. Workload has increased toward the end of the week so haven't had the chance to take a proper look at the racing form of the Mile Championship.

No horses coming from Tenno-sho? Hmmm..., that's rare. It means that it's going to be a complex race. I think the key would be, which horses with Diwa Major sire lines you keep and which ones you ditch.

Think I'll make a mental note to focus on the horses coming from Mainichi Okan and Fuchu Hinba. I don't think Sadam Patek would perform well this year, but I'll have to keep both eyes open for Grand Prix Boss, for I've just recalled that I'd lost this same race last year, just because Grand Prix Boss wasn't in my trifecta.

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Caterpillar

9:38 p.m. This is not good. I've lost again which is not unusual at all. The problem is that I couldn't analyze the racing form to my heart's content. This forced me into buying betting tickets without much confidence. I'm just wasting money. This is definitely not good.

Since I had some new clients at work, I've been too occupied to spare time for calling races. As I usually spend a lot of time analyzing the racing forms to figure out which horse to buy, the time and energy spent for work and other matters are effecting my calling process. Must do something.

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Caterpillar

3:32 p.m. Have reviewed the process of race calling and decided to simplify the process. Am going to reduce the contestants by focusing on the horses that have come in either 1st or 2nd place, at least once in the most recent two races.

For example, there are 22 horses registered to run in the Japan Cup this weekend, as of today. However, when I focus on the ones that had come in 1st or 2nd in the most recent two races, the contestants remaining are only 10 horses, including the foreign horses and the horses expected to be scratched off due to lack of prize money. I'll start from these ten, and narrow them down to about 3 or 4 by the end of the week, then add a few long shots if need be. That way, I can save a lot of time.

Since am happy with this resolution I've come up with, think I'll be generous and tell you the names of the ten horses that have got through this first stage of my new process: Gentil Donna, Gold Ship, Eishin Flash, Hit the Target, Laxis, Admire Rakti, Uncoiled, Joshua Tree, Hokko Brave and Spielberg.

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Caterpillar

4:20 p.m. Just learned the news that Japan Cup Dirt will not be held from next year.

I picked up the news on the Internet and tried to find the source which referred to Sports Houchi's (aka Yomiuri's sports division) online news, however, the unbelievable truth is that the source page could not be found.

Capitalized at 1.18 billion Yen, employing 680 workers as of January 1st, 2013, I thought this company had at least some social credibility. Still, their online page spits out a "Not Found" error when I click the link to the article that was supposed to have been uploaded on October 21st, 2013. What is going on? How could this possibly happen?

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Caterpillar

2:06 p.m. I've found the source of the news at JRA. 2014 Racing Fixture

Unfortunately, I could only find this racing calendar on the English pages, however, there was an announcement in the Japanese page about changes made in the 2014 races.

And under the headline of "Improvements concerning Japan Cup Dirt", it said "From the point of defining this race as the highest prestige of dirt races centering Japan-trained horses, Japan Cup Dirt will be held in Chukyo Race Course in the distance of 1800 meters from 2014. In line with this change, the race will become an international race without invitation."

So Japan Cup Dirt will change its name to Champion's Cup, move from Hanshin to Chukyo race tracks, and if foreign horses want to come, sure, but come on their on expenses, is that what they're saying?

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Caterpillar

3:48 p.m. While have been trying to locate the source of the news involving Japan Cup Dirt, the barrier draws for Japan Cup (turf) has been announced.

Here are the major horses' post numbers: Eishin Flash in 4, Gentil Donna in 7, Denim and Ruby in 9, and Gold Ship in 13.

Daaaaw, I wish Gold ship and Gentil Donna was reversed.

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Caterpillar

3:43 p.m. Cow has been showing interest in Eishin Flash. He's been pondering whether he should buy the horse or not, whenever Eishin Flash appears in a G1 race. True, the horse's performance seems to be elusive, but I've studied his career and come to a conclusion that Eishin Flash would not perform well in Japan Cup.

Tennou-sho was the key. When you look at the finishing places of Tennou-sho and Mainichi Oukan (prep race) for Just Away and Eishin Flash, they are as follows: Justaway-Tennou-sho(1st)/Mainichi(2nd), Eishin Flash-Tennnou-sho(3rd)/Mainichi(1st). This suggests that Tennou-sho was a slightly tougher race than Mainichi Oukan, thus the reversed positions. So it is unlikely for Eishin Flash to perform better than Tennou-sho, given his blood line background which is not sustainable against fatigue, and the fact that the horse has performed well in both Mainichi Oukan and in Tennou-sho.

Therefore, in spite of Cow's distress, I'm much nore interested in Uncoiled than in Eishin Flash.

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Caterpillar

9:15 p.m. Holiday today, so cleaned up the fan and sports sandals to put away till next summer. After that, I've been busy thinking about Japan Cup.

I've narrowed down my choices to Uncoiled, Gentil Donna and Gold Ship, plus Hit the Target. If the race gets tough, it will be an advantage to Gold Ship and Hit the Target, otherwise, it will benefit Gentil Donna. Uncoiled, I wasn't quite sure which pace would suit him, while there might be a slight chance for Admire Rakti if it gets slow. Well, we'll see about that.

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Caterpillar

5:58 p.m. The pace was slow, so there was no chance for Gold Ship who lagged behind at the end of the field. I wonder why Uchida doesn't realize that the way he's riding the horse is depriving its concentrarion? Din't it occur to him that he won't be able to catch the horses in front, if he swung around the outside? The only way to catch up or take over was to break into the field, but he's chosen the usual swing-around-the-outside method. Gold Ship would never win again, as long as he's ridden that way, unless the pace speeds up and becomes really tough.

As for Denim and Ruby, I didn't think she'd perform this well, let alone Tosen Jordan. Not especially after the hard training and the weight loss. Well, that's why the payout has been big.

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Caterpillar

2:59 p.m. Well, at least my prediction on Eishin Flash was right.

The media is treating Gentil Donna as though she's the strongest mare on earth, and I hate to cast a damper, but Gentil Donna isn't actually "the first horse to win Japan Cup twice in a row." That is, precisely speaking.

According to my memory data bank, it is Buena Vista who first won Japan Cup twice in a row. It's just that it didn't go down on official record because she had been displaced to 2nd place as penalty. Gentil Donna could have been in the same position last year, as she bumped into Orfevre a couple of times, as hard as to drive him off his course. Eventually, it was settled by fining Gentil's jockey Iwata. Though I can only imagine what went on behind the scene, I couldn't help but think of some ppolitical conspiracy.

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Caterpillar

2:07 p.m. I've come across this video of a group of boys showing teamwork in defence for the water boy in their football team.

Danny is a first-grader living in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, who unfortunately suffered a brain stroke shortly after he was born. He always wears a jacket and a tie, and is undergoing speech therapy while working for his football team as a water boy. When his fifth-grade team mates found out that Danny was being teased for his attire and speech, they decided to play defense for Danny to show how their support. Band of elementary-school brothers rally around boy, 6, to stop teasing.

Sometimes it doesn't take a Superman to save a friend. All you need is to do what ou can - show support.

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Caterpillar

1:47 p.m. I often hear cat lovers say that dogs are too stupid because they'd wait until the end of the world if their owner told them so. As a dog lover, I'd like to say a word to that. That's why I like them.

Here's a link to all the dog lovers. This Post is for All Dog Lovers

I used to have a Shiba dog. He's given me so much that I'm afraid I haven't given him back enough. Not that he'd complain about it.

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Caterpillar

1:56 p.m. An article has been printed on this week's issue of Shukan Post (a weekly magazine), about Silence Suzuka, my favorite horse.

According to Yahoo!JAPAN News, the article includes a short interview of Yutaka Take, who unfortunately became the last rider of the fastest race horse Japan had ever seen. Silence Suzuka wasn't a special horse in the classics, leaving aside the incident of crawling out from under the barrier in Yayoi-sho, until he turned 5 years old. From the first race in the 1998 season, the horse piles up wins by becoming a front runner no other horse can catch. However, Silence Suzuka ends his life suddenly and unexpectedly, in the 1998 autumn Tenno-sho, due to an injury during the race. I still remember the scene very well, because it was the first time I'd ever been to a race track. It was also the first (and the last) time I'd ever bet 10,000 yen on a win. It was shocking.

Today I've learned that it wasn't just me who was distressed by the horse's death. But at the same time, I'm obliged to the horse, too. I wouldn't still have been witnessing horse race now, if it weren't for Silence Suzuka.

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Caterpillar

2:56 p.m. I'm not sure whether I've written this here before, but the name of Silence Suzuka brought back a strange memory.

I once had a chance to visit some stud farms in Hokkaido to see some retired race horses, mostly great champion horses. And I'd taken the chance to also visit Silence Suzuka's grave. Needless to say, I brought a camera although still not digital in those days, and taken, I don't know, maybe 2 film rolls of photos. But unfortunately, there was something wrong with the part that opens and closes the shutter, and most of the photos I took had turned out blotted out with dark patches to my dismay. The strange thing was, that there were two photos that survived this unavoidable incident. The pictures of Silence Suzuka's grave. I couldn't help but think that Silence Suzuka had been waiting there to greet his fans, even long after his death.

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Caterpillar

2:22 p.m. Okay, so it's THE Japan Cup Dirt. Actually, the LAST Japan Cup Dirt with invited foreign horses. As for this year, there's only one foreign horse, Pants On Fire (what kind of name is that?) from the U.S.

I haven't decided whether to buy this horse or not yet, but from snatches of horse race news, it seems the crew had planned to compete in this race for quite a while. In fact, I read it somewhere, that the first time they were aproached by the JRA goes as far back as 2010, if I'm not mistaken. Also, they have booked a great jockey, Gary Stevens to ride in this race.

No one can tell what's going to happen in the future. But it seems to me, that the Pants On Fire crew have been preparing for this race.

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Caterpillar