1:59 p.m. As I scanned through the racing forms of this weekend, have discovered that Tomoe-sho, one of the races that often go wild is run with only eight horses, which means that it might well be on the favored side, I decided to call not the Radio Tanpa but CBC-sho.

My key horse will be Shining Lei. The rider is a bit of a concern, but then it's the summer races, I can't complain. On the wheel would be Melagrana (just in case), Ultima Blood, A Shin Spartan, Time Trip, Tosen Duke and Snow Dragon (for cheering). Melagrana, might as well cut out.

The End

Caterpillar

5:02 p.m. Shinig Lei was right, but Second Table and Active Minoru....

It wasn't such a tough lap for a sprint race, so I thought Ultima Blood may be able to hang on but in vain. Melagrana, didn't need as I'd feared, and Tosen Duke has lost a bit of weight since the previous race while he'd been losing his weight in the race before that, too. That's a bad pattern for Deep Impact descendants.

I have no idea why Shining Lei has suddenly held back, though resultingly that did the magic, as a change in position is a good shock for Deep Impact descendants. Same thing for Black Tide descendants, since Black Tide is Deep's older brother, I think. Hey, did you hear that, Kitasan?

The End

Caterpillar

2:40 p.m. Hot. I'm melting. Yesterday was hot and humid alright, but today's even more. I couldn't stand it and pulled out my Goza and fan.

We've just entered July and it's already this hot. I wonder what it will be like when summer hits Tokyo in full power... Dreadful time for a sweatbomb like myself. And thanks to the fatigue, I've developed a swelling bump in my ear for the first time in my life on top of the heat. The terrible thing is, that I can't listen to music with my earpods as it hurts when I try to push them in. Torture.

The End

Caterpillar

2:27 p.m. The typhoon has landed again in Ehime, inching up the Pacific coast of Japan. That means it can hit Tokyo... Who said it was going to move along the Japan Sea side?

It is very rare for a typhoon to land around this season, as normally they come as high up north as Japan after summer when the sea temperature has been raised by the summer heat. In other words, it must be that the sea temperature is higher than usual.

Ugh. Another thing that suggests murderous heat this summer.

The End

Caterpillar

3:32 p.m. The lump in my year has shrunk to about half the size it was last weekend, but I still can't wear my earpod on my right ear. Humph.

I also can't wear ear plugs either, so that is another nuissance. Having obtained a way to considerably block out the radio noise while I sleep, though not being able to make use of it is indeed a torture.

Wonder how much longer it would take to be freed from this hell...

The End

Caterpillar

5:06 p.m. I've just had my snack time with coffee and pop corn which according to the description on the package, is a product promoting Yamagata prefecture.

Perhaps I'm an old type person, but to me pop corn has always been salty although there are such things as caramel pop corn these days. This one I just had came in several colors and flavors, supposedly some sort of berries, orange and something I couldn't figure out fried with olive oil...

I'd rather prefer the authodox barrel of po corn sold in cinemas.

The End

Caterpillar

2:39 p.m. Well, there are many kinds of pop corn in this world as there are many kinds of people.

This morning, the woman who sat in the seat next to me in the commuting subway was putting her makeup on until she got off at Jinbo-cho. She pulled out a hand mirror the minute she sat down and was applying foundation primer when I realized what she was doing... Oh, you're starting from there.

The brushed off exessive foundation sprinkled and stayed on my navy T-shirt shoulder like dandruff. Oh please.

The End

Caterpillar

3:04 p.m. My meetings have been cancelled, one rescheduled and one cancelled without notice. Frustrated as I am, will call Tanabata-sho.

My key horse is Tatsu Gougeki. Wait. It's only been two weeks since his last race. Is his condition okay? Hmmm, but he's performed well in his previous race against Silver State. Besides, his weight is 5kg less than that time. Right, let's go.

On the wheel would be, Suzuka Devious, Maltese Apogee, Seewind and Sole Impact.

The End

Caterpillar

6:41 p.m. Dargh! My key horse has lost weight as I'd feared, and sank in 6th place...

Am seriously thinking of downloading a drawing app so I could take in the necessary data in jpeg form, to ponder it and cross out or write notes onto the data during the week.

But that would surely take a considerable amount of time since I have to update my iTunes... Troublesome.

The End

Caterpillar

2:33 p.m. It's getting seriously hot. And we haven't had proper rain for more than a week now, I think.

Since we're not having much rain, JMA might as well announce the end of the rainy season. Yes, I know the seasonal rain front is still hanging southwest of Tokyo, which means that the rainy season hasn't actually gone yet. And some forecasts say that there may be some rain around the middle of this week.

But I do suggest them to take the plunge.

The End

Caterpillar

3:21 p.m. It transpired that one of my clients had been misreading. All the while she's been passing by a sign in front of a traditional sweets shop, she'd been misreading the name of their product as "unagi-dango (literally meaning, eal dumplings)," though in truth it said "usagi-dango (literally meaning, bunny-shaped dumplings)."

I, on the other hand, had been misreading another sweets shop's sign board as "oppai-mochi (boobs rice cake)," when it was actually "omochi-pai (rice cake pie)."

Birds of a feather.

The End

Caterpillar

4:30 p.m. Currently, I see blue skies above downtown Tokyo. Don't think there's a chance of rain.

So as I've said earlier, JMA might as well announce the end of rainy season for Tokyo. Not that it would improve my life or anything. But still, I'd feel slightly better to know it's over.

The End

Caterpillar

3:06 p.m. It seems Silver State's next race has been decided as Mainichi Ohkan. The horse is going to run in either Tenno-sho or Mile Championship, depending on the result of this race (Mile Championship is said to be more likely).

The race will be a touchstone for this horse as Silver State hasn't won an open class race. But as far as I'm concerned, he has more than enough potential to win a G2, judging from the previous race.

There are two things I fear though, one is his condition, the other is his position in the race.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. The lump im my ear has finally shrunk enough and the earpods ban has been removed since yesterday.

But then comes the usual toothache. It has been throbbing from about a week ago actually, though I hadn't been able to tend it much as I prioritized the lump in my ear. Now it's aching with full power. The past couple of days, I've been doing everything I can to relieve the pain though in vain. Unfortunately, I've run out of antipyretic herb tea that my friend had dutifully brought back from Germany last year-end, which is possibly adding on to the lingering pain.

Even worse, food has hit where it hurts most during lunch, leaving me reeling from pain... I hate this.

The End

Caterpillar

3:51 p.m. Because of the repetitive inflammation over my body, I haven't been able to ponder my options for Hakodate Kinen. But well, here's my call.

Meiner Milano is my key horse. Don't think he'd win with the top weight 58 kg, though he's blundered in Epsom Cup it wouldn't be such a tall order to come within third place. Or am I asking too much?

On the wheel would be, Dantsu Prius, Red Solomon, Super Moon and Luminous Warrior.

The End

Caterpillar

9:31 p.m. I've blown it. Luminous Warrior was good, not Meiner Milano...

But I've discovered the reason for my loss, so that's okay. Will win next summer. Besides, it's a holiday tomorrow and I can watch my favorite anime as much as I want, despite my toothache and some other minor problems! Yay!

The End

Caterpillar

9:30 p.m. I have fully enjoyed the holiday watching anime in an air-conditioned room, having a dip in the neighborhood onsen. Ah, I feel refreshed.

Even feel like downloading the entry form for this weekend's Chukyo Kinen where One And Only is supposed to be entered. Perhaps I can do a little preparation this week.

The End

Caterpillar

2:22 p.m. Rain has started falling.

We've been hearing thunder roll from say, half an hour ago, and rain has started falling. According to Cow who has been out for his daily shopping, the unpleasantness outside is overwhelming. The humidity combined with this heat is like the inside of a sauna.

For those working outside, beware of the sudden clouds and cold air. These two are signs of sudden heavy rain, so if you're met with them make sure to take shelter under a roof just in case.

The End

Caterpillar

2:45 p.m. Finally.

JMA has finally announced the end of rainy season for Kanto area including Tokyo. It's about time! We've been joking that they must be waiting till the last gush of rain since we didn't have much rain again, just like last year. A rain-less rainy season is called "kara-tsuyu" and it often brings water shortage for the summer. Thankfully, the Tonegawa River line to which we owe water to has enough water rate, but Saitama prefecture is currently partly undergoing water cut of 20% due to the lack of water in the Arakawa River dams.

Well, so it transpired that they were just waiting for the last rain as we'd thought. That means they could have made the announcement a week earlier as I've said they should.

The End

Caterpillar

2:13 p.m. As though the sun had been waiting for the end-of-rainy-season announcement to be made, it's HOT. Brains-a melting...

I've always thought that our government should ditch the stupid idea of forcing holidays on us but rather, quit working on days when the temperature goes above 32 degrees or below -2 degrees. It would only eat up more running cost while dragging down efficiency.

The End

Caterpillar

1:54 p.m. Another steaming day. Walk out under the sun for 10 minutes, no 5, and sweat will start trickling down your neck... I had to bring an extra T-shirt so I could change.

For those who sweat profusely like myself, here's some tips I found about deodorant. If you think you smell, the most effective way to prevent that is to change your clothes. Because it's the clothes that smell, not yourself. The smell is caused by bacterium that let out distinctive smell when they multiply, and these bacterium literally MULTIPLY in wet and warm condition like clothes wet with sweat. And the thing is, they keep multiplying to spread from the armpits of your sleeves to the shoulder or the back while letting out what we call body odor. So the simplest and most effective way to prevent this is to change to a new shirt.

The End

Caterpillar

12:06 p.m. Okay, it's Chukyo Kinen this week. One And Only, the 2014 Japanese D'erby winner is finally changing it's course to mile distance.

My key horse is Peak Tram. He's come in 2nd last year which means he's good at Chukyo mile. On the wheel would be, Ping Pong, One And Only, Asuka Biren, and Moon Crest. If One And Only cannot perform better this time, then there's little chance he could in the days to come.

The End

Caterpillar

11:15 p.m. I'm tired.

My hair dryer has stopped functioning properly and it spits out hot air though I'm adjusting the switch to "cool." The turbo doesn't seem to be working either and it lets out a smell of something burning... So I took it apart susupecting there could be hair sucked in, but it was clean inside. Took me more than an hour to put it back together again. Nothing has improved so far.

Before I took the hair dryer apart, my lap-top hung up and refused to shut down. I had to force it to shut down via power button. After the hopeless hair dryer task, I launched it up again but now it seems to be working without incident. What was THAT all about? Explain!

Plus, Chukyo Kinen was a disaster on top of everything else. Humph.

The End

Caterpillar

2:26 p.m. I thought the race would go wild so called long shots and then, it becomes an average race with the top five favored horses dominating one to five on the scoreboard.

Should have guessed that though, since Black Moon, the most favored, didn't have much disadvantages. This week, it'll be Queen Stakes in Sapporo. Time to pull myself together and pep up despite all the troubles.

The End

Caterpillar

3:57 p.m. Lately I've been completely influenced by the anime Yowamushi Pedal.

I happened to catch a glimpse of an episode or two of the first season a couple of years ago, and was eager to watch season 3 when they'd started the latest series, New Generation. As I've been fascinated by the characters and the scenario, I'm currently enjoying the first season in my free time. As always, I've quickly been drawn to road racer bikes. Yesterday I've seen one speeding up the street as the lights turned green. Aw, that was swift, light, smooth, graceful and beautiful!

The End

Caterpillar

4:38 p.m. Since my hair dryer had broken down, I've dug out the warranty. If the date I bought it from Amazon is within a year ago, the manufacturer would repair it for free.

So I checked my purachase history for last year but the hair dryer wasn't in the list. I clicked open the next page which showed the purchase of two years ago, and found the dryer there. This was what I'd feared. Warranty has already expired, which means I'll have to buy a new one...

The End

Caterpillar

4:46 p.m. As usual, Cow has went out for his daily shopping, but returned without wipes.

He'd been forgetting to buy them for the past several days, so I've taken the trouble to paste a post-it on his purse. And he forgets again...

I figured I must be spoiling him and decided not to launch a life-boat.

The End

Caterpillar

5:20 p.m. Eventually, I bought a new hair dryer. It forced me to live on 200 Yen a day until next payday which is a month ahead...

The timing was everything. I'd just bought myself a health meter just a few days before the hair dryer broke down, and I'd just started saving up for future plans starting this month. I was on low budget even before the hair dryer incident, and now this.

Gives me all the more reason to buy and win Queen Stakes this weekend.

The End

Caterpillar

1:05 p.m. So, my call for Queen Stakes.

Will key Aerolithe. She's carrying lighter weight starting from an inner post, if she doesn't win this time when would she? On the wheel would be, Tosen Victory, Chaleur, Crocosmia, Pearl Code and Eterna Minoru.

Need to win this race or I'll have to live on less than 200 Yen a day.

The End

Caterpillar

5:55 p.m. For those who believed in me and bought betting tickets for Queen Stakes as I said, congratulations! I hope you're all having a nice cool drink now. Some of you might be wondering why I'm saying this, but as a matter of fact, I cut Pearl Code out and chose Queen's Milagro instead today, as I remembered that Manhattan Cafe descendants performed well on fast and firm tracks.

As for me, it was already 3:23 when I called my order to have Cow tap in from his computer, which means I was a bit too late to buy the tickets. I got too carried away in talking about Yowamushi Pedal. I'd totally forgotten that three tracks were runnning, meaning that the main race in Sapporo would start from 3:25...

Well, at least I called it right. If I could do it once, then I can do it again. Besides, now I know the features of the current Sapporo turf condition, I could make use of it for the whole coming month while they have races in Sapporo.

The End

Caterpillar

5:17 p.m. Although it's the beginning of the week, I'm already fighting tiredness, sleepiness and drowsiness.

But I do have faith, you see. Since I know the Sapporo trend now, I can win some more races. The question is whether I have enough energy left by the time I face the weekend...

The End

Caterpillar