3:50 p.m. Went to the JRA site to check on the result of Aoba-sho, but it wasn't uploaded yet. The Tokyo TV Cup Aoba-sho is the prep-race for the upcoming Japanese Derby. And because I've heard from Mr. N-jima that there was a good horse named Pelusa, I've been looking forward to this race since then, to measure how good this horse actually is.

4:21 p.m. Have just seen the video of the race. This horse, Pelusa, he swept all the other horses by more than four lengths (the JRA official results said four lengths, but it seemed more in the video). If any horse could beat the Satsuki-sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) winner, Victoire Pisa, that's him. Can't wait to see him in the Derby!

4:28 p.m. Right. The Tenno-sho, tomorrow. The favorite seems to be Forgettable no doubt, as his competitors are mostly from lower ranks. However, the horse seems to have had a rearrangement in his schedule due to exhaustion, so think it's safer to key another horse and start from there. But who?

The End

Caterpillar

1:07 p.m. My God, have overslept! Must leave the house by 1:30 since am supposed to be at WINS by 2:30. Clothes, clothes... That reminds me of the weekend horoscope I heard on the radio yesterday. It said my lucky item for the weekend was a cardigan... I don't have a cardigan.

2:57 p.m. Got to WINS twenty-seven minutes late. Still hadn't decided which horse to key for the Tenno-sho, swaying from Forgettable to Meiner Kitz and then back to Forgettable again. Forgettable runs better in a speed race and so does Meiner Kitz. Don't think both horses are fit for a slow race that all horses are given a go after they're swung around the last turn. But Forgettable is the one who's got the inner post which generally leads to a good result in Kyoto Race Course, especially in a slow race, because the horse can stick to the rail. The hammer was down. I keyed Forgettable.

4:00 p.m. Eventually it turned out to be all wrong and made me slump onto the bench. Jaguar Mail with Australian rider Craig Williams won the race, followed by Meiner Kitz in second and Meisho Dontaku (thought it was "Dontag") in third. Maybe I need to get myself a cardigan by next week's NHK Mile.

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Caterpillar

11:23 a.m. Many Japanese race horses tend to have the same heading in their names. If you are a Japanese horse race fan, some of the following headings must sound familiar; Air, Meiner, Narita, Toho, Eishin, Tanino, Meisho, just to name a few. Eating toast and scrambled eggs with cheese, was thinking it was bizarre for Meisho Dontaku to perform so well in a much higher ranked race than his, especially on a Sunday, since I thought his name came from the German ‘Dontag’ meaning ‘Saturday’ but then remembered that it was actually Meisho ‘Dontaku’ and not Meisho ‘Dontag&rsquo.; Presumably, ‘Dontaku’ must come from the famous Hakata Dontaku, one of the biggest festivals in Japan held in Fukuoka, annually around this time of year.

11:31 a.m. Toast almost got stuck in my throat when I saw the TV news reporting that the Hakata Dontaku has started from today. So that's why Meisho Dontaku came in third in the highest category race when he hadn't even won the lower ones like G2 or G3.

12:42 p.m. Did a brief research on Hakata Dontaku and found out to my surprise, that the &lsquoDontaku’ of the festival name originated from the German ‘Zontag’ meaning ‘holiday.’ Tenno-sho is usually run during the Golden Week, one of Japan's biggest holiday week! So his name was a sign... Wish I knew earlier.

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Caterpillar

6:34 p.m. Yeeeeeey! Igot my iPod! I got my own iPod! Po-po-po-po-po-po-I got my iPod !(to the tune of ‘Poker Face’ / Lady Gaga)

9:47 p.m. I'm synch-ing my iPod. The first album ever to be in it will be... "Just Play It! Guitar Training Tracks." Well, am going to need it for my practice tonight.

11:27 p.m. This is absolutely GREAT! Can wear my headphones over the ear pieces so can listen to example tracks and still hear my own guitar sound from the amplifier at the same time! Huurah iPod! More over, my air picking has worked well and I can now play the practice phrases that I couldn't before! Yippeeee!

11:53 p.m. Oops. Didn't notice I was hanging my iPod-nano from my ears since was too absorbed in playing... But the thing is that it's really light so you don't even notice it hanging from your ears! Brrriillianttt! I'll have to clean up the data in my lap-top tomorrow, though. Managed to install iTunes somehow, but will be needing a lot of memory. Good thing tomorrow is still a holiday. Hurrah, ‘Zontag!’

The End

Caterpillar

2:45 p.m. Was going to use Skype when a ‘Sign In&rsqup; window popped open on the screen. Oh, boy. Must have got too carried away in iPod-nano delight that I probably didn't notice myself pressing the ’Log Off’ button. Calm down, take it easy. Nothing's going to hurt. All I have to do is to tap in my user ID and password. But I don't remeber my paaassswwoooorrrddddd!

3:30 p.m. After fishing through my old message folders and finding nothing that shows my password, I eventually had to give it up and change to a new one...

4:52 p.m. Have picked myself up from the I-forgot-my-password crisis and am now deleting all infrequently used programs which were mostly installed by the former user of this lap-top and stored in the C-drive, in order to make at least a little more space for my iTunes media data to come. Had to wait for nearly forty minutes to unistall and delete a service assitant program, though. There. How's that? Checked the property and shrank as available memory has increased only by a couple of mega-bytes. After all this time and work...

The End

Caterpillar

6:58 p.m. Work started from today. Same busy day as usual but felt good since the weather was fine. Perhaps a little too windy, though. Also feel a bit lucky since I only have to do two more days till next day-off which is Sunday! Yeeey!

7:04 p.m. Trying to remember to be careful not to get too caught up in fiddling with my iPod, since have missed my stop on way to work. Also shall not take in any CDs or synch iPod tonight, because have learned that it takes more time than I'd thought it would, thanks to my not-so-high-performance poor old lap-top, resulting in shadows under my eyes due to lack of sleep. Right. Am going to wake up early tomorrow and have a fresh start.

The End

Caterpillar

7:30 a.m. Am awake now. See? You can accomplish anything once you put your mind to it.

8:50 a.m. Was going to go for a walk before having breakfast, but had to give up the whole idea since JoOusama kept me busy questioning me about the result of Obaba's medical check, which the doctor probably must have given me more than a month ago, though I don't exactly remember if he really has. Oh well, I can walk half of my commuting distance instead of taking trains.

3:18 p.m. Have walked about an hour and reached office exhausted, drenched in sweat with aching left foot that reminded me that unlike my usual morning walks, I was wearing boots and not sneakers... Well, hopefully, I burnt off some calories. Uh-oh. Am afraid must have dozed off a bit since now the clock on this computer says it's 3:47, and I don't remember spending twenty-nine minutes while I tap in just this much.

The End

Caterpillar

5:51 p.m. Just checked the local library site and discovered that finally, FINALLY, my turn has come to sign out the book I've made reservations for way back in January. Wonder what took them so long, but see? You can accomplish most anything once you put your mind to it, even wait for nearly four months just to sign out a book. Additionally, I still have my name on four more waiting lists, and when I'll be able to sign out the next book is a total mystery. By the way, the book I'm signing out is not "1Q84" for your information, though no one would possibly regard me as a ‘Harukist.’

6:05 p.m. I'm rather a ‘Dan Brownist’ in case you might want to know...

6:22 p.m. Have used single quotation marks merely to convince myself that I've tried my best to make today's "Murmur" look at least, well, long enough... It doesn't actually show, but the tags sort of increase the number ow words written in appearance, assuring me I've written enough for today.

The End

Caterpillar

11:32 a.m. We're having grade one races five weeks in a row starting from today's NHK Mile Cup. Was going to get up early in order to provide myself enough time to study the forms unless nothing happened. However, something did happen. There are three boxes of documents, books and CDs stacked up against the wall of my room which has been left almost untouched since when I moved in here. Lately, I noticed the box tower threateningly leaning away from the wall, and it's been on my mind for some time. And just when I thought I was off to dreamland last night, was awakened by a huge bump! on my feet. What? What!? Earthquake? After a few minutes, my eyes caught sight of three cardboard boxes in the dimness of.. dawn, I guessed, with a bunch of documents and books pouring out on the carpet from one of them. Apparently, the box tower has collapsed in an avalanche. It was around 5:30 when I somehow managed to put the lower two boxes back in its original place, and the heaviest top box on a small patch of empty space on the carpet. I fought hard not to fall asleep again after that, but seems I have before I knew I was.

3:48 p.m. Danon Chantilly has earned the victory with a remarkable track record (I think) of 1:31.4. Daiwa Barbarian, L'lle d'Aval, Sunrise Prince hit the wire 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively. Had Danon and d'Aval, but left out Daiwa and Sunrise...repulsive. Must do something about those boxes, though.

The End

Caterpillar

2:26 p.m. Am dreadfully sleepy. Haven't been getting much sleep lately, come to think of it. Every time I'm slipping off into a wonderfully comfy world of sleep, have been interrupted and awakened by deep coughs all week. Have been trying my best, well, not the very best actually, to go to sleep early to get some rest but in vain. It was more than a week ago when I caught cold. How long will it take to recover from it completely? How much longer will I be able to stand this sleepless hell?

3:03 p.m. Papa Cow has just given me a leftover packet of cough drops. My coughs must have been bothering him too. Am obliged, really. Though they're leftovers. Anyway, must do something about this cough. Oh, and the boxes in my room...

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Caterpillar

10:34 a.m. Buying some sweets at a patisserie. Cow had ordered me to do so, since he thought it would be nice to have some sweets sometimes. Well, maybe it's not so bad to enjoy some sweets from a full-fledged patisserie once in a while, instead of munching rice crackers that our neighbors had brought us.

10:43 a.m. Have been waiting nearly ten minutes for the girl inside the counter to pack the sweets in a box... God, what's taking her so long? She's prepared a box to put the sweets in which seemed a little bigger than I'd expected, then she turned around and pulled out another even larger box and started to build that up. What is she doing!?

10:48 a.m. Fourteen minutes have passed since I've ordered, and the girl is now rolling a slit of rather thick paper in to a ring... As I watched impatiently, she taped the roll to make a circle and put it over a piece, so that the paper circled it to form a wall then taped the paper wall to the box. Assumingly, she must have done that to secure the piece to the box so it won't slide and crash into other pieces while I carry them in the box. Then why didn't she use the smaller box?

The End

Caterpillar

4:26 p.m. Have just rearranged the schedule for a meeting next week, since one of my clients told me that she has been invited to the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament by her friend and needed to reschedule it. Wow. Sounds great. Have never been to a Sumo tournament before though I'm Japanese and Sumo is supposed to be our national sport.

5:32 p.m. Doing some research on the Grand Sumo Tournament as wanted to know how much a Masu-seki(box seat) ticket will cost. I remember hearing that they were special seats with Obento(dishes prepared in boxes) and all you can drink but that was about twenty years ago... According to the Nihon Sumo Kyokai(the Japan Sumo Association) site, Box Seats A (for 1-3 people) costs 11,300 yen per person, Box Seats B (for 1-6 people) and C (either for 1-4 or 6 people) are 10,300 yen and 9,200 yen per person respectively, and Special C Box Seats (Box Seats C prepared just for two) costs 9,200 yen per person, all seats tax included. Hmmm, not as expensive as had imagined... Please refer to the May Tournament detailed ticket information page in the official Nihon Sumo Kyokai site for more details.

5:59 p.m. It transpired that my client was invited for the arena chair seats on the second floor but still, it would be a great chance to enjoy the realistic sesation of live performance. Ooooh, wish I was invited, too!

The End

Caterpillar

4:03 p.m. Have asked Cow to charge my iPod. Last night on my way home, I noticed that the battery icon on the top right of my iPod display was only half full. What? Did I use up so much battery already? I thought I charged it last Sunday if my memory is correct, and it's wearing out this soon? What did I do to use up the battery so much? Oh, well. Good thing I threw in the USB cable in my bag this morning.

5:28 p.m. Cow has been telling me that he can't charge the iPod. How could that possibly happen? It's supposed to be an easy task, easy as taking candy from a baby. All you have to do is connect the iPod to the computer with the USB cable! I've had no problems charging it at home. Why is Cow having troubles all of a sudden? After a short while he tells me that no battery icon is shown on the display. What? It's supposed to show a battery mark with a lightning in the middle when you're charging it, and the lightning mark is supposed to turn into a socket mark when it's fully charged. How could the battery mark be not showing?

6:48 p.m. Cow says my iPod is fully charged because the battery icon on the top right now shows it's full... What is going on here? What? What!?

The End

2:43 p.m. My iPod has been working fine. The battery icon seemed to be full as Cow had said yesterday, so perhaps it was charged all right.

3:43 p.m. Cow has left for the dentist again. He has been fixing his cavities these past couple of weeks, he'd probably be taking an impression for his dentures by now.

4:30 p.m. Oops, he's back. Wow, that was quick. Too quick I didn't have time to run to the 7-eleven and get myself a pack of chips. Too bad. No snack today...

The End

Caterpillar

6:41 p.m. Was wondering what to write when a huge wave of drowsiness swallowed me up. ZZzzzz...

7:03 p.m. Cow came to say something and I almost jumped in my chair. What? "I've got a Swiss roll for you," he announced. Yeeeeah! Swiss Rollll! "And my mom has just bought us some cheesecake," he continued. Yyyyiiiiippeeeee! It's like Christmas and the 4th of July coming all at once!

7:06 p.m. Shoving cheesecake into my mouth with a Swiss roll in my hand. Mmmmm. Satisfied. Love these snacks between work. Unexpected surprise! Must be gift from God.

The End

Caterpillar

3:08 p.m. Am staring a hole into the racing form of today's Victoria Mile. I know it's going to be a slow race though the distance is only a mile, because there don't seem to be any horse in particular that is able to blast out and break away. That means stretch runners are not invited unless the horse has overpowering high potential compared to others. As for the front runners, it would be an advantage to be able to keep a good position in the front of the field. If a horse has enough instantaeous speed to spring out from the field just before she hits the wire, and that horse is starting from smaller-numbered posts that can easily go on the rail, she would have an even bigger advantage considering the current light and fast turf condition.

3:37 p.m. Have keyed Buena Vista on a wheel with Nishino Blue Moon and three more horses starting from post numbers, respectively, 3, 4 and 6.

4:03 p.m. The Victoria Mile has finished with post-Vodka queen, Buena Vista winning the race by a neck. Hikaru Amaranthus (post number 2) came in 2nd, followed by Nishino Blue Moon in the 3rd. Why, oh, why didn't I just shut my eyes and bet on all post numbers from 1 to 5?

The End

Caterpillar

4:36 p.m. We're having the Yushun Hinba (Japanese Oaks) this weekend at the same Fuchu tracks as the Victoria Mile, so better make sure to bet on the horses starting from smaller-numbered posts. Have been mumbling repeatedly to myself, "smaller-numbered posts, smaller-numbered posts," since yesterday, though am afraid that it won't stay in my memory for more than two days, especially when having a busy week like this one...

4:42 p.m. Wondering if I should ask Cow to remind me on Sunday. But what if Cow forgets? Or, or, I didn't listen to him and decide to forget the whole idea, because I've got too attached to other horses that are not starting from smaller-numbered posts? Now, this is very likely to happen. Hmmm, must think of a way to prevent such a tragedy to occur... Let's start from marking Apapane's number on the betting card as soon as the post numbers are announced, which'll probably be.. Thursday.

The End

Caterpillar

2:57 p.m. I've been numbering and counting this "Murmur" for a while, for mainly two reasons. One, to keep them organized, and two, to encourage myself. Yesterday, it reached number 1,400. So today is the memorial 1,401st "Murmur." Hooraaaayyyy!

3:04 p.m. Just realized I should have Hooray-ed yesterday when the number was 1,400, and not today... Come to think of it, don't think there is anything else that I've kept doing for 1,400 times besides living. Well, 1,400 is a big number actually, if I may say so myself. In fact, I've written more "Murmur"s than Hideki Matsui had hit in MLB (Hideki Matsui's MLB hit has reached 1,000 on April 27th, 2010).

3:32 p.m. Think I'll get my sights lined up on taking on Ichiro, next.

The End

Caterpillar

6:02 p.m. Cow is fiddling with online game again as usual. Lately he's been in to this game called ‘Aila,’ and is playing it nearly all day if there isn't anything particular to do. I don't really care about that any more, (which means that I used to, though have totally given up on whipping him up to work) as long as he doesn't interfere with my job.

6:55 p.m. Actually, he does interrupt me sometimes, wasting my precious time asking me what I think about the characters that appear in the game. A little while ago, he asked my opinion about a bunny-like character appearing on the log in screen. Apparently, he wanted to know if I thought it was cute. But leaving aside the cute or not, I felt like it reminded me of something.. or someone. What was it? Or who? A few minutes later, a light bulb falshed above my head. Mika-san! I noticed that the bunny-like creature looked like Mika-san (Mika Sugisaki), the main caster of TV Fuji's top-rated morning news and information program, "Meza-new!" Oooh, they look alike. If you put a pair of Usa-mimi (bunny ears) on Mika-san's head, you can't really tell which is which. Here's a picture of the creature, FYI.

The End

Caterpillar

6:59 p.m. The post numbers for the Yushun Hinba (Japanese Oaks) shall be announced by this time though unfortunately, the computer has been occupied by stupid Cow as usual, and I haven't had the chance to see it yet. Had to threaten him to write the "Murmur" both in Japanese and English until he finally gave up his game.

7:04 p.m. Have just been to the JRA site to check the post numbers. Argh! Apapane has drawn the 17th post! That is not an advantage, rather the contrary because she can't go on the rail and has to swing out around the corner, which almost automatically forces her to run extra distance...

7:11 p.m. Still, I think I'll mark her number on the betting card when I get home tonight, since have said so myself, that is, if I can remember to do that by the time I get home. Think am going to mark numbers 1 to 5 without thinking, too, if I can. Since have learned a lesson last week.

The End

Caterpillar

4:12 p.m. Head is nearly drooping to the soft breeze coming in through the open door. Had a late lunch. It's hard to keep awake after lunch, especially having suffered a terrible night with my sleep constantly being interrupted by JoOusama's somehow-louder-than-usual radio sound... Must try my best not to doze off during meeting. By the way, have used the pedometer of my iPod nano for the first time when I went for a walk Tuesday morning.

4:25 p.m. Checked how much I've walked. According to the pedometer, have walked 19,262 steps (how much would that be in distance?) and burned 669 calories. Hmmm. Is that good or bad?

6:00 p.m. Just remembered that a woman who lives near the office had once come in and boasted, "I've taken a walk. Look, my pedometer shows 8,000!" I didn't know what to say at the time since had no idea how far 8,000 steps can carry you, but if you count one step as let's say, forty cenitmeters, 8,000 steps will be equivalent to 3.2 kilometers. Think that's not much to kindly come down to our office and boast about, compared to my 19,262 steps which I figured must be somewhere around 7.7 kilometers.

The End

Caterpillar

2:32 p.m. Oh, geez. Have been forgetting to mark the betting card. Must do it first when I get home today. The weather forecast have been telling it's going to rain tomorrow, though. If so, that would surely change the track condition...

5:14 p.m. It seems today is the 30th anniversary for one of the most popular games over the world, Pac-Man, as you can see on the Google page. While I was recalling and cherishing the old memories brought back by Pac-Man, Cow started to poke around the Pac-Man shown in the center of the screen. And it moved! Didn't know we can actually play the game. Well, why not? It's their 30th anniversary after all. Good work, Google!

5:27 p.m. Taking turns with Cow playing free Pac-Man on Google page... Come on, it's my turn, now!

The End

Caterpillar

12:43 p.m. Got up late, since spent too much time on Pac-Man last night. Was going to mark the betting card, but ended up giving up the whole idea since Mr. N-jima couldn't make it to the WINS because of work. So I decided to stay home.

3:17 p.m. Watching the Yushun Hinba (Japanese Oaks) on TV. Apapane was the favorite as expected however, most of the interest gathered on whether she could handle the distance which was half a mile longer than her former race, the Oukashou (Japanese 1,000 Guineas). Many people also must have doubted her ability to run in wet condition. Though these things, from my experience, are some things you'll never really know until the race is actually run. So I keyed Apapane as have said earlier, and took my chance on the trifecta with Agnes Waltz, Oken Sakura, Shoryu Moon and Shimmei Fuji.

3:27 p.m. Cow called and asked me what I thought about Ginza Bonanza and Cosmo Nemo Shin, so I said that I think Agnes Waltz would be a better choice.

3:57 p.m. Something unexpected happened. Apapane won, but so did Saint Emilion... It was a dead heat. No second place as was dead heat, and the third was... Argh! Agnes Waltz!

The End

Caterpillar

3:16 p.m. I did say that I thought Agnes Waltz would be a better choice than Ginza Bonanza or Cosmo Nemo Shin, but I didn't expect Cow to have bet on Saint Emilion.. As I reached the office, Cow boasted out that he'd won the trio.

3:29 p.m. Have just realized that Cow had cashed in on me. Must have at least part of the winning money returned in some way, since he wouldn't have won 20,000 yen if it weren't for my advice.

3:34 p.m. All right, pull myself togehter. The Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) is coming right up this weekend. The turf condition is still not bad, light and fast if it only dries, and it probably wouldn't be a speed race because of the distance, so I guess my aim should not be changed. Bet only on front runners starting from bigger number posts that have time-tested results, and long-shot stretch runners that start from smaller- numbered posts. Actually, have already decided my key horse three weeks ago. It's Pelusa.

The End

Caterpillar

3:18 p.m. As I passed by an electronics retail store in Shibuya, I saw a foreign woman taking pictures of a life-sized white dog statue displayed at the entrance of the store. It was the character called "Kai-kun" which has gained attraction as a ‘talking dog’ in the TV commercial of Softbank. Why was she taking pictures of "Kai-kun?"

3:27 p.m. Arrgh! Have just realized, but could she possibly, conceivably, be mistaking the white dog character for the famous Akita dog statue ‘Hachi-ko,’ known as the symbol of Shibuya?

3:39 p.m. Oh, no. The browser has freezed. Cannot access the Internet through IE since it doesn't even show the Google page... Cow's been searching for trouble shooting but hasn't been able to come up with an effective solution so far. What are we going to do!? I mean, I need to access the Internet in order to do my job...

The End

Caterpillar

3:24 p.m. The frozen browser in this computer has now revived and is working as nothing ever happened... Cow had struggled searching all over for information and countermeasures to get us out of this incident, trying all the things that were already said to be effective, but in vain. At last, he came across an article telling to reset the advanced settings of the browser which we tried immediately, though we weren't expecting any drastical changes after all that we've been through. But as we pressed the reset button and launched the browser, it started working again... What happened? Neither I nor Cow had changed the advanced settings before. What was this all about? How could a browser suddenly stop displaying web pages one day without any warning, when we have touched nothing to change its settings, and then start moving like usual when we reset the advanced settings that we had never touched?

3:38 p.m. It was a blessed relief that I managed to get my work done somehow, without the help of modern amenity called the Internet. Additionally, have learned another lesson from this experience; where there's a will there's a way.

The End

Caterpillar

6:59 p.m. Have made and brought Chinese dumplings, jiao-zi for lunch today. Jiao-zi may be known as Chinese soul food but actually, they're also popular in Japan, too, under the name of Gyou-za. Japanese Gyou-za are slightly different from the original Chinese dish in the way they are cooked. Have heard before that they're generally eaten boiled in China, while typical Gyou-za in Japan are fried. I have cooked Gyou-za many times before, and have finally learned from experience, how to cook the meat fillings soft and juicy however, my Gyou-za always end up in a misearble mess of meatballs with pieces of torn dough strapped around them, and the rest remaining sticking to the pan...

7:14 p.m. It's a pitty to have those dough torn off since the taste I think, is not bad, not bad at all. If there's a way I can scrape the Gyou-za neatly off the pan without tearing their dough, I certainly would like to know.

7:17 p.m. Cow has been saying, "Oooooh," or "Wow," from a couple of minutes ago, looking at his computer screen... Arrrgh! The post positions for the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) must have been announced!

The End

Caterpillar

2:53 p.m. Was exhausted yesterday, after having meetings with four different clients consecutively for five hours without a break. Even thought this must be some new sort of torturing when a client came in through our office door, just when I was leaving my seat to go to the bathroom after having held off my trip for over two hours.

3:02 p.m. Yesterday's business reminded me of Japanese primary school teachers, who must be exhausted teaching five to six periods every day from Monday to Friday, but then I remembered that one period in a Japanese primary school is only forty-five minutes long, and they also have recess between each period, so the teachers don't actually have to work consecutively for hours without a break just like myself. That only seems to point out that it WAS a new sort of torture...

The End

Caterpillar

2:08 p.m. Have run into my friend Ogghy Thursday night. It had been a while and we stood there talking for some time, over the things that had happened since we last met. As we touched on the subject of my powerless lap-top computer via my hottest-topic-of-the-month iPod issue, he asked me how much memory I had on my computer. "256MB," I answered, sheepishly but honestly. Ogghy, as an ex-computer programmer, said without a second, to add more memory IMMEDIATELY. According to him, a 256MB memory is close to nothing these days, and gathering from my words, my computer was clearly lacking memory.

2:21 p.m. Ogghy has kindly told me that the cheapest ones shouldn't cost more than 2,000 yen, so I thanked him for the good information and assured him that I'd buy one right away after I won the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), at which point he shot back, "Buy it before you waste your money on the Derby." Drrrr. Had no intention of wasting my money, but took in his words and just got back from the convenience store, whrere I've payed for the memory that I ordered yesterday afternoon.

2:28 p.m. Oh, geez. Have opened the racing form to find that Danon Chantilly has been scratched because a slight fracture has been found in his right hind leg.

The End

Caterpillar

11:38 a.m. Have taken a shower and had a late breakfast. Slept till late, think around 10:30, since was very tired and couldn't get up. I was going to finish up all the preparations for Monday by last night, because I couldn't spare a minute thinking about work today, when my head is totally occupied with the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). Though apparently, I overworked myself and have fallen asleep on the subway home. Next thing I realized was that the subway had reached the station to get off, and the doors were just about to close. I scrambled to my feet and jumped off in the nick of time, only to find that have left my umbrella hanging on the rail by the seat... Oh, God. Had to ask the Tokyo Metro staff to contact other stations to look for my umbrella when the subway came in, to have the staff in that station keep it for me until I got there to pick it up. Well, I thought I'll need it today since the forecast had said it was going to rain. After struggling for more than thirty minutes, the phone in the staff office rang to tell the good news that my umbrella was found and kept in the staff office in a station, thirteen stops ahead...

2:27 p.m. Just about to enter the WINS building. And it's not raining... I have a feeling I'm going to win today, after all I've been through yesterday. As they say, after the rain comes the rainbow.

The End

Caterpillar

5:45 p.m. To cut the long story short, the rainbow did not appear after the rain... I was quite sure that Pelusa would win as I had said earlier, so keyed him on the wheel of my trifecta. Also bet on the exacta keying him for the second place for insurance, just in case. But as the gates opened and the race started, Pelusa somehow dropped to his haunches and was left behind by a full length... My Derby was over.

5:55 p.m. Eishin Flash won this year's Derby (congrats) regaining his loss from 3rd place in Satsuki-sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas), while Rose Kingdom also regained his from 4th place and finished second, followed by the Satsuki-sho champion horse, Victoire Pisa in third place. Where was Pelusa? He sunk in 6th place after having a late start and then rushing to sweep the whole field from the outside. I guess sometimes the rain turns into a storm lasting for what seems like forever. At a time like this, all you can do is just grin and bear it.

The End

Caterpillar