I could not help without laughing when I saw this news paper this morning. As you know, Toyota is facing big problems now because of some quality issues. I check news both in the U.S. and in Japan, and watch CNN every day. I feel like this issue is more often covered in the U.S.

In my understanding, Japanese are good at working details and making products which requires high quality such as autos. However, this issue causes losing such Japanese good reputation obviously and I worry about their future…

Facebook had 6th birthday on February 4th. It surprised me to some extent. It has been only 6 years since they started this web service, and now they have 350 million users, which is more than the population of the U.S. FYI, US population is about 309 million as of today according to population clock.

I got my account on Facebook back in summer 2008 when I moved from Japan to San Diego. At that time, Facebook was still competing with MySpace and about passing them as far as I know. At this moment, Facebook is getting more user than MySpace by far obviously.

Many people have analyzed what was the cause of making such a big difference. (There are some references in the end of this post.) So I do not intend to argue about that. I just want to say “nothing is impossible”. 7 years ago, there were no Facebook, but now they have a big “republic” on the Internet.  This fact often encourage me to tackle difficult things in business.

• 5 reasons why MySpace is dying & Facebook is growing
• Facebook overtakes MySpace (again)
• How Facebook beat MySpace

I like this Starbucks near my office in Mission, because it is spacy and a lot of outlets.

Wow, let me get back to work…

He came to San Francisco for his business trip yesterday. He is working for a major US network router vendor at their Japan office. Sometimes come to bay area where their headquarters are located to bring their customer. We met last October and went to Crustacean to have the popular garlic taste crab. This time I took him to 21st Amendment which is located in SOMA and is also the place I visited a month ago.

The place is really busy and looked full at first sight. However, we got a table luckily. We enjoyed beer brewed there, wine and American cook such as hamburger, onion fries. Tasty food and alive atmosphere. I like the place.

His itinerary looks busy and he has to travel back to Japan in a few days. I hope he is doing good job and come here in SF again soon.

This morning, I went to see The Book of ELI starring Denzel Washington. Since I saw Remember the Titans which also stars him, the movie has been one of my favorites and he does favorite actor.

Although the reputation for The Book of ELI was not so good, I liked it. The plot was a bit difference from I imagined from its trailer. The visual effect look similar with The Road. Anyways, I totally enjoyed this until the end. I would say the score 8.3 out of 10.

I do not want to spoil, but if you are San Franciscan you should definitely see this movie. You will see why it it.

The picture is from IMDb.

It was a sunny day today and I took a walk around my apartment after lunch. Actually, I was going to Starbucks with my laptop to work on my presentation, which I present at a conference in Tokyo next month. Visited to Starbucks near Embarcadero station, but it looked busy and I could not find a good seat. So walked toward Powel on Market for a couple of blocks. Some Starbucks were there but closed because of weekend. Turned left and turned left again then walked down on Mission toward Rincon Center.

After all, I came back to my apartment and hit the Starbucks at the first floor of my apartment where I usually go to. I worked a few hours there and came back to my room to have dinner. I wanted to have a steak, so I defrosedt the steak that I kept in the freezer. I tried to cook it by oven, but I noticed that it did not work on steak after 20 or 30 minutes’ baking. So I cooked it in a frying pan. The steak was awesome.

I need more time to finish the presentation and probably I will not finish it forever. No matter how much I spend for it, I will not be at ease with it, because this presentation is going to be really important one. All I can do is that I learn the theme very well and get knowledge as much as possible. This is not easy thing for me, but good opportunity to grow up in the work for sure.

I went to a dentist yesterday. The dentist is one where my colleague recommended for me and it also  has really good reputation on yelp. They have 21 reviews and all are 5 stars!

I filled out a couple of forms and went into a room. I was very nervous. After some conversation such as how I feel pain, when it started, etc, she took a look at my teeth. And she said the black one, which I thought cavity, was not a cavity but filling. She could not find any other cavities at all. Anyways, she took a couple of X-rays. As she thought earlier, X-rays did not show anything bad. She talked with another doctor just in case, but it looked no problem.

So, possibly the small pain I felt was not actual pain, but my illusion. (“illusion” does not sound the appropriate word for what I want to say…) She adjusted a little bit my teeth height and the treatment was done. No pain!

I’ll be back there in March to clean up my teeth and check again if I still have a pain. However, I was so happy yesterday and directory went to Starbucks to get a sweet thing!

I worried if I could not understand some English words which dentists use, but I was okay mostly. Only word I could not understand was “sinus”. She tried to explain by easy words, but I could not. After that, I looked it up on dictionary and saw the meaning in Japanese, but still difficult.

Two weeks ago, I found a black color thing between upper teeth. It seems a cavity obviously… How stupid I am!!! Why did I notice it before getting so bad? I actually did not feel at all, so I did notice it. However, if I carefully see it and more often flossing I would have noticed it… Also I feel a little bit other side. Probably this is  a cavity, too.

You know, I should have gone to see a dentist, but I postpone a call him/her with excuse of something not important. I just avoided admitting I had cavities.

Anyways, I have asked a couple of friends and decided to go to a dentist where is not far from my apartment. I called her today and booked it on Thursday when is only available this week. She must be busy and good dentist as she has good reputation on Yelp. It is going to be my first experience to go to American doctor (dentist). I am really nervous although I looked up several common words dentists use…

I hope these guys (cavities) are not a big matter and promisえ myself to floss every day.

Carrie Ann Inaba, who is of Japanese descent, is already age over 40 (42). Like I wrote in my blog earlier, Asian people look younger than actual age. Carrie is not exception. If I am allowed to use slang, I would say she is a hot woman.

And another thing I had interesting in her was how well she speaks Japanese. Here is the answer for that. Obviously, her Japanese is Gaijin’s one. I saw in the movie she was thinking and choosing Japanese words before speaking. Mother language is really enigmatic. It always occupies your head whatever you are doing.

I was so sad to find bacon in refrigerator got moldy this morning… Everything get bad before I consume all. That is one of things I have to accept when I live by myself. It rained today, not heavily, but like mist as usual in San Fransisco. I walked to Metreon to see Leap Year which started running last week. This is my first movie in theater in 2010.

This movie was much better than I expected and I would score it 8.3/10. Amy Adams is awesome actress in this movie like her other works.

By the way, in the auditorium there were only 2 people when it started. I guess people still see Avatar and book of ELI which started this weekend. 2 people including me was the smallest number I ever had obviously. But please do not misunderstand. The movie was so good and make me feel like seeing again. Leap Year.