Many people around me are suffered from cold in this season. As many people know well, cold is caused by being infected by viruses. In the crowded area like Tokyo, you can easily catch viruses on the crowded commuter trains. It is inevitable to take virus if you go out on a normal basis. For this, to avoid catching cold you must be immune to viruses, because (unlike germs that can be killed by antibiotics) no medicine but your white blood cells can kill viruses.

There are several options to keep your body's immunity. Taking nutritious foods will help to keep you immune. Sleeping well will also be nice. Avoiding much stress, much alcohol or anything impairing your immunity is also important for keep you healthy. Besides, aromatherapic means can work well.

I read books saying that lavender essential oil was good for strengthen your body's immunity against harmful viruses or germs and English people used it on a daily basis to prevent cold. I imported Tisserand's 20ml lavender oil from England for about 10 UK pounds, because the books said that Tisserand provided good essential oils.

I use it by putting ten drops in the bathtub to inhale it with vapor when taking bath. I put one drop on my handkerchief carried with me and sometimes cover my nose and mouth with it to intake the oil. Thanks to it, I caught no cold until now. More than that, if you put the oil itself on pimpled skin, the pimples will disappear.

The lavender oil can be imported from www.tisserand.co.uk. If you are a resident of Japan, you can buy it from OneNilTrade Limited at www.blushingbuyer.co.uk because Tisserand doesn't sell its products directly to Japan.

I hope 2009 to be a wonderful, exciting and cheerful year. I am really looking forward to as many new things to experience as I can and as many people (especially attractive women) from all over the world to meet as I can.

I also hope US economy to recover from the recession so that Japan's one can do as well. May the US stock market get well again so that Japan's one can do too. May Barack Obama lead America to the right way so that Japan can follow her.

And also, may peace prevail the US, Japan, and the rest of the world.

I look back what I did this year on the last day of every year. The year 2001's topics for me was moving my apartment within Tokyo metropolitan area and buying Toyota Soarer. In 2002, I made my first visit abroad (Washington, DC). In 2003 I started studying aviation (aircrafts and its operation), and encountered musicals and performing arts by small troupes. In 2004 I started blogging, visiting Asian countries (Singapore and Hong Kong), and had GSM cell phones distributed throughout those countries. In 2005, I began playing darts, studies GSM/W-CDMA mobile telephony , and visited Hong Kong again. In 2006, I opened a Firstrade account and began buying US stocks and mutual funds. Last year I got a new car (Accord) and went to Hawaii.

This year, days passed so fast that I can't remember what I did something special, but all the topics I can remember this year are (1) England and (2) Fukagawa. Thanks to the manga Emma by Kaoru Mori, I got acquainted with UK and Victorian English cultures. And this August, I moved to the Fukagawa district, with plenty of Tokyo's historic sites.

Hope 2009 would be more meaningful for me, my family, my friends and my partner (if I could have).

Just waiting for the plane to Kobe to stay there in this year-end with my family....

That was very good. I love it!

McDonald's Japan announced that it would begin to sell Quarter Pounder hamburgers in stores of the Metropolitan area this Friday. You've had access to them only within US or on US Military bases so far, but you can eat those juicy delicious hamburgers even in Tokyo from now on. Can't wait!

Today I went for a walk to Kiyosumi Garden, within a 15-minute walk from my house, because it was a sunny Japanese Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to get out of my house.

These are photos. They make me feel at ease.

I've changed my mind. In the beginning of this year I said I'd give up keeping my Japanese history website HIMEMIKO*WEB to move my content to Wikipedia, but I find it's better to keep them here than in Wikipedia or other websites.

Anyway visit http://www.himemiko.info/ for details.

From CNN:

They may well get excited, because they can earn a great deal of money from visitors to Obama City for at least four years from now. This might be one of Japan's national benefits Obama Administration will bring to us.

This afternoon media announced that Barack Obama had made history. He's going to be the first Black US President in American history, as well as the President from the Democratic Party which has not sent the President for eight years.

Whichever will become the next US President, Obama or McCain, as a Japanese citizen our big concern is whether the new President will treat us well or not. We are afraid that Japan's national benefit might be somewhat impaired by the Democratic administration. Unlike Republicans, governors and congresspersons from the Democratic Party have treated Japan coldly in the past. We are anxious about the so-called "Japan passing" attitude coming up again. We'll never forget that, when the former President Bill Clinton visited China in 1996, he "ignored" to see Japan and returned home without dropping in.

Our national security is also an important issue. There are several countries of which we need to be cautious, including China and North Korea. The current President Bush, apart from his other policies, has been playing an important role together with Japan's Prime Ministers to keep the Asia-Pacific area still safe and secured, with great influence over those countries. On the other hand, seeing that the Democrats will be dominant in American government and congress, we wonder how much the United States will help us to protect our country from those "dangerous" countries. How much will Obama Administration be cooperative to save abducted people out of North Korea?

Nevertheless, however much we feel uneasy about Obama's policies, Japan can't live without the United States. We have no other options but to keep up with America's way. All Japan has to do is to keep good relationships with the US, and, more than that, to make its best efforts not to be "ignored" by America and the other countries in the rest of the world.