Find a Silver Lining of Cloud

Betty was working as a sales manager for a high-tech Information Technology related company. It was late 1990's when "dot-com" company business was soaring. Many talented business people formed their own SOHO business. The need for Information Technology products was high. The market was large and growing. Her business expanded as the market became larger. She needed to travel seventy to eighty percent of her time for meetings with customers and meetings with supplier people.

Although it appeared there was no problem for business growth, Betty and her boss met to discuss on development of customer base, preparing for growing out of their existing customers. They listed potential customers and called them to visit for possible supply of their products.

Based on her strategy drew with her supervisor, Betty flew to the West Coast. She was East Coast based as many of her competitors were. She visited the company, which was on the top of the list, for her first time. She, being skillful and experienced in sales presentations, conducted the meeting smooth. The people whom she met were open-minded and friendly. They appreciated her for coming for the meeting. She thought the meeting went pretty well.

Betty and her potential customer held several meetings for product evaluation. They agreed to conduct an evaluation for Betty's products. It looked going well. One day, when Betty was in her office, she received a phone call from the key person from this potential customer. He told her that his company strategy changed. They were unable to conduct the evaluation. Since she could not get enough explanation, she traveled to this company for recovery of the situation. Her boss joined upon Betty's request.

Betty and her boss did not understand fully why they decided not to evaluate their products. It became clear for them that this company would not do it no matter what they tell them. Betty was disappointed. Her boss told her that she did her best. He told Betty; "Every cloud has a silver lining." He continued that it depended on the one if he could get it and use it. She decided to keep contact with the key person.

Later, Betty moved to another company as a business development manager. In her business development effort, she happened to meet the key person then working for a different company. This time he agreed to take Betty's products, and his company became the largest customer for Betty. She was happy that she did not disconnect the contact with her key person, despite that she had been so angry with him when he had rejected her products before. Betty found the silver lining of her cloud and got it.







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Legend of California Gold Rush

All the states in US have nicknames. New York is Empire State. New Jersey is Garden State. California is Golden State. Its nickname came from the California Gold Rush in the history of US. California Gold Rush started on January 24, 1848, when a carpenter and sawmill operator, James Wilson Marshall (October 8, 1810 - August 10, 1885) discovered gold in Sutter's Mill in California. This discovery triggered more than three hundred thousand people in and out of United States of America rushed to Northern California. It set the nickname of California to be Golden State. Because the number of miners came to California reached its peak period in 1849, all minors were called "Forty-Niners". Later it became the name of San Francisco Football team.

It is about three hours drive to visit the original area of California Gold Rush. One can use Interstate 580 East, Interstate 205 East, Interstate 5 North, Route 99, and Route 88 to reach Sutter Creek. Just right before driving into the mining area, visitor can get a rest in downtown of Sutter Creek. California Gold Rush created people's movement to the West Coast and formed a period of Wild West. The downtown of Sutter Creek keeps appearance of days of gunmen.

Fifteen minutes drive takes him to the entrance of Gold Mines. The Mine is now only for sightseeing purpose. They are not digging gold any more. There are no flashy signs or Las Vegas style neon signs. However, since it is original entrance, a visitor should respect it as the testimony of the history. The gate shows "Mine Tour", but the entrance is small and old. The visitor should be careful not to overlook the entrance to the parking, since there are no direction signs to which the driver can refer.

The tour provides visitors a tram tour to the deep area of the mine. The inside of mine is lighted, but some parts are dim to be almost dark. There are area brightly lighted and have wax dolls showing days minors were working. Entering into the cave, the first thing one will see is a bird in a cage. Now in the Mine Tour, the person and the bird are imitation of wax dolls. It shows that they kept a bird to know when gas is spreading in the mine. The poor bird is the one first die to let minors know there is a danger of gas.

Although minors inside are wax dolls, they exhibit real machine tools and hardware. Many of them look heavy and awkward. Inside of the gold mine looks complicated structure. A visitor finds a deep straight down-hole after long gentle down slope continues for a distance. It shows that they did not have a specific plan of digging. They dug in the way the gold vein guided miners.

A guide tells the authority is estimating still two hundred million ounce gold lies underground. Now the visitor must answer the last question of the tour guide if he hopes to be a minor.



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Cherish Today

There are people who almost always complain about yesterday. He should not have eaten too much yesterday, since his weight is half a pound up today. He should not have been late to work yesterday, since he has too much to do today. He visits foreign countries and regret that he should have learned the foreign language. He continuously thinks about things, which he should not have done.

An ancient story in China tells about a young boy who liked horse riding. One day, this boy fell down from his horse and broke his leg. He regretted that he should not have ridden a horse the day before. One year later, a war broke out, but he did not have to go to the war, since he had leg problem. Things happened in the past change their meanings as time goes by.

On the other hand, there are people who always worry about tomorrow. He worries about the presentation scheduled the day after. He cannot be convinced if his preparation is good enough to impress people for his business. He worries if someone asks a question that he would not be able to answer. He would not be able to sleep when he thought about what happens tomorrow.

Modern times are full of uncertainties. People worries about their retired life, income after retirement, human relationship, business security, marriage security, health, money, or loneliness. Accessing therapy site in Internet, there are so many people expressing their anxiety about the future.

Past is past and never repeat it. Everybody agrees that he has nothing he can do to change the past. Future has not yet come. It does not help to alter or modify one's future even he worries about it. In this sense, either regret for the past or anxiety for the future is the illusions you created. The important thing to understand is that he regretted about what he cannot change. Also, he worries what he will not be able to know.

One should realize that he feels miserable for the illusion he creates, if he regrets the past and worries about the future. Instead, he should enjoy and cherish today. Feeling down regretting something in the past, one can ask him what does it help. He would easily understand there was nothing he could do. Similar can apply to one's anxiety on his future. Feeling blue thinking about the future, one could think he would face his future in the future, not now. It is the future. So it may or may not occur. Let us consider if and when things happen.

Common advice from mental professionals is; "Cherish and enjoy now, today. Do not worry about the past and the future, or worry later. "Yesterday was so long ago that I forgot. I never make plans so far ahead as tomorrow."





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Too Much Is As Bad As Too Little

History sometimes tells us paradoxical expression conveys a truth. We say that too much is as bad as too little. One trains him to be good at, for example, martial arts. After his painful training with sweat, tears, and blood, if he found it harms his life, how sorry he would be? Some historic tragedy happened not because the historic figure was not because he was poor at some skill, ability, or consciousness, but because he was too good.

Yoshitsune Minamoto is his name. His older brother is "Yoritomo Minamoto", who founded the first Samurai Shogun Government in Japan in 1192. This Minamoto brothers' father was defeated and killed in a civil war. Their enemy clan's leader, Kiyomori Taira was somehow merciful and did not kill these brothers. Yoritomo was exiled to East. Yoshitsune was still a baby. He was sent to a Shrine. Yoshitsune was destined to be a priest.

Samurai must have been in his blood. Yoshitsune never liked academic study of Shinto Shrine. Instead, he grew up with martial arts training. His legend tells that his training mates were bears, wolves, or wild cats. He grew stronger and stronger. A myth says that an imaginary spirits of Shrine Mountain, Tengu was his teacher of martial arts. Tengu has a red face, big and long nose, wings in their back. Tengu could fly like a bird. It could jump over tall trees. It had special skills of martial art. Nobody could defeat it. People believed it was a part of god family of the mountain.

After grown up, Yoshitsune joined his older brother, Yoritomo for fighting against their father's enemy Taira clan for their revenge. Yoshitsune was not only a martial arts master, but also he was believed to learn strategy from Tengu, too. He won whenever he fought. He defeated his enemy Taira clan in a relatively short period.

On his way back to his brother Yoritomo, his brother's army stopped Yoshitsune. Yoritomo was concerned about his younger brother's ability of fighting and maneuvering troops. Yoritomo thought that his younger brother Yoshitsune was a potential threat to him. Yoritomo sent his army to fight against his own younger brother. A powerful family in North East Japan protected Yoshitsune for a while. When this supporter passed, his son betrayed Yoshitsune and killed him.

It was an outstanding achievement to defeat their family's enemy in a short period. However, Yoshitsune must have demonstrated his ability too much to his brother. When one demonstrates something, which he is skillful, he could use his caution not to do too much. Somebody may become jealous or anxious about your skill. It may backfire him.






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Old Sacramento, Town of Pioneer Spirit

Sacramento is the capital of California. It makes a foreigner puzzled why large cities are not state capitals in the US. The capital of New York State is Albany, not New York City. Illinois' capital is not Chicago, but Springfield. California's state capital is neither Los Angeles nor San Francisco. It is Sacramento. Some Japanese book was stating that Americans hoped to separate politics from business activities. It makes sense and makes a foreigner envious, since, in many Asian countries such as Japan, the city functions were confused with politics. Tokyo may be a typical example of this confusion. Tokyo is the capital of Japan. At the same time, it is the center of business, culture, academic activities, or almost everything. Japanese have been talking about moving the government to some other city for a long time, but never been realized or even planned partly due to government and business association.

Sacramento is a good size, quiet, and peaceful city. It is about two hours drive from San Francisco to North-North-East. John Sutter founded the city as a colony. Sacramento was expanding as a trading base from the early period. The city was important transportation base in California Gold Rush days. Now Sacramento is the center of politics and administration in California. This city keeps a place which preserves lives of the nineteenth-century. The district is located on the Sacramento River with twenty-five-acre of historic landmark.

A visitor can leave his car in the public parking. One can drive in some part of Old Sacramento, but this is the place one would walk in and walks about, feeling becoming a cowboy or a gunman used to be. The first thing he comes across would be a coach running on a street. Different from carriages in New York City, the carriages in Old Sacramento is totally Western style. Buildings were preserved in their original forms in the nineteenth-century architecture. The most of them looks like appeared from cowboy films. One would not be surprised even he saw Doc Holiday drunk on the front patio or Billy the Kid appears from behind the swinging doors.

Inside of the buildings was also kept like originally built. Some might pay attention to the inside of a building, which looked like, a bar, a restaurant, and a hotel coupled together. Mezzanine came out to the lobby hall. One may imagine Calamity Jane shouting in the Mezzanine. People watched the scene of a western film a shot gunman falls breaking the Mezzanine handrail to the first floor. Behind the door in the second floor, Wyatt Earp tried to take the bullet out of his brother's leg.

What is noteworthy on Old Sacramento is that the city has lots of museums. They include Military Museum, Sacramento History Museum, California Indian Museum, or Railway Museum. Especially, Railway Museum is the one, which one must visit. In addition to all ages steam locomotives, they exhibit history of railroad grew with Sacramento at the time of Gold Rush, Wild West, or Modernization. They do not run any more, unfortunately, but one can ride on many locomotives to see how the people in locomotive days traveled.








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Bombay Garden, an Indian Restaurant

I was working in the Tokyo office of Japanese Electronics Company in 1996. That was the year I became a Section Manager of Business Development for the emerging market countries. I ended up visiting India six times in six months, during that year. I, like all Japanese, especially all Japanese kids, like curries; however, it was the year when I first encountered authentic Indian curries and cuisines. I loved them. When I was transferred to San Francisco the following year, I looked for an authentic Indian restaurant in the Bay Area. I dined out in several Indian restaurants in San Francisco and the Bay Area, until I found this restaurant that I liked and decided to keep going back to that place at least once every two weeks.

It is a restaurant named "Bombay Garden." It is located in downtown San Mateo, which is close to the San Francisco International Airport. From the center of San Francisco, one can take Highway 101 South to get to San Mateo. To reach downtown San Mateo, one can exit Highway 101 at Third Avenue, the San Mateo exit. One can even take Third Avenue west. Here one will find the restaurant located on the left-hand side. It is about a 30 - 40 minutes drive and very simple.

Third Avenue, San Mateo, has many restaurants where business people usually eat lunch and take their business associates for dinner. There are lots of food choices available in a variety of cuisines, such as American, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, or Indian. My recommendation for this Indian restaurant on Third Avenue in San Mateo is for the lunch buffet. Bombay Garden serves a lunch buffet every day. It serves the same basic selection of foods with a change in the main food choice on a daily basis.

Customers do not have to worry if they come on the wrong day for the wrong thing. There is always something new.

The restaurant's dining space is not big, but is clean and tidy. The inside is decorated like a typical Indian restaurant, with traditional Indian pictures and dining furniture. The picture of the Taj Mahal, which hangs in the center of the main wall, is impressive, and is surrounded by smaller pictures showing ancient Indian life.

The restaurant has an L-shaped buffet counter in its far corner. You can fill your plate with salad-there are both regular and Indian-style dressings to choose from. The buffet also has a choice of rice pilaf or vegetable fried rice. You do not have to worry about looking for naan (Indian bread) because your waiter will serve it directly to your table. After you pick up some tandoori chicken, you move ahead to the curry section. The selection of curry changes daily. Generally, the restaurant serves chicken curry, spinach and cheese curry, bean curry, or mutton curry. On some special occasions, they serve fish curry or shrimp curry, which are superb. Bombay Garden is also famous for serving traditional Indian desserts and fruit ice cream, including mango, orange, and strawberry flavors.






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A Song of a Puppeteer

My mother was a beautician. She worked more than 10 hours a day when she was young. In my childhood, my grandmother took care of me all the time. She sang for me, told stories for me, or played with me. Among the stories she told me was a story which was quite helpful in analyzing one's behavior. It was half-story and half-song. It is about a puppeteer and puppets. Unfortunately, I cannot show its melody. The translation of the lyrics is as follows:

"Here comes a puppeteer. He has a puppet box hanging from his shoulder. The box has puppets inside. Will he take out angels or monsters today?"

Later I found this song in a Zen discussion book. According to the book, its interpretation was that human beings carry both good and evil natures. In reacting to things happening, one can decide to be nice or to be nasty. Buddha said that human beings carry a poison snake in their mind. They are saying the same thing.

Further, this says that there is morality and law in human society. Morality is a direction that one feels the need to follow from his heart without being asked. Law, on the other hand, is the rule which authority or a third-party force people to obey to keep the order in society. The monster puppet, which this song describes, is the evil side of human nature, and if not stopped by good nature, it will come out often. Suppose there are no angel puppets in the master's box, and all he grabs and takes out of his box are monsters. The song is teaching people to use one's morality to control his evil nature. The morality can be nurtured by Zen practice or any religious discipline.

My grandmother's interpretation was a little different. She told me that the puppeteer could decide which puppet he should take out, depending on the child to whom he is playing on the day. If a child is naughty, he will take out evil to confront the child's evil spirit. When he plays with a nice child, he will play with angel puppet. In this way, one's reaction to whom I am facing is determined, not by him, but by me. In order to receive a nice response, my grandmother taught me to be nice to everyone.

This may be my grandmother's own interpretation. However, it contains an absolute truth. If one is angry, the other people facing to him will be angry, too. If one is happy, he makes others happy, and will receive nice and happy reactions from others. Even though it is my grandmother's personal opinion, since a Zen statement has so many different interpretations, her view would not be totally wrong.









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E and O Trading Company Restaurant

Some restaurant guide websites categorized this restaurant as "Fusion Asian." This restaurant is worthy of its category. Their own website describes themselves as "Southeast Asian Grill." Their dishes consist of Malaysian, Indonesian, Singapore, Philippines, and Indian cuisine. Their range of dishes is not only confined to Southeast Asia. Their category also includes Chinese and Indian, which belong to East Asia and South Asia respectively. Unlike most of the combination type restaurants, the menu and dishes of this restaurant reserves the ethnicity of each food. At the same time, they have original inventions of combination that can be known as fusion.

The restaurant's name is nothing like a restaurant. The author imagines that they have some other Southeast Asian-related business in addition to the restaurant. The restaurant is located in a convenient place for customers. Located on Sutter Street between Stockton Street and Grant Avenue, it is within walking distance from hotels in Union Square. It is one block south of Chinatown. On a sunny spring or summer morning, it would be enjoyable if one could walk from one's Union Square Hotel room to Chinatown and have lunch in this restaurant on his way to exploring Chinatown.

Stepping into the restaurant, one will find the restaurant dining floor is very large. On the right side is a bar with a counter. The dining area surrounds the bar and expands deep inside where the kitchen can be found. The customer can have the enjoyment of seeing the kitchen activities whilst dining on the counter positioned in front of the kitchen. The restaurant has a mezzanine-dining area, which is recommendable for family or friend occasions. It is not entirely isolated like a private room, but is half private. Some may find it more amusing than a totally private dining room.

Menu comes on the wooden base plate and has several pages of colored printed papers. One can select from the small dishes, big dishes, and the beverages. The menu describes an original ethnicity of the dishes. It is fun to talk with your dining friends over the menu about the dishes. Their menu covers diversified Southeastern cuisine, Indian cuisine, and Chinese foods. The author's recommendation is to take Naan with curry source to complement with some small dishes. They have so many kinds of small dishes to choose from. How about a Combination Barbecue platter and corn fritter? Their grilled big dishes are superb. The author's suggestion is to have battered fish or grilled steaks, teriyaki source. A visitor must try a variety of their seafood if he or she likes fish. If one does not wish to go for fish, the poultry choices are recommendable, as well.







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Little Shen Yang, the Restaurant for a Taste of Homemade Chinese Food

It has been a year and half since we moved to East Bay. We found that its Asian population is increasing and discovered Chinese communities in East Bay. There are Asian food groceries, Japanese one-dollar shops, and a Chinese/Vietnamese/Thai restaurant, named Marina Mall, in the Union City mall. Our general contractor, who repaired our house right after we purchased it, told us about a restaurant that served homemade northeastern Chinese cuisine. The restaurant name is "Little Shen Yang." Because the mall is located near a college, lots of students and young people seem to eat lunch in this restaurant.

The mall has two entrances, one off Alvarado-Nile Road and the other off Decoto Road. The restaurant is located in the deepest part of the mall. Since she was originally from AnShan-shi, which is close to Shen Yang, Mainland China, my wife was very interested in Little Shen Yang. There were two northeastern China-style food restaurants in the Peninsula, and we tried them, but all were bad experiences: my wife either did not like the restaurant because it served general, not authentic, Chinese foods, or we found that the restaurant had gone out of business due to too much competition.

One weekend, my wife and I went to Little Shen Yang for the first time. It is a relatively small restaurant with minimal decoration in the dining area. We noticed from the outside that the menu items were hand written on colored paper and hung on every wall. Although I could not understand exactly what they were, since they were all written in Chinese, the additional menus excited my wife.

I decided to leave all the choices to my wife, since I had no clue about what the additional menu items were. She ordered three dishes. The first one was a pan-fried Chinese style cake made from wheat floor. The second was Chinese cabbage sour soup with meatballs in it. The third one consisted of shredded beef with green onions. Later, she additionally ordered sweet and sour fish and fried pork, Japanese Tempura style.

The cake was lightly salted and freshly baked. We finished the first round in about 10 minutes and ended up ordering the next dish. Cabbage soup with meatballs was the one which made my wife jump up and down inside the restaurant, as she loved it a lot. She told me it was her first time to taste an authentic northeast-style soup since she left China. The dish of shredded beef with green onions was the one I liked the most and would highly recommend. Sweet Chinese sauce was similar to Teriyaki sauce and the tender shredded beef was superb. The pork tempura was crispy and fresh. It was better than a similar meal served in any Japanese restaurant.

Since we ordered much more food than we could eat in the restaurant, we took home about half of the food. When we reheated the food at dinnertime, we found that it was as good and fresh as it was in the restaurant. We had never experienced some take-away meal taste so good like this one did. We still go to this restaurant at least once every week if not more often.





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