It's harder, of course, to restart something than to start. I've had a bunch of work to do after came back to Tokyo from TUG 2014 the last week. More to the point, I think I'd burnt my energy out there. Anyway, I really enjoyed the days in Portland, where the meeting held, and in Seattle to which I made a side trip after the fascinating conference.

One of the reasons I went to Seattle was to visit the first Starbucks in Pike Place Market. I adore their coffee though, what made me want to go to the original shop was the founder's book "ONWARD". I was touched by the atmosphere of the market, and realised that it's the market that had energized the local coffee shop and brought it up to the global brand.

By the way, I didn't know they ask a customer their name and put it down on the plastic cup. I knew that they wouldn't recognize my name just by ear, but I tried to see what would happen. The string the barista wrote on my cup was "Kho", instead of my actual name "Keiichiro". The next day, once again I tried to tell my name at the other Starbucks, and I had a coffee cup with exactly the same string "Kho" on it! I may as well call myself Kho from now on.

Of course I won't!