happylife

Rainy pain

These two days, I had been fine without any backpain. But today, it is raining and my backpain has come back again. I'm not sure why the backpain is related to the weather. It may be that either the low pressure or the high humidity or both of them influence the complex texture of my back. In any case in Vancouver, the rainy autumn season is coming soon, and the weather forcast says that it continues to be raining next 5 days. Does it mean that my backpain is getting worse? I can't beleive it! I haven't completely enjoyed this summer yet. The backpain is messing up my summer plan. I am a little bit impatient about this situation.

Ghost cat

Yesterday evening, when I was driving east giving the back to the sun, I glanced at the driving mirror and found a cat looking at me. It was just like a funky ghost cat and surprised me into laughter. It was so funny that I dared to take the picture of it with no regard to risks.

Driving rules

There are some differences between Canada and Japan about driving rules. The most different thing is the direction of roads; we have to drive left side in Japan while right side in Canada. All the drives seats in Canada are set left, but in Japan both sides are allowed. There are some special rules in Canada which we don't have in Japan. 4 way rule seemed strange for me soon after I came to Vancouver. I sometimes missed the sign of 4 way and drove through 4 way junctions without stopping. Talking of stopping, we have to stop at railroad crossing in Japan, but we mustn't stop in Canada. I think HOV (Highly Occupied Vehicle) lane is a rational rule. Most cars are too large for only one person and it is better for some people to share one car. What I can't understand in Canada is the manner of left turn. Most main street in Canada has three lanes, but if there are only one car which is going to turn left, the left most lane is dammed, and usually there are some cars parked in the right most lane. So, only one of three lanes are available and it causes traffic jams. Talking about motorcycles, there are few motorcylces in Canada while the roads in Japan are full of them. In Japan, it is natural for motorcylces to pass through between cars or between cars and sidewalks. This is very dangerous and we have quite a few traffic accidents related to motorcycles in Japan. Altogether, I prefer driving in Canada because there are less traffic jams.

Dancing dragnet

Because of the persistent backpain, instead of sailing or cycling, I stayed in my room and watched "Dancing dragnet" on DVD. This is one of the smash hit movies in Japan last year and I got the pirate edition of it in a chinese mall. It is a comical story of the police station in a new town in Tokyo and it takes up the problem of bureaucratic organization in Japan. I think it is well designed and full of funny scenes, but I couldn't really enjoy it. Though I cannot explain it well, I felt somewhat out of place with the movie. It is true that this movie describes the Japanese society right now, so it may be concluded that not the movie itself but I am out of place. As many years have passed since I escaped from the bureaucratic organization in Japan, the problem which this movie deals has become none of my business. And for that reason, I couldn't feel any sympathy for the problem in this movie.

踊る大捜査線 THE MOVIE 2...

Lorelei in the end of the war

As I couldn't go out because of backpain, I read a long Japanese novel "Lorelei in the end of the war". It is a story about a submarine which rustled in the end of World War II. Of course it is a fiction, but it seems real because the fictional parts are well inserted in the historical events such as U-boats, kamikaze submarines, and atomic bombs in Hiroshima & Nagasaki. Especially the description about submarines was very interesting to me. I found for the first time that submarines do not shudder in the sea no matter how rough or stormy on the sea. And the navigation of submarines is by far harder than that of ships on the sea because they can see nothing in the deep sea and they can only use sound for their three dimensional navigation. If there were a sailing boat which can submerge into the sea when it is rough, I would be free from seasickness. If you can read Japanese, I recommend you to read this book.

終戦のローレライ 上
終戦のローレライ 下

TENS

As I still have backpain, I bought TENS(Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) at a drug store in a chinese mall. It cost $150! I could buy it less than $50 in Japan. But I couldn't help getting it. This small machine generates pulse and it stimulates the nerve through two electrical pads. As soon as I came back home, I tried it for about thrity minutes. And now I don't feel pain. It works! If you have backpain I recommend this machine.

Iced coffee 2

According to Joolie's advice, I made Texas style iced coffee. Iced coffee cube is a wonderful idea. It doesn't dilute the liquid coffee like ice cube. And I also enjoy this coffee cube just by sucking in the mouth. It's literally cool in hot summer days. By the way, I hear that U.S. navy enjoys coffee with salt. They say salt makes coffee milder! I can't believe it and I can't try this recipe because I don't want to spoil my coffee beans.

My car

I bought my car as soon as I came to Vancouver. It was the first time that I bought a car. I paid only $800 for the car. It is very filthy and even smells bad because the ex-owner was taking on her dog in it. It has a lot of scratches and dents, and the seat is bitten by the naughty dog. But I don't mind all these defects because it runs better than the cost I paid for it. In the car I have been to Victoria, Seattle, and so on. As I have no special feeling like love to my car, I have never cleaned it. So, it has layers of dust all over the body and windows. This is the picture of the rear window of my car on which my friend drew a cat. This drawing is very useful when I look for my car in a large parking lot.

Chess

I learned chess a few months ago. I also know how to play shogi and go. I think chess is the simplest in these boardgames. One reason is the space of the field; chess has only 8x8 fields while shogi has 9x9 and igo has 19x19. The other reason which makes chess simple is that it doesn't allow the player to recycle the pieces which were once lost. Now I like chess best because one game finishes in shorter time than shogi and go. I love the sence of speed of chess especially in the end game. I sometimes play chess with my small computer and I am always beaten in ten minutes. This is not because I am weak but because it is so simple that a computer can easily calculate the best way. I hear that the world champion of chess was beaten by a computer.

Iced coffee

Iced coffee is a very popular beverage in Japan. In Japan, every cafe has iced coffee in its menu and every coffee shop sells special coffee beans for iced coffee which are roasted darker and taste bitterer. I like iced coffee and I often ordered it even in winter when I was in Japan. But in Canada or North America, I can't find iced cofee in the menu of any cafe and coffee shops. Although they have iced tea in their menu but they don't have iced coffee. So, I have to make iced coffee in my room; just drip coffee into a glass filled with cube ice. I wonder why North American people don't have iced coffee.