happylife

New camera

I've got a new digital camera F710, the product of Fuji Film. My friend brought it with her when she came to Vancouver from Japan and I wined and dined her in Vancouver. Anyway the new camera is a little bit heavier and larger than the old one which I dropped into the bilge and got broken. But it has a lot of functions and is suitable to take more sophisticated pictures. I can adjust the exposure, shutter speed, ISO, and so on. It has so many functions that I haven't tryed everything. The most interesting feature I think is that it can take a picture in wide screen mode which seems like one scene of a movie film. I want to walk and sail around Vancouver and to take a lot of pictures with this new gadget. But before that, I have to heal my backpain.

Seasick

I like sailing but I have just one thing which I hate about sailing. It's seasick. I have sailed three times in Japan and I voimited twice. Fortunately I have never voimited on the sea in Canada because it is rather calm, but I sometimes feel bad especially while sailing in straight of Georgia. The larger the water area, the more often we suffer seasick, because the larger water area can hold the higher wake. Seasick is caused by the difference of the view which our eyes see and the balance our semicircular canal feels. So, when we are to feel seasick, the best way is to close our eyes and lie down. But this way is not available when I sail single-handed and I chose the second best way; to see the holizon and adjust my balance. One of my friend never feels seasick. He can lick engine oil on the rough sea. I envy him.

Backpain

Since I came back from the cruising last week, I have a serious backpain. I have sharp pain in the right thigh and numbness in the right shin. As I have never experienced such a symptom, and I don't know exactly the cause of this pain, I am scared if I have some serious illness. So I decided to see a doctor and went to see a chinese acupuncturist for the first time. He took my pulse and saw my tang at first. He said that I have a problem in my spine. Then he let me lie on the bed and put some needles on my back and leg. It was a strange feeling but I didn't feel any pain of needle. After he took the needles away from me, he put some cups on my body which inhaled my skin and flesh. It was a feeling as if I was pinched. At last, he and his assistant woman massaged me. I don't know whether all these treatment have some effects. I still have backpain and I can't sleep well.

Drosophilas

When I came back from the cruise last week, there were a few drosophilas flying in my room. At first I thought it was because I had kept the window open and it was a little bit hot those days. But my room is on the 12th floor facing toward the sea and it is rare to see bugs in the room. The source of the drosophilas came out at once when I went into the kitchen and opend the lid of the trash bin. It was one of the most scaring things these years. When I opened the lid, something like black smoke went up. It revealed immediately to be numerous drosophilas. I couldn't help crying by myself. As I had left peels of bananas in the trash bin, those drosophilas seemed to breed there. It took about an hour to fight against them and I swore not to leave the trash bin with peels before cruising any more.

Unit of distance

When I came back from Seattle to Vancouver, I saw this sign at the border of the U.S. and Canada. As a unit of distance, mile is used in the U.S. and km in Canada. As you know, 1 mile equals to 1.6 km and when I drive in the U.S. I have to convert all the number on sign boards according to this formula. I prefer km because not only I am used to it in Japan but also it is simple. I think the units used in the U.S. such as miles, feet and inches are confusing. I know sea mile is related to the latitude and I think it is rational for using on the sea, but land mile is different from sea mile. It is incredible. I think U.S. people had better change their units into metric someday.

Air show

I enjoyed an air show in the suburb of Seattle. Of course I hate war but I like battleplanes because they are beautiful and cool, and I sometimes go see air show. Blue Angels showed a great perfomance in the blue sky on the Lake Washington. Six airplanes were flying like fireworks, and their jet sound was very powerful which we cannot enjoy with any kind of audio system. I hope most battleplanes become useless and are used just for air shows, and then I can often see arishows.

Living with a cat

I have never had pets like cats or dogs because my parents doesn't like them and they alwas say that cats or dogs are dirty and smell bad. But this prejudice totally vanished after I visited my friends in Seattle who are living with a cat. I found that a cat is a very clean animal, at least cleaner than I. He is always slapping his fur and keeping himself clean. He does poop and pee at a particular place in the corner of the bathroom. And what I was most impressed was that he has his own life style. He sleeps, eats, walks, and slaps his fur when he likes to do so. He seemed to live with my friends not as a pet nor a member of their family but as a special guest.

Japanese book store

As I am Japanese and my mind is usually running in Japanese, I sometimes miss Japanese books. There are three ways for people like me living in Vancouver to get Japanese books. The first one is Iwase Shoten in Yaohan mall in Richimond. It is the largest Japanese bookstore in Vancouver and I often go there just to browse Japanese books. But I rarely purchase books there because they are expensive, almost one and a half as much as the price in Japan. The second way is Amazon.com which is the largest online bookstore in the world and we can get any books sold in Japan. If I really want to get some books, I put them into the shopping cart. And when my shopping cart has more than several books, I order and register them in order to save the postage. The defect of Amazon is that we cannot browse books and we have to wait for the books arrive for couple of weeks. And the last way to get Japanese books is Kinokuniya in Seattle which is one of the largest Japanese bookstores in North America. As it takes a whole day to go from Vancouver to Seattle and come back, I can't use this way just to get books. So when I visit my friend in Seattle, I always go to Kinokuniya and stay there for a few hours. Today, I'm going to Seattle.

Fireworks 2

Today was the day of the fireworks of Spain. I was waiting for the shaw to start in my room. I took a shower, set a reclining chair in my balcony, made a cup of hot chocolate, and turned the radio on. The fireworks started after a cute dance of acqua buses in falsecreak at 10:00 pm. The shaw was very nice though it was shorter and not more gorgeous than the work of China last week. I prefer Spain to China because it seemed to be better designed with limited budget. Anyway I am happy as I can see such a great shaw from my balcony. I am looking forward to the final shaw this Saturday.

Summer camp

I've come back from the summer camp for children in the Gulf Islands. There was a party of 16 members in all; four children, two mothers, three medias, and seven participants to our sailing school. The children were from thirteen to twenty and all had mental disabilities. So, we needed a number of staffs in case of emergency, and I was one of them. Fortunately there was no emergency and children seemed to enjoy the camp in the nature of the Gulf Islands. Though I was deadly tired to assist the camp by cooking, setting tents, bringing a ship, etc., I felt happy to see them smiling under the blue sky. But, I prefer single-handed sailing and I intend to sail by myself next time.