happylife

Chineese BBQ pork

I've got Chineese BBQ pork. I sometimes take out this dish from Chineese restaurant. It is more delicious and reasonable than getting it at a supermarket or cooking it myself. This pack of BBQ costs just $3.50. I can enjoy it for a week in various ways; topping on Ramen(Japanese noodle), adding into fried rice, or just tasting it as is with beer.

Winter is coming

This morning when I was cycling, I found these white objects at the Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. They are swans. Although they might look dead, they are just deadly tired and sleeping. They have arrived here from some northan areas. They are supposed to stay in Vancouver over winter. That means that winter is coming soon in Vancouver! It was 9 degree this morning. There are few people who wear short sleeve clothes. Winter is coming steadily.

Numerical target

I'm now cycling almost every day. Of course the course around Stanley Park is great, but it isn't enough. If it were not for this cycling meter, I wouldn't have done excercise so hard. I have a target that I will ride on bicycle 1,000 km by the end of this October when I'm going back to Tokyo. Numerical targets sometimes let us work hard. And I was often distressed with them when I was a student or an employee. "I have to gain more than 90 points in the coming exam." "We have to sell the products this month twice as many as the amount of the month last year." If these numerical targets are given by others, they lead us into a terrible and unhappy condition. But if we set them by ourselves to control our working paces, they often go well. So, I have to run more 200 km by the end of next month.

Fishermen in Stanley Park

When I ride on bicycle, while at high tide, I often see quite a few fishermen along the seawall in Stanley Park. They are mostly Chinese and sometimes Hispanic people, and they are not children but adults or family. They don't seem to be commercial fishermen. All of them have a fishing net and a bucket. They are catching small fish with them. Just one scoop with the fishing net catches hands full of fish. It seems very easy and interesting. I don't know whether they have fishing license or not, but they must know how delicious a deep-fryed small fish.

Escaping from Chapters

This afternoon, I parked on the road near Chapters booksotre, and payed $2 to the parking machine for one-hour parking. I went into the store, chose some books to read, and sat down on a sofa with them. But, suddenly after sitting down, I felt a strong desire to relieve myself and looked for a washroom. Unfortunately I couldn't find it and my desire was getting stronger and stronger. So I went out of Chapters just like escaping from it, and ran into my room. I was narrowly in time. Anyway, don't you have such experience? I think I often want to go to a washroom in bookstores. In Japanese, this phenomenon is called "Mariko Aoki syndrome". Mariko Aoki was an average house wife in Japan. She sent one day a letter about this phenomenon to a radio program, and her letter was broadcated all around Japan. Temporarily he happened to be famous about this kind of topic. But she didn't want that and hide herself. So now, this name is not known even to Japanese people. I wonder what this phenomenon is called in English. My dictionary does not answer my question.

Green tea

This is my special green tea which my mother gave me when I left Tokyo for Vancouver. It is a little bit different from the ordinary green tea. The leaves are fine grounded, but it is not "Matcha", the Japanese powder tea. It tastes a little bit bitter and its color is vivid green. When I have it, I won't use any filters; just take a spoonful of this leaves into a cup, and pour some hot water. I drink it with the powdered leaves. Of course I like coffee, but I don't like the taste which is left after drinking coffee. Coffee contains a little oil in it and I think the oil taste is left behind in my mouth. On the other hand, green tee does not have any oil and more refleshes me. So I prefer green tea.

I'm working!

This is my messy room. I'm now working here after twenty moth break. It was such a long break that I almost forgot how to work. And it is incredibly hard for me to just sit at the desk. So I moved one of my laptop computers from the desk to beside the reclining chair so that I can always face it without effort. But there is another problem. I'm easily loured by the window view, TV, books, and Tim Hortons' donuts.

Pon-pon boat

Japanese people in Vancouver call this boat "pon-pon" boat which discribes the sound of boat engines in Japanese. The official name is "Aqua Bus". We can see a lot of Aqua bus in the False Creek. They are always sailing between Downtown and Granville Island. As it takes a long time to walk accross the False Creek passing through the Burrurd Bridge or the Granville Bridge, a lot of people are using Aqua Bus. But it costs $2 for just a few minute trip. It is expensive! As I have a boat in the marina of Downtown side, I sometimes pick up my friends accross the False Creek. If I charged them $1 per person, it may be a good small business.

Wide screen

Wide screens are getting more popular than traditional full screens. They have an aspect ratio of 16:9 against 4:3 of traditional ones. They are litterally wide and are like the screens of movie theaters. Unfortunately I have no wide screen TV set, but my new digital camera has wide mode. I'm using it since last month, and I found that wide mode is more comfortable than I had thought before. As it is nearer to our actual eyesight, everything I take with wide mode looks more natural than normal mode. So my pictures in this blog are wide mode since last month. Only one thing I have to care while using wide mode is that I have to be more careful when I take a picture including the horizon. Little tilts stand out in wide mode.

Rainbow

This morning, I woke up a little bit earlier than usual and found a beautiful rainbow outside the window. "The early bird catches the worm." Beautiful scenary makes us happy, and living or working in a room with great view is very happy. When I was Japan, I was working in a machine room where there was no window and the air was fully controled at constant temperature and humidity. It was literally a room for machines, and it was not for people. And now, I'm living always seeing a great view like this. I hope I could stay here as long as possible.