happylife

Anmitsu

Anmitsu is my favorite Japanese sweet which contains Kanten (Japanese jerry made from seaweed), Anko (Japanese jam made from red beans), and Kuromitsu (Japanese black syrup). The topping items are Gyuhi (Japanese sticky rice cake), Kuromame (Japanese black beans), Kinton (Japanese marrons glaces), and Anzu (dried aplicot). It's very tasty and healthy. But in Japan, sweets are regarded as foods for women and I hesitate to order this kind of sweets in a cafe or in a restaurant. This picture is home made Anmitsu which my mother made. It's very tasty.

Lifeline

When I come back to Tokyo, I stay in my parents' house where I had been living for more than twenty years. Of course this house has lifelines such as water, gas, power, and telephone, but it has no high-speed Internet. And my laptop PC which I brought from Vancouver had some problems with networking. So I couldn't connect to the Internet for one day even by dialing-up, and I was struggling with the trouble on my PC. Fortunately and finally I found the cause of the trouble and recovered it successfully. It was the security software that caused the trouble. The trouble was not solved until I uninstalled the security software. So it took a long time and I was very tired. Anyway, while I couldn't connect to the Internet I felt lonely and it was very inconvenient. I really feel that the Internet is almost a lifeline for me. Though I can now have a dial-up connection to the Internet, it is still inconvenient and I miss the high-speed Internet. I have to wait for more than a few days until ADSL comes to my house.

Barbershops

On my first day in Tokyo, I went to a barbershop near my house. There are two kinds of barbershops I often go to in Tokyo. The one is traditional Jpananese type with full service which includes not only cutting hair but also shaving, washing hair, and massage. The other type is new one called "American style". I'm not sure this is really an American style. This type is very simple and resembles to the barbers in Vancouver which includes only hair cutting. It takes only 10 minutes and at the end of this course, the barber vacuumes my head to clean the waste hairs. The traditional type costs about 3,500 yen and the new type is only 1,000 yen including tax. Of course I prefer the traditional type but this time I chose the cheap one. As we have no tip custom, I think this is cheaper than in Vancouver.

Impression of coming back

"Small!" was my first impression I had when I came back to Japan. The bus, the seats of it, coins, the coffee cup at a cafe, the dishes in a restaurant, the subway, cars, and people. They are all small for me who came back from the giant country to the elf country. I feel I become Galliver because most people around me are shorter and thinner. Most young women are especially small, thin, and dressed up. They are like dolls. When I was standing in a small and cramped subway, there were a lot of pretty dolls around me, and I was a little bit happy. I could never feel this kind of happyness in Canada, because women there were bigger, stronger, and rather plain. And because there were few cramped trains or buses in Canada.

Long trip

It was a long trip from Vancouver to Tokyo. I left my room in Vancouver at noon on Octover 26, and arrived at my home in Tokyo at 9:30 in the evening on October 27. It was a 33.5 hour trip! Of course there's a time difference of 16 hours, so the actual time of my trip was 17.5 hours. It is still long enough for me. The flight toward west takes more time becauase of the westerlies and it took almost 10 hours. I think it is over my limit. I was very wearworn and my backache has come back. I need a rest now.

Private theater

I will be in an airplane at this time tomorrow, so this is my last diary in Vancouver this year. Unfortunatelly it was rainy today and I couldn't ride on bicycle nor sail. I went to Sivercity Riverport, which is a large theater in Richmond. It has about 20 theater within a large, flat building. As it was weekday and raingin hard, there were few people in the building. I chose "Team America" as my last film in Vancouver. It is brand new and popular puppet play. But unbeliavably there was no one except me in the large theater room. I felt lucky because it was literally my private theater! But on the half way of the film, I felt something strange; no one laughs at funny scenes. It isn't like a theater. The space and the screen of the theater is too large for one person, and I felt a bit of lonliness.

Anyway, the film itself was a very bad and very funny, ironical comedy. I couldn't count the number of f-words, violent scenes, and sexual expressions in it. If real actors and actresses played the same things, this film would be prohibitted in most theaters, but all the actors and actresses are marionettes, and that allows the film to be ultimately abandoned.

Fire on boat

My boat had a fire yesterday morning. I didn't know anything about that until late last night when Bob, the instructor of my sailing school called me. Fortunatelly the fire was very small and the damage was just a foot of electric cable. But the cable was in the cockpit locker where 20 liters of gasoline was stored. If my friend Dai didn't find the smoke rising up from my boat, it would have been burnt out or in the worst case, some of the boats near mine would have been burnt out together. It's terrible and horrible. The cause of the fire was short circit of the cable between the generator and the battery, which I fully charged a few weeks ago. The cable was too old and had scars in some parts, and that would have sparked. The rain and the moisture in the locker might have helped the blowout. I did nothing about my boat for more than one week, but that was the problem. Boats require constant care. So, today I changed the old cable into new one and put off the cable from the battery. I think the boat is like a child crying and waring to me when I leave her for a few months.

Getting fat

As I have no bathroom scale in my room, I can't say exactly, but I'm obviously getting fat. I feel it anytime I walk, touch my stomach, and look into the mirror. And the largest reason of my gaining weight is Tim Hortons. This is my Tim Hortons' Tower on my refregerator which I have built just in two weeks! It means that I have eaten 140 Timbits in 14 days; 10 per day! It's incredible, but it's true. I have decided not to go to Tim Hortons this year. Do you think it impossible? No, I can do it. Because in a few days, I have to go back to Japan where there is non Tim Hortons. My next target in Japan is losing weight.

The swan woke up

I met the swan again at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park. This time he was swimming on the lake and coming up to me, and he soon went away because I had no food for him. A swan is a white, big, and elegant bird. But when I watched him at close range, I felt that he was dirty and wayworn because of his long flight. He is similar to a jumbo jet which is white, big and elegant from distance, but dirty and wayworn at close range. I worry about his right leg. Why is he putting his leg on his back? Is he injured, or does he have frostbite?

Mee goreng

Vancouver is a paradise of delicious foods. Ethnic cusines are especially nice and cheap. This is mee goreng and saty. Mee goreng is chopped yellow noodles with vegetables including been curd which is very hot. And saty is a kind of skewered BBQ beef which is rather sweet. I like this combination of Indonesian or Malaysian dishes with much volume for one person. I payed as little as in a cafe. I think it costs less than I cook myself and it is more delicious.