happylife

Turbulence

I flew by solo today in spite of the bad weather. Sure the weather was bad, the forecast especially said there was light turbulence and it was correct. When I flew over Langley, my airplane was tossed about and as I was reading the chart for the navigation training, I felt sick a little. It was the first airsick I have experienced. Fortunately when I arrived the practice area, the turbulence had gone away and I could practice every thing required in the coming flight test. When I came back to my home airport, it was rather foggy and I could hardly recognize the airport from above the sky. I think it was rather difficult conditions for me, but I could get confidence.

Sulfur mountains

When we walk around Stanley Park sea wall, we can see artificial yellow mountains on the opposite side of Burrurd inlet, in West Vancouver. They are sulfur mountains waiting for being shipped out to somewhere. Whenever I see the mountains, I remember a stupid event I came across decades ago when I was a student. I was studying mineralogy in a laboratory where there were lots of mineral samples including sulfur. One of my friends who was an idiot, set fire to the natural sulfur on an ashtray with his cigarette. Of course the sulfur blazed intensely with poisonous smoke; sulfurous acid gas. There were several students in the locked room and we all nearly died by poisoning. I don't know why he did such a stupid thing, but this is my most impressive memory in the university. Anyway, if these mountains could catch fire, I think it would be very dangerous.

Satsuma

In English, Satsuma means a small orange or tangerine without seeds and with loose, thin skin that comes off easily. It comes originally from Japan. We call it Mikan in Japanese and it is a very popular winter fruit in Japan. But we never call it Satsuma. Satsuma is an old name of a province in the south part of Japan. The area is famous for the sweet potatoes, a kind of taro, and we call the potatoes Satsuma in Japanese. The area of Satsuma is not famous for tangerines and so it's very strange for us Japanese that Satsuma indicates tangerines in English. I think there must have been a kind of mistakes in translation relative to the Japanese tangerine. This kind of mistakes sometimes happen; the literal translation of Meriken-ko in Japanese is American flour, which indicates just flour. If we knew some words mistranslated, it is difficult to correct them after they have spread. I think that the responsibility of translators is very heavy.

Snow!

Day after day, it has been cloudy or rainy in Vancouver and today, finally we could see blue sky between the thick cloud for a while. Although it was a kind of restricted blue sky and sunshine, I was happy. When I was driving on Cambie street, I came across this scenery. The mountain in West Vancouver had snow on its top! As you know Vancouver has little snow except for the mountain area, and we are happy because we don't have to worry about snow damage. As for me, snow is just a white and bright part which adds the color to the beautiful Vancouver scenery, and I get simply happy seeing white snow.

Color temperature

Does this picture look strange in color? I took it with my compact digital camera without any special setting. Of course the real view was different in color. The sky was not so blue. Is my camera out of order? No, it isn't . The reason for this strange color is known as "color temperature." Color temperature differs according to the light sauce and the lower the temperature, the more red and the higher the temperature, the more blue the color temperature changes. Most traditional film is set to day light color temperature and if we take a picture with it under an incandescent lamp, the picture looks red or orange. In terms of digital cameras, most of them have built in function so that the color temperature or white balance is set automatically by an image processor. It is very easy and convenient because a film camera user had to correct the color temperature by choosing filters suitable for the color temperature of the object. In this case of my picture, the processor mistook the color temperature setting because of the strong light sauce of the road side mercury lamp, but thanks to the malfunction, I could get this interesting picture.

Check ride

Before we take the flight test for the PPL, we have to take a check ride by a class-1 instructor and show him or her how competently we can fly an airplane. Today I was supposed to take the check ride but it was canceled again because of the weather. Series of low pressures were coming one after another and the weather chart was full of unlucky symbols such as thunder shower, cumulus, and very low ceilings. Plus the automated traffic information system of our airport was out of order just before I was supposed to take off. I watched the windsock which was flying completely horizontally; that means the wind velocity is more than 15 knots. Although the check ride was canceled, we flew for circuits to experience the strong wind influence and illusions. I did five circuits in the condition of 20 knot / gusting 30 knot strong wind. I had to crab the airplane in order to compensate for the cross wind and to draw a rectangular circuit. What was most interesting was that on the final approach with a strong head wind, we should add power about 10 percent more than usual so that we wouldn't be pushed back the wind. With the air speed indicator indicating almost 80 knots, which is usually less than 70 knots, the ground speed was rather slower than usual and the landing was more vertical and smoother just like helicopter. Although the check ride was prolonged after next week, it was a good experience.

Hotdogs

I feel myself gradually Americanized these days. I often drive to a supermarket to get lots of food and store them in the refrigerator. I take a shower but I don't take a bath filling the bathtub with hot water. And now I don't have steamed rice every day. A hotdog was my today's brunch. The typical North American food. I cooked this special hotdog with a sheet of cheese, a beef sausage, and alfalfa. It is nutritious, easy to cook, reasonable price, and rather tasty. Of course I prefer Japanese food, but as the proverb says, "When in Vancouver, do as the Vancouverites." Anyway, I still have 5 loaf of bread for hotdogs, and I have to eat them before they get died out. I understand why Canadian people are so huge.

Boat guys

We can see a lot of rowboats In False Creek almost every day. I'm not sure but they would be the crew members of some boat clubs belonging to university or company. They are so diligent that they practice from early morning to late night, even in darkness and in winter. I was surprised to see them from my balcony about 5:00, which was hours before the dawn. A motor boat with a coach usually leads them and in the boat there is sometimes a black dog on board. It's funny and cute because he seems to be coaching the crew. Anyway, they are sometimes very dangerous for us sailors because they row too fast without any noise. They are much faster than sail boats and they still have the right of way according to the collision avoidance regulations. I think it's unfair because they have better maneuverability.

Star shells

It was very noisy out of the window last night because of Halloween. As for Halloween night in Vancouver, it is the private fireworks. Quite a few fireworks were launched here and there in the town. They launch so many fireworks that I heard it was prohibited in some cities around Vancouver to sell, to purchase, and to launch fireworks. I think the reason for this popularity of fireworks is the large number of Chinese people who are traditionally good at producing and enjoying fireworks. My room is adjacent to False Creek and some people were launching and launching fireworks for hours. It was a little bit noisy and I got a good idea of mischief. That is, I remembered I had several star shells for marine emergency use and they were expired. I went to the marina at night to bring them back to my room, and I launched them from my balcony which is on the twelfth floor. A very bright, red light ball was launched over the guys who were launching small fireworks. Although I couldn't see their surprised face, it was very funny.

Fujiya

Fujiya is a famous Japanese grocery store in Vancouver. It is so famous that no Japanese people living in Vancouver wouldn't know the name. I sometimes go shopping there, perhaps two or three times a month or more. We can get most Japanese food as if we were in a supermarket in Japan. It's very comfortable and convenient except for one point. It is the price. I feel most of the items are priced 20% as high as the original price in Japan and the high tax of British Columbia is added. Furthermore, the exchange rate from Japanese yen to Canadian dollars is very bad these weeks. Today I visited the store after a long bread and bought some food, just a half full of the shopping basket. The figure displayed on the cash register was $30! It is getting harder to live in the Japanese style in Vancouver.