happylife

A dilemma of Google

As you know, Google AdSense and AdWords is the most successful and popular advertising service in the Internet. Quite a few people including me are using it to get money or to get new customers. Until last year, I think it was working very well, but now, it isn't so good. I think that a very important and even critical problem appeared. Some people are misusing this service only to get money, that is, they make a site which is specially designed to make the visitors click the AdSense banner. The problem is that the site has no or few original information though they are listed on the top of Google search result list. It causes that if we search something using Google, those useless sites occupy the large part of the list. I think they are nothing but spam. The more those kind of spam sites are made, the more money Google might get in a short span, but the less people would use Google. I'm very interested in how Google solve this dilemma.

Digging

I found an old woman digging clams on the tidal flat of Sagami Bay while I was hiking around. It was clear how hard she was working because the area she had dug looked different in colors. In spite of her hard working, the catch was very little, just a half full of a small bucket. Plus the sea water I had looked at was not pure, even polluted with oil, therefore the clams in her bucket were not so attractive for me. Of course I don't know what she would do with her catch - she might enjoy them by herself, or she might sell them to someone. There are a lot of sea food restaurants in this area and I was supposed to visit one of them for dinner. All I wanted was the clams are not served to me.

Sagami Bay

I was invited to a private sailing race in Sagami Bay, but it was canceled because of an accident which happened on the previous day. As far as I heard, a new sail boat, which left the marina we were planning to leave, ran aground and the skipper was lost. We canceled the race voluntarily and enjoyed hiking instead. The weather was perfect and we were sorry because we couldn't enjoy sailing. After coming back from the hiking, we got on a huge sail boat and enjoyed five minute sailing - just moving from one dock to another dock. Thought it was a short sail, we could see the bottom of Mt. Fuji over Sagami Bay.

Crazy tollgates

I drove to Miura Peninsular, a small peninsular facing to Pacific Ocean, 50 km south west of Tokyo. As it was at night, the road was not jammed and the drive itself was not so uncomfortable except for one thing. I used so called "free way" which is not free in Japan. All these slips of paper are what I received during my 120 km round trip drive. It means that I had to stop 6 times and there was a tollgate every 20 km. Of course in Canada or in the U.S., most free way is literally free, and I was used to it, I realized again this crazy road situation in Japan. I think the quality of roads in Japan is the best in the world, but driving on them is terrible because of these tollgates and traffic jam.

Body crisis

My body faces a crisis after I came back to Japan because of too much food. I'm clearly gaining weight day by day. I'm scaring of measuring my weight. It might be heaviest in my life. I feel myself heavy while moving and sometimes find something excessive and soft around the belly. Sure every food in Japan is delicious, but if I keep eating everything served I would be as heavy as sumo wrestler. I know that too much food is not the only reason for this crisis - I don't get enough exercise. I have to do more exercise to burn fat. It's quite right to say no exercise no food.

Narrow band

Connection to the Internet is indispensable for me. Of course the high speed Internet is better, but my stay in Japan this time is only 4 weeks and it is not realistic to install ADSL of Fiber in my room in Tokyo. It takes more than 2 weeks and I would have to cancel the contract only after 2 weeks it is installed. I chose this cell phone as my usual connection to the Internet. It is not bad because I can use it both as a cell phone and a device to connect my PC to the Internet. As it is a cell phone I could stat using it on the next day I came back to Tokyo. The problem is the speed. It is only 32Kbps which is the speed we used to use 10 years ago using an analog modem. As you know the Internet service is now based on high speed connection and most of the contents are much heavier than 10 years ago, so I can't help having stress while using the Internet with this portable gadget. I'm regretting that I should have installed the high speed Internet even for only 2 weeks.

Hayashi rice

This dish is called "hayashi rice" in Japanese. It is hashed beef with tomato base sauce on steamed rice. Though it looks like Western cuisine, it is absolutely made in Japan because I couldn't find it in any restaurants in Vancouver. When Japan opened up the country to the world 150 years ago, they started eating beef and this dish was invented. It is not so popular as "curry rice" which is also the Japanese original dish. Of course I know both hashed beef and curry rice were not cooked first in Japan, they were changed much so that they suit most Japanese, and now they are totally different from the original. Lots of people except for Japanese think that sushi and sukiyaki are the most typical Japanese cuisine, but I feel the truth is different. Most people don't have sushi so often in Japan as in Vancouver because it's expensive. I hope that Japanese casual dishes including hayashi rice are introduced to the world and become more popular around the world.

Black dogs

I saw these dogs while I was walking around Shinjuku. Do you know why they are all black in color? Because they are made of charcoal. I guess they were made by burning wooden dolls. It's a good idea to polish the eyes so that they become glossy. They say that charcoal has a character to purifying air and these dogs are not only cute but also clean the air in the room. Of course few people use charcoal for the original purpose such as warming and cooking, but it can be used in other ways. There are so many seeds of new business in the world and I feel happy when I think about new business ideas.