happylife

A two-tone building

Wall Center is the most modern building in Vancouver. It has a cross section of a streamline shape which can avoid strong wind effectively. The surface is fully covered with mirror which gives cool impression to the people who look it up. However, don't you think something is strange in the design of this building? Why the upper part of this building is different in color? Is it an intentional design? I don't think so. I hear that the window material had to be changed in the middle of the construction because the mirror window was out of regulation in Vancouver, and the common green glasses were used in the upper part. I think it would be perfect in design if the whole building were covered with the deep blue, mirror glasses.

Midnight snow

We had snow last midnight in Vancouver. It snowed more than this picture shows. It was so heavy that the beach in front of my apartment looked white in the darkness. Though I used a flash and a slow shutter to take this picture, it wasn't satisfactory. It doesn't show what the snow was really like. It's difficult to take pictures of snow at night. Anyway, when I got up late this morning, everything had gone away. I could hardly see any signs of the snow except for in the deep forest of Stanley Park.

All weather in one day

When I woke up around 9 o'clock, it was snowing out of the window. After taking easy breakfast, I returned to bed and took a nap for a few hours. When I was in the dream world, I felt something hot on the legs. It became hotter and finally I couldn't help waking up. It was the sunshine that made me wake up. Though the sky was blue, my brain was still in thick clouds and I felt bad. After drinking a glass of water and closing the blind, I went back to bed again. I knew a storm is coming close because strong wind and rain hit the window to make a loud noise. It was midnight when I got up next. I opened the blind and found this great night view out of the window. The storm had gone away and the moon was lighting up the see. As I slept for more than 14 hours, I felt better. I think I can recover in a few days.

Walking under white nights

I had no energy to do anything because of a cold, I was lying on the bed all day long reading a Japanese novel. I got this book at the book store in Japan to read in the airplane, but I had left without reading it until yesterday. It is one of the latest and most popular crime story in Japan. It is so popular that it is made into a TV drama. It has more than 800 pages, though I read it without a rest. It's a kind of story in which a lot of small stories process parallel and are put together into one finale. As I'm familiar with quite a few parts of the stages and the periods, I was absorbed in the story. When I finished reading on my bed in the midnight, I was very tired but satisfied. I want to read other Japanese stories now, but unfortunately I can't in Vancouver. I regret not have getting more Japanese books in Japan.

Nothing to give

When I got out of my bed and was taking supper in my room alone, a seagull landed on the handrail of my balcony. As I know well what he is like, I ignored him and continued eating. After a few minutes, he began to cry loudly opening his beak widely, however, I still ignored him. As he was crying next few  minutes, I picked up my camera to take his picture, but I didn't give him anything. Am I spiteful to him? No, I don't think so. If I gave him something to eat, he would come to my balcony again and again only to leave his excrement. We Japanese have a phrase meaning "repaying one's kindness with ingratitude." I think it matches to him perfectly.

Sore throat

I have a cold for a few days now. The fever has gone, but still remains the sore throat. It's painful to cough. As I don't like a doctor, I did several other things to recover except for taking medicine or seeing a doctor. I know sleeping is the best treatment and I'm sleeping and sleeping these days. I hear that cocoa is good for a cold, therefore I drink a cup of cocoa almost three times a day. Boiling a pan of water to generate much steam looks good for my sore throat, because my dusty and dry room has got humid and I feel easy to breathe. I think my cold is on the last stage and it will go away in a few more days.

Cherry blossoms

The cherry blossoms are now out in Vancouver. I found that I took almost the same picture on March 12 last year. They come into blossom earlier here than in Tokyo where they do usually at the end of March. It doesn't mean Vancouver is warmer than Tokyo. I hear that the kinds of cherry are different. Anyway, these blossoms remind me that spring has come and the strong sunshine is coming back soon. It should be a good season now, though I've caught a cold and feel bad. I hope to recover as soon as possible.

A secret weapon

An iriver T10 is an average mp3 player. To tell the truth, I have an iPod shuffle too, and I usually use it when I want to enjoy listening to the music. However, this iriver has special functions which the iPod does not have, and that's the reason why I love it. The functions are called "study mode" and "A-B repeat," both of those are useful for language learners. In the study mode, we can set the time between 0, 3, 10 and 30 seconds, and we can rewind or fast-forward for the set time with one touch. To use the "A-B repeat," we only have to push the A-B button at the beginning and the end of the track which we want to listen to repeatedly. I'm using this device to improve my listening skill. It's much more convenient that using a cassette tape recorder. I wonder why my listening skill does not improve with such a great gadget.

Made in Japan

This is a zoom-up photo of a retort curry which I brought from Japan. All the cooked ingredients with curry sauce are packed in this aluminum bag, so that we can enjoy it just by heating in hot water. What I want to say using this picture is about the careful consideration in the products made in Japan. Do you know what are the notch and the hole for? As you can easily guess, the notch is made so that the consumer can easily open the bag without a knife or scissors. It's a very small but extremely convenient mechanism. The hole works as greatly as the notch. It is made so that it can be picked up from a pan of hot water with chopsticks. The surface of the aluminum bag is slippy and it is difficult and irritating to pick it up, though this hole is a great help. I think this hole explains the character of made-in-Japan products.

Easy to build

There are so many tall buildings in Vancouver Downtown that it seems there is no more space left to build another building. This construction site is on Thurlow and Georgia street, which is said to be almost the last space to build high building. Shangrila hotel is to come in it and the higher floors are to be sold as gorgeous condominiums. Anyway, the construction itself seems to be late for now. Just one 30 meter deep, huge hole has been dug, but I know that the construction process is to be accelerated from now. Once the foundation work is finished, it's easy to build the upper part of the building because they don't have to worry about an earthquake. I have seen some buildings were growing up by two floors a week. It was just like a toy building block.