happylife

An indispensable printer

It was almost three years ago when I bought this printer for $100. I believe it was a good deal because since then, I have been using it quite often; literally every day during the last two years to compare my original blog with the one corrected by Peter. Of course it's possible to do that on the computer display, and my LCD display is not so bad, but printed characters are much better for me. I can draw lines on paper and they are gentle to eyes above all. Other than my blog, I sometimes print out interesting but long pages on the Internet to read carefully. Is it only me that feels more or less hustled while reading characters on computer displays? I know that using printers is sever to the earth, but please forgive me to use 1,000 copies every year.

Nippon Maru

Nippon Maru, the typical Japanese tall ship, has come to English Bay. I don't know the utility value of this kind of tall ships but they are at least beautiful, almost elegant, and I think it's the good reason for maintaining them with a lot of cost. They need less money and are way more beautiful than battle ships. According to the Internet, it was built 20 years ago in place of the Nippon Maru 1st, and is used mainly for sailing training. Anyway, when I approached to it on my boat, it was just dinner time, and I heard an announcement on the ship, which said in Japanese, "Every crew and students, it's time for the long-awaited BBQ party!"

Subsequent growth of the survivor

The popcorn is growing at a surprising speed day by day. It has now two green leaves and white, thin root which is more than 15cm long. All I did for it was moving it into a small container and pouring a cup of water. With out any special fertilizer it has been growing for now, but I'm thinking about doing whatever I can do; to move it into a pot full of soil and to expose it under the sun light. I don't know what else I can do for it, but I would be happy if it grew into a corn tree and bore new corns. I was very impressed by the fact that the tiny popcorn had the full information required for growing. The power of the nature is really great!

Still alive!

Today I flew to Hastings Field on North Pender Island just north of Victoria with my instructor. It was only a one hour round-trip flight from Boundary Bay. I heard that the airstrip was very tricky to land on because it is a one-way, grass field with a steep slope. "One-way" here means that we couldn't turn around if we failed on the approach because the strip is surrounded by steep valleys. It was so tricky that my instructor took the controls and, uh, what should I say, he failed; his approach was too high, and he overshot the one-way runway. The airspeed was below stalling speed, and I was so nervous that I took off my sunglasses and fastened my seat belt in case of a crash. It was quite natural that I couldn't take a good picture of the final approach. Fortunately, he succeeded in escaping from the valley and was able to land on the second attempt. It was anyway the most exciting experience during the last five years of my life.

Second handed things

I feel that Canadian people cherish old things way more than Japanese people. I often come across a scene in which they are spreading a sheet in front of their house and selling things they don't need any more. It is called "garage sales" and they sell their second handed things such as an audio set, sofas, tables, kitchenware, clothes and so on. To my surprise, those things can be sold even if they are not so cheap and they are worn out. It's quite natural here that the auction site like Ebay has rapidly got popular. On the other hand in Japan, I have never seen so called garage sales are held around me. Old things were only to be thrown away or recycled by a trading company before the Internet auction site "Yahoo auction" appeared in Japan. Yahoo auction has got popular in Japan just like Ebay in North America, but worn-out things cannot be sold at high price. Japanese people mind a slight scratch just like stamp collectors.

Canadian goose

Crows, pigeons and sparrows are the three major birds in Tokyo. Of course we can see those kinds of birds in Vancouver too, but they are not the majorities. I think the most popular birds in Vancouver are seagulls, ducks and gooses. All of them are rather big, especially this goose called "Canadian goose" is quite huge. They are as big as a small pig. They can fly, but they are not good at flying because of their heavy weight. They seem to prefer sitting on a grass field and eating something, which look like cows in a ranch. I remember that my friend used to say they look delicious. This goose came closer to me when I was cleaning my boat in the marina. It was so close that I could have catch him if I reached out my hands. He was lucky because I wasn't accompanied with my friend.

Sushi in Vancouver

Sushi is a very popular dish in Vancouver. It is so popular and served at a reasonable price that I enjoy it more often than in Tokyo. There are quite a few sushi restaurants in and around Vancouver, but the number of real sushi restaurants is limited. Most of the sushi restaurants are run by Korean or Chinese chefs, and we Japanese can easily distinguish them from the real Japanese sushi restaurants. In most cases, we can find something strange in the name of the restaurants, in the descriptions on the menus and the smell of the restaurants before actually tasting the menu items. I don't say that not-real-Japanese sushi restaurants are bad, because they provide sushi like items at very reasonable prices so that we can enjoy sushi almost every week. I went to my favorite real Japanese restaurant today with my Japanese friend for the first time during the last three months. I was happy aside from the wallet.

A surviver

When I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, I found this sprout in the gap of the sink. I couldn't recognize it for a while because I hadn't purchased any sprout in these two weeks. After a few minute inspection on the sprout, I finally understood what it was. I cooked popcorns a few days ago. As you know, we have to shake pans hard when we cook popcorns so that each popcorn is not scorched. I remembered that some of popcorns were popped out of the pan and this sprout is to be the survivor from the pan. I put it on a dish with some water as the mark of respect for the great escape. I didn't know anyway, that popcorns are alive.

Full of beer

Checking the fridge every time I go to kitchen has been my habit since I was a little boy. I don't know how many times I have opened the fridge door in my life, but I'm sure it is more than the days I have lived. My sailing friends left a lot of beer in my fridge so that they can enjoy it after or during the sailing. How thoughtless they are because I check my fridge several times a day, whenever I want to drink it, and I have little will power. I've reconfirmed that a can of beer after a shower is simply marvelous.

How to tie

I'm going to sail to the Gulf Islands with my friends next month. We are renting a 37-foot sailing boat for a week and cruising around the Gulf Islands. It might sound fun, but there is a problem; all the members except me are inexperienced in sailing and I have to be the skipper. That's more or less a pressure for me. Though I have certificate of sailing instructor, I don't like instruction, however, I'm telling them how to sail for our safety and happiness. Anyway, while I was looking for sites about how to tie, I found an interesting page, which introduces the world's fastest shoelace knot called "Ian knot." I tried the method at once and I felt that it might save my time for tying shoelaces from now on.