happylife

Drifted Away

I have been in Abashiri, one of the north end cities in Japan since the day before yesterday. It's not that I am drifted away in this cold city, but the reason I have been here was drifted away on the right day I arrived here. It's drift ice. About a week ago, I heard a news report that drift ice arrived alongside the coast in Abashiri area and a few minutes later, I booked the flight and hotel to watch it. However, I have not seen it yet. Drift ice is created at the mouth of River Amur and literally drifts on the sea to reach Japan. Though it once reached here last week, it is offshore now because it is always drifting. It comes to Japan in this season every year but the number of its staying days has been decreasing especially in the last decade. Global warming might be the reason. I hear that only ten percent of short stay visitors here can watch it. It's a challenge, but I have a perfect chance to win. I'm thinking about staying here until I see it.

 

A Big Change

It is planned that all the TV broadcasting is switched to digital by July next year in Japan. It means that every old analog TV set in our home becomes just a dam box after the switching. We need to purchase a new digital TV set and change the antenna by the time. It's a really big change but still a lot of people, almost half of the Japanese people, have not done anything about that. Some people don't even know about this change and some can't afford to change their TV sets. TV broadcasting is still a big media, however, quite a few people, especially old people who watch TV every day from morning to night, will be left alone after the switching. They might develop into a riot! In my case, I rarely watch TV and it's no problem for me if all the TV broadcasting stopped right now. So, I am wickedly looking forward to see what happens after the switching. I also think that the change is a good stimulation for those who are addicted to TV.

 

Divided Sky

Recently we have frequent earthquakes around Tokyo. A lot of people worry about so called "Tokai Big Earthquake." It is a predicted earthquake which has often been mentioned by scientists since decades ago. Japan is located right on the edge of the earth's crustal plates and unfortunately earthquakes are our destiny. Furthermore, we have had a big earthquake every sixty to seventy years and the latest big earthquake in this district occurred eighty six years ago. It's no wonder the next one comes today! In spite of these pessimistic conditions, we often forget about that and continue building some stupid things. When you look up at the sky in Tokyo, you will see that the sky is divided by nets of electrical wires like this picture. Plus, the telegraph poles have one or two huge trans boxes fifteen meters above our heads. It's super dangerous and will kill people in case of earthquakes. I only hope that the next one does not come in my life or while I live in Tokyo.

 

What is Eco?

It's a "printer season" here in Japan. Sending a lot of new year's cards is an important annual event for most Japanese people though I won't do it. Sure the number of cards have been decreasing year by year, but still a lot of people keep doing it. It's not ecological but I don't deny this old custom because I know how real cards from friends make us happy. However, I can't help having a big question to printer makers such as Canon, Epson, HP and so on. -- Shamefully, most of them are Japanese companies. They often say "we are thinking about the ecology of the earth" while they do producing and selling new models of printers every year. As my printer ran out of ink, I went to an electric store and found a stupid phenomenon. Why new printers with ink were sold for less than 9,000 yen while a small refill ink cartridge cost almost 5,000 yen? The makers were apparently willing to sell printers rather than ink cartridges. If they really think about the earth, the ink must be way cheaper and printers cost double or more. After worrying for a few minutes, I got a cheaper refill cartridge which was made by nameless company not by Canon. I have decided not to buy a new printer until it gets out of order. It's not because of thinking about the earth but because I don't like the hypocritical major enterprise!

A Vulgar Menu Item?

Ramen is one of the most popular menu items in Japan. It is a noodle in soup which originated from China, but it has been improved a lot to fit Japanese taste. One thing I feel wasted about ramen is that it has too much soup compared with noodles and most people leave the soup half eaten while they eat up the noodle. In my case, a bowl of ramen is not enough, but I can't eat it up including the whole soup. It's too thick and I need something to eat with the left soup. Some ramen restaurants provide a cup of steamed rice so that we can eat it with the left soup. I feel happy when it is provided for free, which sometimes happen in lunch time. In this restaurant I found in Sapporo was a little bit different and it made me happier. As you guess, eating the rice putting into the soup tastes better than eating them separately, however, it is regarded as a very bad manner in Japan. Some one calls it "cat food". Lots of people including me hesitate to do it, but in this restaurant, the "cat food" was on the menu item list -- the vulgar but delicious eating manner was authorized in the restaurant! So I was able to enjoy the special risotto after the noodle without worrying about other people's eyes. 

MandalArt

MandalArt is a kind of thinking method similar to Mind Mapping. In Mind Mapping, we create an idea tree which is made of keywords surrounded by circles and connected with lines. It is an effective way to think about complicated things. While the idea tree of Mind Mapping is drawn on a white canvas, MandalArt has a fixed form in which keywords are written. It is made of nine square cells which is just the same as tic-tac-toe game board. All we have to do is write down our main subject in the center cell and fill the eight surrounding cells with keywords derived from the main subject. In the next step, we copy each keyword of the eight cells in the center cell of the next MandalArt form page. By repeating this process until all the keywords are derived from our brain, we can make up a structured idea. It is such an easy way that you might be doubt of its effectiveness, however, it is the most powerful method as far as I know. It was more than ten years ago when I came across this method and six months later, I quitted my first job for a large company to start my own independent business. Anyway, MandalArt method has been implemented into the iPhone recently and we can now use this powerful method more conveniently. It is really comfortable to edit, move, copy and paste cells to arrange our idea tree until we are fully satisfied.

To Take a Picture with a Doll

When we travel we usually have a camera and often take pictures. The more popular digital cameras have become, the more pictures we take because we don't take care of their film cost any more. We are happy enough to take any pictures we like, however, our pictures are mostly dull. They are almost same -- when we visit a tourist spot, we take pictures of the specialty over there from the same camera spot with the same angle. Most of such pictures are not better than the advertising picture which was taken by a professional cameraman. We sometimes take pictures of our family or friends at the tourist spot, but they are dull, too. Who can enjoy the pictures of ordinary people with the same say-cheese smile and V-shaped fingers? When I was traveling around the Sulfur Mountain the other day, I found this woman taking a picture of something odd. It was a stuffed cat. She may write a travel photo blog with the doll. I think it's a good idea because the picture will become more unique and get to have a story in itself. It's also good from the point of photo framing because the cat will make the photo more three-dimensional. It's a good idea, but I won't do the same thing because I don't like myself looked like Mr.Bean.

From South To North

This picture depicts my GPS tracking in the last couple of weeks. After watching the total eclipse of the sun on the Tokara Islands -- actually and unfortunately all I could see was the sun not hidden by the moon but covered with thick clouds -- I traveled up through the islands of Japan from Tokara via Tokyo to Kushiro. The temperature has come down more than ten degrees and it is way more comfortable here for me. I'm in really cool and calm conditions both in weather and mental. I can't believe that the hot and hard cruising days seeking for the special astronomical show were less than two weeks ago. I remember that someone once mentioned about a law in which the further we travel, the longer time elapsed we feel even if the actual time is not so long. I'm thinking about staying here for months and not moving around so much. If the law is true, the long days might feel shorter.

What Helps My Reading

I don't read so many books recently because I'm rather busy to read quite a few documents mainly on the Internet. I'm happy when I read those documents on the Internet because I can open as many pages as I like and switch between them just by clicking the tub on the browser software. It's so convenient that I don't like to open paper books or manuals any more. When I have to read some paper books at one time it is very irritating because some of them automatically close and I have to find my page again and again. Sure, bookmarks keep my page, but I have to re-open the page because most bookmarks can't hold the page open. This is the way which is very useful in such case. All I have to do is clip my favorite page with this huge paper clip. It is heavy enough to hold my page open and I don't have to feel frustration any more. If you need to read thick books such as computer manuals or dictionaries at one time, this cheap clip will work much better than you expect.

 

Real Scale Gundam

This picture is not composite. Japan has deployed the Gundam in the harbor area in Tokyo finally. Japan's technology has made the gigantic robot weapon in the animation world real. It is 18 meters tall and weighs 35 tons. It is as slender as a man who is 180 centimeters tall with only 35 kilograms. The only problem is that it can't fly, walk or even raise hands because of the lack of cold atomic fusion energy and a new-type pilot. However, its eyes glitter and it can emit smoke from several parts. That is enough for now because we have no threat of space wars now. I hear that it can be dismantled into small parts so that it can be carried to anywhere in the world. You may see this Gundam in your hometown in the future.