happylife

A deserted house

We can often see a deserted house in Obihiro while It is rare to see it in Tokyo. The reason is very simple; Obihiro is a spacious city with less people than Tokyo. If there was a deserted house in Tokyo for some reasons, it would soon be destroyed and the land would be sold to other people to be re-used. Tokyo has no such room to leave a deserted house as is. When I was a child, I would often see a deserted house in Tokyo and we feared it for some rumors such as "there is an old witch living in the house and she will catch us to eat." Now I don't believe such a story and I have nothing to fear about the old house. Sure, it is not a beautiful scenery, but I don't hate it because it reminds me of a nostalgic feeling in my childhood. It is ironical that destroyed nature looks ugly but artificial things destroyed by nature are sometimes artistic.

A happy old station

The other day, I visited a popular, old staion in my new district. It is almost twenty years ago when the station was closed because the line was discontinued. However, it is still popular and a lot of people visit there every year. The reason for the popularity is in its name. The station name "Kofuku" means happiness in Japanese. The small hut of the station, platform and a train car was displayed just the same as when it was used and some visitors were taking pictures when I visited. I think that the station itself has a taste of good old days and reminds us of a kind of nostalgic feeling. It might be the second reason why a lot of people still visit decades after it was closed.

My work place as a hideaway

I have set up my three old computers in the new room in Obihiro. The prepared Internet connection had a few problems and it took a few days for me to solve all of them. Now I can do anything I like in this hideaway. It reminds me of my dream in my childhood; I was fascinated in the secret base in sci-fi movies in which white hat people facing towards radar screens were fighting with the enemy. Anyway, my computers consist of VAIO, DELL and Mac mini which are all connected with each other by wireless and wired LAN. VAIO has two displays and is running Windows XP, DELL is running Fedora6 distribution of LINUX and Mac mini is running OS-X Tiger. You might think why I need so many computers. The reason is that VAIO is the main computer, DELL is working as a local server and Mac mini is necessary to check whether my programs work on Mac. It is also used as an iTunes music server. After coming to Obihiro, I have installed a great free software called "Synergy" into my three computers and I can now control three of them with only one keyboard and mouse; when I move the mouse cursor from left to right or right to left, it moves through the four displays seamlessly and I can type into the computer on which the mouse cursor is staying. It's very pleasant!

The sound of water stream

My new apartment in Obihiro is adjacent to a stream. It is covered with a lot of weeds and the water stream cannot be seen from my window. It looks like just a weed field except for the sound of water stream. The sound is better than I had expected. I'm now enjoying a very pleasant life in my room from morning to night surrounded with the relaxing water sound. It is loud enough to drown out the city noise such as car and the campaign vehicle of the national election, but it is not so loud as to prevent me from listening to music in my room. It is really a great natural background sound. I remember that I visited a laboratory related to my work decades ago, where I had experienced the world of no sound; the room was located under the ground and was covered with thick, soundproofing materials. I had a very strange feeling in there and realized that we need a noise to some degrees. The windows view from my room is not so good, but in terms of the noise, I think it is almost perfect.

The longest bench in the world

Obihiro is not such a famous city even for Japanese that not many people can tell where exactly it is located. Few people might know what are the special products of the city and where visitors should go see at first. Did you know that a pork bowl is one of the most popular menu items in this city? I have visited a couple of restaurants to try it. Charbroiled pork with sweet soy-base sauce on steamed rice tastes good. I'm thinking about trying a list of pork bowl restaurants, which come to more than twenty in number, and making my own ranking while I stay here. I'm busy because I have to make a ranking list of noodle restaurants. Anyway, I found an interesting bench in the park close to my room. It is a wooden, 400 meter long bench; the longest bench in the world. It's really enjoyable to find new things in a new place and plot it on my the map in my mind.

It's a good place but ...

After three hour land trip from Tomakomai harbor, I arrived finally at Obihiro city and got the key of my new room. All of the containers arrived just on time at night too. The forwarding agencies in Japan are really great! Everything seemed to be working just as I thought except for one thing. The first reason for this move is to avoid the unpleasant summer weather in Tokyo, but the weather forecast said that it is as hot as Tokyo this week in Obihiro. Furthermore, this city is usually so cool that air conditioners are not popular and my apartment has no such thing. I didn't think this electric fan, which I had sent from Tokyo just in case, plays such an active part. I hope this warm air surrounding me goes away as soon as possible.

The important factor

Tokyo is such a huge, artificial city with skyscrapers and paved roads that we can hardly feel the power of nature in there. We can't even tell whether it is raining or not from an underground shopping mall. What I realized most in Vancouver was that the nature heavily affects our mood, thought and behavior. We can be happy in a fine day without any other special reasons and can become uneasy by a rain cloud. This picture and the one on my yesterday article prove the fact. I know that we can intentionally change our mood to some degree, but it's difficult to keep our mind in a good condition for a long time under bad circumstances. I think it's a very natural idea to think about moving our places in search of better circumstances. I've been testifying the idea for years and my next target is Obihiro. I hope it is a bright and hopeful place just like this picture implies.

Sailing to the north island

It is usually about a two hour flight from Tokyo to Obihiro, but this time I chose a ferry to carry my small motorcycle with me. I left my home in Tokyo late afternoon on Saturday and arrived at the ferry terminal at night after riding for a hundred kilometers. I could have left a little bit later but I didn't like to suffer from rain. Fortunately, I didn't soak but I had to wait for hours at the terminal before the ferry departed in the midnight. I was almost sleeping in the bed while sailing and felt the ship considerably shaking. It was almost Sunday noon when I got up and the ship had just escaped from the cold front. The gray, foggy sky gradually turned into the clear, blue sky and my mood changed in the same way. It was in the evening when I arrived at Tomakomai terminal after a 19 hour cruise. I stayed in a small business hotel in Tomakomai in the night because there was another 200 kilometers left to Obihiro. It was really a long trip.

Moving again

This year is really a moving year for me. I feel it was long time ago, but it was just three months ago when I left Vancouver for Tokyo. As soon as I arrived in Tokyo, I found that I had to vacate my small office in Itabashi because of a building problem and I've just finished the second moving. It was really a tough work for me because I had to deal with so many things including tons of old PCs and books. From the moving job I really learned one thing; I have to be more light by reducing my belongings. I did that and this picture shows the result; a room of belongings have been packed into these four baggage. I have decided not to rent a new office in Tokyo and I have decided instead to rent a temporary room for two months in Obihiro. This is the third moving in this year and I'm thinking about concentrating on my work in the cool weather of the northern city.

A private pool

I used to enjoy swimming in this pool before I went to Vancouver four years ago. It is located on the top floor of a hotel and we can enjoy the panorama view of Tokyo as well as swimming itself. It is a little bit expensive even after the membership discount, but I loved it because I could occupy the pool almost by myself. I would often swim there for an hour and then enjoy taking a nap in the luxurious atmosphere. A few days ago, I went to the hotel after a long break and found that some of the facilities were upgraded. A wooden deck was added around the pool side and all the reclining chairs were new. What I felt most convenient was the key-less lockers. We don't have to carry the locker key any more by setting a four digit code as a key. This pool is mainly for the hotel guests and it is busy after the check-in time, therefore we have to visit there between the check-out and check-in time to occupy it. Unfortunately, most businessmen cannot do that because they are working in that time. However, I can do that. I have to say I am very lucky.