happylife

Summer has gone.

Summer seems to have gone away here in Kushiro while most part of Japan Islands is just in the middle of the hot, humid and sticky season. It is so cool that even I, who is sensitive to heat, sometimes feel that a long sleeve jacket is necessary. It is cooler than I had expected and it means that I'm really satisfied with this pleasant weather for now. However, I was a little bit surprised to find a heater was on when I went into the usual restaurant for lunch. I was thinking about staying in this city until September, but it might get colder than I am expecting within two months. As I know Tokyo is too hot in September while Kushiro is too cold, I may have to find another moderate city to stay in. Sapporo, Otaru or Hakodate, all of which are the cities on Hokkaido Island, are the next proposed sites.

A rotary

There is a rotary near my hotel in Kushiro. It is probably the only one rotary in this city because people call it "the Rotary." Rotary system is great because it works well without costly traffic signals as far as there are not too many cars. As you know, Japan Islands are full of cars and therefore, we have few rotaries. I'm not sure why this rotary is here, but it might be because it was the best way to deal with the five way traffic with a simple system. Japanese police or government are fond of spending money for road constructions and they also like to set up traffic signals. However, this rotary will last forever because it has become a kind of symbol of Kushiro City. Anyway, doesn't this rotary look irregular compared with most rotaries in North America? There are two stop lines in the rotary which make it more confusing. It's a wonder that they can drive without accidents.

Water business

I'm not talking about a plumber. A restaurant, bar or nightclub business is called "water business" in Japanese. It might be because it is always unstable just like a rain or flood; it is sometimes prosperous but disappears in a short time. The characteristic of this business is it is lucrative as far as it is running. It is a commonsense all around the world that drinking in a bar is costly. Kushiro City has a huge, old style amusement area in its center and fortunately or unfortunately, I am living adjacent to the area. In the last couple of weeks, I had dinner in the area every night. It was not bad for the first few days, but I got tired soon. It was not only costly but also unhealthy. Therefore, I rent a rice cooker from the hotel manager and started cooking for myself. It can't be called cooking because I have no stove and knife in my hotel room, and I'm only steaming rice to eat it with some side dish purchased and heated in a microwave oven in my room. It's too easy, but much better than before. Anyway, this picture depicts the typical, old style, Japanese bars called "Aka Chochin" which means "a red paper lantern." Each bar has a red paper lantern and its capacity is at most ten. It's cosy and interesting as far as you visit once a month, but it's hard to visit every night.

A doughnut phenomenon

I'm not sure this phrase is used in English but "a doughnut phenomenon" in Japanese depicts the social status in which people leave the center of the city sparsely populated. Kushiro City is really in the doughnut phenomenon. There used to be several department stores and supermarkets in the center of this city and most of them had been moved or bankrupted in the last decade. As I'm living just at the center of the doughnut without having a car, it is sometimes inconvenient for shopping foods or daily necessities. Most of the abandoned large stores are left without replacement which is adding a kind of ruined taste to this city. This is the picture which I took when I visited the rim part of the doughnut. There was a huge shopping mall in the suburb which reminded me of the mall in Richmond. It's quite natural that people move to the reasonable area, but they can't come back to the center of the city if abandoned buildings are left there. The doughnut of this city seems to be getting bigger gradually. It is a bad situation because people have to move around by car every day wasting expensive gas.

To occupy a large bathroom

Each room in my hotel has a private bathroom, but it's really small. It's so small that I once had a cramp in my legs while taking a shower in it. I can't stretch my legs or arms and can't even wash my body without touching the wall or ceiling. I think that a standard sized American gentleman cannot take this bath. I'm sorry but this is the standard of most Japanese hotels. Fortunately, I can use a large, public bath in a hotel belonging to the same chain for free. It's almost adjacent to my hotel and I walk there to take a bath every night. This bathroom is not so large as a Japanese public bathroom and I can't swim in it. However, as this hotel has few guests, I can occupy it almost every time. Its capacity is probably ten to twelve. It has a large bathtub made of Japanese cypress and a small dry sauna with a water bathtub. How nice because I can use all of them without worrying about other guests. Three rounds of sauna and the water bath have become my daily work as well as stretching in the cypress bathtub.

Kushiro brunch

This is my new office brunch in Kushiro. Three weeks have passed since I came here. Compared to the Obihiro brunch, which I stayed last summer, it is smaller and simpler but way more pleasant thanks to my new Macbook and Kushiro's cool weather. Possibly, it is even more pleasant than Google office. Anyway, working in a hotel room used to be a kind of privilege of novelists who are facing their deadlines, but now more people including me can work in the same way if they want. I think this working style is not only pleasant but also good for the local economy. Sure, the money I spend here is little, but if more people did in the same way -- working temporally in their favorite cities -- it would be helpful for the local economy. It seems that Tokyo is too dense and any other local cities are too sparse. We should act in the way that this unbalance is corrected. Of course I'm opposed to the Tokyo Olympics which is schemed after London.

midomi, the most impressive experience

Don't you have an irritating experience that you want to know the title of a song which you can only hum. I've had such a song for decades; it was a music which was played every day after school in my elementary school. I've sometimes asked my friends by humming the song "don't you know this song?" but no one helped me. As it was not exactly a song but an instrumental music, keyword search was useless. I found yesterday, a really helpful and almost impressive service named "midomi". It is originally a kind of web service which was released last year, but I didn't know anything about it until yesterday. When I was trying various applications on my iPhone3G, I happened to find this service and am now totally addicted to it. Can you believe that just by humming for seconds, you can get all the information about your song? As it is linked to YouTube, you can also enjoy video of your humming song if existed. Most of the search systems on the Internet have been keyword based, however, this service is based on humming and the searching accuracy is very high. I feel that the Internet service has rushed into the next generation.

Am I lucky?

After watching a TV news report about the long lines of people seeking for the iPhone3G, I called a local cell phone shop in Kushiro on trial. "Can I make a reservation for the iPhone3G?" The sales person answered on the line, "Sure, which color do you like? You can get it as soon as the second shipment arrives. It might take several days. I will call you again when you can get it." And today, one day after it was put on sale, I received his call at noon and I got it. It was so easy and I didn't have to make or even see a long line in front of the shop. I must have been lucky. Anyway, I've been playing with this ultramodern gadget for more than ten hours without having meals and taking a bath. I have a tendency that I can't help trying every function of my new gadget. This iPhone has so many cutting-edge functions that I can't sleep tonight. I think this is the real mobile machine which can connect to the Internet. The day may come soon when most general people except for programmers and designers do not need to carry and use their present massive PCs.

A quiet paradise

I like to spend time in a cafe especially when my feeling or thinking is deadlocked. Fortunately I found a good cafe, which is almost ideal, here in Kushiro City. It is a Starbucks-like cafe which is located only five minutes walk from my hotel. It is open until midnight and I often visit there and stay for couple of hours mainly before going to bed. The shop floor is so spacious that it reminds me of the Blenz or Starbucks in Vancouver. What is most ideal for me is that they always have few clients. The population density of Kushiro is about 20 percent of Vancouver, 2.3 percent of Tokyo, and less than 0.1 percent of Shinjuku, my home town. These numbers seem to be depicting the quietness of this cafe. This is the picture I took there when I monopolized whole the floor and succeeded in debugging the long-pending bug in my system.

A cool paradise

One week has past since I arrived at Kushiro, one of the major cities in Hokkaido island. I couldn't help smiling when I got out of the airplane from Osaka because of the cool air. The weather here was and has been so pleasant for me. It is just like the feeling of taking a water bath after a mist sauna. I rent a hotel room in the center of Kushiro city. I was lucky because I found a good room for a very reasonable price. The room has basic home electrical appliances including a microwave oven so that the guest can live for a long time with his hands empty. It also has ocean view though it is not so beautiful. I'm thinking about staying here until the summer goes away. Sure, the most priority matter of this stay is updating my business project, but I think I can experience something exciting by living here as a stranger.