Saturday, February 27, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.123

The last time I was leaving Vancouver, I narrowly missed the hotel’s free shuttle to the airport. I had enough time for my flight and waited for the next shuttle, which ran every 20 minutes. But the next one didn’t show up. Half an hour passed. I was beginning to be worried. At the 35 minutes mark, I realized it was lunchtime. They skipped one service and the next one had been 40 minutes later. I told myself not to panic because it meant only five minutes more to wait. But five minutes later, it was still a no-show. It was running late. Now it was too late to call a cab and I started to panic. The shuttle finally came 10 minutes late. By then, I consumed the margin of time for the check-in counter. I was running almost crying through the airport, and found no line at all at the counter. I checked in right away without waiting and was easily be in time for my flight. It wasn’t LAX after all. But I was already exhausted from the fuss before 10 hours’ flight to Japan…

Friday, February 26, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.122

Vancouver is my favorite city. I’ve visited there, though I’ve only been in Richmond area near the airport. But a hotel, a shopping mall there and the airport attracted me enough. The airport was a completely different thing from LAX. I’ve seen Vancouver a lot lately on TV because of Winter Olympic Games. Japanese broadcasting treats the Games as if there can’t be anyone who isn’t interested in them. This kind of totalitarianism really annoys me. That’s mainly because the coverage of the Games disrupts my recording of regular TV shows. Air times change without notice because they prioritize the Games. I want a quiet, orderly TV schedule back…

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.121

Let me tell you how my driving school days ended up. After a few classes of lectures, the day that I drove a real car finally came. Beside me was an instructor. He taught me how to shift up engaging higher gears, while I was driving on an oval course built in the school site. I had forgotten that I was afraid of speed. Although I was driving slowly, to me, it was a roller coaster ride with the view passing by so fast. I panicked completely, being unable to remember how to brake, thus just accelerating. The tires squealed at the curves and I kept screaming. Eventually, the instructor stopped the car with the auxiliary brake. It was one of the scariest rides in my life. But, the instructor was even more afraid than I was. He was afraid of me. He asked, ‘Are you OK?’ meaning mentally. And he advised me not to drive a car. I sort of agreed with him. Against the school’s policy, they returned all the money I’d paid. I bought an electronic instrument with that money. Things must push me to music in every way…

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.120

The news about Toyota’s recall and its Congressional hearing has been everywhere and I remembered my then dream car. It was called Soarer, a Toyota make. It was love at first sight. Back then, I didn’t have a driver’s license, which I still don’t have for that matter, and just in order to be able to drive a Soarer, I went to a driving school. Before actually getting behind the wheel, we needed to take some classes along with 30 or so other students. During a lecture, all of a sudden, the teacher called on me. Instead of giving me a quiz, he reprimanded me for resting my chin on my hand. He said that it was a bad attitude and I was childish. All the class laughed at me. To drive a Soarer, even a proper attitude was required…

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.119

My hard disc recorder had been malfunctioning. It had stopped recording, editing, and anything except playing. It seemed necessary to be defragmented. To initialize it, I needed to copy everything to another recorder on which I edited and burned DVDs. My malfunctioning recorder isn’t capable of the high speed copying, so the process took days. It had to be done by the next recording. My time was consumed by it, and as the next recording approached, I spent a few frantic days for real-time copying. I was barely in time for the recording, and the recorder started functioning normally after being initialized. All the fuss and sweat was to record a rerun of ‘Columbo’ and it had already become an incomplete series of my DVD collection to begin with, because I missed the first episode when the typhoon made TV out…

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.118

This winter has had unusually many snowy days for this part of Japan. It snowed again and I did grocery shopping online instead of going out. I decided to order some prepared foods for lunch along with other items because the store would deliver at noon if the order was placed before 9 a.m. They have a few kinds of lunch box at reasonable prices. It was past 8 a.m. and I enjoyed shopping as I still had plenty of time to the cutoff time. When I proceeded to check out, the delivery time for noon to 2 p.m. had already become unavailable although it wasn’t 9 a.m. yet. It seemed that too many shoppers ordered lunch as I did due to the bad weather, and the store brought forward their cutoff time. When it comes to competition, I always lose in every field…

Friday, February 19, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.117

I went to the mall and bought fleece cloth to use it as blankets. To go home, I was waiting for the bus carrying a big plastic bag of the cloth. People were waiting in line, and behind me, there came a noisy kid with his mother. He stood unnaturally close to me and I made space because I was so uncomfortable. Thankfully, they didn’t take the same bus and my bus ride was quiet. When I came home, I found a candy wrapper in the plastic bag I was carrying. I didn’t eat candy, and the only chance it came into the bag was at the bus stop. The kid. Ill-behaved kids are all around me…

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.116

Writing about my grandfather on my mother’s side recalled a peculiar incident. When I visited his house, I found that he had put up a big picture of the Japanese Emperor in his room. I uttered ‘You have bad taste!’ because I believed in democracy. He replied sadly, ‘Hidemi, you should not say such a thing.’ I’d forgotten the fact that he was one of the war veterans who went to war for the Emperor. He was always so gentle that he rarely criticized anyone. That was the first and only time that he reproved me…

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.115

My grandfather on my mother’s side was a quiet, generous and kind person. Because I lived with my grandfather on my father’s side, whose character was completely opposite to him, I liked him all the more. One day, when I was little, I was left in the backseat of the car with him while my parents were out for an errand. He suggested playing ‘rock-paper-scissors’. He took his notebook out of his pocket, and started drawing a score table. He had an honorable position in the local society, and there were many important notes and appointments in his notebook. But he was drawing the table for his granddaughter next to them without any hesitation. And the rock-paper-scissors match of my grandfather vs. me began. It had a lot of rounds and continued long after my parents came back to the car and we got going. He looked so merry, and I was absorbed in the game. It was my happiest time with him not because the game was fun but because I was able to monopolize him. There were only two of us and no younger sister of mine. The match ended with his great victory by a wide margin…

Monday, February 15, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.114

I watched the movie, ‘Flags of Our Fathers’. It reminded me of my late grandfather on my mother’s side. He fought battles in World War II not in Iojima but in China. He was taken to Russia as a POW and was kept captive in the freezing Siberia prisoner’s camp. It was four years after the war when he was released and returned home. He had been away for eight years in total. After he came back, he became a locally prominent man, being a mayor and working as a member of a board of education. People looked up to him. I’ve been treated with favor on several occasions as his granddaughter. In his later years though, he suffered from Alzheimer’s and he would shout ‘There came Russian soldiers!’ during the night or even at a restaurant…

Friday, February 12, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.113

In Japan, Valentine’s Day is the day for a woman to confide to have feelings for a man by giving a gift of chocolate. In a male-dominant country like Japan, it used to be the only day that a woman is allowed to do it. Things are changing fast and women confide their feelings to men any day now. Maybe this loathsome male-dominant society has been collapsing gradually. But apart from a man they love, women give chocolate to their male colleagues and bosses out of obligation. So, the male domination still prevails after all. I’m thankful that I’ve never worked in an office…

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.112

A marvelous thing happened to me yesterday. After posting a blog, I watched 'Heroes Season 3'. At first, I was going to go shopping but the weather was awful. So I stayed home and watched 'Heroes' coincidentally. It was aired 10 days ago and recorded, which means I could have watched it any day. In one scene, Peter's brother spoke exactly the same thing that I had put on my blog just three hours before. I had never seen the episode in my life and what I wrote was no quotation. But to my complete amazement, he even used exact words I wrote. I was totally astonished. As I have always suspected, the whole universe is connected and affects each other. To me, it's a solid fact now. I've got the proof via my blog and a TV show...

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.111

I still linger on the dream I had, in which a monk told me that I had only 25 years more to live. I've given thought to life and death. I have plans for my future and a fairly good deal of hope, I guess. Suppose I work hard and achieve something, but the remaining time to enjoy it is so short. What's the difference between now and then? Maybe life has nothing to do with achievement. Without realizing, I get influenced in a good way from someone, and I could influence someone as well. If I can encourage someone depressed through my music or whatever I do as I was encouraged, that's more wonderful than superficial success. I think that's life is all about. And above all, I'm not alone...

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.110

Lately I've been depressed which is so unlike me. I wonder why. Is it because I fell for a scam of an auction website? Or because the holiday season is past and there is a long way to have the next one? Or because Carrefour is closing for good? I thought I might be simply tired and took the day off two days in a row. I was going to be relaxed, do nothing and refresh my mind. Instead, the free time brought back bad memories and regrets from my past and I felt more negative...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.109

I went to my most favorite supermarket, Carrefour. As I mentioned here, it came from France and is going to withdraw from Japan next month. What I like about it most is its atmosphere. It has such a huge, spacious floor that I feel like shopping at a supermarket in US. Their selection of merchandise is also my liking. They carry items which are popular not in Japan but abroad, such as rotisserie chicken, couscous, paella, pretzel and pesto. Imported food is usually very expensive but their prices are low. On the same floor, they also have kitchen goods, stationery, electronics, books and daily goods so that shopping is fun and convenient. Although it's an ideal place to shop to me, it's going out of business which means Japanese people didn't like it. When I got out of the store, it was already dark outside. Looking at its elegantly glowing neon sign, I thought this would have been my last visit, and I would certainly miss this store. How come they don't like it? I am not getting along well with other Japanese people...

Friday, February 5, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.108

The sale of Kindle began in Japan. I wondered what all the fuss was about and looked it up. I had underestimated Kindle. Its features are much more extensive than I thought, and it seems exactly what I've looking for. The prices for download are amazingly low and that really excited me. But after I checked carefully in details, I found that the prices in Japan were much higher than in US although the contents were exactly the same. If so, I tried at least to have my blog registered for it, but the service was available only in US. Maybe it's too soon for me to get it now. Besides, I still have many unread physical books by Stephen King, Time magazines and USA Today that I had brought from US...

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.107

I always carry a folding parasol because I'm afraid of cancer, lines, and spots. My parasol is waterproof so that it turns to an umbrella when it rains. I went shopping after sunset and left my parasol home. And on my way back, it started to snow. On sunny days, I never leave home without a parasol. Yet when it rains, I don't have it. I wound up walking in blowing snow, and came home soaked. According to the news, it was the coldest day of this winter here...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.106

I worked on the effectors and the equalizers for our new song. By trying numerous kinds of combination on the chorus tracks and the vocal track, I found the perfect setting. When I played back with all tracks on, it made blips. The processing data exceeded a CPU load of my PC. I use Cubase SX for my work and my PC's spec was duly enough before I got down to this project. I didn't expect it to be this big and CPU-consumed near the end. It never gives me a break...

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Hidemi's Rambling No.105

I found an auction website where successful bidders get about 90% off on electronics or gift certificates. They were amazing prices and appealed to me so much, as I'm cheap. A bidder needs to buy the bidding coins beforehand. I'd never seen those low prices even after adding the cost of the bidding coins. I started to bid, and the price was going up steeply. It went well past the average price of the site, and yet, I couldn't stop because I'd already invested too much. When I won the bid, the price soared to an auction record for the item. I didn't get 90% off but rather lost money. Finally I understood. Yes, it was a scam. I was quite confident to have the discerning eye for it and never thought I would fall for it. The time when I was young and stupid should have long gone. I, who is more careful for money than anybody, lost it by a scam. Am I a fool after all...?