スポンサーリンク

上記の広告は、30日以上更新がないブログに表示されています。
新たに記事を投稿することで、広告を消すことができます。  

Posted by だてBLOG運営事務局 at

2011年12月01日

Next preparation

 We are going to the next step.
So, we moved to this site.
http://hiromarusasazaki.wordpress.com/
Please enjoy next site, too.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 09:46Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年11月21日

Summarize 5 months

 5 months is passing since we came here.
We feel as if we have already spent a year. Time pass so slowly because we are spending very deep, meaningful moment. I think we are very lucky to be able to feel like that at our age and we are totally fascinated about our life in Vancouver even though we do not know whether we can survive through this harsh winter.

We really recognize that our momentous decision in the shelter, 5 months ago was successful.
Actually, we lost many things on that day and had difficult moment for a couple month after the incident.
Luckily we survived it even though all my neighborhood was devastated.
If we evaluate the good and the bad after that, we can say with certain confidence that we have much more good
experience than bad one.

It have brought all my family together and have reconnected all my friends and acquaintances.

It taught me the importance of my friends and my family.
It taught me how I was ignorant about the natural disasters.
It taught me the material things were not crucial for our life.
It even brought us the marvellous beginning of ’ the second life'.

I have been totaly convinced that Vancouver is the most livable city in the world only in 5 months.
If I had enough money to live here, I would live here.
There are no many extreme traffic jams compared to another big cities, so commuting is not so hard.
There is little air pollution. The system of collecting garbage is perfect.
I will propose it to the municipal of my country when we return to Japan.
The transportation is almost perfect. This system is considered deeply about elderly people and disable people.
Besides, it cover almost all area. It's very convenient.
The most impressive for us is almost all passengers say some words of appreciation to drivers when they get off the bus, such as 'Thank you'.

There are many variety of restaurants, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Mexican, Thai, Indian, Greek,
Italian,Brazilian, etc..We feel we are in the exhibition of international foods.
I don't know about other restaurants, but as far as I know, the quality of Japanese restaurants is high and the price is not so high, reasonable.
The most impressive for us is there are too many SUSHI restaurants. Chinese SUSHI restaurants, Korean SUSHI restaurants, Japanese SUSHI restaurants. You can see one SUSHI restaurant each 50m.
Canadian people really like SUSHI. Canadian children get so excited when they are taken to SUSHI restaurant.
I can say with certain confidence that they eat SUSHI much more than Japanese do.

I do not know why they have been such SUSHI eaters. However, I can assume that Canadian people worry about their health very much, especially they are very afraid of being obese. Besides, they believe that SUSHI is the most 'healthy food' in the world. In addition, they are totally fascinated with the taste of SUSHI even thogh they recognize that SUSHI is totally different from real Japanese sushi.
I think I have to make them notice their misconception.
It is very difficult to get fresh fish.
They don't know how to keep freshness, even how to identify fresh fish.
They don't care about freshness of fish because they believe the freshness doesn't matter when they bake it.
Besides, there are no many variations of fish. I can proud of only salmon.
As a result, I don't recommend living here for a long time, if you really like to eat fish.

Before we came here, we had imagined to eat many Canadian food.
However, as most of all Canadian admit, there are no many Canadian foods.
As far as I know, maple salmon, smoked salmon, SUSHI, these are real Canadian foods.
Because Canada is a country of immigrants, they brought their original foods with them when they came to Canada.
They didn't need to creat original foods from scratch.
The only thing we can't accept about the Canadian custom is cutting off the roots of spinach and throw them away and peeling off the skin of salmons and throw them away.

The electrical appliances,such as computer, rice cooker, wash machine,etc.. are very cheap.
The expense for gas, electricity, water, telephone is very cheap.
The system of wireless internet have completed almost all the house and it cost very very cheap.
I think Japan is 10 years behind Canada in the most important field of computer technology.
We can reduce much more the expense for communication.

Most Canadian people wear black in winter.
It's difficult to find another color in the shop, especially outer pants are almost black.
i think Canadian people are very conservative about the clothes.  

Posted by tangodancer at 05:58Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年11月20日

Explore Vancouver

 As we moved to the place accessible to everywhere, we explore Vancouver city deeply.
All we have is only this.

This bus pass is very expensive, (area1 costs 80 bucks, area 2 costs 110 bucks).
However, once you buy it, there is nothing more convenient than this.
On weekdays, it covers all area 1 zone.

We can go shopping everywhere we want with it.
In addition to being convenient, it covers all suburb area on weekends.

There are many squirrels in Vancouver. You can see them everywhere.
So, we explore Vancouver on weekend.
Going out to the town, without any plan, get on the bus which comes first, with bus pass and small map, get down the bus when we see something interesting, and get on again,

to the last station.
And, change to the another one or SKY TRAIN. Because we can ride on SKY TRAIN and SEA BUS with this bus pass.
It is very exciting, sometimes thrilling like a adventure.

Today, we went toward Port Coquitlam across the city widely from west to east.
Our goal is Coquitlam River.

However, as we had not planed, it is getting dark.
It's OK! Our adventure is flexible.
Besides, it is totally enjoyable to walk in a strange place with my dear wife.

In conclusion, I think this system is very nice even though the fare is expensive and this system should be introduced in Japan.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 16:24Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年11月19日

The first snowy day

 Here came the first snow in Vancouver.

Today is 18th in November.
Most of all the teachers say this November is better than usual because they have several sunny days,and normally,they rarely have sunny day in November.

The temperature in the outside is from 0 to 8 degrees.  

Posted by tangodancer at 16:24Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年11月11日

My father died

 I don't know the reason, but it's very hard to get up in the morning recently.
When the alarm bigin to ring in the morning, we get really disappointed and depressed.
Because of cold weather? darkness? lack of exercise? age?
We are totally exhausted this week.We wonder whether we can continue studying.

We get up at 6:40 every day and take the bus at 7:40, arrive at school at 8:10.
The class finishes 2:40pm.
The exciting time is going shopping after school. As we moved close to the school, we have more extra time than before.

However, it bigin to get dark at 4:00pm. and it get totally dark at 5:00pm. because we have winter time now.
Day by day, day time is getting shorter, so we feel the benefit of bright time.

The products made of paper are really expensive in this country.
We were informed of my father's death a few days before.
Everyone have to experience those kind of things in my age.
After the natural disasters, we knew he had had a cancer in final stage.

He has strongly influenced me to learn foreign languages.
He had been keenly interested in other languages and used to listening language teaching programs on the radio.
He sometimes went overseas to learn French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Besides, he started learning Chinese.

Recently, he moved to Canada with my mom and always looking at us.
They look very happy and satisfied. Now, they are enjoying their first stay in Vancouver.

This is our new friend, Prin. She is very friendly.

In new house, we cannot make many food because the kichen is very small and we do not have enough utensils.
However, we don't feel shortage very much.

We can use some other thing instead.

This is my birthday dinner. We took some wine,too.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 14:29Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年11月07日

My birthday has 25hours

 Today, I acomplished 44th birthday.
Today has 25 hours beause winter time start today so we delay exactly 1 hour.
I feel I got extra one hour for my birthday.

What shall we do for today?
We found a amazing Korean supermarket in Robson and Granville.
They have a plenty of asian goods.

They have variety of rice, cheap, expensive, brown, white, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Indian,Thailandaise,etc.
In my opinion, they shuold supply many kind of rice in Japan because Japanese customers don't have many choice.
When I came here, I was surprised with the cheapness of rices.

Oh! my dear SANMA! The most favorite food in the world.
I have never imagined we can see raw SANMA in Canada.

I imagine it's very difficult to carry fresh SANMA to Canada.
I think Japanese company should try it.

Every time I see Chinese supermarket, I am surprised with thier power, dedication.
They cooperate each other to increase thier benefit and to make themselve worthy.

That's the key for chinese people to expand their power in every countries.
Now, Korean people follow Chinese and getting bigger and bigger.
As far as I know, I can't feel strong energy of Japanese people very much.
Of course, some of them are doing very well. However, their power doesn't unite efficiently.
As a result, they don't have much power compared to other Asian people.

Anyway, I loved this Korean supermarket.
We can buy lots of Japanese food at a reasonable price.
There is a Korean restaurant in the market, too.

It looks very tasty. We should come to eat some day.
The temperature is getting low and low recently from 2 to 8.
This climate is almost the same as at the end of December or January in my country.

It rains almost every day, the other day we had heavy shower of hail.
The climate is very different from what we have imagined.

Most Vancouverian says that they rarely experience negative temperature, but we have already experienced it several times.
We don't know we can persevere in the weather.
Anyway, we try our best. Our new house is very comfortable.

  

Posted by tangodancer at 06:22Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年11月06日

New place

 Our movement finished quickly in one hour.
Because we have no many things even though we have gained some more clothes since we came here.

New house is also really nice, Canadian atomospheric place.
I feel something more Canadian than before.

The good thing is get close to Downtown.
It takes 25 minutes by bus #22.

Very accessible to the shopping area. The trafic is more convenient.
The public bus comes every 15 minutes and we can go every where by bus even on weekend.

The area is clearly organized with avenue and street so we can easily image the direction.
Once we enter the house, we can't hear any noise of cars. Very quiet area.

In Canada, when you rent the room, the room has already furnished so we needn't prepare many things.
However, we just bought some important things for us, such as espresso machine, rice cooker, ladle,etc.

The room's owner is young Taiwanese woman, she is very kind.
The house has 3 floor, we live in the first floor and the owner's family live in the 2nd and 3rd.

The room is really confortable, one bed room, one living room with kitchen, bathroom.
That's all for only us. We share only laundry room with the owner family.

We miss just bath-tub. But for now, it's enough for us.
If we get earn money, we will move to another one that has bath-tub.

We found a new supermarket "H mart"
It's Korean supermarket and really nice. We were amazed with the quality and the volume of the goods.  

Posted by tangodancer at 16:01Comments(3)Vancouver Life

2011年10月31日

Move to another place

 Finally, we found a new place to live.
We were helped by many people this time,too.

Since we came here, and before we came here,after the earthquake,
we have been supprted by many many people.

We never forget all your supprt.
We really enjoyed the stay in West Vancouver.
We think this is the last time to pass through this short trail that we passed almost every day.

We feel a little sad.
We never got used to this trail even though we passed every day. Every time we arrive at the top, we get so tired.

Today, we made SUSHI,GYOZA,MABODOFU for all our family.
We did our best in limited condition.

Today, we had a dream.
We would like to invite all the family to Japan and invite them to a real Japanese SUSHI restaurant some day.

We would like to invite them also to a Japanese traditional ONSENRYOKAN.
It's our dream in the future.

Now, we are walking very slowly to the way home reminding all the memories in Canada.
We won't use #254 public bus for British Properties for a while.

We missed the big salmon in Capilano River
The memories of fishing & blackberry picking in PARK ROYAL.

We saw a big black bear in front of this house.

This is our house that full of a lot of memories.

She is professional to make GYOZA because she started to make GYOZA when she was 8.
Do you want to hire her?

She prepared 80 GYOZA in 30 minutes.

She also made 3 different kind of SUSHI, salmon, prawn,scallop.
We miss SANMA , SABA, KATSUO.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 03:18Comments(4)Vancouver Life

2011年10月29日

Halloween Party

 Everybody is so excited.
Halloween is the most popular, expensive,exciting party in Canada.

Almost 4 months have past since we moved to Vancouver.
Yes, just only 4 months! However, I feel as if 8 or 10 months have past.
We find our life is so exciting and meaningful, because every moment of our life is full of excitement.

.We are going to move to another place, so we are looking for a place to live.
But it's not easy to find it, because almost all rooms look nice are rented immediately just after posted.

Now, I understand why Vancouver is called "Raincouver"
We need some winter clothes.

We don't see people smoking very much in Canada.
I think Japanese people smoke too much.
In my school, only Asian students smokes.

  

Posted by tangodancer at 12:24Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年10月23日

University of British Columbia

 This is the first time to visit the UBC.
We came here to meet professor Julian Dierkes, which studys about Japanese supplementary education/tutoring(GAKUSHUJUKU). 

So, he travels to Japan several times a year and recently went to Miyagi and Fukushima area.
He said he had felt very sad to have herad of the story of the residents.

The campus was so huge that you can easiliy get lost.Julian inited us to walk around the campus.
There are museum,concert hall, movie theater,restaurante,pub,cafeteria, Starbucks,and food coat.

We were invited to visit the famous UBC Museum of Anthropology.
He speaks in fluent Japanese and we found that we went a same University when he studied in Japan for one year.
What a coincidence!

We talked a lot about a wonderful, nostalgic time in Tokyo.

Now is the best season to catch salmons.
There are so many fishermen more than salmons that we had no chance to catch a salmons.

So, we bought a piece of Atlantic salmon and fulfilled our mind.
It was really delicious, even though we weren't satisfied totally.

We began to find another place to live.However, it's not easy to find it, because almost all lists are for young girls.
The landlord prefer quiet person, but why young girl?
I don't understand.

We enjoy imagining our new house.

Our favorite TENDON is successful.

We feel we can make almost all Japanese food although we miss some fresh fish such as SANMA, KATSUO,HOYA,SABA,AJI,IWASHI,MAGURO,etc...

My favorite GYUDON was really stunning.

The meats are cheaper than in Japan.

We found some nice size oysters, so we made KAKINABE and KAKIFURAI.
Normally,the oysters are small in Vancouver, so it's rare to find this size oysters.
We made it! It's really KAKIFURAI.

Rice is very cheap. The price of rice is one-fifth of that in Japan.

Canadian style rice cooker is very simple. Nevertheless it cooks the rice very well.

I heard that the imformations about the radiation of Fukushima is limited.
Nobody dare to submit real information bacause they don't want to cause panic although they know real situation is awful and urgent.
It costs 400 trillion to clean all radiation. The Japanese government can't afford it.
The scientists insist that all residents should evacuate immediately although the government say they needn't do that.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 11:39Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年10月15日

Presentation in business class

 October 14th
Today, each student did presentation of job research in business class.
I had rehearsed very much for today and consequently I made it very well.

I had heard that the number of student would decrease after summer, but many new studens come every week so
the school is always full now. I think CCEL is getting more popular than before.

The students come from various countries. The most large number of studens is Saudi Arabian and there are many Korean ,Japanese ,and Mexican.

The expensive grocery is egg,milk,yorgult(The price is almost twice as expensive as that in Japan),cheese,coffee(same),salmon(2,5 times),wine(3times).

I wonder why salmons are so expensive even though there are many salmons here.
Vegetables and fruits are also expensive(twice)

The products made of paper, such as notebook, toilet paper are very very expensive(twice).
We found some delicious dessert.

This sinnamon roll is incredible.($4.49)

This doughnuts cost only 1 buck and it's amazing.The quality is more than Mr. Doughnuts.

Noki likes corn very much. it's very sweet and cheep.$(0.40)

We rarely buy salmons because it's very expensive. when we buy salmon, we make SUSHI.

Pork is cheap, so we sometimes buy pork.
KAKUNI is my favorite.

SHOGAYAKI is amazing.

  

2011年10月11日

Thanksgiving Day

 Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada.

The origins of the first Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving celebration was not for harvest, but for homecoming.

As many more settlers arrived in Canada, more celebrations of good harvest became common. New immigrants into the country, such as merda the Irish, Scottish and Germans, would also add their own traditions to the harvest celebrations.

The main dish of Thanksgiving Day is turkey and stuffing.
Today, we will make all foods from scratch.
The stuffing is consist of toasted,cubed bread, different kind of vegetables diced, such as onion, celery and carrot, and different kind of herbs minced such as sage,thyme and oregano and chicken broth, all those are put into turkey.

I was responsible for making cranberry sauce.
First of all, baked cranberries over medium heat, then added orange peals, orange juice, gingers and brown sugar,
Finally, keeped it over medium heat until the cranberries popped out.
Even though it was a first experience for me to make it, I noticed it was easy after watching the video.
Actually, I made it well.

Jenny is making a gravy sauce. This sauce is also for turkey.This consists of butter, chicken broth and flour.

To tell the truth, this is the first time for almost all people who came today to make a turkey.

The turkey is very hot and difficult to cut, that make party fun.

Noki made her special pumpkin salad, but many people brought pumpkin pies and apple pies.

She needn't have made pumpkin salad.

We had many foods and wines and really enjoyed the party.

  

Posted by tangodancer at 02:43Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年10月10日

How to creat a ideal city

 I continue job hunting.
How to creat a ideal, modern,and safe enough city against natural disasters?
In my opinion, we have a lot to learn about Vancouver's style even though it's young city.

First of all, here in Vancouver, the average sea level is 5meters lower than land.
In contrast,in Japan, most land is more or less only 1 meter higher than sea level.That's obviously too low.
besides, the houses stand very close to the coast ,rivers and steep hills.
Furthermore, the main control of the city such as city hall, fire department,police station stands in low level place.
That made the damage bigger in the case of 11th March.

Secondly, in almost all country side, small wooden made houses stand by the coast in Japan.
In contrast, low level land on the coast is covered very dense and vast forest or modern high building in Vancouver.

Third, Living area is completely seperated from working area.This makes easier to evacuate in emergency.
Besides, children learn at places in the high land even though the colleges are sometimes in low land.

Consequently, the city control the damage very small and react very quickly againt a natural disaster.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 08:13Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年10月09日

Capilano River

 I missed a chance to catch a big salmon today.
The bite came suddenly and unexpectedly.

It was very big and strong but somehow, I carried it very close to me.
I fought very long time so I don't know how long time passed by.
.Finally, the fish came very close, I was about to catch it.

The tackle was the same one as usual, very simple, unsophisticated.
We saw many fishermen, but nobody caught any.

I didn't worry about line, because the line was 12lb. test strong enough for big salmons.
However, I was nervous because the hook of the lure was very tiny against a big salmon.

Consequently, the salmon was gone.
I really enjoyed the fight against a big salmon.
  

Posted by tangodancer at 09:48Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年10月02日

It's cold

It's cold, isn't it?
The real climate in Vancouver is very different from what we have heard.
I feel like we are in the beggining of winter although today is October 1st.

I feel very cold even in the house. The average temperature from 10 to 15.
I miss YUTANPO. I miss KOTATSU.

I think we really need to buy some winter clothes, or else we will catch a cold.
However, clothes are very expensive here in Canada.

I don't know if we can survive this winter.
I wonder why UNIQLO and SHIMAMURA aren't here in Vancouver.
If they were here, they would be very popular.

If there were SHIMAMURA in downtown, I would go there to buy many clothes.
But in fact, neither SHIMAMURA nor UNIQLO is here.
I will have to find any shop to buy them.



  

Posted by tangodancer at 11:07Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年10月01日

Unique teachers in CCEL

 I did my presentation of job research in Business English class today. I think I did well even though I was a little vervous.
Almost all the teachers in my school is very unique.
For example,

Olga is a very strict teacher. Her teaching is very organized and prepared.
Therefore, she certainly finishes all stuffs one by one as she planed berore the class.
There are some students who don't like Olga's teaching since she is too strict and gives many homework.

But I love Olga's teaching since I can concentrate on the class.
When I am in the Olga's class, I always feel the time passing so fast.
Consequently, I feel that I have learned many when the class is over.

On the one hand, she is very strict in the class. On the other hand,she is very kind-hearted, charitable,sympathetic person.I sincerely respect her as a person.

Todd is my present teacher in Business English class.
He is very funny man and always makes students laugh in the class.
I think he is also very smart.

In Todd's class, all students is very unique and friendly.I like this class.

Michelle is the teacher of advanced class.
I think that her skill in teaching English is very wide and sophisticated.
She is confident and teach English with much affection.
She is very popular among students. I thinlk she really love teaching English.

There are many other teachers in CCEL and every teacher is very unoique,so I would like to be taught by all teachers.

Today, we went to Japanese Consulate General to ask about driver's license.
They said that we can drive a car with Japanese license in 6 months in Canada.
That's cool!  

2011年09月26日

Looking for a job

 Preparing resume is crucial for getting a job interview.
Resume is the first impression you will make on prospective employer.

In resume, you don't need to put your photograph.
You don't need to write your birthday, gender,age, nationality,racial origin, religion,physical imformation,height,weight, marital status.

Because, these things have nothing about your job.
Your resume is a picture of who you are.
But it is a selective picture. It's more like an outline than a full autobiography.

It gives the person who reads it a quick,general idea who you are.

Now is the time salmons coming around rivers.
We got up early in the morning and went to the river near the PARK ROYAL.

There are many fishermen.
However, I don't see anyone catching the salmon.

There are many boat. Nevertheless, nobody caught salmons even on the boat.
I saw some salmons jumping out of the surface.

We are very very busy every day.
I think we have nener spent such a intensive life before.
If I hadn't survived of tsunami and hadn't come to Vancouver, We wouldn't have spent such a beautiful days.

If I hadn't come to Vancouver, I would never have found such a fabulous life.

If I hadn't lost everything and I had used my own fishing tackle of supreme quality, I might have caught some salmons. In fact, it's difficult finding attractive spoons, here in Vancouver.

If I return to Japan, I will buy many spoons and other kind of lures there.
But, I think we won't return to Japan.

We don't have good luck today.
But Noki is always happy.Actually, she is totally fulfilled with Canadian life.
She feels the happiest moment while drinking coffee looking at Canadian Rockies.


  

Posted by tangodancer at 13:24Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年09月19日

It's getting cold

 September 18th
It's getting cold. We don't have any warm cloth. We need something warm.
The clothes in the street have changed totally.

Noki cooks something warm.

KIMUCHIUDON is our favorite in winter season.
But now is in autumn.The temperature from 10 to 15.

Noki's curry is always awesome.She never fails to cook it.
And Noki's special waffle is stunning.

Everybody likes its amazing crispy texture.

The combination of saskatoon berry syrup and maple syrup is amazing for pan cake.

Be careful!
There are fake maple syrups even in Canada.
This is real maple syrup,I think.

It cost $6(480yenn).  

Posted by tangodancer at 09:40Comments(2)Vancouver Life

2011年09月18日

Baby shower party

 Melissa, Jenny's sister is having a baby in a month.
Many friends and relatives got together to celebrate it. It is called baby shower party.

Melissa got married to Berk a few years ago.

I was very nervous because I was a only man to be there.

Then I noticed I should not be there, so I went out for a walk around with Noki.

Melissa received many fancy gift for her baby.

New oven has come to my house.
Noki is very excited about it.
She is motivated to make some bread again.

Here is my favorite bagles.But I don't know if she can make them well.

Waho! this is awesome!
This is the most fabulous bagle she has ever made.
Congratulations!

She is totally keen to cook.

GYOZA is also my favorite, and she is very good at making GYOZA.

This oven is very nice.

The left is banana cake and the right one is cocoa and pecan nuts cake.
Noki is very happy to cook as she likes.
What do do you request next?
  

Posted by tangodancer at 02:10Comments(1)Vancouver Life

2011年09月12日

September 11th

 September 11th
Almost all chanels are now on air live in New York, Ground Zero ceremony.
Today is the 10th anniversary day of suicide attacks by terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets.

I am also curious about what is happenning in the Ground Zero watching TV from 8:00 o'clock in the morning.

For now, the ceremony is processed in the peacuful tranquil situation.
Family members of the victims gathered around the Ground Zero, annouced the victim's name.
Barack Hussein Obama,the president of the Unaited States attended the ceremony.

All the families say "We will never forget........"
Yes, this ceremony is taken place every year for not forget permanently about the accident.

The Ground Zero is designed to express the voids of the victims and their family.
Two square water pools are located exactly in the place where World Trade Center Building, called twin tower were.

The name of victims is engraved on the parapet perimeter and cascade flowing down express their solace.
And black hall in the center of pool represents abyss, if you look at this hall bysides the parapet, you will feel as if you were pulled into the hall by extraordinary huge power.  

Posted by tangodancer at 04:16Comments(3)Vancouver Life