It was a beautiful day today so I finally got around to fixing the flat tire on my mountain bike. After my morning class, I decided to check out more of the cycling road along the ocean during my 3-hour lunch break.
It was about 11 am, so I didn’t expect much activity, but I was pleasantly surprised…
On the Victoria Day weekend, I toured the HMCS Ottawa. She is a Canadian frigate based in Esquimalt, British Columbia. She is now touring around Asia and the South Pacific on a 6-month voyage. She is over 130 meters long and the top speed is around 50 km/h (30 knots). She carries a crew of 225 people - 205 are men and 20 are women. Here is a picture of her at sea. (Obviously, I did not take this picture).
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Typhoon #5 passed Shizuoka. While walking to the car after my afternoon class finished, I could hear the waves breaking. (On normal days, you can’t hear the waves). I knew that a few surfers go out when there is a typhoon swell, so I decided to check it out. Parked on the road was a small van with some surf stickers on the back window. Also, there were two pairs of sandals underneath the van, a telltale sign that the people were either surfing or bodyboarding. As expected, there were two guys in the water. I suspect that they were the same two people I had seen before.
The waves were much bigger than Typhoon #4 and the wind was still quite strong - not that tempting for a novice such as myself. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me and couldn’t take any pictures. I watched them for around 10 minutes and only saw one of them catch a wave. I did one of them take a nice tumble head over heels though.
Even though I had my gear in the car, I decided against going out. I knew that I’d be going out the next day at Kashima, my new home point.
Did you see this picture in the news this week?
A boy in Moriyama found this two-headed turtle in the playground at his school. The turtle’s name is Treasure - Takara in Japanese. Researchers say that this wasn’t caused by pollution. I’m not sure what to think about this. What do you think - is this natural or unnatural?
