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 […]
Round 2 – Typhoon #5 (June 4th)
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 […]
Treasure?
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 […]
Fish Fry! Are you hungry?
A friend of mine who lives in Hamamatsu told me that there was going to be a Fish Fry in Shizunami yesterday. I was quite excited when I heard about it. I haven’t had fish fry for quite a while and was looking forward to some good eats! I did a Google search for Shizunami […]
Da weekly session.
The weather forecast was for sunshine in the morning and cloudy in the afternoon, so I definitely wanted to go out surfing today. However, this was the what the wave forecast for this morning looked like: As you can see, the forecast was for a terrifying 50cm – 99 cm swell. Not too promising, but […]
Humpback whales making a comeback?
Usually news about the environment is pessimistic at best. I was happy to see a report that the humpback whales are doing well in the North Pacific. In 1966, the population was estimated to be less than 1,500. A large study conducted by 400 researchers between 2004 and 2006 found that the population now numbers […]
May 21st – the day after the typhoon passed
On a usual Wednesday, there are 5 or 6 cars parked at the beach when I arrive at around 7 am. When I arrived at around 6:30 this morning, the narrow farmer’s road leading to Kashima was lined with cars. Here’s what the lineup looked like. Lots of surfers – there must have been at […]
Mt. Fuji – after the storm
Typhoon Number 4 is on the way, it rained quite heavily last night and was raining this morning when I arrived at work. By the time my first class finished, the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Here is a picture of Mt. Fuji from my desk. In the foreground you can see […]
May 14th – Part Deux
I was game for trying a new point, so I put on a T-shirt and jumped in the car. (I must have looked ridiculous – I was half-wearing a wetsuit and a T-shirt). There was no way I was going to bother taking off my wetsuit and then put it back on in a few […]
May 14th – Typhoon No. 2
Like usual, the forecast was for rain. When I rolled out of bed at 5:30 am, it was raining. It don’t look like it was raining too hard so I got ready. When I went outside, it was raining hard enough that I got an umbrella and was having second thoughts about going. These thoughts […]
