My new digital camera

I bought a new digital camera of Fujifilm. This model, FinePix F100fd, is the newest in this category and equipped with excelletnt features. This camera has been produced since last March and got a good reputation among customers. I saw a lot of notes praizing its outstanding features as a compact camera. 

KVRI QSL letter

I received a QSL letter from KVRI, which I heard on 1600kHz last month. I didn't got QSLs from MW stations on the west coast in the past five years because I have been away from this hobby of listening to radio stations. The letter is so simple, describing the data of my reception but it is memorable one for me.

Calendar from Korea

I received a next year's calendar from KBS World Radio. This is a prize of the quiz in the last quarter. 

Noodle

I often go out for good-tasted Chinese noodles. Today I drove to a new shoppong mole 70km from my house. This is the place where some famous "Ramen" restrarants are scattered all over the city. I chose the best one for me, which I visited a couple of years ago.

I ordered a basic Ramen with a slice of pork, sea weed and green vegitable. The soup is based on soy souce mixed with fish soup. The taste was good and I would rank this noodle as No. 1 in this area.

Panasonic RF-2600

I got a another shortwave radio. It's Panasonic's RF-2600.  This radio was well restored by an expert of these kind of old radios. 

KKOL 1300kHz

While searching the MW band, I happened to pick up the weak signal on 1300kHz. This English program was KKOL from Seatle on the Westcoast. 

KVRI 1600kHz

I happened to listen to KVRI from the West coast of the US. After supper, I turned on my IC-R8500 and tuned to 1600kHz. Usually I checked EX-Band, which ranges from 1600 to 1700kHz. Tonight I noticed Indian music was played in the severe condition. The signal was weak and it was hard to figure out what's the content was. But this is my memorable experiece.

Arabic course text

I've been looking for this month's text of NHK TV Arabic course. This text is published every other month but it is a little hard to find one everytime.

KICY 850kHz

I received the signal of KICY from Alaska first time in this season. KICY is a typical Alaska station which Japanese listeners can catch easily on the MW band. I tuned to 850kHz around 23:00.

 

cell phone

I got a new cell phone of docomo. N-01A has a unique features of three styles for operations. 

ICF-6700

I bought a new shortwave radio again. It's Sony's ICF-6700. This radio was produced in the late 70s when a lot of young boys got into shortwave listening hobby. 

The one I purchaedc was restored well by experts and keep a good condition as to listen to Voice of Russia and BBC easily.

This radio has features of a red digital counter which offers a quick respose as the main daial is rotated. Audio quality is good enough to listen to local stations. And also it is equipped with good quality as to pick up weak signals when choosing a narrow filter. 

ipodtouch

I bought a new ipodtouch to replace my walkman which I 've been using more than three years. When I go out, I always carry a mp3 player for listnenig to podcasting programs. I like my old walkman which is handy to handle for its small size just like a small lighter. And I favor Sony's excellent quality, which provide us stability and a long batterylife. On the other hand, I have been away from Apple's products for the reason of its smaller share in the PC market.

But what made me to decide to purchase a new ipodtouch is that this new gadget works as an Internet mashine as well as a mp3 player. It is decisive factor for people who hope to see websites at any time. 

My decision was correct. A ipodtouch offers me more than I've expected. The most impressive character is user-friendly operation system using fingers. It's very easy and comfortable. In some cases, I think it's better than using a mouse.

Radio St. Helena

This is an anual event for shortwave listners. Radio St. Helena from the Atlantic Oceans successfully finished this year's broadcasting. A lot of entusiastic listners caught the wave from far away small island, I think. I got up before five o'lock in the morning and turnen on my receivers. In the first hour, the signal was not so strong as to understand what's on the air. But the condition had getting better and marked its best around 06:12. A lot of messages from Europe, Japan and U.S. were introduced during the program. This is a worldwide event for DXers.

I wrote a reception report and sent it by airmal.

A new celluler phone

I made a reservation for a new model of celluler phone today. NTT docomo has announced the release of new models which will be coming into the market this month. I picked up the NEC's one, which is equipped with some fashinating features. I have a emphasis on how convienience for Net surfing. In this sence, this model is suitable for my demand, because it has a Neuro pointer and rotatable display. The Neuro pointer is a pointing device placed in the center of the keys, with which we can operate a cursor like using a trackpoint of IBM's PC. In addition, the display can be rotated when watching web sites.  

Diet

It's the time to restart dieting. I successfully finished the diet six months ago. I lost 9kg in four months then. Since then, I've been watching my waist every time I eat and I haven't got a rebound. 

But I noticed that my waist line gradually increased. I decided to start dieting again.

French learning

I finished slipping through a French reading text twice. This book is a little bit difficult for me because it takes aim at those who are planning to have higher level tests. It really required me much patient even though I read it with a help of Japanese translation on the right side of a book.

Arabic learning book

I fotunately got an Arabic learning book lately. This book has been already out of print even though it covers a basic Arabic grammer planely as to be understandable for the beginners.
Arabic is a difficult language to learn because its grammer is totally diffrent from those of English and Japanese.

History courses on TV

I often watch TV history courses for high school students. These annual programs by NHK cover major historical incidents from the anciant era to now in Japan and other countries. This series is rather entertainment programs than educational ones for me, because it has something to do with the fact that I am a fun of history and moreover the programs offer us a detailed topics each time as the documentaries do.

Atsuhime

I watch a historical TV drama "Atsuhime" every Sunday. I am not a great fan of the "Taiga" dramas on NHK but occasionally I pick up the my favorable one almost every five years.
Atsuhime started on January this year and deals with the life of a women who married Tokugawas' 13th Shogun. This story focused on the end of the Edo period. This is the moment of historical turning points in Japaneses history and is full of famous people and episodes.

Swimming

I went weimming at the nearby public pool this afternoon. It's my weekly routine to swim around 30 minutes. While I was keen to go on a diet, it is the effective way to reduce my weight. In case of facing the unfavorable increase of my weight, I was hurry to the pool. Only a couple of excercises is enough to reduce the weight by one kilograms.
Another thing which fascinated me about swimming is that I could feel comfy in water even at the hot days. I think that swimming is one of the refreshing sports phisically and mentally at summer.

Russian learning

I went to a nearby cafe after lunch and spent an hour for Russian learning. I often go there and study foreign languages while drinking good-tasted coffee. Russian is a difficult language to learn for us. But it's a good challenge for me.

Polish

I bought a text of Polish, which has been published lately. I'm learning Russia now and interested in other east European languages such as Polish and Czech.
But the range of these languages' texts are limited in Japan. In most languages, a couple of books for beginners are available. As for Polish, an excellent book covering the basic grammer has been out of print and it is not easy to get this kind of books now.

In the middle of the vacation

It's a holiday season in Japan. Most people are enjoying their short free time around this time of year. Some go to viewing spots and other go to the center of the cities for shoppong. The roads are full of cars everywhere.
But we could find places where we feel comfy without crowds. Today I came to Coco's near my home. There's no one around me.

Learnig German

I've spent some of my time in learning German. German is a foreign language which brings me a special feeling even now. I had German courses for two years at university and since then it has been a bit away from me. It is because I lost interests in this language. I'm always planning to restart German lerning but every time I picked up textbook, it was other ones such as French, Korean and Russian.
All I need is to start learning, so I started.

Pasta lunch

Today's lunch is pasta of Coco's again. Compared with the usual days, I found less people here at this restaurant. On rainy days, people are tend to stay home? Maybe so.

E-Mobile

I've subscribed to E-Mobile service recently. It is a newest wireless carrier in Japanese market and offering a high-speed wireless service now. But the area coverage is limited to the only large cities like Tokyo and Osaka. I thought that it would take some more time to connect the service in my rural area.
A couple of weeks ago, I found the notice that my living area had got into the E-Mobile's coverage. It was good new for me because I had been a user of willcom that provide us a relatively slow sevice at resonable fee. A week later, I became a user of E-Mobile. The speed is astonishing and I'm really satisfied with the service totally.
I often go out with my notebook to check the connecting condition at some spots I visit. I came to notice that E-Mobile service is expanding rapidly more than I expected.

Lunch at McDonald

McDonard is my favor place to go around lunchtime. I often eat some
hamburgers and drinks at the nearby restaurant. Today I ordered a hamburger set with a coffee and salad.
I've noticed that McDonard had started to serve a premium roast coffee in stead of the normal coffee they had offerd. I think that the taste has been much improved as to be distinguished from the old one. The price still ramains 100yens.

Successful diet

Finally I've reduced my weight from 73.8kg to 64.8kg in the last four months. It's a great joy for me to complete this seemingly imposssible task. It seemed to be a long way to go when I started this plan. But a bit more attentions to daily meal and a change of my weight led me to the goal that I set last year.
Before this daily task, I read a book on how to reduce weight. The author recommended the way to write down the total amount of calories you take everyday. It encourages us to know how meaninglsess foods we are eating. I followed this method by using Excel files. Gradually I found it interesting because I noticed that the change of my weight responded to the amount of foods and phisical exercises.

Korea's first astronaut

Korea's first astronaut, Yi Soyen, has successfully begun her trip into space. This first attempt of Korea to send a man to space is historical event for all Korean people.
I wached the live broadcast from Russia on SBS TV.
When a spacecraft Soyuz has blasted off from the space center in Russia, everybody including President Lee Myung-bak, shared joys of this momorable launch.

QSL from Radio Korea International

I received a QSL card from Radio Korea Internatiol today. This quarter's card portraying a famous figure skater, Kim Yu-na of Korea. She is one of the closest athlete to the gold medal at the next Olimpic Games in 2010.

Medical drama "SHIROI KYOTOU"

Tonight a medical TV drama "SHROI KYOTOU", "A Large Tower" begins on BS TV. This drama was produced in South Korea last year and got a good reputation then. This series originated from a Japanese novel by Toyoko Yamazaki and has been on the air in Japan in a couple of different versions.
I've watched this Korean version in the net and found it a bit diffrent from other Japanese series. But all of them are outstanding as entertainmant dramas. This series will be broadcasted in Korean language with Japanese subtitles. It help us learn Korean language.

Lunch at Coco's

I'm writing at a family restaurant "Coco's". My weekly routine is to drive to this restaurant located near my house and spend some time at lunch.
Today I orderd a lunch salad set with some drink. I always carry PC, a cell phone and a walkman of Sony. Through these three gudgets, I can connect to the Web, watch TV and listen to music.

Voice of Russia

As usual, I tuned to the Japannese programs of Voice of Russia on 720kHz from 21:00. This station offers us a variety kind of programs that we couldn't get through the domestic media.