UCDavis

UC Davis, is one of the University of California, and was established as the University farm of UC system in 1905. It's located in Sacramento valley which is famous for the production of crops, such like rice, wheat, grape etc. Therefore, UCD has a lot of laboratories related to agriculture to promote local agricultural business. Mustang is a mascot of UCD, but he doesn't look like even domestic horse.

Wild turkey

Turkey is native bird in USA and they were hanging around my apartment complex. We occasionally spot them at open area like rice farm, but it's unusual to see them such a close distance. I was excited because that was first time to see real turkey by myself (I buy shaved turkey every weekend, though..). They almost became national bird instead of bold eagle and I understood why everybody loves them. They are cool!

Airplane show

I saw RC airplane show on the way to the next city today. The details of airplane are elaborate and it looked like real. It was fun to watch the flying airplanes in open blue sky.

internet-1-

USA is a country of the internet. It makes sense because cities are wide apart each other to communicate directly. I think that's why everybody relies on the internet. So, we can find various websites published in this country. One of my favorite website called "craigslist" is very useful. This website is for buying or selling items by ourselves and we can find anything we need. They have thousands of items and we can buy them without service charge. I've never seen a website like this in Japan, so it might be able to make money with "craigslist-like" website?

Burn owl

I'm thinking to make T-shirts with the picture of burn owl. It should be easy to design the image with graphic converter or photoshop. I wonder I could sell it in Davis...?

Beer

I often drink beer after playing sports. I have several favorites including "fat tire", "alaskan amber" and "pole ale", but the best is Japanese beer, "Ichiban-shibori". I realized the test of "Budwiser" is close to that of Japanese beer. It may be the reason why Budwiser is popular in Japan.

License

Finally, I passed driving test. It was fourth challenge and took about two months to get the license. It was hard and stressful, but good opportunity to extend vocabulary regarding of driving and traffic system. Now I can go wherever I want!

Putah creek

I went to Putah creek to preview fishing site. It's located near from Davis and we can get there in 30 min by car. My friend says it's good place to practice because we can't get trout if the skill is poor. My fishing gear will be delivered soon, so I can't wait weekend!

Microchip in human

According to an article in USA today, 2,000 of microchips have been implanted in humans. It's small as long as two grains of rice, as thick as toothpick. (You might have seen it in the movie, 007 casino royal.) Those microchips are embeded in the forearms of the person to get access to restricting area, such like vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments. I know it helps to protect top secret data, but it's not acceptable to me. This idea could be expanded to all of us to monitor our behavior.

Tennis

I played tennis a lot today, maybe about 4~5 hrs. I can't stop playing because I really like my new racket. It's easy to control shots and I feel I'm improving a lot. Next is tomorrow morning and maybe I will play in the evening, too!

Black bird

Looks they are young black birds. They made their nest in the water duct of my apartment complex. I looked guidebook of Californian bird, but there was no picture of them. I hope they will mature and come back to my apartment complex again.

Racket

My friend says the racket I bought before was about $130. I got it by $70, so it was really good sale.

Water

Here in Davis, drinking tap water is not recommended for our health because it's hardest and has metallic-tasting. So I often go to Davis Co-op to buy filtered water. This picture is tanks for drinking water.

Japanese pickles

My friend gave me two Japanese pickles and they tasted pretty good. I've never had such a tasty pickles with fresh smell. Here is a website for the shop for my record.
http://www.murakamijyuhonten.co.jp/

Burrowing owl

They live underground unlike other owls. Of course they cannot make their dens by themselves because their craws and beak are not for digging. They share (?) their den with ground-squirrels.

Sunflower

My friend took me to Davis co-op to take pictures of sunflowers. They were blooming face to the sun and I felt strong vitality from them. I used the camera I got from my dad. It's made about 10 years ago, but it works well. The quality of picture taken by his camera could be better than by my camera.

Koi

We went to koi farm to buy 1000 of koi for our study. It was tough work to scoop up fish with net and took about 5 hr to collect them, but it was fun. Koi have various patterns of their body color and they say fish with orange and white, called "Kohaku" are valuable at koi show and others are not good. All fish look same to me and they are all beautiful.

Barn owl ~2~

Yes. I finally saw a barn owl! This guy looks different so we're guessing they are couple because both of them are spotted in same tree. They are really cute.

Barn owl

This is my favorite owl called "barn owl". My friend kindly gave this picture to me. They have cute face like human and we can spot them in Davis downtown. Like other owls, they are solitary and nocturnal, but sometimes they appear in day time. Heat wave hit California last year and they came out from their box (my friend guesses they couldn't stay in a small box.) The weather is calm this year so it's rare to spot them in daytime. I wish I could watch them in daytime.

Cumin seed

Have you ever heard about cumin seed? It's a Indian seasoning and tastes ethnic. Curry powders contains a lot of cumin seed so I think you can imagine how it tastes like. I dusted chicken with cumin seed and fried it, then it turned "tandoori chicken". It goes well with salt and hot pepper.

Cafeteria

I had diarrhea today. Maybe Thai salad I had at the cafeteria was not fresh enough. They sell terrible food. The overcooked spaghetti was in it. I wish they would be better.

Dental care

It seems cleaning of teeth is getting common in US and Japan. I think it's good to keep our teeth in good condition. I have some cavities in my teeth, but I thought dental care was not needed. Cavity is caused by bacteria so toothpaste works to kill them because it contains detergents. But it seems not to be true. According to the website of dental care, it says "the plaque is formed by not only colonies of bacteria, but also protozoa, mycoplasmas, yeasts and viruses". It seems our mouth is not clean as we think.

Swimming

It was sunny today (everyday is sunny, though), so I went swimming. It was perfect peace and I enjoyed a lot. Good music, cool water, not crowded. I want to be like a penny by sun burning.

New racket

Right racket is my new one. I didn't intend to buy it today, but I couldn't restrain my passion for the racket because it was on sale. That racket is sold for 30,000 yen in Japan, but it was only 70 dollars in US! Maybe Japanese people have to pay duty when they buy outdoor or sports items made in US. What a huge difference! I don't think I will buy American products in Japan any more. (I might not be able to go back to Japan, though...)

Osaka sushi

I had dinner at Osaka sushi. There are 5 or 6 Japanese restaurant in Davis and everybody says Osaka sushi is worst. But I personally like it because the quality is good for the price. My favorite food is "Teriyaki chicken and tonkatsu". I don't recommend "Tempura". It was terrible.

Over 100!

It was 106 F today (106 F is equal to 41.1 C, higher than our body temperature). The sun stick my skin at outside and I feel to be dehydrated. My shirt doesn't get sweat, but I get "salt" on my forehead instead. My friend said it was like staying at desert. I was planning to go trekking this weekend, but it seems swimming is better..

Sick

I have plenty of time to study now. I had a bad headache and a slightly fever this morning, fortunately it was not serious and I feel better now. Of course I cannot sleep anymore, so I've started to study to kill my time. (I'm writing this blog for a break). It's not bad to study in home.

Library

This is a library near by my lab and I sometimes work here to concentrate on writing or studying something. It's always quiet and I barely see students to borrow textbook. I wonder what the staff in this library is doing while working time. Looks they just enjoy web browsing.

Shopping

In Davis, the firefighters come to grocery store by their fire engine. It's unusual in Japan (they would be criticized due to the mixing pubic matters with private matters). I guess it's not big deal to use it for shopping. It's good because everybody can enjoy to watch them. It's American culture.