Omnipot

During new year holidays, I spent fun time with my old classmates from middleschool and highschool. One gets more elegant and the other gets more silly, I don't know why but I enjoy this kind of gap.

During midth of January, I moved to an apartment not so far from my parent's house. The first thing I needed was the Internet. I bought wireless LAN router without even looking at the price. I really needed it.

Nowadays, when you have a PC, you can watch DVD movies, listen to the radios worldwide, you can even talk to your friends on the phone for free. I'd rather live from cup noodles to maintain my digtal environment.

Fortunately, my life is basically an extension from motorcycle touring, so all I need for sleeping is a camping mat and a sleeping bag. It's not a big deal al all since I slept on sleeping bag for more than a year in Africa.

...Hmm, no man would want to marry a woman like this, I know. That's fine with me.

On January 20th, I held a little gathering called "Web Tea Party". Six people came and had fun talking about the way to make websites. Now I can do this because my new place is pretty big.

I can't do much thing on weekdays because I'm working, but it'll be fun if we gahter on weekends and do something creative.

The way I use my kitchen is not so much for cooking but polishing. For nasty greasy stains, I'd use carburetor cleaner and sandpaper to make it shine like a mirror.
Well, now it sounds like motorcycle....

Anyway, you're welcome to come by and cook. :-)

Written Feb.18 2007 Naoko

There's a famous animation movie called "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" by Hayao Miyazaki. In this movie, the girl flies her jet glider called "Moewe", and the scene of flight was awesome.

But who'd ever imagine making a real Moewe! There's an artist who really made it and flew it.

His name is Kazuhiko Hachiya and he's famous for releasing PostPet. The actual design and construction was done by Mr.Shinohe of Olympos. This project was named OpenSky, and now it's phase 2.

This glider is called M-02. The engine is not ready yet. To fly, the pilot lies on the center of the wing, controls it by weight shifting. Upon launch, it uses rubber catapult. It actually flew 20m above ground without any other power source.

It also has plan to mount a real jet engine in the future.

How could I die without seeint it!? So from that day, I went to see this almost every weekend at ICC gallery.

Since YS-11 has retired from Japanese airlines, there's no more original aircraft from Japan. (Note that Honda Jet is flying in the United States.)

OpenSky is just a personal, small-budget project. It was really something when everyone believes that aircraft development is too costly.
The truth is, you don't have to be a millionaire to build one's original aircraft.

By the way, photographer Go Yamagata came back from his southern African trip recently. Several friends gathered at his place and had a little party. It was a nice and busy month.

Written Mar.17 2007 Naoko

OpenSky was such an influence to me. I went all the way to Tsukuba, where I had an experience flight of hang glider.

It was the same school Sports Opa Kite where Mr.Hachiya had his hang gliding training. There is a famous instructor whose name is Mr.Katsura. He took me to my first tandem flight.

The person who invented this sports must be really brave. To takeoff, the flier must dash down the cliff. If you're without a wing and did the same thing, it's called a suicide. However this tandem glider is well designed, easily carrying 2 people and climbing up the sky.

I saw the trees and rice paddies far beneath, Mr.Katsura made gentle turns like a bird. It was so quiet, I could only hear the wind. This feeling was totally different from powered aircraft.

I couldn't even set up the glider by myself. On the other hand, all the other experienced fliers were soaring high 1500m above the sky. If I could be there someday, what would I see?

My first plan was just to make a one day visit, but I ended up staying in the clubhouse until next day.

How do I carry this heavy wing (over 20kg) by myself? How do I land? I know nothing about this but I thought I want to try this.

Written Apr.21 2007 Naoko