Hirayama-san is a hard-working businessman but he plays in the Jazz band on weekends. This is his performance in his younger days. Still now he plays live performance on the street in Ikebukuro, in the live house in Hokuriku, etc.
Yuka likes travelling foreign countries. This photo was taken in Rome. "A series of Yuka's trip a little bit" might start.
Hiramatsu-san visited the maintenance center of airplanes of All Nippon Airway. It is Boeing 747-400 on the maintenance. Next ones are exhaust exit of APU (the bottom of the plane) and the main engine. A white round mark on the engine is to prevent birds jump into engine. View from the front is like this. She also took photos of seats on the maintenance and very neat tool shelf.
Before the tour, visitors attends a lecture about airplanes. Some questions are asked at the end. Questions are;
Q1. What is a fuel of airplanes ? Where is it stored in planes ?
Q2. Capacity of Boeing 747-400 in domestic lines is 569 passengers and in international lines 337 passengers. Why ?
Q3. Freezing point of fuel for airplanes is minus 47 degree(C) and it is minus 55 degree(C) in average at a height of 10,000m in winter. Why is it freezed ?
Q4. What is a maximum fuel capacity of Boeing 747-400 ?
Q5. There is a rule for fuel loading. What is that ?
Uhm, difficult...
I received answers from Hiramatsu-san. Followings are her text;
Q1.
Fuel of airplanes is kerosene.
I was surprised that it is stored in main and tail wings. Only main wings are used in domestic flight. Tail wings are also used in international flights. And weighing with fuel can balance wings in lifting force. Actually high technique.
Q2.
Because it can save fuel reducing the weight.
Q3.
Because the airplane has friction heat. Jumbo jets fly at mach 0.84 in average and the friction heat is approximately 155 to 200 degree(C). Accordingly the fuel will not be freezed.
In the lecture Nagayama-san asked a question whether an airplane could take off or not when the temparature was under minus 47 degree(C) in the airport. (I heard the temparature could be like that in the north of Sweden in winter.) A guy, an instructor, was embarrassed and said, "I heard a question like that for the first time. I will investigate later."
Q4.
Maxmum fuel capacity is equivalent to 1077 tanks of 200 liter capacity. An airplane consumes fuel equivalent to 58.5 tanks an hour.
This question is very difficult for visitors. My answer was totally different amount. So an instructor gave me a folding fan of ANA.
Q5.
The rule is that the airplane should load fuel necessary for flight to destination, flight from destination to alternative airport and waiting on the air for 45 minutes.
But I feel my memo might be wrong because the plane could not fly when both of the destination and the alternative airport are closed. So loading fuel for round flight could be correct. But it does not make sense for international flight. Should I confirm this to Ikeda-san ?
Part II
Kawabata-san went on a business trip to Texas at the end of last year for a couple of months. He went to see the Rodeo there. Then he had rib steak in the restaurant there. He went there with Ino-chan. In Texas weather changed frequently in winter. It was almost 70 degree on some day and next week they had snow all day. He was scared of driving, as they hardly used tire chain. He took a picture of sunset in Texas.
By the way, he lives in my neighborhood in Japan. The other day he came to my house with his wife and new born baby, Kota. I gave him a putter and No. 4 iron. My wife, Youko held Kota. And Ponchi also visited Kawabata-san's home.
Actually my wife and I stayed in Dallas for three months from the beginning of this year. We were taken care of by Kiyoko, who were studying at the university there. We sometimes invited her to Sushi bar called Mr. Sushi. She ate so much that I was surprised. In this bar we met Michael Rutherford of Genesis. He sometimes had dinner there. (I still remember the bass performance in "The lamb lies down on Broadway".)
We lived in an apartment with one bed room. We felt comfortable in the room.
Yong also took care of us. He was from Malaysia. He bought a house with three bed rooms but it costed one fifth of Japanese one. We were relaxed in the couch drinking beer to watch the tree changing color with setting sun.
Janis, a friend of my wife, visited Tokyo with her daughter, Kathleen. My wife, who has less sense of direction, guided them in Tokyo. They sometimes lost though.
Youko started to learn arrangement flower. She decorates it in the room if it is successful.
Part I
Ponchi likes roller blading. But he disguises himself in the weekends and attends some parties pretending a famous writer like Soseki Natsume. Fumichan went to Hawaii last month and even in Hawaii she needed watermelon for "Suika-wari" (hitting watermelon covering eyes with a cloth). Ponchi, Mitochan and Yachan go friendly and they went to the seashore. They had much fun. Akechan, who is a Senchan's spouse, gave us Sunflowers. By the way Senchan looks like George Harrison. Terry got married. He and his wife went to Turkey for Honeymoon trip. Gucci and Ritchan seem like knowing each other since they were in kinder garden.
Yachan has a sheep. This sheep is originally from Korea.
Yachan visited Yufuin, which locates in Kyushu in south of Japan, with her friends. Snow still remained on the road and the mountain was covered with snow. There were strange statues,
a dog,
a monkey and
Doso-jin.
In Singapore, with Yuki-chan she went to the Night Safari and a down town restrant. The beer is famous Tiger Beer but has few bubble. The foods look delicious. They are the chicken with lemon source, grilled shrimp and vegitables. She walked along the park pretending Meg Ryan.
Keichan visited Egypt a couple of years ago. She went to The Three Great Pyramids in Giza. Her friend took her picture in front of Khufu's Pyramid. Here Sphinx is also famous. Then she went to Luxor. There was a Temple. And she saw two big statues stood.
This year,1996, she visited Morocco. In the desert there was a city in the oasis. In the city there was a tanning workshop and some building. In the early Morning she saw three camel walk on the desert.
Takechan went to Germany for his honeymoon tirp.
Isobe-san is a marathon man. He once attended "Saroma Lake 100 km Marathon" in Hokkaido and completed the race. He and his family like mountain walking. This summer they went to Yarigadake. Find a picture of him with a kid on his back, other family and his friends. And he went to a business trip to Malasia for two weeks on November. I look forward to see the pictures there.
Last year Isobe-san went on a business trip to Malaysia. These are photos of some palace and the hotel that he stayed.
On September 22, big typhoon came to Kanto area. My wife, Youko, worked hard so that trees on the balcony would not tumble by strong wind in the torrential rain.
At the end of this column, I introduce Naomi, Youko's younger sister, and Mio, Naomi's daughter. They were drawen by some famous painter in the style of late 19th century in French. They sat in the balcony by the riverside.
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