Saturday, May 07, 2011

A Happy Mother's Day

To all of sisters around the world, also to my beloved mom and my then younger sister Mariko (1971-2002), I'll send congratulations for this special day !

To be honest ... me as man, I didn't make much of it as women do before my sister passes and my mom gets sick. But as time goes by, it has become a different meaning to me, especially mom and I have left apart, and I have stayed home just alone.

Also to my beloved sister Mariko, who turns out to be 40 if she were alive, I'll send both of you guys a lovely flower as a token of my gratitude being a part of my family !

Thank you so much and A Happy Mother's Day to you both !


Sunday, May 01, 2011

Make yourself at home !


Already May came in, and we are spending Golden Week nationwide here in Japan. About Golden Week, you can also check Holidays of Japan, where you can discover more a lot. 

As you know, I usually mention social realms here on my introduction. However I cannot come up with any other topics except our devastation though I have already referred to it dozens of times over a couple of months.
Today let me just take you to the beautiful photo tour that makes you captivate and feel more relaxed for sure.
I listed up top 10 beautiful photos on my own judgment among all, which are in my Facebook photo albums.
Enjoy!


































Most of these photos were taken in my neighborhood. Even Cherry Flowers went all the way up to north, there still a bunch of beautiful flowers as you see in the picture. 

For details, visit http://goo.gl/photos/UGSPwmki4m where you can find further information about each photo. 

Friday, April 15, 2011

A Beautiful Cherry Blossoms

As for the given topic, I have previously mentioned how it is like on one of my blog archives, and here is a link.
http://dousinfinity.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

And here are my photos of Sakura from Picasa Web Album to help you understand and expand your imagination for those who have yet to seen this tremendously beautiful landscape.
Hope you enjoy it to your heart content.











Monday, April 11, 2011

One month passed after catastrophe occurred...

So precisely a month passed after huge Earthquake and Tsunami occurred. It was Mar 11, and today is Apr 11.
During this period of times, we had to face onto a series of ordeals, for example, the scheduled power outage, lack of distribution (food & water supply) or lack of fuel, or lack of medical supply.
And all mass transits were completely disrupted and got us stranded at the sight.

Also there was an ensuing explosion of hydrogen in each reactor (No1 through No4 respectively) at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant...And the function of cooling the nuclear fuel has ruined, where the contaminated water leaked out onto the ocean. Moreover, high concentration of radioactive substances was detected in contaminated water, and some staff working at the power plant were exposed to radiation and were taken to the hospital to take medication. Luckily they were quite alright and were able to check out in a few days after hospitalization. And also some expert says the amount of diffusion of radiations far more exceeds that of Three Mile Island accident in 1979, or even exceeds the amount of Chernobyl disaster in 1986, the damage of Fukushima is the worst, says he.

It is ashamed of saying that I'm not well-informed about this issue, not speculative, not discerning at all about the mechanism of this vicious circle of the crippled power plant. But at least what I could surely say is contamination is still continuing even at a break-neck speed, no matter how tenaciously our suppliers work on it to hold back against its diffusion around the clock..

Far from that, what made us stagger was the government and the supplier kept telling us everything is OK and not to worry. But as expansion of damage caused from the power plant came into light, gradually they had to spill the beans that they were totally mistaken. What was conspicuous is some radioactive substances were detected from a certain filtration plant in the residential districts of Tokyo. And the government and the supplier told us not to let under 1 year old baby drink tap water. The ensuing panic occurred right after news was televised, and the government couldn't help but admit the amount of exposure of radiation was too immense at the press conference.

The news spread throughout a whole world right off the bat, and the worst came to worst.
Which is, high concentration of the radioactive substance was detected at some harvested vegetables.
The government ordered some farmers who are involved in to stop shipping, and this drove one farmer, 64, into a corner, and got him committed suicide.

Furthermore, not only neighboring countries (like South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Singapore...etc) but also EU nations, North & South America, and Oceania sensitively waded thorough a lot of info concerning the issue, and have begun to regulate or to ban importing crops from Japan.
A few days ago, India has announced that they will ban all commodities from Japan over the next 3 months, and it does surely influence to our gross domestic product (GDP) to a large extent, it does shrink our economy as well which relies on foreign consumptions.

Above all, our concerns are there are still a lot of people who are missing near the stricken area, which is up to 14,000 people or more.
Casualties are still increasing. Currently, more than 13,000 people had already lost their lives during these periods. There are still over 150,000 evacuees in nearly 1,800 shelters nationwide. Many houses washed away or subsided because of huge tsunami, and the temporary housings are under construction at the moment though it takes months to be accomplished.
Food, water, and medical supply is still not enough, and many people live near the epicenter lost their jobs or companies themselves, and are forced to restore their living from scratch.

Yesterday there was the 17th unified regional election here in Japan, and Shintaro Ishihara the incumbent governor of Tokyo, was reelected. And the 4th terms of his taking office has just taken off the ground.

He said at the press conference that we citizens must restraint greediness or egoism and we need to be frugal with money. It is obvious that our egoism put this nation in jeopardy. He also mentioned what the most fruitless is the Pachinko Parlors and the more than enough of vending machines. If those are petered out soon, we can save nearly 10 million kW of power which is equivalent to the amount of Fukushima power plant, says he.

Yes, I agree with his point, but didn't vote for him yesterday. It is just because he is already 78, and it is uncertain whether he could serve out his term or not. He may kick the bucket before that by any chance. And 78 year old man tends to be obstinate and conservative on the whole. And yet he was reelected, because of evaluation of 12 years of his careers served as a governor of Tokyo. And we must admit it is indisputable fact like it or not. And we all know Japan is spending hard times and we need to restore it no matter what.

Come to think of it, my then dad (1934-2004) told me before passing that he delivered a speech in one of my cousin's wedding ceremony, saying that he quoted one of the famous speech of then US president John F Kennedy;

Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

Needless to say, it is a very profound wise saying. It is often cited in many scenes in our society, for example like CEO's speech at some joining ceremonies, even more than a half of century passed by from the Inauguration Day of Kennedy's.

It seemed Ishihara's speech implied what then US president showed us. Indeed I've found this at every turn at the press conference.
I must admit we are inclined to pass the buck to our government once unexpected things have occurred, maybe it's true. And of course, it is their duty to make tenacious effort to get things back on course, especially when the imminent danger is likely to happen, of course.

But also we have got to think of what we can do for now. It has to be a long long battle, I assume. How long will it take to be in the chips is anyone's guess, but I'll try in my utmost.
Well, thank you all the viewers who are kindly enough to share the topics.

Take

                
       

                     

Monday, March 14, 2011

The aftermath of natural disaster

Almost 3 days passed after the incident occurred, seems there're no signs of reconstruction. Still the society is thrown into confusion. Some mass transit is disrupted (no operations in some lines), so cannot go anywhere.
Still Tsunami is likely to be generated at any time. Aftershock of the earthquake occurred hundreds of times so far...and there also was an explosion at another power plant in Fukushima. Residents are now in uproar and are asked to evacuate nearby.

About blackout, Tokyo Electric Power Company announced that they will implement for about 3 hours respectively by separating into 5 groups. Mine is supposed to be 16:50-19:50 today. During this period, any electronic devices cannot be used. Just wait and see how it goes for awhile.
There still remains to be seen as of tomorrow.

In many convenience stores or supermarkets, many commodities were already sold out as if they were looted, so it's not easy to come by food and drinks if contingency still continues.

We feel like as if we were back in 1940S, where the World War Ⅱ is taken place, it's not too exaggerated at all!
It is obvious that a threatening disaster hampers social activities to a large extent. And there might be another influx of people who are flocking to the refuge here and there, and the casualties are piled up once contingency has happened any time.

Still aftershock happens occasionally, so you cannot be too careful around it!