Cherry blossom

Cherry blossom

Spring has come. All cherry trees are now blooming in Tokyo area.
But government announced that you should refrain from flower festival or flower-viewing parties under cherry trees, which many people will hope to do so.
The reason why they announced was to consider the thoughts of the evacuees from the great TSUNAMI.
The evacuees are under pressure how to survive the difficulties of poor life condition after the quake.

Many people, however, are thinking that this is bureaucratic thought.
Consumers should consume things you want. Otherwise, our economy will be shrinking rapidly.
Without healthy economy, you can not help the evacuees.
You can support the refugees with buying the products which will be manufactured by the survivors.
In order to rise again, you should not refrain from even flower festival or flower-viewing parties.

The radioactive substances are coming !

The radioactive substance,Iodine 131was found at Kanamachi Wastewater Treatment Works in Tokyo.
This seems to be spewed by Nuclear Plant in Fukushima prefecture in Japan.
Governor has announced that the infants under one year old should NOT  be given tap water as far as possible in specified area.
In announcement, he said he is preparing 240,000 bottled-water for the infants in return.

At a store (2)

At the same store near my office on 24th,March.
They seem to be supplying foods to sell.
Please compare this photo with the other one on my blog.

At a store

This store is located near my office (Yotsuya in Tokyo), having poor stock to sell.
The photo was taken at 8 am.

Scheduled black out

As of 2008, approximately 23% of electric power comes from nuclear power plants in Japan.
Therefore, if the nuclear power plants are damaged, it would be likely for power companies to cut the supply in order to meet the balance between demand and supply.

This is occurring in Japan.
The nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture in Japan was heavily damaged by the quake on 11th, March.
Though the company as well as the government is trying to cool the plant, this does not mean the recovery of the nuclear plants.
This means the prevention effort from nuclear disaster.
Power supply is now short to meet the demand.
The company has decided to cut the power supply to some extent.
This is called "the scheduled black out".
They have divided the Kanto area (the south of the nuclear power plant, 200 km away) into 5 groups.
Day by day they decide what group should be cut the power supply and how long.

No exception about customers.
The trains would be shut the operation. Many stores would be forced to close.
Poor electric power supply might affect manufacturing of food, water,etc.
People those who are afraid of the shortage of foods rush to stores, supermarkets.
People tend to buy more than they need. This cause the real shortage of foods.
The goverment has announced that there are enough foods and people don't need to be afraid.
Worse than this, evacuatee can not buy the foods they need due to the shortage caused by non-evacuee.

This shortage is occurring on the gasoline (petroleum).
People drive around for it but gas stations don't have it to sell !

So the life like this goes around here in Japan.

good things and bad things about the disaster

Good things:
- To understand that we are not alone.
- To know that many friends are concerning about us.
- To understand that many countries are sending troops, helping the quake area.
- To see the politicians stopped futile political fight temporarily.

Bad things:
- The nuclear plant is in danger.
- The scale of tsunami was more than you could have imagined in height, velocity.
- Tsunami will be able to kill more people than earthquake.
- The magnitude of the earthquake this time was the biggest on record.
- The quake could damage the power plants and caused the shortage of electricity supply.
- The public transportations even in central Tokyo are affected due to this shortage.

The life here

Today, I drove my car to a gas station to buy petro but they have stopped selling it due to no petro they have.
So the life without petroleum, LPG, electricity,etc will start soon even here in the central Tokyo.
We will see.

Tsunami

Now I understood very well that tsunami is more dreadful than the earthquake itself (its magnitude was 9.0 from recent report. This is the first value on the record.)

This time tsunami caused by the quake has swallowed the whole town and robbed the life of many people living near the sea.

Reportedly 200 people were found near the sea after tsunami was gone.

Tsunami was faster than you can imagine to evacuate.

You MUST go out of your house as sooner as possible and evacuate to higher places as soon as the official alert was given.

This time reportedly tsunami was 10-meter high, easy to climb over the sea bank or floodwall and left many people died.

The earthquake is not died down yet and keeping Japan shaking continuously.

The next is nuclear power plants in Fukushima prefecture.

They are in danger now.

The biggest earthquake

Yesterday, the biggest earthquake has struck the north of Japan.
When it occurred, I was in a office located in the central Tokyo.
I could not sit in front of my desk. I saw the crack run the wall of the office.
The quake was more than I could imagine.
The decision was made that all employee were to go home with free taxi ticket.
But once I was out of office, no taxi was found only with many many people were walking toward their home.
All public transportation stopped operation.
So I had also decided to walk toward my home, more than 30 km from the office.
While I was walking, I saw some people buying bicycles but other people walking without talking, still no taxi of cource.
After 3 hours, the car of the woman's farther in my group came and picked us, I was lucky.
But traffic jam was terrible. Eventually I was at my home 6hours after leaving the office.
Though I was lucky, I was wondering if other guys in my office could go home in safe.

If the quake like this hits the central tokyo, I think I am not the one of men to survive.

Egret

A egret on a stone lantern in famous KENROKUEN , Japanese old garden, in Kanazawa.

Rescue

A chopper is now rescuing a injured man at a mountain.

A jet streamer over Jizodake

While climbing Jizodake, a jet airplane created nice vapor trail.

A dayfly ?

Dayfly ?

On the way to Mt.Naeba (Naeba-san)

Toshi at the Mata-Suri lock.
Naeba-san is here.

大きな地図で見る

Lotus flower

Lotus flower in Gyoda city

Oze in early summer

Happy holiday !

Santa Claus here is selling "Fried Chickens".

Something good words

Sometimes we need to walk and look off the road.
Here's something good words from the DVD I saw.

"You can't just see the future. You make it."

Isn't this good ?

A Happy New year

2008 has begun.

Flora and fauna - September -

September began with Typhoon #4 hit Tokyo area directly.

Usually after typhoon passes, sunny days come.
This time, it was sizzling hot day come.
It looks like we are still in the mid of summer.
But whether you are aware or not, the sound of season is changing definitely.
Now the crickets are mainly singing in the evening though cicadas are still singing in the day.
And one more thing you may notice is the red dragons flying over your head.
This red dragons flying are the symbol of autumn. Seeing many red drangons flying around makes you feel coolness of autumn.

AWA odori to beat the sizzling summer

AWA odori is used to be held only within Tokushima prefecture in Shikoku district.
Nowadays, this dancing style is getting very popular,eventually held in many prefectures in Japan.
This place (Koenji AWA odori) became famous for it in Tokyo area.
The folk dance is similar to that of Tokushima Prefecture.
You are so relaxed in this mood that even Japanese summer is tolerable for the moment.

Flora and fauna -August-

August in Japan is very humid, or I would say "more than humid".
Typhoons come to Japan with much moisture from Pacific Ocean.
While typhoons are not born in the south of Japan, hot glaring sun covers
over this country.
Nevertheless, some of the insects are very active, enjoying this summer such
as Japanese beetles, stag beetles,cicadas.
How about birds ?
These days, you can hardly see them under trees with a plenty of leaves.
Only what you can notice is that they sing in a loud voice at the top of the
trees, enjoying the freedom from bird-watcher.
This is not good season for us, bird-watcher.
Plants:
Watermelons,peaches, Asian pears, etc are available in this season.
At the beginning of summer, there are lots of watermelons at stores.
But toward the end of the summer, you will find many Asian pears take the place of watermelons. Thus, you can see that the season is changing.

A firework

If you ask about the popular August events, people
might say "matsuri" and "firework".
From large scaled fireworks to small one, there are many places where you can enjoy them.
This firework is called "Niagara Fall" named for that famous Niagra Falls in the North America.

Iris

Iris (pictured at Suigo Botanic Garden in Sawara city in May)

Flora and fauna -July-

The Japanese cicadas have started singing for the first time in this season near my office.
This was a bit strange to me because it has been a little cold these days.
It seems that they know the time to sing.

After strong typhoon raged over Japan, another big earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Offshore on Monday.
There is a nuclear power plant where a radiation leak and transformer fire occurred that day.
All of the plant's seven reactors have been suspended under the order based on the Fire Service Law.

Well this is the Japanese summer where we are in now.
Cicadas are singing peacefully.

The plant of the month:
A green soybean (Japanese name is Edamame) is very popular vegetables in Japan.
People eat it especially in summer with a glass of beer.
This goes very well with beer.
A lot of protein is included in a young Edamame. Besides not expensive.
Healthy thing (Edamame) goes with Non-healthy (Beer).
This is the matter of balance ;)

The bird of the month:
Ficedula narcissina (Japanese name is "Kibitaki")
It is one of the best singing birds in Japan.
Though they are rarely spotted in due to many leaves on a tree, high tone of singing is heard in a forest.

***

Typhoon No4

The fourth typhoon in this season is raging in Japan.
This photo shows this typhoon is now coming to Tokyo area.
Reportedly 3 people died, 73 injured so far.
Tokyo area will have 100 mm amount of rainfall.
Heavy rain will be expected in the afternoon today here.
Met office is warning tidal waves, strong wind and heavy rain along its path.

Flora and fauna -June-

Though finally Met Office declared that Tokyo area got into rainy season, there has been less rain compared to normal season.
They say this is due to La Nina event which brings abnormal weather around the area.
Met Office will announce the rainy season will end soon and shorter than last year.
This seems to be good but I know that this means very hot, muggy weather will come.
That may also bring the shortage of water supply in Tokyo area.

The plant of the month:
Hydrangea. This plant bloom in this rainy season, changes the color of the flowers from pink to blue, purple under rain.







The bird of the month:
Blue-and-White Flycatcher(Cynoptila cyanomelana)

Flora and fauna -May-

May is good season for plants, birds as well as people here.
Farmers begin bedding out young plants such as corns.
I have found swallows flying over my head.
New nest was also found at a station.
All those things are symptom of rainy season coming.

This is the photo of corn field near my house.
A farmer has planted baby plants, expecting many sweet corns grow.









The plant of the month

This is the photo of moss pink (Phlox subulata).
Perennial plant makes you delighted every year .
The flowers are small with 5 petals, and bloom in rose, white, or pink in late spring to early summer.
You can grow this under full sun and in well-drained soil.






The bird of the month.
Of course, the swallow is the bird of this month.
Swallows are considered as good birds in Japan.
Because, they eat bugs such as mosquitoes which annoy people.
You will find the nest of this bird at local railway stations, any places good for growing babies.
When you see this birds flying over your head, this means that the season is changing from spring to early summer (rainy season).

Golden Week in May

One of favorite month of the year should be May.
That May has "Golden week" is one reason.
May will be followed by that notorious Baiu Season (rainy seaon ) in June.

Golden Week is consist fo several public holidays as follows.
- April 29
Greenery Day, or Nature Day
- May 3
Constitution Memorial Day
- May 4
People's Day, or Citizen's Day
- May 5
Children's Day

May Day (on May 1) is not a public holiday, but is nevertheless often granted as a holiday by many companies.
The rule is, when a public holiday is on a Sunday, the next day tbecomes a holiday for that year.

Flora and fauna -April-

As usual year, April started with Japanese Cherry Blossom flowering against windy weather.
The life time of flowering of this blossom is very short, about one week or so.
This is why people here like this trees.
At the time I write this article, flowering ended, many trees are growing many leaves.
April starts with Cherry Blossom and ends with the beginning of so-called "Golden Week".

The plant of this month:
I would like the tiny plant, "Erythronium japonicdum".
This plant is also to flower at the beginning of April, does not last long.
It is not popular flower but grows at limited place like a sunny slope of hill.
You would notice that the flower petal is very unique.

The bird of this month:
It is Japanese Bush Warbler (Uguisu).
This birds will sing from April, therefore people think of this bird as a herald of springtime.
They are more often heard than seen.
Along with this uguise, great tit's singing is heard in many places.
Yes, spring has come with birds singing.
---

Yellow sand

Today, Japan was widely covered with Yellow Sand from China.
This sand was carried on strong wind from China.
TV news said many cities in Japan were coated with annoying sand.

In this time of the season, this is the typical example of bad things here.
This climate phenomenon seems to become very heavy year after year.

That many woods are reportedly cut for houses, paper, etc in China is one of the reason which cause this heavy yellow sand to be worse than ever.

Erythronium japonicum

Erythronium japonicdum.
You can see this flower in a grove but only for about two or three weeks.
Only this season.
I myself took this photo.

The cherry blossom

Every year, Met Office make announcement when this pretty pink blossom of cherries will bloom.
This winter season was very warm and they forecasted it will bloom quite earlier than regular season.
But this prediction was wrong though they said it was due to a software bug of hi-tech computer program.
Anyway,cherry season begun. Many people will take a walk under those trees.
This time of the year is one of the best season in Japan.
Warm, little rain.

Flora and fauna -March-

I was asked to write Japanese flora and fauna by Jim .
From this month, therefore, I will write what I am interested in Japanese plants, birds.

March.
The plants of this month:
I chose "daphne" as the plant of this month.
In the middle of March, sweet smell of daphne begins to hang over around the outskirt of Tokyo.
You can sense that long dark season will end, warm comfortable season will start with this smell.
As you may know, the North of Japan is still cold while the south of Japan is now very warm because Japan is vertically long country.
Tokyo are, where I live, is the centre of Japan and now this smell is going around with this reason.







The birds of this month:
I would like to choose (Japanese) White-eye as the bird of this month.
The eyes are surrounded with white color and its body is tiny, greenish.
They are seen on the branch of Japanese plum trees (Ume) with many flowers.
Those birds like to suck sweets from flowers of Japanese plum trees.
People like those tiny lovely birds and sense the cold season is beginning to end.

Too windy for an umbrella

This is the debris after strong wind blew this area (Tokyo).
I clearly remember that I asked my friend why you don't use an umbrella there in stead of wearing rain-jacket when I was in UK.
At that time, I thought people in UK would NOT like them.
His answer was very clear. "too windy to use it here."

Although this type of umbrellas are very cheap to use under very bad condition (windy) in Tokyo, many people seemed to have been uneasy to use them on that day here.

Wow ! This is me with many acupuncture needles on my back !
These needles are for the therapy of stiffness in my shoulder.
Other than these points, there are many good points in human body to relax those stiffness.
Many things to learn.

Matsuri

Matsuri is a Japanese word for a festival.
This drum (Taiko) is used for that festival.

Another cicada

Here is another cicada singing this season.
I found this on a tree near the office.

The ball made from Japan Cedar

This balls are made from Japan Cedar.
At most of Japanese Sake Distllers, they hang these balls to show the process of making new sake start.
The color of balls is green but become brown at the end to imply the process end.
They hang balls but also to make a wish of success of the process.

A distiller of Japanese Sake

A friend of mine living in Scottland took me to a distiller of Scotch Whiskey.
Now in return, I want to show him a distiller of Japanese Sake.

Tsuruga castle in Aizu Prefecture

This castle was destroyed at the battle between conservative and radical of Edo Regime.
Though re-built, no more samurais but only the spirit was remained there.

Bandai San in Fukushima Prefecture

This photo was taken near lake Inawashiro.

Mirror

At every corners on the roads in Japan, there are this kind of mirrors ,which are very convenient for drivers as well as pedestrians.
T shape junctions are very dangerous and tend to cause many accidents.
Although this is very useful, I had not seen even one tiny mirros in UK.

Rush hour

Would you like to see real RUSH HOUR ?
Here is one at a station in TOKYO.
This is the scene at near the ticket gate.
Trains are more packed than this.
Come and enjoy the life !

World PC Expo

At World PC Expo held in TOKYO, there were many charming women like this, working busily, attracting many business men.

What this woman was showing was demo CD of a game.
Behind her were PC chassis, LCD, etc.

This is typical scene at exhibitions here.
It is good to see but sometimes it can be embarrassment.

Gift from a friend living in Highland

When I tried to drink a single molt whiskey in UK, my colleague advised me not to drink this mixing with water and this whiskey.
Although this drinking style (mixing whiskey with water) is popular in Japan, you could lose good flavor of good whiskey by doing so.

This whiskey of photo is the gift from my friend living in Highland.
Should I drink this Japanese way or not ?

The sign of autumn

The dragonflies with red tail are the sign of autumn in Japan.
After cicadas, you can see this insects flying in a grass field.

Buddha in Kamakura

Kamakura is the city located in an hour train trip from Tokyo.
This big buddha made of bronze is in this city.
The height is 12.38m, made in 1243.
Then current, this buddha was made of woods.
Strong wind, several typhoons destroyed this budda since then.
Now rebuilt in 1495, sitting like photo.

Cicada

This cicada I found at lesure park is the famous insect singin in the mid of summer.
We feel the hot summer when this cicadas start singing loudly.
This is very peaceful insect with no sting, just sucking juice from tree.

Earthquake again

When the strong earthquake hit northeatern Japan (Sendai), I was on 10th floor of a office building.

I felt slight vibration followed by strong holizontal force of earthquake at that time.
It caused me a bit dizzy and made me lots of scared.

Attached is the newspaper article of Kyodo.

◆ Powerful quake strikes northeastern Japan, tsunami warning issued.
A powerful earthquake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, struck northeastern Japan just before noon Tuesday and a tsunami alert has been issued for the coastal region of Miyagi Prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Many in the city of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi, were reported injured, according to the local fire department. The Japanese government has set up a task force at the crisis management center of the prime minister's office.

The quake, also felt in Tokyo, originated off the coast of the prefecture, the agency said.
JR Shinkansen bullet train services from Tokyo have been suspended temporarily, the train operator said.

The town of Kawasaki in Miyagi registered lower 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of seven, the meteorological agency said.

The Summer in Japan

Popular events/things in the summer of Japan are,to my memory, big summer festivals such as "Nebuta matsuri", "Kanto matsuri".
But you might be able to find more interesting thing.
That is "many cicadas singing" in a park, forest wherever they can find to sing.
Without this pepole might be unable to feel that real summer has come.
I will try to take a photo of a cicada next time if I can catch it.

My dog called "Baron" now is bone tired of too humidity.

Finally I am in Japan

To be honest, when our plain took off Heathrow airport and saw the land around airport underneath,I felt some melancholy.
Possibly it was caused by those friends (English buddies,Irish,Welsh guy and a Highlander,etc).
But life goes on without me !

On the contrary,when I got out of airport to the bus station, that muggy air came to me,made me dizzy. What awful temperature (more than 30 degree,high humidity)!
So it is strange to say but what I am missing now is UK WEATHER !!!