Looking back to 2011

I have been updated my blog more than 80times in 2011. I appreciated that many people gave cherful message and help my writing in Enlgish.

I thought almost all Japanese have had jetcoaster riding like experience ranging from devastating tsunami, huge earthquake, new clear accident in Fukushima Daiichi powerplant, to the contaminated radioactive substance issue. Honestly speaking, I have never experienced such horrible year than before. I don't want say it was a apocaliptic event, but we need to review so that we can learn how we can overcome this disaster coming new year. I gave condolence to affected and missing people again and I will do my best to restore normal condition in Tohoku region in the near future.

Through these tough lesson, I realized that Japanese have the respectful nationality that can help affected people when they face tough situation.

There was a good news. Nadesiko Japan(Female Japanese Soccer team) got the championship at the female soccer world cup.Their win gave depressed Japanese a lot of energies.

Globally looking, authoritiy transitions, what is called 'Arab Spring', sporadically happened in Sabsahara.

The pressure from citizens toppled Colonel Gaddafi and President Mubarak regime.

Credit crunch has convulsed European Union society. Salcogi and Merkel is trying to stabilize the European Economy.

I will keep on being update my blog and thinking globally.

To shed and forget all of the  things that we've had this year, my family and I have decided to visit Kusatsu spa resort. From the bus terminal station at shinjyuku, it took us four hours to reach the resort by a bus. Arriving at Kusatsu, the comfortable sulfurous smelling and ubiquitous steam from springs welcomed us. It was snowing outside.

Controversial topic:Japanese Whaling

Is it reasonable for one race to criticize the other country's food culture? Or is it really an issue to put in a discussion table or dining table? In my opinion, it is sometimes worth preserving especially whaling. The whaling issue is now boiling in some neighboring countries especially in southern Pacific area. Japanese whaling research is rammed by Australian Green Peace and Sea Shepherd. Their objective is to terminate our food culture. They created a TV program which justifies their battle against the Japanese fleet.

http://animal.discovery.com/videos/whale-wars/

This TV program is maybe trying to get the affirmation of other people to agree with Sea shepherd's activity. This program can give viewers action scenes like the Pirates of Carribian or something.
When I was a child, my father used to give me a slice of frozen whale meat after he arrived home from work. The fresh and peculiar smell always stimulated my apettite. Seafood culture including whale meat is deeply rooted in Japan. It is said that Japanese whaling has continued for more than 16,000 years.

 It is true that we should not exploit the limited resourses, but we mainly catch a certain amount of Minke whales which have 10 meter length and about 8 tons weight and live in southern hemisphere in accordance with IWC rules. According to the survey on the Minke whales population done by Japanese government in 2008, there were more than 650,000 Minke whales in the southern hemisphere. IWC admitted that we had maintained the total numbers of Minke whales and could preserve them. We have embraced our whale meat culture under global rules. 

While they are developing anti-whaling activity, they are abusing their treasured animals such as Kangaroos, Thylacinus cynocephalus, and dingos. A dingo is a kind of wild dog which Aboligini had as their pet in old age. Dingo always eats sheeps, so Australians think of dingo as menace ,and try to exterminate almost all Dingo. Consequently Dingo has become on the verge of extinction and designated as endangered spices by world Wildlife Fund. Kangaroos, which are one of the iconic animal in Australia, have eaten by Australian as daily foods. Foreign people don't know about it because this fact is not publicly disclosed. Thylacinus cynocephalus, which was one of  the unique Australian animal and has already disappear in the world, were rampantly killed by  European settlers in 20th century.

If someone feel guilty of eating whale meat, then they should learn how Australian treat for their precious animals domestically.

How much big does Kyto protocol postponement?

Global Japanese Part Ⅱ

Is he the Saviour of Osaka?

This man, whose name is Hashimoto Tooru, successfuly got rid of the former termite king from the insect colony. His lethal weapon was not insecticide but the ''Osaka Metropolitan Vision"  that consolidates Osaka City and Osaka Prefecture, which is supported by Osaka citizens.

Osaka City was dominated by lax city officials including the former city governor. They kept on wasting tax revenue in constructing similar buildings like museums. They also made a lot of affilliated organizations and overlooked the duplicate projects across the city so that they could retain their vested interest. Consequently, the finance of Osaka City got critically worse and in the verge of bankrupcy like Greece's.

Hashimoto, a former Osaka prefectural governor, denounced that the Osaka City local officals were a myriad of termites which devoured tax. He announced that ancient regime needed to be demolished and overhauled. As he felt he needed to interfere with local administration to stop the financial crisis, he resigned from the position of prefectural governor and aggresively joined the mayoral election in Osaka City. Although the former city governor was endorsed by Japanese Democratic Party and Liberal Democratic Party, Hashimoto defeated him with the strong support from the furious Osaka citizens.

Before he tapped into the local administration, his main job was being a lawyer. He stole the limelight when he appeared on a famous TV program—''The law firm that attracts a long line of people." His aggresive comments and strong character captured the viewers, and that TV program has been running for more than nine years now. As he was keen to local government administrations, he decided to run as Osaka prefectural governor and won the elections.

He aggressively streamlined the local administration to recover from a bad financial status. He succeeded in municipal services drastically, and the city's financial condition is going upward now. I hope he will succeed in making termites-like servants real servants for citizens, and then make his way into metropolitan Tokyo's pandemonium.

How can we overcome extravagant food issues?

Frankly speaking, Japan is a special country that suffers from sumptuous problems, which never happen to the countries facing abjected poverty. Although we have enough affluent and bountiful land to cultivate crops, government has restricted or demorilized farmers from producing crops. If people in poor countries such as Ethiopia or Somaria know about that, they might get angry with us. Globally thinking, we are living in a strange country which has left an affluent land abandoned and uncultivated for dacades.

Japan, farmlands left uncultivated for a long time, and dwindling and aging famer issues has dominated agricultural field domestically, encounters such unlikely problem of uncultivated land that other poor countries could actually envy us.

There are several reasons for that. First of all, transition to domestic industry structures, Japanese government sifted agriculture focused industry into manufucture after WWⅡ. On top of that, as the land price of Japan is basically very high, so land owners have shifted their farm land into a factory or office, commerce building because they can earn more profit rather than the first industry.

Firstly, it is essential for Japanese government to make the best of uncultivated land to increase food supply. the land should be monetary and properly rewarded if it can produce bountiful crops. Second is, employment matching. Government should encourage unversity students, who seek job oppotunity but have difficulty in finding it due to bad economy, to enter the agricultural business. They can be the strong candidate for tackling with these problems and revitalizing domestic food business. Third is, to beef up the strength of agricultural products. As our government decided to agree TPP, we will have to open our food market to foreign competitor in the future. We should strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic food and bring them into foreign market to win the global competition.

In conclusion, there are a lot of thing that we can do for agricultural crisis, so we surely settle down this issue.

How can we overcome the global food crisis?

According to UN Population Fund reports, the  population in the world has reached 70 billion this year. This number will increase to100 billion in the begining of 22th centrury. It is inevitable for us to think about the food shortage problem seriously because overpolulation will threaten not only the balance of our daily food supply but also that of future generations.

To avoid food shortage, we should take following actions to abate this problem. One thing is, to expand genetically modified food to the poor country.  Crops that is resitant to dry and grow rapidly can meet people in poor country. They need minimun food that they can survive in the quandary. Second is to give poor people education to minimize birth rate. Having more baby can be a burden for food supply.

The last thing is to make use of land that can be cultivated. In Japan, uncultivated lands are increasing, while poor people don't have enough land to grow crops. We should recultivate these land so that we can be self sufficient in food.

How should we recultivate farmland in Japan?

After Prime Minister Noda announced that he decided to join TPP, agriculture issues have come to the spotlight. Fruits and vegetables are produced by 2.6M farmers in our country, which makes up 3% of total of the Japanese population.

According to Agriculture and fishery Ministry survey, they reported that Japanese self sufficiency rate in food has droped by less than 40% in 2011. This is based on domestic calory consumption, not domestic gross production.  After World War Ⅱ, Japan has shifted agriculture focused  industry into manufucturing industry, consequently Japan made miracle recovery from the ashes and expanded GDP explosively.

But Japanese government has left agriculture industry issue unsolved.  Apparently there are several critical issues in agriculture.  One thing is, aging problem. farmer's average age is around 65.  Aging farmer and dwindling engagers number are on the rise. Second is labor shortage. Many farmer give up succeeding to their business because there is no successor. Thrid is, total uncultivated land size in Japan has reached as large as Saitama prefecuture. Although we have enough lands to cultivate crops or rice, human resource issue is the key factor to revitalize farm lands.

To recover these declining situation, government decided to pay incentive for unmotivated farmer to quit farming and consolidate farmland to enhance productivity. Japanese Democratic party implemented financial reimbursement system for both full time farmers and part-time farmers in 2007.    

Government pays 15,000 yen per 10 al square of the farmland to protect farmers livelihood. The problem is, whether he is a full time farmer or a part time farmer or not, they can fairly get financial support. There are some opinions arise that government should  pay more the full time farmers rather than the part time farmers to boost agricultural activities and their business. Aside from our domestic issue, the overpopulation around the world will threaten global food supply in the near future. Before we face food crisis, we should make use of our affluent and bountiful mother nature.

Be careful about diabates!!

According to the survey done by International Diabates Fundation in 2011, 366M people in the world ?have?suffered from diabates. this number is up by around 10% in comparison with last year.

It reported that China is the largest ? ?in the world this time. It amounts to 90M patients.?The increase in Asian region is remarkable in this survey.

Food culture to eat cheaper and high calory food are widspread diabites. It is essential that people should have enough exersise and healthy foods.

Bhutan King's speech in Japan.

Which country should people choose to live？ On economically rich but mentally ill or mentally rich but economically developing? In my case, I want to live in the mentally saturated society, so I want to live in a place like Bhutan.

Honestly speaking, Bhutan's King and Queen, who came from the most mentally prosperous country  in the world, gave Japanese many hints to live happy life. They visited Japan this week. After they got hospitabilty from Japanese VIP, they visited Soma city, Fukushima Prefecture, where residents are still suffering from devastating tsunami and nuclear accidents at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Royal couple met local residents and gave them strong and cheerful message.

King told the residents that everyone has Dragon in each mind. The dragon can grow stronger if it faces and overcomes tough situation. He was sure that people in Fukushima can raise mighty dragon and revive from this plight. He commented that Japan absolutely will recover from tough situation in the future. He expressed appreciation from aid from Japan. One Japanese has support agriculture in Butan and made Butan flourlished drastically than before.

Global Japanese Part Ⅰ Wild Cat like- Neko Hiroshi

Recently Japan has  been getting tiny like a cat's forehead for open-minded Japanese. Some of the Japanese comedians have become busy because their activity expand dually and globally.

Neko Hiroshi, who is an comedian and has his radio program every Wendsday at local radio, got the nationality of Cambodia.

http://blog.oricon.co.jp/neko_hiroshi/

In his profession, he may be a cat in sheep's clothing(Nekokaburi). But when it comes to runnning, he always shows his real ability. He participated in famous half Marathon which was held in Cambodia last December. He won bronze medal at that contest.

Cambodian Olympic Association admitted his ability and offered him to join the representative as Cambodia athlete for the next Olympic. He will join the South East Asian Marathon contest as a Cambodia representative next time. I hope his success as a international runner!!

Suicide issue: Japan VS Korea

Although Korea has gotten runaway success in global business recently, Korean has also become the most disgraceful country in the world in terms of citizens mental deterioration. More than 40 Korean people are taking away their lives a day because they have become mentally depressed.  This number is the highest in OECD listed countries.      

50 years ago, they fought against communist Koreans, after which, they divided their country into north and south. they established independent cultures. They established a culture wherein the only successful people are those who go to a famous University and work in a big company.

To achieve these goals, parents never hesitate to invest large amount of money to make their children survive in the fierce competition. Mothers willingly take their children to the Philippines to master English, while Gireogi appa* are working to finance tuition. If their children fail to achieve his goal, he will lose his way and reach impasse in his life. After they graduate from famous university, they need to win dog eat dog battle in search of job opportunity. Even after they can successfully enter prestigious company, their competition never end.　They keep on protecting the limited job position in the company. They are living with fearing for losing their fames and achievements.

Consequently, people in the wide range of generation commit a suicide in this country.

    

Compared with Korea, Japan also has high suicide rate, but it is smaller than that of Korea. The reason why Japanese commit a suicide is different from  Although Korean government set many anti-suicide counseling center and campaign.The government doesn't have a complete grasp of those who wanted to kill themselves.

dinner.

How should we cope with delicate situation in our neighbor?

If Japan try to get along with Asian largest countries,  Uncle Sam certainly feels jerlous of Japanes attitude. If Japan triesto be dependent on the country across the Pacific, communist country complain about Japanese expedient stance.  For Japanese politician, deplomacy is literally like a tightrope walking.  Japanese government always need to express their opinion in delicate manner. Through TPP negotiation this times, I'd like to Prime Minister Noda to learn how to develop tactical discussion skills. American President Ohbama has met three Japanese Prime Minister in his presidency. He surely feels that Japan should launch President system in the election.  

How should we defeat the TPP monster?

As people in the world historically fear unknown threat like Basilisk in ancient anecdotes or Godzilla in modern age, people try to shun these things in daily life. It may be true to the TPP issue in Japan. Maehara Seiji, the chairman of Policy Bureau, commented that TPP was like a monster that haunted anxious Japanese mind.
Previously, I sided with the opposition, but I try to attack this monster in a different perspective. I turned to understand what it is like to join the TPP. I wrongly commented at my previous blog, so I corrected it today.

This time medical service fields are exempted from TPP negotiation. The Japanese Medical Association fiercely opposed the TPP since they fear the medical industry might turn into a profit-generating service.

 Australia and New Zealand are also against the insufficient inspection of BSE-contaminated meat, pesticide-contaminated vegetables,  and genetically modified food entering the domestic market.
Japan will do the same thing and impede the import of low-quality and suspicious meat and produce.

Besides these negotiable fields, we will have to revise our business and other civil law to ratify the TPP.  We need to dig deeper into the background why this TPP monster springs up.  We have not known whole and true image of TPP. Government should disclose all information that they have to the public. Citizens can't judge wether they should  support TPP or not.

TPP
Prime Minister Noda is facing 
the new and challenging phase to settle down critical issue, TPP. 

 It seems to be important for Prime Minister Noda to actively join the round table discussion at TPP.
Possiblly he  may have the chance to draw some compromises during his negotiation. 

medical treatment combined with public insurance and 混合診療 
We should not degrade Japanese medical service  

Fat and charming masquet character(Yuru Chara) battle in Japan

Population in the world finally reached 7 billion.

Can Government handle bicycle issue in Japan?

On October 25th, Japanese National Police Agency Police officially wheeled out that bicycle riders should basically pass through roadside not the sidewalk.

 http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20111026ddm003040054000c.html

This announcement hit bicycle rider heavily. They also regarded bicycle as dangerous tools to pedestrian. 

But they have put bicycle related issue aside for more than 40 years. Roads in Japan have been improved for mainly car usage. Reconstruction for the bicycle road depends on how much local official take this serious matter.

These days bicycle riders are increasing due to bad economy and healthy boom. After March 11th earthquake, bicycle commuter has drastically swelled. Along with this, bicycle related accident also surge. According to the report from the traffic safety association, there is around 30,000,000 yen lawcase in the past few years. A female high school students hit a elder woman by her bicycle on her way to school and the woman has suffered partial paralysis. She filed a lawsuit against high school girl and won the case.

We need look for a compromise so that our societies can harmonize with bicycles.

Do we really need to agree with TPP?

TPP has become as boiling as historic landing of Commodore Matthew Perry in Yokosuka, Kanagaw Pref. Japanese citizens are paying attention to TPP, which is an abbreviation of Trans-Pacific Partnership. At first, the media and the government publicized that we absolutely would lag behind other countries especially in agricultural industry if we missed joining this trade aggreement.They focused on farm industry so much that most of the Japanese thought that we should open our countries to other nations in the Pacific region. I am the one of the supporters of TPP.

But, in fact, we realized that our government and the Foreign Affairs Department restricted some information related to TPP because it is a diplomatic issue. Many Japanese don't know that there are a variety of articles that we must agree on in TPP not only on agriculture. There are 24 articles tackled in TPP ranging from medical services down to financial. It covers a lot of industries. If we approve of the TPP, it is possible that our lifestyle will change completely. For example, TPP will abate the quality of medical services in Japan. TPP regards medical services profit oriented-activities, therefore profit seeker hospitals reduce the medical  services that they can't gain enough profit. Consequently, TPP will abate the quality of medical service in Japan. Now I'm taking back my previous stand. Now, I'm totally opposed to TPP.

Before Prime Minister Noda join the discussion table, we need to know what it's all about TPP and assess the impact of aftermath precisely.

What made Arab change?

People around the world are paying close attention to the future of the Arab region. After the democratic uprising in Egypt has overturned President Mubarak's dynasty, Libyan people's anger took away the tyrannical Colonel Gaddafi's life. The residents in other Sub-Saharan countries are fighting against Ancient Regime.

Some political scientists called this series of civil wars  'Arab spring'. They were triggered by many aspects. One of these, I think, was the social strata. While the rich protect their vested interest, the poors people stayed poor; the more the population increases, the less chance people can find employment. Food prices are soaring, on the other hand, their salarys remain the same.

Second thing was the advancement of information technology. As people start to share current information through Facebook, twitter, and skype. They were updated of tremendous information on the deed of their dictator to the citizens. These digital tools can abet citizens to spread nationwide democratic movement. Internet viewers in the world realized that convinients tools sometimes can be lethal weapon.

After tyrants have gone now, Libian and Egyptian indulge themselves in thier victory transiently. But the goal to be domocratic society may be long way because there's no order in their social system. If same type of dictatorship get the privilage, same thing can happen to Egypt and Libia. So neighboring countries should support their economy and the restructuring of the country.

Job's spirit carry on foever..

After Steve Jobs passed away, people increasingly have defied him a legendary  innovater in the world.

I keep on having ingenious creativity he gave us and to be loyal to inovative Apple products.

Steve Jobs admired Japanese Buddism. His intuitive and sensitive mind was partly affected by Japanese religion.
spirit of Zen
which will be launched.
Otogawa Koobun
monk of SOTO ZEN Buddhism
Califolnia
He enlightened their Buddism in Califolnia.
serve Jobs's wedding ceremony.
Jobs learned from him that 
He was appointed as  the  religious director of Next corp in 1986.
In 2002, misfortune attacked him, he died from drawing to rescue her daughter in a lake during his religious promotional visit in Swizland.

After we went to our accomodation, we exchanged the experience that we had at each site.  One of my colleague who joined chat with victims presented how he felt during his volunteer activity.
At first he had a confidence to comtunicate with affected people just before he got community center. He thought that he could ease their anxiety and cheer them up by sympathazing their miserable situation. Unexpectedly, he was asked not to mention the disaster related issue just before he met them, he was very embarassed at the caution. When they met at the community center,
they had not known each other.   He said that it was his additional surprise. While they were talking, they tended to go back to catastrophic memory, so he spent their energy in keeping his emotion normal while they were chatting.  I realized that the volnteer center played an impmrtant role in this community.


As we have cleaned the site we were assigned, Our third day task was We 

Volunteer Activity in Tohoku Part 5

We were able to do our task so smoothly because we familiarized with using rakes and shovels.We collected many debris in a short term. We worked about two hours in the morning, then we went back to the center to eat lunch.

 After our meal, we had the opportunity to  witness miniconcert at the volunteer center. Participants were asked to go back to the hall and we sat down in front of young female duo. The players were two female university students, Chihiro-chan and Aya-chan. Chihiro-chan was from Nagano and Aya-chan from Nagoya. So far they have joined volunteer activities at Shichigahama more than five times. They are engaged in administration of center’s Web site. I was amazed at their diligent dedication. They joined volunteer activities together several times and they figured out later that the two of them share the same interest in music. One could play the guitar and the other Ocarina. They rehearsed　several times and then they decided to make their debut at Shichigahama.

    

First song was ‘Kitano kuni kara’.　In English it meant that from the North country.  Those who joined their recital was mesmerized by their mellow song.　I was especially moved to tears by their song "Soramo toberuhazu (They Wish They Could Fly)

After the applause rippled through the room, I was enlightened by their heartwarming hospitality. I think that today's youngsters were generally misundersood. They were considered to be shy and mentally weak, but they have a good mentality to help the affected people. Regardless of their intelligence, I think it is essential for us to support someone without expecting anything in return. I decided that I will mold my children to become a kind and considerate adults.



Their cheerful voice contributed to our positive disposition in performing our afternoon task.  We felt that we could extend our help more for the victims, but we didn't have enough time. We went back to our hometown that evening. On my way home, while I was updating my blog through my smartphone in the bus, I additionally decided that I would start playing the Ocarina to deepen my volunteer activities. Besides that, I realized that we need to help the affected people, I'm sure the melodious Ocarina tones can uplift and brighten the depressed. And I could help the people in Tohoku by bringing melodies to their lives.  

Finally, I bought an Ocarina!! I'll be updating how much I will be able to play the Ocarina soon. I will post the contents mixed with global issue and Ocarina later. Please check it up!!


Volunteer Activity in Tohoku Part 4

 On the third day of our volunteer activity, while we were waiting for the volunteer center to open, we had a chance to talk with a volunteer staff. We discussed the current issues surrounding volunteer centers. According to his opinion, local volunteer centers and their activities are gradually fading away because sometimes malfunction happened  among residents, local offials, and volunteer centers. 

 Most of the local residents do not know the existance of volunteer center itself . Even though they have already known the center, they are afraid that they would pay hefty bills like scam, so they avoid contacting the volunteer center. Especially elderlies, most of them do not use computers, so it's  hard for them to access to the information about volunteer centers. 

The owners, who requested us to correct the debris of their houses through the volunteer center, did not know volunteer center at first. They have evacuated to Shiogama city and they lived with their relatives just after the tsunami struck. When they came back to their ruined house, they realized that neighboring broken houses have been uncluttered. They saw volunteers gathering debris and cleaning out remnants of the houses at that time. Then, they visited local official to know how they could contact the volunteer center. Finally they were able to submit their request. If the affected people have known the volunteer centers well, they could have had their houses cleaned earlier. I think the information mismatch is very serious in the damaged Tohoku area.

Aside from information gap, the activity that volunteer can do depends on the local officials' openness. If there are influential constructors in the city, the local official tried not to collaborate with volunteer center. If volunteer can repair buildings or bridges, the constructors decrease their profits. So local official prioritize interests of the private sectors. The areas that infamous politician like a dectator  dominates are recovering slower than the cities filled with volunteers.  Local officials and government tend to prioritize them to local elderlies and help  them in expanding thier playing field.

Volunteer Activity in Tohoku Part 3

Although it was the end of September, the scorching heat of the sun bit our skin. I was sure that my skin would be tanned. On top of this severe condition, we gradually became bored from routine volunteer works. We were assigned to do the same task at the same place on the second day.

Our mission was to sweep and gather the massive debris. I was wondering why the local govenment officials did not use bulldozer so that they could get rid of everything so smoothly. Even how hard we dug up the ground, small pieces of glasses and nails appeared endlessly.

When we felt tired from unchanged condition, the house owners surprisingly visited us while we were cleaning the ruined house. They gave us a lot of thanks and plenty of refreshment as gifts. The owners were in their sixties and they were not living with their children when the tsunami hit them. As we felt our activity could directly help the affected people, their visit highly motivated us so much that we could finish removing all scraps as quick as flash.

On the way to the volunteer center, I've heard from one of the volunteer staff at Shichigahama the reason  why we thoroughly extracted glasses and nails from the ground. They and local offical have already understood that Bulldozer could easily scrap and clean the ground, but after they brought to the final repository site, workers at the site were accidentaly injured their body by the broken glasses and nails, consequently their works got inefficient and dangerous. It possibly cost them more to be safe and efficient,  so the local offical requested volunteers to get rid of the dangerous debris as much as they can. I found that our task really helped people in Tohoku.

Volunteer activity in Tohoku part 2

At first we went to a volunteer center, Shichigahama City, which is located in the costal area. In that area, we've heard that more than 100 people died from the destructive tsunami and more than 50 people are still missing. The volunteer center was so well-prepared that we could get almost all necessities that we used  such as gloves, rainboots, masks, and goggles. I was surprised to see the signature of Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, a famous Japanese musician, at the center's bulletin board. I remebered that he visited here.
According to other Shichigamaha-related blogs, Tsuyoshi's wife, Nagabuchi Estuko, previously known as Shihomi Etsuko, also volunteered at this center.

At around 1pm, we reached the center . After registering, we immediately received our tasks. We were given menial tasks because the center always closes at 4pm. One of our tasks was to remove debris from a house floor. The other one was to talk with the residents who lived in temporary shelters. A few of the staff went to a chat room, most of the staff including me went to the affected houses.

When we arrived at the front line, all we could see were just damages.  All we could see were the skeleton of the houses. Some houses must have been cleaned by volunteers, but the others weren't. Grasses have grown tall in the uncleaned houses because noone cared about their ruins. After the disruptive tsunami swept away this costal village, it was covered with huge amount of stinky sea muds. To my surprise, there's no sea mud around the houses. Volunteers have continuously removed dirty mud from the ground. We were not greeted by the stinky mud. We appreciated that very much. After we set our belongings aside, we started our mission.

At first, we imagined we would be carrying heavy loads from the remnants of damaged houses, but we didn't. We raked some debris of nails and broken glasses from the ground. With the rake and shovel, we simultaneously dug to completely remove all of the debris in the ground.We took a rest for every 30 minutes. It was hard for us because it was a routine task. We engaged for only 2 hours but it felt forever already.
At night in the hotel, we shared our experiences that we had at each site. One of my colleagues shared, before arriving at the commnunity center, he had confidence to communicate with the victims. He thought that he could ease their anxiety out and cheer them up by sympathizing with their miserable situation. Unexpectedly, he was asked not to bring up any disaster-related issue. However, the victims effortlessly connected  any topic at hand to the March-11 curse. Listening to their morose recollections gradually affected him. So he had difficulty in keeping his emotion normal during the chat. I thought that physical volunteer activity was easier than the mental ones.

Volunteer Activity in Tohoku Part 1

Drastic experiences sometimes make people change their way of thinking, that can possibly be a point of enlightenment in their life. I never thought that I would face such a realization through a volunteer activity. After the devastating earthquake, I finally got the opportunity to go to Sendai and help the people who were affected.

I joined the volunteer activity which was organized by our company to help the casualties of  the destructive earthquake and catastrophic tsunami in the Tohoku area.

 We went to Sendai by bus. Normally there used to be two lanes on the express way in order to reach Sendai in three and a half to four hours. But they were sporadically damaged due to the massive tremor. We needed to slow down and tracked on a single lane, consequently it took us about five hours to get there.

When we arrived in what was known the City of trees, I witnessed that the center of the city has regained its normal function. The life there has resumed to its normal state. However, as we got closer to the costal area ,we encountered severely disruptive scenery. Houses were ruined, cars were wrecked upside down

and roadside fences were bent. 

I was wondering why there still remained damaged cars and ruined houses. Accodring to my colleague, if the owner of the cars or houses requested to clean them up, local officals could remove them. But if the owner might be still missing or dead, they couldn't get rid of the debris at all. 

Why satellites fall down to earth uncontrolablly?

It might have been pointless for lovers to wish upon a falling star last night ,because it could be a falling satellite.

Fortunately there were no casualities caused by the damaged satellite's debris, so I felt relieved.

The only question I have in mind is why satelites can't go back safely to our mother earth.
 If NASA could control the satellites properly, we do not need to worry about where they fall down.

Topic:Does our government need more regulation for free speech?

Our government should restrict free speech if it is related to information leakage which may trigger large-scale diplomatic confusion. I’ll show the following standard Government should censor.
                                                                            
First of all, it may lead to international conflict. For example, some confidential and delicate information among countries are leaked through unofficial roots like WikiLeak. Former Russian Prime Minister Putin scrutinized American government for regarding him as an alpha dog. The leakage developed internationally. So the governmental information should be restricted and not easily disclosed.

Secondly, it is a ground for invasion of privacy. As our civil law guarantees our privacy to live safely, however intrusion of privacy is increasing because people can now voice out unwanted  comments through social networks. So government should estaAblish some rules to restrict unwarranted free speech. 　

Lastly, it might lead to detriment from rumors. Once rumors permeate into the society, we have difficulty in extinguishing them. The contamination of radioactive substance in Japan is a typical example. There is no concrete evidence, but people shun raw foods such as vegitables and fish produced in neighboring Fukushima prefecture. Government should actively integrate the information to minimize misleading information.

In conclusion, our government should establish some rules to restrict unwarranted free speech.

(205 words)
*This writing is aimed for Eiken 1st grade preparetion.

Topic: Are today's people in the world losing moral values?

Unfortunately I have to admit that people today are losing moral values.
There are following reasons why they are on the edge of extinction of moral values.

First of all, educational system has been contributing to the lowering of  moral values.
The current academe has focused on how to effectively pass the tough entrance examination rather than on how to be morally and publicly responsible.
For example, if there is an elderly and a student or healthy adult who has a seat in a train, it is natural that they give the seat to the aged and stand. But many young neglect to do so. They forget to publicly show moral values.

Second is family relationship.In the early 20th centuries, most of Japanese usually belonged to large family. Children were strictly taught not to make others annoyed not only by their parents but also by their grandparents.Unlike the past age, children today have less opportunities to be polite in public because most of them belong to small family and without their grandparents who give them good advice.

The job Simulation for kids in my company

Most honorable welfare system in the world

There are several major medical Journal such as Lancet and The England Journal of Medicine in the world, the article which is related to Japanese social wealfare system and written by a Japanese Dr. was honorably presented at Lancet. According to the  ''the Lancet''  article, it reported that the longevity of Japanese have been expanded by the minimum welfare cost in comparison with other developed countries.

Can Mr.Loach save Japan?

As is often the case with Democratic party's election, the prospect this time was also untransparent like muddy water in the bog. I fished around in my head who would be the winner, but I was wondering how many people could have imagine Noda could have won this election.

In my speculation, I thought Maehara fished in troubled water because he was the most charismatic and impressive among four candadates, but the result was completely different.

Maehara lost at preliminaly election. After that, the incumbant minister Kaieda and Noda competed to get the majority at final election.

I was sure that Kaieda never won because he was supported by Ozawa party members. Many democratic members thought that Ozawa is a fishbone in their throat. Ozawa is a bigger fish to fry!! He is fish out of the water!! At press conference, Noda told the media that his own character was similar to a loach's, which has nothing special and vaccums muddy water at the bottom of bog. In my opinion, he looks like s catfish, but he did not mention it because he might offend people in Tohoku region. The catfish is now cynical icon that shake earth deep underground.

Unlike the former Prime Minister Kan, he is not a cold fish. He promised that he try to solve many problem through human friendly approach.  I hope he will make gloomy prospect crystal clear like fresh water before  Fish begins to stink at the head.

Final Summer event: watermelon breaking party

This weekend we joined watermelon breaking party, which was held by the board member of our condo's steerring committee. 

There are some watermelons suddenly exproded in the world becasue they were grown too much chemical to acclerarate theri growth, but this time we were able to enjoy local and safe produce.

I was not able to find the origin because there was no mention of when it started. This watermelon breaking party is generally held by the seaside.

It's one of the Japanese famous scenic attraction in summer.

There are set rules in this event. The participants have to be blindfolded either with a towel or a scarf. Then they have to be rotated at least 5 times according to the rule by the Japan Suika-Wari Association. Then the participant heads to the watermelon guided by the spectators instructions. By only listening to the audience's voice, they try to crack the fruit with the stick.

In the official competition, the beauty of the crack on the fruit determines the winner.

This time many children participated in this party and crack many watermelons.

I ate a lot of watermelons until I became full. 

Report @ English Debate forum

Instead of caring about my family, I attended an English debate seminar sponsored by ESUJ(English Speaking Union of Japan) to improve my debate skills in English. 

This is the first time that I attended this seminar. At first, a frequent debate champion, who is very young but has outstanding ability to defeat other speakers, taught us how to debate and judge the argument between the speakers. He used only paper material.

After his lecture, we saw the debate between the previous champion and person
who have won nationwide debate contests in his studentdays. The proponent was for the government and oponent was antigovernment.

The theme was:

'Government should raise consumption tax.'

At first, the proponents presented their opinion on why the tax hike is needed. In his opinion, they need tax increase because  people in Tohoku need money to build houses and eat food. They insisted that they need 30 trilion yen to save and rebuild Tohoku area. By increasing the tax 1% each year by 2015, they can collect 30 trilion yen. They have little no room for creating revenue except tax raise. We should not burden for future generation. stabilize national finance and revitalize better around future Japan.

Camping in Akikawa valley part 2

We gathered at Musashiitsukaichi station, because some participants didn't have car and had to take the train. Picking them up from the station, we went to the supermarket to get ingredients for the BBQ. Then we headed for our destination.

The road to the village was very impressive to me. about 10 munites drive from small towm reached inhabitat and widing road between deep forest Akikawa valley has a variety of scenic driveway that we can never see in urban area. beautiful waterfall and beautiful trees.

All of participants rode on six or seven car. There are no other car except us. We drove windingly through narrow valley road. If we looked from at the other side of the mountain  so the cars we drove looked like rattle snakes because the road was so meandering.  After 40 munites drives, we finally arrived our destination.

 
This is ''Goemon''bathtab.  ''Goemon'' is derived from Azuchi momoyama era. (AD1560-1600) Infamous theft ''Ishikawa Goemon'' was arrested by kyoto official and he was executed by boiling in the large steel pot at Sanjogawara, Kyoto.  This human size steel pot was begun to use as ''Goemonburo''.  By burning wooden chip under the steel pot, steel pot can heat bathwater. We have to cut many wooden chips. The picture is not good, but I thought it was worth trying once.

Children were able to enjoy fireworks. We prepared 300 unit fireworks, but instantly we run out of them. We enjoyed scenic beauty in summer. Children was

able to have memory that they can't never foget this summer.

Camping in Akikawa valley

The day for the camping had arrived. As I was the organizer of that event, I was very happy to hold it. The participants were children from the same class of a nursery school and their parents. It was a long way for me to get concensus from parents to have overnight camping.

Some wives complained why we planned to do such event, since we didn't have any outdoor activities before. They thought we don't have enough capacity to manage the camping. Some parents wanted to go camping just for a day. On top of that, a pregnant woman who is expecting on the very day of the camping, wanted to join the camp. The begining of this camping was literally chaotic.

Fortunately, other parents, who wanted to go camping and belonged to the majority, supported this plan. After all parents argued about this issue in the meeting, we finally reached the agreement to go camping .

Although we had well-prepared camping tools such as, cooking pot, meshed bowls, tarpaulin, and BBQ meals, the day before the camp, it rained cats and dogs.  I was very worried if we could execute our camping.

Inferno about contaminated firewood issue

This year Okuribi  in Kyoto not only caused the burning of the trees but it also set a flame a very hot controversy.

Every summer, residents in Kyoto hold Gozan okuribi, which is one of the major summer feature like Gion festival.  Burning firewoods in mountain slope is a kind of religious ritual to send spirits on the ground back to the underworld. This year artist who lives in Oita prefecture and support Rikuzentakata residents who suffered from devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami mediated this events to supply firewoods from affected area.  He negotiated with Rikuzen takata city and contacted to Burning daimonji preservation association, which manage Gozen okuribi events comprehensively. They planned to burn firewood came from pine trees in the Takata-Matsubara scenic area. The trees were knocked down by the March 11 tsunami. They recieved firewood which was engraved in message for the victim and brought them to Kyoto.

But the issue arise from some residents in Kyoto.  Kyoto residents claimed to the department of cultural asset preservation in Kyoto that these pine trees might be contaminated with radioactive substances. Therefore, they requested to stop burning them.  City officials announced that they canceled to burn these trees before they check if there were radioactive chemicals in them.  After that, they got 1,000 complaints through telephone. Complainants insisted that the government in Kyoto should decide to burn these firewoods to ease emotional pain of people from Rikuzentakata.

 After receiving flood of claims, they had no choice but to check how much radioactive materials were contained.  According to their inspection, they were able to find a certain amount of radioactive substances in those firewoods trees. Consequently they officially reanounced that they unwillingly canceled to burn these trees. In my opinon, the government should have decided to burn these trees or not after they finished checking if there were radioactive substance in them.This issue may bring secondary impact into our daily life.

 I wish this inferno will disappear soon.