It is the time for me to exchange the cell phone old and infrequently used.

 My cell phone is pretty old. Maybe, around 15 years of usage. 

When, working at own practice, I sometimes had patients who should be monitored throughout the night. In such a case, I gave them and their family members my phone number and told them to give me a call when they got worse. I have had an emergency call once or twice in a month. But, seemingly, they were relieved to be able to get in touch with me, even though I had to tell them I should switch off the cell phone at midnight. 

My old cell phone has a large data of those patients' phone numbers. When I quit working at own practice, I wondered what to do with it. I thought some patients or their family members might had consulted to me on the phone when they had any health issue. Actually, it turned out nothing. I understood the patients won't rely on me when they lose relationship with me as a doctor in charge or they have found certain new doctor in charge. On the other hand, I often recall some of them even in dream. The other day, I realized they had become grown up and even became parents themselves for now. 

So I believe it is the time for me to get away from the sentimentalism of being a doctor in charge of those people. I still have good memories of them. When I thought to be a doctor, I was thinking of becoming a school teacher. In that case, at their alumni reunion, I could have seen the pupils or the students whom I was the class room teacher for. How nice it could be if I could see the patients grown up and living at various positions in the society. 

Unfortunately, I am not able to see them any longer. Just wishing them happiness and good health.

Quiting such a daydream, I should change this old cell phone to a new one or to a smartphone. It is the time for me to go ahead. Can I manage a new phone by myself?

Matthew's Passion played by Ozawa with SKO possibly in memory of Takemitsu

It was the Easter in the last week end. It is the time when we listen to Matthew's Passion by Bach. 

Talking of that great music, I can't forget of Toru Takemitsu who has loved it so much throughout his life. I have mentioned about it a few times in this blog as follows for example.

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2017/03/takemitsu-tarkovsky-and-matthews-passion.html

In relation with him, I also recall of Seiji Ozawa who has recently passed away. In the article which I wrote about him, I quoted the performance of the Passion by him conducting Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1997. I realized it was a year later since Takemitsu's death. I know Ozawa has known how important that music was for Takemitsu and speculated Ozawa had played it in memory of Takemitsu. 

Given that Ozawa has chosen it for that purpose, this rendition sounds even more poignant to us. It is marvellous that we are captured with catharsis of peace and serenity beyond the tragedy when we reach the end chorus. It's beyond our logic or imagination.  

 

A new modality for pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult ones to be treated. It is always symptomless until it advances to the late stage. The organ is located deep in the body and is surrounded with large vessels etc, which makes surgical approach even more difficult. 

High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound is developed for an adjunct therapy to the other modalities of treatment. It is safe and not causing much side effects. If the tumor could be shrunk together with chemo, it could be removed with surgery. 

It still has weakness that it could be applicable mainly to the head/neck portion of pancreas while inaccplicable to the tail of pancreas. Of course, cases with metastases won't be treated with this modality. 

It is still a hopeful treatment for the future since it could be carried out safely and repeatedly. Being improved, the device may work better for deeper lesion with much more effectiveness soon. Hopefully, it would improve the prognosis of this tough cancer. 

 https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/shows/2050151/?cid=wohk-fb-no_ultrasound_logo_photo_vod_20240222_20240317_C_FB_MF_Ultrasound_en_2024Feb_ad_dps-202402-001&fbclid=IwAR2pp8JGnoT3yyUMqOHE5qKmFBL5loi8u_c1BxSkLCupBiEwOtbtwkMvyaw_aem_AatbltuZBXqs9HQh5LB2WIAesF9M-9ER392dzLLenNhlK8LsA0lxXI0rP3M_2psOM2T9hdTUF9RlHg12CxAcEVJq

An accidentally cooked radish

 The other day, several days ago, I was going to cook Oden, a japanese traditional dish for ordinary people in winter. There are various materials put into the pot. One of them is always radish. It could hardly be soaked in flavor if it is put at the same time as the ther materials. That is why it is necessary to preprocess with boiling until it gets softened.

I was doing that that day. I don't know why but have forgotten setting the timer. I was leaving kitchen for a while. When I came back to the gas range, the water has all evaporated. Pieces of the poor radish were almost starting to get dried and burnt. 

I thought it should not be used in Oden but should be seasoned with something and be tried as a dish. The radish was a homegrown one and a vegetable I was proud of. Before cooking it further, I timidly tried it without any seasoning. Um, sweet and delicious! Not so directly sweet as sugar itself but deeply as well as gently sweet.  I have never expected of that good taste. I learned, having grown in the cold climate, the radish had accumulated sugar to deal with that cold weather as the other winter vegetables like spinach had. Sugar must have been condensed while being cooked for a long time. I was a kind moved at that probable cause of this good taste. It is a kind of heavenly gift to us.

Another radish was put in the pot of Oden while we enjoyed that accidentally cooked sweet radish without any seasoning. 

This was not intended at all. I told to myself not to forget setting the timer of gas range when I leave there. Or it could have been a disaster.

Time for farming

Canola plants and related ones are blooming and bearing seeds this season. It often rains a long time. It is called canola plant rainy season. It was typically such a day today. It has been quietly raining. In some interval without rain, I have planted taros at a place near a persimmon tree, where the soil may remain wet all year around suitable for taro growth.

Cold and warm weather alternate in certain span, probably 3 or 4 days, in this season in a year. Cycles of cold and warm weather may lead to real spring very soon. It is the time for farmers to get ready for seeding spring/summer vegetables. I would do farming in the natural farming style, that is, no fertilizer, no pesticide and no cultivating. Compost made from weeds in the area may suffice to grow vegetables. It is amazing no cultivating may facilitate nitrogen fixation by the locally habitant bacilli in the soil. But the important prrequisite for the natural farming is the presence of rich soil produced with natural compost of weeds for years. I may use organic fertilizer as little as possible.

My wife used to ask farmer patients what they do with the vegetables or the crops when she worked at her own practice. It always helped her to understand how they were living. Farming is a work doing with living things, needless to say. Unreality, impractical things or even lies could never be present in farming. It's like raising kids. It may be the reason why I am indulged in it. May my health enable me go on enjoying it for some more years. 

Magnolia is fully out right now. As reiterated in the past, my mother used to love it most. Having big smile on her face, she often came to tell me it had fully come out.

 

"The Exit from quantitative easing" is started

Yesterday, the negative interest rate was cancelled by BOJ. Mass media seemed to get carried away with that news announcing we were at the exit of enormous quantitative easing. But the new interest rate is up to only 0.1%. BOJ could never increase it more since, owning over 500 trillion JPY of the national bond and over 50 trillion JPY of ETF, it could have the financial condition worsened with higher interest rate. The president of BOJ, at the press conference regarding this "exit" policy, has mentioned of the inheritance of financial burden from the quantitative easing of different dimention. 

BOJ and our government deem the economy in our country still in deflation and they would continue easing. There seems no choice for them other than going on montary financing. They would carry on monetization whether the economy may go further to inflation or not. JPY is getting much weaker against most of currencies since this exit decision by BOJ.

I am afraid, with inflation letting to go on, the government may be intending to substantially reduce the astronomically cumulated the governmental debt. They say there are 3 ways to cancel the national debt. One is default to refund the debt. The 2nd is to begin war. Letting inflation go on is the 3rd manuver. This last one might be what the government is aiming at.

This change in the finance in the country may torment people, especially people in poverty and living only with pension. It is a question that this problem won't be discussed in mass media or in the internet.

My father's generation had to go for war. People in my generation had not come across with such a tragedy, I always thought. This economical/financial mess may be comparable to the war, even though it won't directly expose our lives to danger. But who knows it may happen.

It is too strange people seem not to have understood what was going on and they are too optimistic talking about the possible rise of interest rate with their deposits at bank etc. 　

 

13 years have passed

It's 13th anniversary today of the big earthquake in Tohoku and the consequent nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima.

In Fukushima, the damage from the earthquake is most prominent and long lasting. Of course, it is mainly due to the nuclear power plant accident. More than 23K people are still evacuated. 2343 people are enrolled in the earthquake related death statistics. Those numbers are possible lowest since more people must have been excluded in the statistics. Almost half of the people in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant are high risked for PTSD due to the experience of earthquake and nuclear power plant accident, a psychiatrist says.

Reconstruction from the disater has been a major agenda and propaganda in the politics. But it is now being forgotten or has become a ritual they recall only on this day every year. Decommissioning of the disastered nuclear power reactors should have been progressed much more. They should have started taking out the debris penetrated through the pressure vessels a couple of years ago according the road map to decommission. They have stopped renewing/publishing the road map. The destroyed nuclear power reactors are left untouchable while producing tens of tons of polluted water everyday. 

The nucler power plant accidents are still going on far from the decommisioning process and making the people suffer psychologically from it. In the beginning of this post, I have called today as the anniversary. But it was wrong. The disaster is still going on. We must remember it as a disaster still going on for the people in the area. 

Thinking things in this way, I have spent the hours in the afternoon pulling the weeds in the garden recalling of the day of the earthquake and the following nuclear power plant accident. 

C moll violin sonata of Bach played by Barchet and Veyron Lacroix

A recent night cap music is c moll violin sonata of Bach played by Barchet, violin, and Veyron Lacroix, cembalo. I have owned this CD for a long time but it is only recently when I knew how enchanting this piece was. Listening to it many times recently, I found it was really poignantly beautiful. 

 This rendition must be classified as romantic. Rather slow with much vibrato. Deeply emotional. The 1st movement of siciliano is particularly moving. 

How Bach has been accepted in contemporary/modern era is told to start from romaticism before WWI, then through "Neue Sachlichkeit" between two WWs, to modern authentism. This rendition was made possibly in 50s. It may reflect Barchet's characteristics in performance. Still romantic. I could not imagine the other ways than this romantic performance for this siciliano. It is a matter of acceptance of this music for me.

Now, I am going to bed listening to this piece by Barchet again.    

A dinner dish and being a testee for the cognitive function

This is the main dish for dinner today. Pork cooked with cabbage seasoned with chicken carcass and sake. Cabbage in winter tastes sweet since it has gone through the chillness. We have already run out cabbage grown in the farm. Unfortunately, this is a vegetable sold at a super market. Still very good.

It was the day for me to take a test of cognitive function to renew the driver's license in the upcoming May. Those aged older than 74 years are, as the police determined recently, ought to do that. 

Cognitive function ranges vast areas as you know. The test they have adopted among various function tests is regarding long term memory. A set of 4 pictures unrelated each other are shown to us for certain, rather short, time. We are supposed to memorize all of them. Four sets of picture panels are shown to us. In summary, we should remember 16 pictures of itmes. Yes, it is beyond short term memory handled by working memory. The police publishes 4 groups of sets, that is, 64 pictures in total, prior to the test in the internet. We, testees, should prepare memorizing all of them before taking the test. Only one set will be used for the test. I was almost exhausted to prepare for that. At age 74 years, it is really tough to remember those names of items on 64 pictures without any logic. 

I don't believe it would help us to avoid traffic accidents even if it could rule out some people with dementia. The facilities responsible for this tests are organizations where retired bureaucrats are parachuted from the police office. The facilities are to educate and examine those who would have the driver's license. Since the population in our country is decreasing drastically for now, they might have less profits from their businesses. 

I agree those with dementia could cause traffic accidents. Those with latent dementia or cognitive disorderes of any kind should be excluded from driver's licensees. But this long term memory test would be of little meaning in that respect. It is a matter of serious problem in life if one could go on driving a car or not, especially if the person lives in a country side like here. If this scheme is made for those parachuted bureaucrats, it should be totally dispised. 

There are the same kind of corruptive system in our society, I am afraid. As already reiterated in this blog, ham radio licensing system is not an exception in our country. I am afraid this curruption should be a reason why our country won't grow in industry/economy.

Well, another thing I thought about from this experience is that I am getting weaker and losing capabilities I could hold in young days. It won't be too long before I should give them up from one to another soon. In elderly, I should admit we lose our capabilities quite soon. How to replace or compensate them to the other ways is a question laid before me. Still hopeful for the good things left in the rest of my life. Reality is, however, cruelly progressing. Stay prepared myself.

 

Decoding Morse code still through the same process in brain as that for reading

An interesting research article on the brain science study of Morse code decoding. 

With the new method of investigation on activities and functions in areas of the brain, that is, magnetoencephalography, they have found Morse code decoding activates left inferior frontal cortex and angular gyrus. It means working memory encoding, long term memory retrieval and demanding cognitive control are involved in the process. Decoding Morse code, in a slow process of recognition, goes through the same neurological process as that for reading written text.

So what? Two points could be indicated from this research.

Morse code decoding, as told above, is done through the same neurological process as reading. In actual reading, we reflect what is written before the present sentence and expect what comes next, almost in unconsciousness, while reading certain sentence. We should be conscious of that process while learning decoding message with Morse code.

The other point should be that Morse code, the simplest mode of communication often slower than the other modes, could contribute as a subject to study neurological process of recognition. As told before, even if this mode gets extinct even in ham radio, it may survive as a subject of epistemological process in the brain. They say magnetoelectrography is a useful technique in time lapsing research even if not giving accurate spatial informations. It may yield further findings on the neurological process of Morse code decoding as a function of cognition.       

 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37792277/

. 2023 Dec 1;44(17):6185-6197.

 doi: 10.1002/hbm.26505. Epub 2023 Oct 4.

Temporal dynamics of oscillatory activity during nonlexical language decoding: Evidence from Morse code and magnetoencephalography

Frederick Benjamin Junker 1, Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke 1 2, Alfons Schnitzler 1, Joachim Lange 1

Affiliations 

• PMID: 37792277
 
• PMCID: PMC10619365
 
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.26505

Free PMC article

Abstract

Understanding encoded languages, such as written script or Morse code, requires nonlexical and lexical processing components that act in a parallel and interactive fashion. Decoding written script-as for example in reading-is typically very fast, making the investigation of the lexical and nonlexical components and their underlying neural mechanisms challenging. In the current study, we aimed to accomplish this problem by using Morse code as a model for language decoding. The decoding of Morse code is slower and thus allows a better and more fine-grained investigation of the lexical and nonlexical components of language decoding. In the current study, we investigated the impact of various components of nonlexical decoding of Morse code using magnetoencephalography. For this purpose, we reconstructed the time-frequency responses below 40 Hz in brain regions significantly involved in Morse code decoding and word comprehension that were identified in a previous study. Event-related reduction in beta- and alpha-band power were found in left inferior frontal cortex and angular gyrus, respectively, while event-related theta-band power increase was found at frontal midline. These induced oscillations reflect working-memory encoding, long-term memory retrieval as well as demanding cognitive control, respectively. In sum, by using Morse code and MEG, we were able to identify a cortical network underlying language decoding in a time- and frequency-resolved manner.

Keywords: alpha oscillations; beta oscillations; cognitive control; frontal midline theta; nonlexical language decoding; phonological long-term memory; reading model; working memory.

© 2023 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Warm months, ume fully out and catching up with house chores.

It was the warmest January on record by NOAA. Here. On the heels of that record hottest month, it has been much warmer this month also. It was like mid spring in the last few days. We should expect the hottest summer this year. It concerns us with regard to two points. One is how to deal with the heat wave at home. With the electricity charges soaring high, we should athermalize the house, especially the windows. The windows already have double glazed glasses. But maybe, doubling the windows is necessary, even though that remodelling requires much work/cost. Global warming won't recede easily so that we should prepare for that change now.

The other point is that this heat wave may degrade the growth of summer vegetables. Some kinds should be planted earlier than usual. And some tropical or subtropical vegetables should be tried. I am afraid people are too optimistic or indifferent to the future of farming.  They may think they could purchase them from other countries. But once our country is struck by famine with global warming, the others may also have the same disaster and won't export anything to us. It should be the reality of the consequence of global warming.

Ume flowers are fully out now. Some are starting falling on the ground. As repeatedly written, my parents used to enjoy them from the dining kitchen behind this tree. How many years have they had the blooming of this ume tree? How about us?

Still cooking dinner dishes. Roasted pork fillet for this evening meal. Together with chinese dimpling and warm vegetables.

Sometimes too tired to do with cooking all after a hectic day at the lawn and farm. My wife takes over that duty in such an occasion. When both of us are exhausted, we go for shopping some sushi. She is still busy with paper works for closing the medical corportion. All of the work will be finished by the end of next month. I find it interesting to cook something from time to time. In my 30s through 50s, I haven't dome much house work like cooking. I am catching up or making up for that at present.

Seiji Ozawa has passed away

 A renowned dirigent, Seiji Ozawa, has died at age 88 years today. He has suffered from a cancer for years and this has been expected. But still a sad news.

When I was interested in music in my teenage days, a vinyl of Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz was the very first one I bought by myself. It was performed by Toronto Symphony Orchestra with dirigent of Ozawa. Here. With home made amplifier and speakers, I have not been bored with listening it again and again. I still remember how it started with dreaming melody. It has lead me not only to the classical music but also to adolescence. 

Ever since, he has always been in the scenes of classical music, even though I have not attended to any concert he conducted. When I grew up, he was already world famous conductor and there was very little chance for me to listen to him at a hall. I have seen him through CD, TV programs, internet programs or books. The book of his dialogue with Toru Takemitsu, which I mentioned before, was a remarkable work. He has been energitic and willing to teach young musicians.

I could never forget his involvement with Saito Kinen Orchestra. It was organized by him and other disciples of Hideo Saito and has held a music festival in Shinshu every summer. A lot of musicians have been joining this event from all over the world. One of my friends in university orchestra days has been a practice pianist there. I would attend a concert of Saito Kinen Orchestra some day but it won't come true, at least,  while Ozawa was alive and taking tact on the podium. 

This performance of Matthews Passion by Saito Kinen Orchestra in 1997. One of the most memorable performances by Ozawa. Serious, grave but still light stepped.  

 

Trying to open the shelf door

Our cat, named Hikaru, likes eating. He knows where his favorite foods are hidden. On this shelf, he knows, his favorite item is stored. He has managed opening the door. When he opened it, it could be a disaster, that is, he scattered everything on the shelf down to the floor. 

I have made an instant lock at the door bending a metal plate with small holes, which was planned to prevent him from freely opening the shelf door. Hikaru dared to loosen it when he knew one of his finger nails fit in a hole of the plate. In this photo, he asked for help to my wife. She has not forgotten taking a photo before freeing him. In a bit messy kitchen...my work place other than the farm.

 

Another ham of good old days gone away

A few days ago, I received an e mail from Vic W9RGB, which told of K5FA Fred's passing. He seemed to have had dementia which caused a fatal complication. I have not heard him for over 10 years. That was the reason.

I have talked Fred quite often from 2000 through 2010. Vic used to say Fred was a typical southerner with good sense of humor. In addition, he loved old fashioned CW chat. While that period, having lasted not so long, we have met on 7026KHz plus or minus. Around 12Z, that was the dawn in Mississippi and evening hours after supper here. There was a good path from here to Mid Southern US around that time. 

He told me he had been a bachelor and took over the family business of furniture store. He seemed to have a big property. He has planted a lot of vegetables there and also never forgot putting up old fashioned wire antennas. Once he told me he had set a couple of V beams for VK/ZL and Europe. I can't recall what radios he has used but they should not be modern sets. 

He seemed to have close bonding with his family members. His two brothers were also ham. And one of them was a physician. Whenever he has had reunion with them, he always pleasantly told about that to me. He had an old aunt named Nora those days. She was sent into a nursing facility when her daughter thought it was not possible for her to live alone at her home. Nora was not very happy at the facility and would like to return to her home. Fred has worked hard to make it possible for her to live by herself again. Her daughter accepted Fred's proposal that he and some helpers would visit Nora at her home at regular interval. Nora could come back to sweet home again. I still remember how excited he was at that project. Fred was happily reporting that to me as if it were his own event. 

Fred was not, so far as I know, an avid DXer. I have never heard any episode he stayed up for a night or two for the hectic events in ham radio. He was an old fashioned ragchewer. That was why I had enjoyed talking to him so often. There used to be a group of CW operators hanging out on that frequency around the same time. Evidently, Don WB6BEE who had waked up after a long hibernation from ham radio activities was the key person in the group. Fred must be one of the gang or even the earliest operator who has activated that loosely united group. Later, Don has moved to the East Coast. The group had expired spontaneously so far as I realized in the last couple of years before I quit radio. Or, hopefully, there could still be some hams hanging out there.

However, the news of Fred's passing sure convinced me of a time being over for now. It was a good old days. 

Working on a lot and amazing music of Bach

Still alive and working hard at a portion of the property. Along the entrance, there is a pretty large land here. There used to be covered with beautiful lawn years ago. Without maintaining it at regular interval, it was replaced to a kind of weed mock to lawn. It is not so neat as lawn and aggressive in addition. I have long been hoping to restore it to what it was. Without much work at farm in this coldest season, I have started that project finally. All by hand but no digging machine etc. 

Soon I realized there had been costruction waste and crushed rock buried in a part of the land. About 3 decades ago, a constructor for the road nearby wanted to use the property for parking lot while they were working on a road just west of our property. My father, who were always kind to such workers, answered yes to them. In the end, they have left "the gift" a foot or less underground in certain area near to the azalea. I haven't known of that until I realized a portion of the azalea had not grown well there. Years have passed since the constructor had gone. 

While cutting the ween covering the land, I came across with that waste not too deep in the ground. I decided to clean it and replace to black soil with compost. With help from the gardener I often asked to do anything like that, I have been digging out it and sieve out smaller debris.

I would plant potatoes early in March. This new farm may prolific for that and vegetables planted after that.

Common sense utters to me let it go by itself but I won't be responsible for that. Not concious of the reason why I am doing such useless thing, that is, digging out waste buried underground, I still would straighten things while I am alive. I won't forgive the malpractice of the constructor and would leave the land as it used to be to the next generation. It seems no one would take this countryside place over and it may return to woods in the future, maybe. But I still work hard for the land. 

I am slowly rereading the biograph of J.S.Bach. I am again amazed at the music world Bach has left to us. In Koethen, he was productive of the chamber and/or instrumental music. There seem to be a lot of works lost. But those pieces of chamber music like trio sonata, solo sonata with obligato keyboard, unaccompanied sonate/partita for violin and suites for cello as well as Brandenburg concertos etc are shining brightly among his secular music repertoire. Most of them will be transformed to sacred music in the era of Leipzig. There should be little boundary between secular and sacred music for him. He must firmely believed music worked for the glory of God, whether it is genred in secular or sacred.     

One of my favorite violin sonata with obligato by Bach. Two virtuosi.

　   

Ume budding

I found ume was budding. Some were ready to come out. It is a bit earlier than usual. It's a simple fact dependent on the season. But still impressive.

In close up view. 

I often post the same kind of photo in this season. Chuckling to myself. The difference is that I become wondering how many times I could see them blooming.

When I am gardening/farming or taking photos, this cat named Hikaru is often around my leg. He wants to go into the house with me.  

Ellen W1YL used to love hearing about Hikaru while she reported me how her Oreo, a back kitty, was doing. Time still passed.

In a month, the other flowers will start coming out and we will be in the flourishing spring them.

Not being doctors any longer

 As soon as my wife woke up and came down to the living-dining room yesterday morning, she told me she had had vertigo. Rotating sensation while lying on bed. Knowing she scarcely complained of any health issue by herself, I understood it was not only postural dizziness or a mental issue. 

Soon she felt nauseous. Both of us were wondering what was the cause. Most likelily, vestibular problem, benign paroxysmal postural vertigo. It may cause nausea in the worst case but not so often. It could worsen with certain posture, probably, leaning downward. She did not show that characteristic symptom for BPPV. Is it cerebellar origin or even cortical problem? The worst scenario was passing in my mind. It's been too long since I cared for such patients with vertigo. I decided to bring her to a local ENT doctor. Even though we have an ENT specialist friend, her office was an hour drive from here. Giving up visiting her office, we left for another ENT where she used to visit some years ago. 

While she consulted to the doctor, I went for shopping for dinner materials at a mall nearby. Reflecting that behavior, I must not be very serious about her condition then. 

The diagnosis was still BPPV. The doctor has done well with her. He told her she should "not take rest" but move as usual. It seemed to make the otolith settled down sooner. A good advice. And she was also told not necessary to go back to the office in a couple of weeks if the symptoms go away. That has encouraged her so much.

From now on, we should not remain on the side of care giver but move to the side of patients. Not being doctors any longer. We have realized that even though it has been the reality for us for years already. My wife has not told him of her profession at the consultation. It may make their relationship a bit difficult. She did not want that. Being a good patient is not often quite easy for those with medical career in the past. Nonetheless, we should try to be. 

My wife is even more active at house chores for now. I would tell her to see the doctor oftener.

"Near white-out" and a lecture meeting

In the last weekend, when I was heading to a lecture meeting in a city of an hour or less drive, it became snowy. For a moment, it was heavily snowy with hard wind and I could barely see the road for a few meters. I thought it could have been white-out. That might be too much exaggeration, I know. But it was such a weather for me who have never experienced driving in such snowfall. Luckily, it has not lasted too long and I could reach the place of lecture meeting without trouble.

It was a meeting lectured by a journalist, who has been patiently researching and interviewing about the nuclear power plant issue in our country for the past decades. She has recently published a book titled "Why Couldn't Japan Stop Nuclear Power Generation?". It has gained so good reputation in that genre that she seemed to have been invited for lecture by groups/individuals at various places all over the country. It seems it has been a bestseller book in the genre in the net market for a while. 

Despite of the small size of the meeting, it was covering from various aspects of the problem, which attracted our interests much. One of the refugee families from Fukushima was impressive. Their father had to return to Fukushima for work from the evacuated place in Niigata one day and his son in low teen of age committed suicide the day after. There are, as she reported, larger number of young people killing themselves in Fukushima than the average in our country. 

Journalists are not allowed taking photos inside of the shelters in natural disasters or in nulear power plant accident etc. The regional governments won't let them take photos to be published in media because it was an issue of privacy for the evacuees. But it seems like only public stance for the regional and central government in our country. We know most of the shelters are converted from gym or hall without any partition for each evacuee. Only low partial partition made of carboard. In the actual shelters for the earthquake evacuees in Noto Peninsula, they say influenca as well as COVID19 are prevailing among the elderly.

There were a lot of discussions regarding what was going on at Shika nuclear power plant only 50 miles south west of the epicenter. It has experienced massive quaking. Lots of oil from the transformer asn well as the coolant water, contaminated with radiation material, was spilled. It was not distant from the northern coast of the peninsula which was lifted feet high. It could have occured at the nuclear power plant and destroy the reactor. The problem is that the power line company and the administration office seem to have hidden something wrong. They are repeatedly correcting the news release and publish the problems step by step, which is enogh to make us believe something serious is still hidden behind.

It is depressing that those evacuees are not given proper aid quickly and are still staying in such poor shelters. I am afraid people are not treated as they should be in our country. But the fact that the journalist's book has attracted a large numbe of people's attention and there were some young attendees at such a small lecture meeting in countryside is good enough to encourage me. I have been occupied with the issue of nuclear power plants since the Fukushima disaster. I have decided again to carry it on for the solution of this serious issue. With the hope for the next generation.

On the way back home, already quite dark, the snow was almost melted. Shaded portions of roads seemed icy. I realized how long I hadn't gone out on car at night. I have come home uneventfully, thouogh.

I have told about this trip to my brother and added the story written in the post quoted below, even though I was sure I had done that to him a few times regarding snowfall. As expected, he answered to me he had felt "again" blessed born at our family in this way. This is one of the ealiest memories in my life and I could not stop telling that to him whenever it snowed like in the last weekend. 

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-recollection-of-snowy-day.html

 

Recent life

Time is flying away so fast. I am still doing fine. So is my wife. One event we had was that our daughter, working as a public nurse at a municipal office nearby, has sprained an ankle. She had to take days off for a week or two. Until her returning to work, she would stay with us. And we have to prepare more meal for her. My wife and she have been tweeting a lot like old days. 

I am still busy at house chores. Did I say that I would replace lawn like weeds at the property by the entrance road, which is about 400 sq meters or so, to "real lawn". That weeds look like lawn but too high fertility and may invade other parts of the property. Cutting the roots deep in the soil with sword tip scoop, the weeds are digged out a small hand scoop. Tiring work. Concentrating on such a simple work as well as seeing things getting tidy is a fun for me. When my father moved this place abandoned for decades from Tokyo in his retirement, he used to dig out big tree roots. Different from that work, this lawn planting job might be similar. He would have enjoyed this work as well.

On Jan 27th 2018, Professor Isoyama, a famous reseracher in Bach, has wounded seriously at head when he was coming home from a chorus competetion as a judge. He has died about in a month. I have written about him and the consequence in a post then as follows;

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2018/02/professor-isoyama-has-passed-away.html

Remembering of him, I started Bach's biography by him. It is a pretty old book first published in 1985. He might be around 40 years of age or a bit younger. I have bought this book as a used one when I was in fifties. It is not merely a biography which depicts Bach's life in chronological way but a work which shows how Professor Isoyama has devoted himself to Bach. From his description on Bach, we could vividly picture how Bach has lived and composed his works.

It was over 10 years ago when I first read it and most of the content have been away from my poor memories. Smiling bitterly to myself realizing I could enjoy such a book as this one for many times in my senior years with less long term memories, I am progressing with it slowly before going to bed. 

As you may know, Bach has lost his parents in his young days and has lived with his oldest brother. He should move to a church school in Lueneburg where he has trained with playing instruments and composing music. It is still a matter of debate which works are his earliest works. Professor Isoyama thought the 3 organ choral partita BWV 766 to 768 were works those days, even if they have been revised some times. It is believed to be composition in his high school age days. Professor Isoyama recommends BWV 768 as the best which reminds us of his young days. A music of sensibility characteristic for young days. 

It is unlikely that I could travel Germany or the other parts of Europe any longer. I won't feel sorry for that at all. I am a man staying home and doing something like listening to music or cooking etc. But it sure is a regret I might lose a chance to visit the places Bach was born and has grown up. Instead, I could enjoy his music as a universal cultural product in human history. 

Noto Peninsula Earthquake 2024 afterward

By last night, it was reported that 73 persons were killed in the earthquake in Noto Peninsula. More than 1000 houses were completely or nearly completely destroyed. Ninty percent houses were lost in a city near the epicenter. There should be much more damaged or distroyed. There seem to be a lot of people suspected to be crushed under destroyed or fallen houses/buildings. The trunk roads to the northern part of the peninsula, most damaged, are not usable due to landslides etc at several places. It seems difficult for them to go there for rescue or to bring there items necessary for life. The government has decided to increase the number of JDF deployed to 2000. I suspect it is too late and insufficient at all.　

At this moment when the disater is still going on, I won't criticize the government. But I should point out the present government of PM Kishida has reduced a great deal of the disaster prevention budget, which used to be comparable to the military budget but now go down to 1/4 of the latter. Watching crowded old fashioned wooden houses packed in a city there on photos, I could not help feeling they are vulnerable to earthquakes or subsequent fire. There have been a cluster of earthquakes in the area for the past 2 years. They should have implemented policies to prevent damages to them from earthquakes, if not perfect. It was much more desirable and impending to the area than such as military expansion.

I am still much concerned about the nuclear power plants, NPP, in the vicinity of earthquake area. Shika NPP in the area turned out to have severe quake with seismic intensity of 7. There have been 3m of tsunami hitting there. The seawall is only 4m of height and was slightly damaged by tsunami, as news reported. If tsunami were overriding the seawall, there could have been another serious accident like that at Fukushima in 2011. The water of cooling tank, contaminated with radioactive materials, in that NPP has spilled out. Large amount of cooling oil for transformers have dropped on the floor as well. Even not confirmed it directly, there seemed to fire at one of the transformers, which was extinguished automatically. The cooling system for the used fuel has acted up for 40 minutes. Even in this situation, the power line company insists there have been no serious accidents at all. Who could believe that?

About 200km southwest of the epicenter area, as I told in the previous post, there are 14 reators in total at a few NPPs. I was told by a reliable geologist that the area where those NPPs are located are formed by active faults. There are still a lot of faults running there. The Nuclear Regulatory Comission, NRC, is, as he said, inclined to permit re-run of NPP with lighter regulation. If there were any active faults in the vicinity of NPP, its construction or even operation was not allowed. That regulation is getting eased by NRC. Of course, it is in accordance with the government's policy for re-run.

As told in the previous post, the mechanism of the clustered earthquake in Noto Peninsula may be carried on and may cause further big earthquakes. We sure are now in the era of the activated earth's crust at present. We should get prepared for that. There are a lot of things for the government to do to prevent damages or casualities. It is the main reason why a government exists.

The earthquake in Noto Peninsula today

This afternoon, on my car heading back home from shopping, the radio program was abruptly drowned out by an emergency message, which told a big earthquake hit Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, in central Japan along Japan Sea. Forecast of tsunami was also announced.

There seem to be some people were buried in landslide and houses were destroyed. Some fire cases were reported. The damage will be turned out soon. So far, tsunami was not so devastating as that in Tohoku in 2011. News tells there have been no major damage to the nuclear power plants near to the epicenter.

There have been clusters of earthquakes in the area for the past couple of years. Last May, a big earthquake with the size of magnitude 6.5 hit the same area. Big earthquakes are believed to occur along the Pacific Ocean coast due to plate tectonics. But there have been a lot of big earthquakes occurring along Japan Sea as well.

Actually, there are a lot of nuclear power plants around there. Shiga nuclear power plant; abbreviated as NPP after this has a couple of reactors, 70km southeast of the epicenter area. Kashiwazaki Kariba NPP about 150km east of there with 7 reactors. About 200km southeast of there, there are 16 reactor at different NPP. It is called as NPP Ginza because of large number of reactors located in the vicinity in the area. All of them could be badly damaged if the earthquake was of bigger size and the fault ran that way, or tsunami was larger.

We are concerned about the possibility of serious NPP accident like that in Fukushima in 2011. The Nuclear Regulatory Comission, NRC, has been testing of the safety of each NPP for resumption of operation at from one NPP to another. The government boasts the test is of the first quality and guarantees safety in operation. But in the case of Shiga NPP, ten faults had been found in the area of the power plant. NRC has examined them according to the geological data the power line company submitted and concluded those faults were not regarded as active ones. Shiga NPP is going to resume its operation in the near future. The government as well as NRC are quite irresponsible for this decision. In this earthquake, hopefully, it will be questioned again.

It is ridiculous to have so many NPP in this small country with a lot of earthquakes and tsunami. Resumption of NPP operation and elongation of operation period longer than designed are only for the powerline companies and related people in politics, administration, research as well as mass media, who are gaining profit from NPP running. Even after that devastating accident in Fukushima, they won't change the policy. This rigid decision making in administration would result in further serious problem.

The recent news and the SNS informations report there have been people buried or crushed under furniture or other items. I only hope the victimized people are saved as soon as possible and less houses or other infrastructures are damaged.