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.