Season's Greetings

It is past the winter solstice and Christmas now. It is the time for me to recall what has happened to me throughout this passing year and to give the season's greetings to all of you kindly visiting this blog. 

Honestly, I was reluctant to do this routine this year. The main reason was because I have had more sad and painful experiences than pleasant ones this year. I was inclined to postpone or to discontinue this habit this year. However, friends of mine and my family members have supported me to live in this way and have been blessed living in this countryside surrounded with so rich and plentiful nature. I still would like to express my gratitude toward you by this greeting post. 

It is inevitable for me at the age of 69 years to receive sad news on quite a few friends or acquaintances passing away. One of them was Prof. Isoyama, a renowned music researcher spcializing Bach and his works. I have not known him in person at all but have been an eager reader of his books on Bach. I have written that event in an article of this blog in February.  It was an unexpected event due to an accident. It was immediately after he had finished a life work on Johannes Passion. It might be a mandate from Heaven for him. And even for those ordinary people like myself, there must be the same destiny previously unknown to us. I have learned from his passing that we should be ready for that anytime. Now, whenever I receive such a sad news, I would utter in my mind you have lived your life wholeheartedly and are now in the peaceful rest. I should live my life so as to convince myself that way at the moment.

During all the year in 2018, the politics has been convered by fake data or by fake annouoncements. The ministry of Finance, the most important administrative office, has committed making forgery of the public documents, which resulted in suicide of an officier being ordered to do it at the field. It was to hide the facts our PM and his wife had been involved in a school foundation by a ultra right business man. Our PM has given 8 million USD of the national property to him. It was privatizetion of the national property as well as a corrupted cronysim. There has been another case of such curruption our PM has been involved in. After all, no one has taken the responsibility of the forgery and destruction of administrative system in our country. The government has published a false data of economic indicators in order to show raising growth of the economy. So called Abenomics, essentially a monetization of the debt with massive easing, has resulted in failure as a policy. It has left economic disparity among the people and accumulated further national debt. Even the balance sheet of BOJ and the pension fund of GPIF will have been damaged in the very near future.

In addition to this astronomically large amouont of national debt, we have the other problems like the used nuclear fuel or global warming. They could not be handled by the present framework of democracy. Those problems force the next generation to be burdened unless they are not solved by us. Presently, populism, the worst style of democracy, is prevailing throughout the world. It may lead us to fascism, I am afraid. It is definitely not possible for such a system to handle and solve those problems being carried over to the next generation. It is an issue which human kind has never experienced in the past. Unfortunately, there seems to be no solution to this issue at present. In the coming year, I think we should go forward to the solution step by step.

I am still struggling with cello. It is obvious that I could not make any progress with it at my age any longer. It is still a fun and an adventure worth trying. I have joined a few groups of ensemble mainly in Tokyo. I feel like a schoolboy going for an fun excursion whenever travelling to Tokyo for that. I find myself smiling spontaneously in the morning of departure. I thought it was comparable to my old father who used to attend a Bible class in Tokyo at my age or even older once a month. He seemed vivid and well tempered expecting learning Bible together with his company, which he called as Ecclesia. It is an ecclesia for me to have company of ensemble in Tokyo. So far as my health permits it, I would go on there.

My wife is still working in full time and is often tlking about possible retirement for now. She is not, however, born to be a house wife. So far, I would be being a house husband while she works for those with psychiatric porblems. Yet, it won't be too long before she closes her office. Hopefully, some doctor may take it over.

Both of us have enjoyed gardening and farming in our lot. Sometimes complaining that the land is a bit too big for us, I find it is a blessing to work for them. Some fruits or veggies have enrich our table from time to time. In winter, I would prepare the soil in the garden for plants/veggetables in the coming season.

My mind is full of gratitude to friends and family members and also the environment which allows me to spend the last chapter of my life. I would like to live after ths spirit of the poem "Grow old" of Browning.

Again, thanks for your visiting this blog. Wishing you all the best for the New year.

Shin Onisawa

A new camera

My old camera, the model S100 of Canon, has acted up recently. The lens was kept out even when the switch was off. The display said it was a lens error. It has worked well for us for even 12 years for now. I have given it up and was going to purchase a new one.

A photo taken with the new camera. No difference from the last one? It may depend on my skill as a photographer.  

The next mode is G7XII by Canon. It is another compact model with a bit wider image sensor and brighter lenses. Some high end single reflex or mirror less cameras were candidates for purchase this time. I still have an old single reflex camera from Nikon. And I was reluctant to purchase anything extravagant for my life in the last chapter. This model is told to be renewed in the beginning of the next year. But the new feature of the model is believed to be such as 4K movie  function, which is not attractive to me at all.

The old S100, a very small compact camera, has worked so well for us indeed. Thousands of photos have been taken with it, which have been stored in the PC. It is the history of ourselves for the past 12 years, pleasant or grieving. I would keep this one in a box for some time.

Racalling of old cameras in our home, the very first one was a single reflex camera I boutht in my resident days, expecting our 1st son. We were not weathy enough and had to work at another hospital for a few days to get the fund for that camera. It has served us to take photos of our children from baby to grown up days. I have still kept the negative films taken with it and have digitalized them into the computer.

Needless to say, the photos are telling the history of our family. With this new compact camera, I will go on taking some more until the end of my life.

Pork and eggplant cooked with vinegar

Again inclined to be a food blog. Eggplant and pork tasted with vinegar for the dinner tonight.

A simple dish. Not bad.

A couple of questions on the diplomatic policy of the US

I have a couple of questions about the diplomatic politics of the US now.

The first question is why the US authority won't reveal the spyware which they claim to have been installed in the cell phone/smaret phone made by Huawei or ZTE. If the US authority forbids the people or the other countries to use those Chinese products, the authority should explain what spyware has been found in them. In association with this issue, how about the Eschron which is well know to be the internet interception system world wide? The Eschron is much more widely as well as thoroughly extended all over the world than such as certain type of mobile phone. If any spyware should be actually installed in their products made by those manufacturers, won't this world wide spy network be questioned in the same sense? Maybe, American people would contend it is for the national security of the US. How could it be restricted to that purpose?

Secondly, the US government seems to intend to regard Iran as an evil country. It prohibits the other countries to stop import of the gas from Iran. There may be a problem of human right in Iran. And the nuclear power plant construction in Iran has been an issue between the western countries and Iran. The latter has been negotiated to reach a solution. The US government seems to overturn the negotiated result with Iran. As for the former point, how about that in Saudi Arabia? Saudi has executed murder of the journalist living in the US recently. Saudi government is deeply involved in the civil war in Yemen, which is a real threat to humanitareanism. So far as I know the human right is much more abused or offended in Saudi Arabia than in Iran. It's a double standard if the US government won't question on the situation in Saudi Arabia. It seems to me that the US government diplomatically attacks Iran only since it is an enemy of Israel.

I believe the US is still the only super nation in the world and is responsible to augment the peace. How are you considering of these issues? 

Another apple cake

I have purchased a cake pan made of alminum yesterday. It was to bake this cake. My wife me to measure the materials accurately or the cake won't be swollen. I was a bit nervous about it. I was relieved to see the cake starting to be swollen in 5 or 10 minutes in the oven. I am quite sure my wife used an old baking powder when she failed with it.

It is interesting to see the materials becoming a cake. No, I won't be a cake baker. No, possibly.

Apple steamed in wine flavored with cinnamon

There are some more apples in the box. It urged me to cook an apple steamed in wine flavored with cinnamon.

I know this blog is not a cooking blog. I know...

Cod meuniere

Another dish for dinner. Cod meuniere.

The reason why this menue came up in my mind was that there was a lemon left after using the other for apple cake. I always consider how to use all the materials used for the other dishes. It might be a view point of a house wife.

I have become a house husband, I should admit. Whatever skill or knowledges on housekeeping/cooking I have achieved, it might be the truth.

Spelling cod, I wonder if they get much codfish in Cape Cod Mass., where a good friend of mine, Jan K5MA, who have gone silent key recently, used to live. Everything reminds me of personal memory. It may mean I have lived a long time.

Next post must be regarding other than cooking. Begging your expectations!