The most hectic and hot day in Tokyo this summer

Before forgetting what I have done in the end of last month...

It was a hectic and hot day on the day with respect to both the content of activity and the weather. I have spent the whole day in Tokyo. The purposes of this trip there were to meet 3 of old ham friends who were medical doctors and to join an ensemble.

I decided to drive to Tokyo, not to take a train down there. It was to avoid walking in the cruel heat carrying cello. It turned out to be a right decision. I have never driven to the bay area along the gulf of Tokyo. It is a newly constructed downtown with a lot of highrise condominiums or high buildings where highways are running around. A really contemporary town. I was wondering, however, how they would maintain those infractructures in a few decades. It may cost a lot to do that when our country will have faced to the decline of national power.

The photo above shows the Big Egg Site in the back in such a modern town. It was the Ham Fair held there. I have been there for several times there for this event in the past. I have always had purposes to see friends, Japanese or from oversea. Jim N3BB or Dick K4XU was an example whom I met there. Not interested in the modern radio equipments they are advertizing there? Never!

As I told above, this time, I had promised seeing 3 of old friends who were or had been medical doctors as well as I was. I have arrived there an hour before noon, the promised time for that meeting, and have looked around the event. I have met Atsu JE1TRV, the boss of A1Club, who was welcoming the visitors at its booth. He told me there had been more numbers of hams attending that event this year. There were some young people but mostly old guys. There seemed to be few visitors at his booth. I was afraid it had meant declining of CW activity, that is, less hams interested in CW communication for conversation. I have met a few other friends of mine, whom I had not seen for a year or longer. Even if it was only for a very short time seeing them, it was still pleasant and has brought me back to the days when I was a real nut for this hobby.

At noon, I have met the guys I mentioned above at the exit/entrance of the event as promised. At first, Shin-etsu JS2KMK, aka, JQ1OQQ, has recognized me there. He has been a friend of mine since 1980s especially through a mutual friend, Sugita, JA1XKM, who was a graduate from the same med school in Hokkaido as Shin-estu was. Sugita, whom I have written about elsewhere in this blog, unfortunately passed away at his fifties about 10 years ago. Even though we have never met in person before, he was approaching to me with a big smile in a crowd. He might have seen me on some photo somewhere. He was a gentleman with shining eyes like a boy in teenage, still working as a surgeon for head and neck at a big hospital. After a long hiatus, he has come back to this hobby some years ago. The other two have arrived there in a minute or two. Hiro JA7WTH, a pediatrician, has been enthusiastic for CW for the past several years. He has been involved in constructing a new hospital as one of the headquarter staff. I believe he has been involved in the emergency service there as well. His duty might have been so tense and heavy for the past years. He told us he would retire when the new hospital construction is finished this fall. His outlook was a kind of aloof from the world like before. He has made us laugh a lot telling that he had told a guy operating intentionally rusty CW in Japanese to speak in the "ordinary" Japanerse but not in the "dialect" on CW. Sekiya, JJ1RZG, another pediatrician, has closed his business last winter. He told us how laborious it was to do all the procedures/processes for that. He seemed to love CW and DXing as well. He is still operating radio very early in the morning. I was impressed to hear he was learning English in the daytime when he had nothing to do. He was the oldest among us, in his eighties. He used to have trouble in walking 2 years ago in our last meeting. Now he seemed to be free from that and looked so healthy. The other two than Sekiya were in their seventies while I was the youngest among them. We have had much fun taking a great lunch at a restaurant in the event place. In an hour and a half, wishing them good health until next eye ball, I had to say good by to them in order to rush to the next destination.

It was an ensemble held by an amateur players' society named APA in a downtown of Tokyo. It was a kind of thrill and again a sentimental drive bringing me back to the days when I spent the med school period. Driving through along the Imperial Hotel, the Emperor's Palace, the Diet building and so forth, which had been familiar to me in my young days, I successfully arrived at a parking near to the place I headed to. It was right in the "no-tell hotel" alley. Very crowded with buildings. They looked the same with flashy blinking neon signs. Even though I used to come to the APA office to participate that ensemble some 15 years or so ago, I was totally lost. Carrying the heavy cello in the hard case, I was sweating a lot. I felt I could fall down on the street due to heat intoxication. In the burning sunshine, I was walking around for the ensemble place for some time. I have never regretted more not having smartphone with GPS than this time. I finally could get the phone number of the APA office with my cell phone and was told how to get to it. 

It was the same pretty compact room in a condo I used to visit. They were enjoying tea break. One of the organizers had turned out to be one of the alumnae of the university orchestra. When I gave her my intention to attend that ensemble by e mail some days prior to this event, she answered to me that she had already known me from that orchestra. What a coincidence! I could never recall her even though her premarital family name evoked a vague memory of her those days. She was 3 or 4 years younger me in the orchestra. A charming lady and a violinist. We have talked about some friends in the university orchestra whom we shared those days. Again it has brought me back to the good old days. There were about 10 people in the room. Mostly, violinists and violists. Most of them were quiet but once they started playing music, I felt they were passionate and enegitic for that. They told us it had been difficult for them to find a cellist. There was a proficient cellist in the ensemble, who seemed to join it on request by the other members. 

We have played Mozart, 3 or 4 of the pieces in his young days, Schubert, Bach and, in the end, Dvorak! Crazy program! I have never practised the 1st and 2nd movements of the famous quartet "America" by Dvorak and had to play it at first sight. Getting tired, I almost felt dizzy in the end of the session. What a pleasant time, though. It has reminded me of good old time in the university orchestra days. The only difference is that I have lost good vision and inexaustible energy in youth.

Being told to attend there again by the company, I was happily leaving there. It was a real busy and hectic day. But a really precious time for me.  Again recalling good old days, I drove back home. 

Ten years from the day of Lehman Brothers crisis

Today, it has been a decade since Lehman Brothers crisis occured. It seems that economic circulation is heading to another collapse of the world economy and finance system. I am least scholar of economics/finance but am still concerned about what is going on in the world.

The Institute of International Finance announced that at the end of March this year, the total debt in the world is up to 247 trillion USD. It has increased by 75 trillion USD, that is, 43 % from that in 2008.

On the other hand, the increment of the total GDP in the world remained 24 trillion USD, that is, 37 % increase. It means the debt per GDP in the world has increased from 2.9 times to 3.2 times. The funds from the debts have been invested to the assets. The economic growth rate remains low. The investments to the assets have been handled by so called the shadow banks like hedge funds. The funds are travelling instantly throuth the internet for further profit. It would contribute less to the manufacturing industries.

This has caused the inequality of income among people. Without the economic growth proportinate to the debt increase, the process inevitably causes the economic disparity.

It seems the collapse of the world economy may arise from the developing countries or from the rupture of the asset bubble in the developed countries. I don't know or could not predict how it occurs. I am very afraid the credit crunch must be really disastrous due to the size of bubble. I don't think the governments won't utilize the quantity easing for such a situation any longer.

For the past several decades, economic collapses have occured in 10 year interval as you may know. Be careful about such that.

Rice cooked with chestnuts

I have cooked the dish titled above. Chestnuts were harvested from the tree in our property. It has lived with us since we moved here. A very big and thick tree. This year, the chestnuts are entirely small in size. Maybe, it is due to the hot spell during the summer. The rice with home grown chestnuts tastes great. Sweet, not like sugar but delicately tasty. My mother used to love it.

The rice is from Hokkaido. It is also very good.

The only problem with this dish is that it takes much time to peel the shell! Looking forward this tasty rice, I have done that this afternoon.

We will have the harvest of chestnuts enough for this dish for 3 or 4 times. When we have this dish, it is the time fall is deepened.

How I am getting along recently

Away from this blog for such a long time! I am trying to catch up with it. But things have kept me too busy to spend doing that.

Yesterday, I have gone to Tokyo for an ensemble. Yes, ham radio comes next to music to me now. I have enjoyed playing Brandenburg Concerto Nr 5 with a small company. Their skill including mine was not proficient at all. However, repeating playing the piece for 2 or 3 times, I could feel the ensemble sounded much better. So far, I am taking part in 3 groups including this one. I would go on playing with them until my health won't let me do that. I still remember of my father who has attended a bible class held in Tokyo once or twice a month until very last years of his life. It seemed like an origin for the energy of living for him. This music activity is the quite same for me as his bible class, even though the fields are quite different.

On the way back home, I took the route which I used to run coming back home from the med university lab. I have been staying in Tokyo while researching about HLA and immune response at a lab there for a few years. Late at night of Saturday, I used to drive back home on that route. The outlook of the houses/buildings around it was quite different from that time. It still had the same atmosphere as that old time. That drive was a real nostalgy for me. Yes, this kind of sentimental journey is a hidden pleasure of such a trip to Tokyo. Remebering of the good old and hectic days when I have worked and lived frantically. It has passed 30 plus years since then.

I am still working in the garden. Have planted such as broccoli, cabbage and raddish. Some new tomatoes have been added. This photo shows young plant of broccoli.

Chestnuts are falling down on the ground for now. They are not so big as usual. Again it should be due to the hot spell. I will be busy cooking rice with chestnuts or sugared chestnuts etc for a while.

This summer was tough for veggies due to its hot spell. I was quite sure this aberrant weather including the hard hit of typhoon etc was a result of global warming. The green house gases have been increasing drastically for the past 3 decades as you may know if you google the record of the average temerature during that period. It may release the methan in the permafrost into the atmosphere. Warming thaws the ice in the poles and increases the level of ocean water. There will be many big cities lost due to higher lever of ocean water, resulting in tens of millions refugees all over the world. The drought would bring forth poor crop harevest. Fishery may be badly influenced by the hotter temperature of ocean water. These last two may cause deficit of foods. Some scientists insist 21st century will be the era of poor food production. It may cause wars around the world. We should remember the conflict in Syria was caused, at least partially, by the droungt and famine around the metropolis of Syria.

These events have been well described and warned by many scientists in the past. But it seems the measures against that are too little and too slow to be executed. People living in the developed countries are mainly responsible for that. It was a summer when I realized this problem again and decided to do anything to leave a better world to the next generation.

I hope every friend of mine visiting this rarely renews blog would have a pleasant season of harvest at your place.

Mugonkan

Mugon kan, how should I translate it into English? It is an art museum which displays the pictures of young art students or of young painters who have gone for compulsory service and died in the WWII. It is in Ueda City in Nagano Prefecture about 4 hours drive from here. I have seen a TV program showing this museum and the pictures displayed there some time ago. It made me feel I would visit there by any means. It was very fine and cool today. The best day for such a drive. The only misjudgement was that it was a week end and the traffic was a bit congested in an area in Nagano. Anyway, I have headed to that museum in the morning today.

It was located on a top of a hill in the suburb of Ueda City, which was surrounded with mountains all around. The building was 50 ft or so away from the parking lot. Only several cars have parked there. Surprisingly, some of them were from Saitama or Kanagawa, almost of the same distance from my home. This may mean it was not very popular among people but still attracted some people not only in the local area but from many places in the country.

This seemed to be a monument of the young painters dead in WWII. Their names were engraved on a palette shaped stone at a corner of the museum.   

The building of the museum was like a church. Not gorgeous but sound and steady appearance. 

It was forbidden to take photo of the works and letters etc displayed inside. The pamphlet is as follows;

It was dark inside and the pictures and letters were shed light. No noise nor talks. A dosen of people were looking at the works there. They were watching them intently without speaking anything. 

Most works were rather small but sure attracted our eyes. One of nudes was captioned as the model had been the painter's wife and the painter had told he would go on painting it for another 5 or 10 minutes. He was urged to go to war when finishing painting his that very last work and never came back home.

Watching each work, I noticed tears had dropped from my eyes, imagining how regrettable the young painters were leaving their artistic activities and dying away from their families. Most of them were killed within the last 2 years of the war. Some of them were dead due to illnesses in the war. I remembered among 3 million people, soldiers or civilians, killed in the war, more than half of them have died due to illnesses or malnutrition. The nation would treat us in this way once war started. 

Staying quiet there, this museum was much more eloquent against war than any demonstration or any abstract discussion protesting war, I thought. And I believe there were even more talented young people in Asia/Pacific area and in the US/allied countries who had been killed by the invasion of the military of our country in WWII. We should never forget of that fact as well.

Mugonkan stands for a museum without speech. The works and the records of the young painters themselves would move you without any political address or agitation. I thought it was how they had named this museum. In my view, this museum should be called a museum of silent palette. The palettes which won't be used any longer would appeal by themselves what those young people wanted to do.   

On the way back home, I have gone through the concourse before the railway station of Ueda. It was the place where I and company of med school took off a train and tool a bus to a hospital in the mountain area. We have had summer holiday training at that hospital for a few days. Over 40 years ago. Most of us are retiring or have retired from profession. I could not help but remembering what has happened to me in that period. Now I have finished my career as a doctor.

It has undergone a big change since that time. There was still a kind of atmosphere we had had in our medical student days. 

It deserved making this trip even though it was a bit tough one for me. Purchasing some souvenirs to my wife, I headed home on the high way. Sun was already sinking.

Indian lilac coming out

Indian lilac is blooming again. It has started blooming in the end of last month. In my image, it is always flowering in the late summer. It has been deadly hot since last month. That is why it has bloomed earlier than usual.

This again reminds me of my father who used to plant it there about 3

decades ago. Having lived the same length of time as he had here, I fully undersatand what he has thought of and has worried about. I should have sympathized him when he was alive. But it must be the way how people live and die. Soon, I will go into the eternal phase as my father did. Until that time, I am asked how to live for the next generation. 

Seeing this flower coming out in the garden, I again think of such a thing.

Spending a lot of time indoor, though, due to the heat wave. It is a pleasure for me to listen to music and to practise cello for a while.   

Global warming

It is still abnormally hot here. In the mid daytime, it gets around 35 degrees C every day. Mariegold could have been most vivid in this season. However, some of them are dying right now, especially those in a corner having sunshine all day long.

I could not help bitterly smiling to see no one is denouncing at a post in Facebook which claims of the importance of manuver against climate change. I just wonder if we have not passed the point of no return yet. I really hope the leader in every country will take active action for this problem. It would take decades to have response from anti global warming procedures. It is for our next generation.

Sweating a lot in the garden, I have poured water to trees and tomato plants etc. And I have pulled some weeds. I found it was quite tough to do that and finished it halfway. Coming back into the house, I had a glass of ume juice diluted with carbonated water on the rock. It is a home made one. Nothing is better and healthier than this one.

In the shadow, there is a bit of breeze blowing, which may usher in the arrival of fall. Is it too early? One month has passed since the summer solstice now. Maybe, in the end of this month, that sign of very early fall will get evident.

Perssimon is growing on the tree. It may offer us sweet fruits in fall.