12/31/2021

Farewell to 2021 with a can of dark beer and roasted bonito

 2021 is going away. I have had a pleasant dinner with family. And bringing another dark beer in the shack, I have called CQ on 40m for a few times. No luck. Closing down in the new year's eve for now. May the new year be freed from the pandemic!




A can of dark beer with home brew lightly roasted bonito. 

A very chilly evening. I am sad that I haven't finished this year with CW fix. But life is always going on in this way. Now going to bed!

Have a happy and healthy new year, everyone!


12/26/2021

In the end of the year and looking ahead for the coming year

The winter solstice, colder than usual, has passed peacefully 3 days ago. It is the time for me to extend the Season's Greetings to friends of mine, domestic or abroad. I feel it has become a kind of mannerism torturing them to read it through. On behalf of that lengthy greeting in an e mail, I would write here how and what I look back this year at its end. In addition, my hope for the future.


First of all, I am feeling deeply grateful to my life that I could spend this year uneventfully in good health. The older I get, the more I feel that way. I could hardly say it stands to reason we could live this time of our lives in this way. I have not been a sociable guy. Getting less capable of going out easily like before, I might lose sociability even more. Maybe, I should compensate it with SNS etc from now. It is a milestone for aged to get through.


Working at the home garden and farm throughout a year was my duty. A pleasant duty. In spring, I was busy planting various kinds of vegetables at proper timing. Having cool breeze on my face standing in the mid of farm in summer, I sure felt I was living. In fall, I have harvested various sorts of basketful crops. I was cooking with them every evening. I have learned a bit of the natural farming. It tells us not to plow the soil so much and to utilize the compost made from the pulled weeds and the remnants of vegetables. I don't think it won't work for farming as an industry but is a quite ecological way of farming. I would go on farming in that method in my own way.


Leave vegetables have been rich crop this year. One of them is Chinese cabbage. It has become a material of salad today.


The other dish featuring it was mapo seasoned with Chinese hot spices.


Asking myself if this has been my Beruf, I still enjoy preparing dinner almost every day. 


Getting older, I find it is becoming difficult for me to learn things from books. I still try to learn something new in the field of sociopolitics, economy, history or music. It was a real epoch for me to have learned on Anthropocene, a geological concept to describe the new era resulted from the excessive consumption of fossil fuel for the past decades. As you may know, it is equivalent to the result of the global warming. The global warming is facilitating the economic disparity among countries and even in a country. It may cause unstableness in the world. I suspect the capitalism has reached a kind of plateau causing these events. A respectable researcher in economy says the lower interest rate is a sign of that plateau. If they go on pursuing further profit and growth rate, it may end in collapse as he says. The present age, as he said, is comparable to the 16th century when the interest rate hit record low and there was a drastic change in the hegemony for capitalistic exploits in the frontier in the Western world. I still feel the avid capitalism by neoliberalism in the modern world is confronting hard deadlock. A series of asset bubble and its rupture. What will come next in the world, who knows? Our country seems to go ahead other countries regarding this problem. Aging population with lowered birthrate will require demand of social security while the deficit of the government amounts astronomical high at present. I would like to study what we could do in this country if I could do little. 


At this age of 72 years, I sadly find friends and family members having health issues or difficulties in lives. My parents in law are placed in a nursing home in Shikoku, where my wife used to visit in certain interval. They went on steady downhill for now. I often regret I have done too little for them. When they need my help, I am ready to visit them. Quite a few friends of my age or older tell me on their health issues. This age is so called healthy life expectancy. I should be ready to accept such any health issue any time from now on. This February, Dr. Wakai has passed away after a long time of suffering from Juvenile Alzheimer's. At a bible class, he used to encourage me preparing for the med university entrance exam over 50 years ago. He has done a great job at JOCS, a medical university nearby and his mother school Tokyo University. He has cared for my father who developed subdural hematoma due to falling down on an icy street. It was a big loss for me to have him passed. He has been a close forerunning friend as a doctor. I might have the same kind of loss of my friends or of my family members. It is necessary for me to prepare for that. 


As for my hobbies, especially, music and ham radio, I have made a lot of posts in this blog. It is advisable for me to omit commenting about them. In short, I am at the turning point as for them. I don't know where I should go. So far as things permit me, I would go on enjoying them.


Now closing this greetings, I would wish all of you good health and happy new year to come. The situation of the pandemic, of its devastating effect on the world economy and of the posttruth era politics, make me feel liable to be negative and even pessimistic for the future. But I would still carry on with the great optimism Robert Browning used to express in his great poem "Grow Old". I appreciate you for your courtesy and friendship to me in this passing year.


Shin Onisawa   


12/19/2021

A good tradition in CW world

 Whenever I start a QSO with anybody, I always have the motto "Tell me your story" in my mind. It is not easy to converse in that motto. Without that, however, the conversation is often devalued. When that motto is realized, I always feel quite comfortable and it becomes worthwhile to spend the time.


With that motto, there is only the relationship of "Ich und Du" as Martin Buber depicted the ideal relationship with the other, although it is a matter of idealism. The other is my own aim as well as an end itself but not a means. Conversational CW enables us to do that because it could be a real dialogue. No others interfere us. We could concentrate on what the other says.  


Buber used to tell that the relationship is categorized as Ich und Du or Ich und Es depending on the attitude toward the other. In his idea, of course, the ultimate relationship of Ich und Du converges into that with God. It is evident that this distinction of relationships lies in the ordinary human relationship, whether it is conscious or not. Conversational CW is not an exception for this categorization of relationships. It is rather the area where that distinction appears in most obvious way.  


The idea of "Tell me your story" came from a conversation with Mike WB4ZKA years ago. He used to tell me he had enjoyed listening to me and to others in conversation on 40m late at night in his time. I can't remember if he expressed this motto as it is. His operation style was telling me he had been in that style. Writing this story with Mike, I remembered having mentioned about him and his mail to me in the previous article in this blog. I won't brag quoting it here but still even more firmly believe his attitude is precious in ham world, especially in QSO on CW that is the slowest mode of communication. 

http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-borderless-world-and-ham-radio-as.html

I must admit such a style is less and less seen in QSOs nowadays. I am afraid this trend to forget this tradition and to deviate to the Ich und Es type could be an ominous sign of the future in this hobby.  



12/18/2021

HLA A24 linked cellular immune response cross reactive to SARS CoV2 and its variants.

 A very interesting paper regarding cross reactivity of the SARS-CoV2 with the other species of Corona viruses has been published in Communications Biology in Nature dated Dec 2nd from a Japanese laboratory of Riken. What attracted my attention most was that the cross reactivity was through an allele HLA A24, which 60% of Japanese posses. It could, at least partially, explain why COVID-19 cases have not been so numerous nor serious in Japan and the areas adjacent in the Eastern Asia.  

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02885-6

Most people have had Corona Virus infection as upper respiratory tract infection in the past since that species are quite common in the society. They have found the epitopes with high affinity to HLA-24 in SARS-CoV2 spike region. Unexposed healthy individuals could have cytotoxic T cells reactive to that epitope. Thus, the preponderance of the allele among Japanese and the races in the Eastern Asia and ubiquitous infection of "common" species of Corona viruses may explain why COVID-19 has not devastating in our country. 


It is a clear cut example as for how specific HLA alleles could work in immune response. This finding may also be important for universal vaccine development against Corona viruses. Since I have been involved in research of relationship of HLA with diseases for a few years long time ago, this study showing the function of HLA as an immune response gene/product has made me a bit excited. The researchers have long been studying tumor immunity as their site says. The accumulated knowledges and methodologies in immunology through such a research might have made it possible for such a short period. 


Universal masking or keeping the other precautions are often told to be the reason why we Japanese have not had so many cases of COVID-19 in our country. It is sometimes hued with a kind of nuisance nationalism or strange self confidence. This finding should be a thesis against those nonsense ideas.     

 

If this finding turns out correct, it should be emphasized this HLA linked immune response might apply for the SARS-CoV2 and its variants except for the Delta variant so far. This RNA virus could undergo a lot of mutations ahead and may evade the immunity linked with HLA A24. 

Stagflation starting in our country

 Stagflation seems to go on in our country. While the wages won't rise, the prices are going up from next month. While the corporate prices are up by 9%, the import prices have reached up to 40% recently. Considering all of these indices, we seem to get into the era of stagflation never experienced for the past decades.


Our central bank, BOJ, could hardly deal with this situation where it should rise the interest rate to calm down inflation. Because it has possessed extraordinary large amount of national bond and of stock as ETF. With the prices of national bond and of stocks declining, BOJ could do little against such economical emergency. If they get out of the quantitative easing by such as increasing the interest rate, it will strangle themselves through falling in prices of national bond or of stock. Their net worth equity capital is amounted only less than 10 trillion JPY, while they own more than 500 trillion JPY of national bond and more than 50 trillion JPY of ETF.


The tremendous astronomical quantitative easing by the Abe administration for 8 years will have resulted in this disaster very shortly. Have we Japanese dreamed of any euphoria in this bubble economy? How could we get it through? Maybe, someone tells me not to be too pessimistic for the future. I would ask him how we could manage this possibility of serious collapse. 


Especially, for retirees dependent on the public pension, the situation is tragic, I am afraid. This will burden on the next generation as well. Those having worked as irregular employees without any social security would start retiring soon. If they won't receive any good pension of social security aid, what tragedy would there be in the society?

12/16/2021

Apple and chicken in cream sauce

We, Japanese, have a tradition to send a gift to friends and family members in the end of a year. It is the season for that year end gift. It is comparable to Christmas gift in the Western world. It is not firmly based on a religion like Christianity. In the Shogun era, they have started sending gifts to friends. There is an opinion it was started as sharing of the items for worshipping ancestors to neighbors. This gift is called Seibo that stands for a year end. It has become popular among ordinary people in the Meiji era. 

Anyway, believing such a custom is old fashioned meaningless formalism, I am sending this kind of gift to only limited number of friends/family members. This year, we have received a lot of apples. Almost over 3 dozens of them. Apple is a fruit of this season. But I am reluctant to have them every day.

I have cooked chicken and apple creamed with carrot, mushroom and onion. I have never tried this recipe in the past. I just would like to consume apples... Apples and the vegetables are, poorly enough, suffocated in the cream sauce. 

It may be easier to eat apples themselves than to cook them...



 

11/28/2021

Winter vegetables

Winter vegetables are ripened at the same time. This big chinese cabbage was a main material for hot pot dish and also was used for a dish of pork.   


A huge green lettuce. Of course, it was featured for fresh salad with the very last lot of tomatoes, sliced persimmon, boiled beans/broccoli and other stuff.


White radish or daikon radish is productive this winter. Dozens of them are growing. I will try to get them buries in the soil and preserve them for a few months. This is a dish of sliced daikon radish with bacon seasoned with sesame oil and salt.  


I used to ask myself, as I have written here in the past, if it was my work worth spending retirement. Nowadays, concentrating in farming and cooking, I find myself forgetting every worry etc and feel happy in a sense.

Time goes on.



 

11/27/2021

A new variant Omicron emerging

A new variant designated as Omicron by WHO yesterday was reported from Rep. South Africa.


BBC news says it is a heavily mutated variant with 50 loci of mutation. Among them, 30 are related with S protein and 10 with the receptor binding domain. Delta strain has only 2 for the latter domain. It seems mutation is remarked at loci involving infectivity of the strain. It is not clear yet whether it could evade immunity or not.


In a province of RSA, this strain has replaced Delta strain in a couple of weeks. There are already 2 infected in Hong Kong, who seem to have been infected through airbourne infection. Keep it in mind both of them have been vaccinated twice. There are no epidemiological findings reported on this strain yet. We should be careful about it possibly with even more contagious characteristics than previous strains.


As stated above, WHO has categorized this strain as VOC with the nomination of Omicron.   


We should not be panic with this strain emerging in RSA. But, since it is getting into winter in the north hemisphere now, a season of vulnerability to viral infections, we should be even more conscious about precautions against COVID 19. 


11/26/2021

The final drive on my Nissan

 In this week end, I would say farewell to my car of Nissan, which I have been driving for the past 10 years. It was just after the big earthquake. It is a medium sized sedan with hybrid system. I loved its smooth run and comfortable devices including HDD. Commuting to and from the work on this car, I have listened to a lot of music with it while recording them into the HDD. Possibly more than 200 CDs.


It still runs fine. But I am concerned about the gas mileage and its size, both of which are not suitable for a retired person. Compact cars run at much lower gas mileage while they are much easier to drive in the crowded city area. Those are the reason why I decided to change the car to a compact one. Thinking of my age, wondering if I should get a new one or not, I have made up my mind that way.


For the last long drive on this car, I have gone to Abukuma Mtns, north east of here, along the Pacific Ocean. It is the place where I have taken my family for drive a number of times and have already previously posted some photos in this blog. It took me a couple of hours to go there. The traffic was not crowded at all among the mountains.


Hananuki Valley among the mountains has welcomed me with the colorful trees. It was always in summer when I visited this area. I have never seen this beautiful clors in the forests there. Even on a plain week day, there were a few tourists for viewing fall foliage. The small river was running rather vigorously. This river runs only 13 or 14 miles from the origin in the mountains and had caused flood frequently. There were a dam constructed in it mainly for flood control, which has made a small lake there.








This is the car I say goodbye soon. For the past 10 years, I have had a lot of life events and have driven it whenever they happened to me. It may be a bit funny to the others but I could not help feeling emotional at this farewell. It has made me relieved with its coziness. 










  

11/21/2021

43rd anniversary

 It will be our 43rd anniversary tomorrow. There will still be a lot of steep slopes ahead of us. As we promised in the engaged days, go on through them supporting each other however hard it may be.


As this poem of Robert Browning, quoted a few times in the past, says, I would go forward with Chiaki;


 Grow Old

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith 'A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all nor be afraid!


At the medical school campus where we served residency. In 1980. 


11/04/2021

Vegetable farm and intruder

Tatsoi, lettuce and white radish etc are growing. Typical fall/winter vegetables. Cabbage and chinese cabbage are ready to ripen soon. Broccoli and a variety of beans are prepared for the next spring. 

This is a corner of the garden farm, a tiny farm. You may realize there are a lot of metal supporters stood around the farm like a fence. A intruder has come in the farm and left footprints everywhere. I have set them to avoid it coming in.


It is our cat, Hikaru, who does that mischief. He doesn't understand that he won't be welcomed in the farm however comfortable it may be for him to walk in the soft soil of the farm.  The supporter fence did not work.

I have given it up to train him not to invade the farm. But I have decided to plant more number of vegetables. It won't disturb us so much even if he harms some in a large number of plants grown.


After harvesting the last lot of tomatoes, I have taken away all the tomato plants. Getting older, I find myself feeling sad to such plants finishing their lives.? Sentimentalism? Maybe, that's right. Anything mortal draws my interest and makes me feel sympathetic to it. It is a fact that we belong to such nature mortal.


Reading the last chapter of "Jean Christophe" by Romain Rolland recently, which was a favorite novel in my teenage days since it was recommended by a teacher at elementary school days, I was again touched with the last scene that Christophe meets a child who answers Christophe he is the day to be born. We are in or a part of the flow of life which goes from the past to the future, unknown to us. In the very last day of life, it is questioned if I could tell myself about own proper engagement in the flow and if I have lived it as it was required.


I would cook chicken and egg plants with the white radish harvested in the garden farm this evening. It is seasoned with vinegar soy sauce.

11/02/2021

National election

It was the election held in our country yesterday. 

Even though there have been a lot of serious issues to be discussed before it, the government as well as the mass media were not willing to do so. The turnout has resulted in quite low. I believe young people and the unorganized part of the people have lost interests and have not voted in it. 

In such a case, the ruling party, LDPJ, does pretty well with the aid of the party of Komeitou, which owns its strong support base of Soukagakkai, a cult religion. LDPJ was supposed to lose in the election due to the recent policy failure especially for the COVID19 pandemic and to a lot of corruption cases for the past 9 years. Their loss in the election was minimized.

Even worse, a regional party ruling Osaka, named Ishin, has increased the seats four times more than before and has become the 3rd "opposition" party. It is the political faction which jeopardized Osaka in the pandemic apparently due to the policy of neoliberalism. This party is essentially a fascist faction as well. It is never an opposition party.  


It was only a few weeks prior to the election that the opposition parties could form the united front. It has not fully worked this time. There was something suggestive of the tricks to reduce the voter turnout that the government and the mass media allied to the former had plotted. One example was that the voting hours were shortened by 1 to even 4 hours. In the election campaign period, the mass media have, if not all, neglected programs which could have aroused discussion in the public. Remember the freedom of the press in our country remains being only in the 67th in the world, which is comparable to that of undeveloped countries or of the countries of dictatorship. 

I am disappointed at this result. It should be criticized that the government has made corruptions or falsification of public papers or of public data in administration. The ruling party should have been eliminated in the politics. Politics based on hoax and corruption could never be lasted. The present situation reminds me of the USSR in the last years which was losing its sovereignty.  

It depends on when the unorganized people realize the situation and go for voting that this country could fix and straighten its way to go. The mass media should play the crucial part. But most of them are threatened economically being deprived the income with advertisement by the internet and would ally the government and the financial circles on the background for economical benefit.

10/25/2021

Garden/farm going into hibernation

It's been a while since I posted the last one. Not very busy but still involved in the garden/farm work.  

The persimmon at a corner of yard is getting ripened. Not as usual, crows won't come to enjoy them. Possibly, owing to our kitty making patrol there in the day time. I am not sure. Sliced persimmon is put in the salad.


Fall/winter vegetables are growing even though some are eaten by worms. Not very bad. Chinese cabbage. It may become a material for a hot pot dish this winter. The other vegetables like onion, broccoli, cabbage, leek or a few kinds of beans are growing as well. Some of them will go through the winter and be grown early in next spring.


This camellia is coming out as usual in this season in a year. This tree is 30 or 40 years old. As told before, it was planted by my father. I could picture my parents watching these trees like this from their house on a peaceful day years ago when they were alive.


As a whole, every plant or weed is getting inactive and slowly growing if any. The garden is coming into hibernation until next spring. I will be less hustling in the garden/farm for a while.


Three taro plants were harvested. Well grown even though not cared for so much. I have cooked some of them with chicken while taro was fresh.


Listening to the intermezzos by Brahms in his last part of life as a composer. This one, OP119-1, makes my heart tremble. As I introduced his OP118-1 as a music of solitude before, an image Brahms was composing this piece all alone with his piano, giving up composing complicated orchestral or chamber music works. 

https://youtu.be/lPTCSnHfwxs


Brahms has written to Clara Schumann that he wanted to compose this piece for her. It should not be emphasized too much to play it as slow as possible, as he said. He also says it is a music of melancholy. Each dissonant featured in it should sound even like sensual. I could not really understand the sensual characteristics but feel the beginning theme as if we were floating in the air. This feature of frequently used dissonant and apparently losing tonality may usher in the modern atonality music blooming in Vienna in the early 20th century.

Anyway, it is a music suitable for this season.




 


10/06/2021

A Driving Trip to Hakuba in Shinshyu

I have started writing this post in the end of last month. I should finish it before the content becomes not updated.

~~~

A few days ago, I was enchanted again for a driving trip to Shinshyu by very clear and crisp weather after it had been too wet for the past weeks.

It was not planned precisely before leaving for the drive. I just wanted to feel the breeze starting to blow over there in this season. And, thinking of selling this car I have used for the past ten years, I would enjoy the comfort it could offer to me for the last trip.

When I quit my home around 9:30AM, I said good by to our cat, who came closer to me without replying anything. It has been over a year since he came to us when he was only a tiny kitty. 


This is Lake Aoki in a valley of Fossa Magna. A beautiful place surrounded with high mountains. It is the lake I and a few members of the university orchestra used to swim without knowing it was forbidden when I was a med student. I have written about this episode in a previous post. The same story would be repeated! in the latter part of this post. It is almost half a century ago!


A road running along the lake. Very little traffic.


This is the building of the hotel which I and my wife stayed for a day a year or two after marriage. It is along the beach of the lake. We could enjoy the view over the lake from the room. Sadly, the hotel has ceased its business and the building was used for an office of a camper place.


Through its entrance, the lake was visible through the window.


Another view of the lake. Quiet and serene. No tourists around there possibly owing to the Corona crisis. But this place may be empty even without the pandemic.


My old car of Nissan at the lake. I have been on this car for 10 years. In the mess of the big earthquake and the nuclear plant accident, it was a symbol of the hope for future for me. I have recorded a bunch of classical music CDs into the HDD of the car and have enjoyed them on the way to various places including this drive. 


As written in the beginning of this post, I as well as a few friends used to swim in the lake in the summer camp of the university orchestra days. When we landed after swimming across the lake, we were surprised to find a sign telling swimming was forbidden due to the risk by sudden drop of the water temperature in the lake. We used to walk back to the camp place in wet swimming suites. A lot of talking and laughter on the way. This is the road we walked through a range of a mountain. What joy we have had those days! 


This is the summer camp place of the orchestra. The guest house was still running its business. This is the hall the orchestra used to rehearse. We have been there for a few times for the camp. At the very first time when I was a beginner and was not on the stage, the orchestra was practicing the 3rd symphony of Brahms.  


This guest house hall must be used for orchestral rehearsal. An object of a note was hung at the entrance. 


There is a small river running along the street the hall faces to. Quite the same as 40 years ago. The hall has had a bit larger window, I guess. Through that window sunray has spilled into the hall. I could not forget the scene a good cellist had played the 1st sonata of Brahms in a concert within the orchestra at the end of a camp. In reproduction part of the 1st movement, cello starts singing the theme in low voice accompanied by piano playing beautiful arpeggio. Each note of the arpeggio has matched the shimmering sun light coming over the river from the mountains. I might have described about this scene in some previous article, which is never forgettable as an event at the very beginning of my cello life.  



I am so glad to find the same scenes there as in my student days while everything is changing in the world.

The railway station building has been rebuilt since those days. But this view to the station from the railway crossing remained same as before. On the right side walk along the railway to the station, we often walked to say good by to those who left the camp before we did. What a sentimentalism!


So that is the story. I am afraid I have written the same memory a few times in the past. But this is the unforgettable place for me as the place I have spent the most brilliant days in my life without knowing that. When we are close to the end of our lives, won't we recall such a thing in order to live the rest of our lives?

I don't know if I could return there. But if things permit me, I sure would do it again. I have found a new route through near the city of Nagano in the mountain area...wondering if it was a better one for me to return here. I would bring my wife for the next trip. Purchasing some Oyaki, steamed bread with salty vegetables in it for a souvenir, I have hurried back home. 

9/16/2021

My wife's birthday

 It was my wife's 69th birthday yesterday.


It has been half a century !! since I met her first. It was at the orientation of the medical school. At the introduction event at night in a room, I have seen her first. She was a shy looking girl with curly hair and fair skin. A typical country girl. She was a student so shy to walk at the side of corridor in order not to stand out in the class. It was not until the last grade before graduation that I knew her in person. I don't know how but we have become married and have grown family here.


This photo is most beloved one for me which shows her in young days. I have posted it a few times in this blog in the past. Taken at the honey moon. A very short trip to Izu near Tokyo. We have not had much time as well as much money for a gorgeous trip. One of the days when she has looked most bright and beautiful.  


Each of us has not been perfect. But she has worked hard as a wife, a mother and a psychiatrist. I owe her much. Recently, I continually think of a couple of things regarding her.


First, I should be asked if I could tell her parents that I have made her happy in her life when I could see them in the heaven. The parents in law both are suffering from dementia now and it might be difficult for us to see and converse with them like before for now. I feel responsible for this toward them.


The other thing is that we might not be able to share such an event as this one for many more years any longer. I might be too pessimistic for the future. But eschatological way of life is essential for us at our age. Treasure everyday as it won't be repeated any more.       


I have prepared a present of a cloth for winter and this cake. 



I don't know what she feels about my attitude. At least, she looked happy to have them yesterday.



9/11/2021

Chestnut rice

 And chestnut rice is ready for dinner.



Seasoned with sake, salt, soy sauce and a piece of dried kelp, it tastes great.

I just wished my parents had been at the table with us. How much they would enjoy this dish. Imagining of that, I was almost crying. 

In Japan, there is fairly distinct change of the four seasons. At the beginning of fall, we often have this rice. 

Time is flowing as usual. 


9/10/2021

Chestnut fruits season


It is the season of chestnut fruits falling on the ground. This big chestnut tree bears a lot of the fruits. I noticed they had started falling a few days ago. I was not sure whether I should collect them or not. 


Looking at those fruits on the ground beneath the tree, I decided to collect them again. They would be decayed or would give rise to the young trees of chestnut and eventually would be relentlessly cut. Since they have had the rare chance to be in the world, I should use them for dishes or have them eaten by people. 


A bowl of the fruits. Maybe, bowlful fruits may follow for the coming few days. It is another issue how I should consume them. To send some to my brother who might enjoy the product of this place, where he was born. At least, I was starting to cook chestnut rice seasoned with soy sauce, salt and sweetened sake. A hard work is waiting for me. That is to peel the hard shell.


As written before, these fruit trees have been planted by my father, who used to experience the hardest days of starving in WWII and believed these trees would be of help to him and the family in any starvation or any crisis in the future. So far, they are not of use yet. But who knows? The food sufficiency rate of our country remains only 37% in caloric basis. It is quite a mystery why the politics won't take it serious for the self defense of the country, even despite of their enthusiasm for military arming. A candidate of the LPDJ president insists even of the military first strike against the other country's military bases. What a policy out of focus! Anyway, at this age, I could understand what my father used to think of planting them in the garden.


Our cat, Hikaru, quite friendly to me and anyone and always chasing me working in the garden, climbs on a tree and wonders if I am working hard from there.






 

9/09/2021

Brahms Intermezzo OP117

 As most of my friends know, I have started playing cello at the university orchestra. In 2 or 3 years after starting it, I managed to be on the stage as a cellist. At that time, we have had regular practice at a women's university every week end. Our orchestra was composed of the students of both of the universities.  


Finishing such a practice at the student hall, we have set out for home in some small groups. I have known a group of younger members who had the same taste for classical music. Often we got back home together. 


In this season or a bit later when fall was deepened, I walked aside of the main hall of the university, an old building with brick exterior built in the prewar era. Street lights were lighting at certain interval of the campus street leading to the exit. Otherwise darkness has governed the area. Quiet and cool.


One of such company, who was quite a good violinist and would play in the orchestra as a concertmaster for the next few years, has come close to me. He whispered to me as if asking for my approval that the Intermezzo by Brahms was excellent. At that time, Brahms or Franck was of concern for both of us and the company. I still remember of him saying that in husky and low voice as if it were yesterday.


Early fall, from that episode, I could not help remembering of the Intermezzo. In the last years of life, Brahms has composed piano pieces except for a couple of the clarinet chamber music. By that time, he has started organizing his works in his whole life as if his last will. In the Intermezzo, we could hear him composing with his beloved instrument piano all in solitude. This opus 117 sounds like a music of solitude. He still held passion for life and music but his basic emotion was that of solitude. 


I believe that violinist friend is already reaching the age of retirement for now. Wondering if he still listens to this Intermezzo expressing solitude and resignation for life.


This performance of the piece by Pires is touching. She makes it sound as if Brahms himself told me he would let me know of his thought and feelings in the end of his life.  How much I would like to go back those days when I talked about such music with friends...almost 50 years ago! 



 

8/22/2021

5R8AL Alain

 Tonight, we had a thunderstorm or rather a rainfall with a bit of thunder, which has left much static noise on 40m. I found old friends of mine, Don WB6BEE and Jack WA7HJV, on 40m like old days. That noise and some QRM made it a bit tough for me to read. How long has it been since such I often listened to such a QSO? Very rare for now. I could not be patient enough to stay there until they finish their chat. 


I have moved to 20m, much less noisy but scant activities. A few Europeans came through without making S meter move. There was a station working in an old style. Not rushing and talking something different from the so called rubber stamp. He signed as something 8AL. I was a bit disappointed not to be able to copy his whole call. Staying on the same frequency for a while, luckily, I have heard him calling CQ there.


It was 5R8AL Alain. Surprised and of course turned the beam to him. I asked him if he was the same 5R8AL which I used to hear or even worked in '80s. He answered affirmative and told me he had been on with this call since 1975. Yes, it was him. In '80s, 5R was a pretty rare entity. I can't remember if he was my first 5R. But I still remembered of his call very well.


He started radio as F6ACT at age 13 years, as he told me. Then, as stated above, he has moved to 5R and got this present call. He also told me there had been more active stations in his area but nowadays rarely on CW. I have visited his page at G3SWH, his QSL manager, web site. A neatly arranged gears on photos. At a corner, there were a lot of old boat anchors. He said he had been enjoying restoring those old radios. Now he is 77 years old. But his fist won't tell that at all. It was not a long ragchew in fact. But in the end, the condition was dropping. Saying au revoir, we promised seeing again on this old mode. I sure wished him good health and good activity on this mode.


There is always a pipe line path to southern Africa from here what band it might be. The path is over the Indian Ocean and the propagation is always secured. Back even in '60s, I often heard a lot of ZS working the West Coast through long path. It was a spectacle for me to listen to a number of big guns in W6 or W7 working Africa through long path. As told elsewhere in the past post, I used to break in W6ULS Merle, later K6DC, working with ZS2MI in Marion Island on 40m at our midnight. Merle was kind enough to let me work that pretty rare DX for me running homebrew 6146 transmitter with a wire antenna. What an excitement it was! ZS5KI, ZS6QU or ZS1AAX were other regulars. There might be others logged in the old log book. In '80s, when I came back on the radio after a decade absence, I was again thrilled to work a few Africans like ZS6BCR, later ZS6EZ, same ZS6QU, 9J2BO or ZE1FN, later Z21FN etc. Sadly, most of them went SK or inactive any more. The only exception is Brian 9J2BO who often shows up on 20m. But not so often as before.   


Surely this QSO with Alain has brought me back to those days. I am afraid those good days have gone and won't return to us any longer. Alain and myself are the remnants from the good old days. 


No JA has called him after we finished the QSO. 5R is not a rare one for them? Or they are watching only the display? 

8/20/2021

Water melon

It has been a challenge for me to grow water melon successfully. It could be forgotten in the bush of vine of water melon and weeds among them. Crows around here would enjoy it before I realize it is ripened. It is another issue for me to judge of the maturity of water melon. It is advised to record the time of pollination but is easily forgotten as well. 

This year, this one is harvested without crow's attack. Our cat, Hikaru, is always wandering around the garden. He might be helpful to have this fruit spared that trouble.  


A bit overmatured but better than unmatured. Sweet and fresh. It is the best dessert after supper in this season. 



I must rush seeding or planting fall/winter vegetables. Feeling summer going away, I am again sure of repeating things not in the same way but in different way from the past. My life will satisfy myself and get me ready for transition to the eternal world soon. Not knowing when it is. But I should be ready for that.  

 

8/18/2021

New potatoes

I have purchased potatoes named Nishiyutaka. It has shorter period of irresponsive state, that is, could bud out in shorter time than most of the other potatoes. It takes only 2 or 3 months to bud and could be harvested within the year if planted early in fall. It is developed in Kyushyu in '70s for a species in the warmer area like kyushyu than the ordinary species mostly grown in cooler areas. 


Some of them have already budded when arrived here today. Moderate in size. In spring, bigger ones of different species are always divided into two pieces per one fruit before being planted. For the fall species, they advise us not to do so. Because they could be decayed with the high temperature.

Well, where should I plant them in the garden farm? I would put compost but not chemical fertilizer. I believe potatoes could grow well in rather poorly nutrient ground. There are still some of potatoes cropped in spring. I would harvest potatoes, of different species, in spring and fall. This one in fall. I would keep some of them for seed potato every year. Then potatoes will be harvested twice a year.

As I already wrote, I am seriously worrying about the hyperinflation occurring in our country sooner or later. After he left the position, the former prime minister boasted at a lecture that he had conducted "fiscal finance", which is strictly prohibited by the fiscal law. As already well known, the government's fiscal debt exceeded one thousand trillion JPY, an astronomical figure. Bank of Japan has been purchasing tens of trillions of the national bond every year. It is substantially the fiscal finance. The total amount of national bond reached almost 300% of GDP. BOJ owns more than 400 trillion JPY of the national bond. I firmly believe our government could not go on without hyperinflation. If the long term interest rate goes up a bit, BOJ could be "bankrupted". It may trigger hyperinflation, either. I don't believe the basic performances of the industries, like automobile or semiconductor etc which used to economically lead our country in '70s through '90s, are not governing their market in the world. Toyota may still be occupying a exceptionally high rank but is getting delayed in the EV development.  

In such a situation, with the sharp drop of exchange rate of JPY and the extraordinary rise of living cost, the people should suffer from undermined social security and undergo hardship for a few years. Considering of the onus of declining birthrate and aging of population, it may continue more than several decades. Science and technology used to be the origin of this country's growth and development. But the government has reduced investments for education/
research for such field. Nobel prize awardees have been warning of that for the past years but no response from the government.  

Retirees like me will suffer most because their deposits/investments in JPY lose their value and the pension might be reduced so much that they could hardly live on.

I am concerned about the price of foods. Our country, as stated elsewhere, has only 34% of food self-sufficienty rate. We depend on the imports for foods. With inflation going on, the food prices would climb up, either of imported or domestially produced. So that is the reason why I am going to crop potatoes twice a year.

Am I too pessimistic? I really hope I am not right. I am afraid it is not the time for us to be indulged in such as Olympic games. People are not sober with a number of pan and circus in the society.  

8/17/2021

String quartet Molto agagio by Lekeu

 Recently, I found this piece to be one of the most beautiful pieces in any genre.


Molto agagio sempre contante dolorioso for string quartet by Lekeu, a Belgian composer. He has lived in the end of 19th century. He was talented in music since young days and has been taught by Franck.

I have been enjoying his piano trio, piano quartet and cello sonata. Even though I owned this music as CD, I seldom listened to it and could not appreciate its beauty until now.

It starts with an ostinato motif by cello accompanying 1st violin singing the theme of sadness and desperation. Including this theme, all the thema have been tinted deep sadness. But interesting enough, they are associated with a kind of relief as well at the same time. Dual emotion is evoked with this piece as great Bach's works, I believe. In the end, the ostinato motif is recalled and it ends quietly.

A scripture is written on the 1st page of the score, they say. It is the saying of Jesus at Gethsemane as follows;

My soul is deeply sad even unto death.

This must be the motto of this piece. This religious background might be the reason why we could perceive a kind of relief throughout this piece.

The other and most impressive fact is that this piece was composed at his age of 17. Could that young guy compose such a serious work? He was a real genius in fact. Too bad he has died at the age of 24 years. All his works sound precocious or rather  matured too early. He has lived too fast even if it was not what he had intended. I feel that from his every works. 


Afghanistan and Dr. Nakamura

 There was a Japanese, Tetsu Nakamura, who worked as a doctor as well as a constructor of irrigation facility in Afghanistan. He was deployed there for medical aid from JOCS, Japan Overseas Christian Medical Cooperative Service, until 2019, when he was killed by a hostage kidnapper group there. He found it was necessary for the Afghani to have irrigation facility for life without the influence of frequent drought on the farming. Away from medical service, he constructed a canal in an area, which worked well for the people. That construction has been well appreciated by the people there. His life is described in WikiPedia; here.


He once told that Taliban, which has been deemed as a Muslim fundamentalists, had not conducted politics of terror for the people in reality. For example, they have allowed the schools for women to run and had not charged too much taxes on people. He seemed to be on the side of Taliban and to believe it was not bad to let them govern the country. He, a Christian, was welcomed and could work freely. His life tells us, respecting the people's life style, religion and ideas is essential for us to do with them. They are living in the society of tribes under the influence Muslim for centuries. It should be remembered.


The US and UN allied forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan. Spending over 80 trillions and having the victims of hundreds of thousand people, the war will have been ceased with Taliban's victory. It might be difficult for us to tell what war it has been at present. But the US should have negotiated to hand over Bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaida, having lead the tragic attack to World Center buildings and to kill thousands of people in 2001, with the Taliban government. Without military action. If they should have supported Afghani with the money spent in the war for people's welfare there, the situation was drastically changed. Forcing certain ideology different from their own to such developing countries like Afghanistan and trying to hold hegemony there won't be successful as this event tells to us.  


What would Dr. Nakamura say at ceasing the war for 20 years in Afghanistan? 

8/12/2021

A sign of early fall and Brahms

 Several days ago, a couple of typhoons have passed by here. It has left a bit cooler atmosphere in morning and evening than in midsummer. A gentle wind stroking my face has surprised me a lot late in the afternoon. It sure told fall had come close to us now.


The egg plants in the garden farm have been bearing a lot of them this summer. I was surprised to see them grow slow simultaneously. The biological clock in them was faithfully marking the passage of time. The tomatoes are growing slowly for now. In my optimistic view, they might have gone on growing and bearing fruits much longer. 


Harvesting a lot of egg plants, I have cooked them with sweetened miso.



It was so fresh that the picture became cloudy with hot vapor from the dish. In order to activate the weakened egg plants, I have cut a few branches of each plant and have put some fertilizer. Hopefully, they might produce some more for a month or two.

It is the season to listen to Brahms as I have already told before. Clarinet quintet was one of his works which he had composed in the very last chapter of his life. As reiterated, it is a song of passion for life which is eventually overcome with resignation. Isn't it the same as my own life? That is why it attracts me so much. 



Two violins starts singing a theme in unison in three note minor chord. It sounds like wandering somewhere or breezing in fall hill. Very impressive. In my personal memory, this theme brings me back to a day when I listened to it played by a quartet in a orchestra camp. It was held at foothills early in fall, exactly, in the end of this month. It has stroke me intensely. I still remember how it sounded. The theme will be recalled in the end of the last movement as if remembering of young days. This variation in the last movement could not be listened to without tears in the eyes.

I have listened to this performance by Wlach and Wiener Konzerthaus String Quartet quite often ever since. I have not dreamed of listening it at this age in my life in this way.

Sorry I might have uploaded the same thing with the same clip. But anyway, it is the music for me to listen to in this season. It might be because of the cold lager I have had tonight. 

8/09/2021

The very first message Samuel Morse has sent with Morse code

Recently, I learned what Samuel Morse had sent through the land line for the very first message to the receiver far away. It was a phrase from Numbers of the Old Testament. 


It says;

 

23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!


This was described in the story of Balak and Balaam in this one of the Pentateuch. There must be temptation to the Israeli from the heathens around them. It emphasizes that Israeli people after having wandered for the land of promise in the wilderness since Exodus, believed in God's words firmly, but not enchantment nor divination. It was a message to have the people united under the same belief for Yahweh, wasn't it?  


They say a daughter of Morse's friend has chosen this scripture. Whatever it may mean, I am sure, they intended to express their motivation and willingness to deliver the message through this new way of communication. It is not such as non scientific thing but an invention based on findings of physics. It must be an intense message they would communicate with this method from then.


Morse code communication has worked well as the main stream of communication world wide. It has conveyed numerous messages whether for commercial use or for ham radio fun. Since the other more efficient and reliable modes of communication have been invented and used mainly in commercial communication, Morse code was destined to be carried on only in the field of ham radio now. Unfortunately, it seems they are forgetting about Morse's intention and will to bring this mode of communication in the world. It was not for exchanging meaningless thing but conversing something meaningful just like the story of Numbers. 


In order to have Morse code live long, shouldn't we recall of the episode at the very beginning of communication on it? When we converse with it, the simplest mode of communication, we could feel being rewarded with it. It is comparable to listening to music. We should experience this pleasure in communication and deliver it to the next generation. Morse code itself is the origin of pleasure in communication.