Living the last days of life

The higher bands are still in good shape. Fifteen meters has opened to the East Coast this morning. A good friend of mine, Alan, W2MV, has called me. A bit echo on signal but still solid. It sounded fluttery, which is typical for the path in fall.

Talking about how to spend the Thanks Giving holidays, he let me know he would have a dinner with his brother in law's father in New Jersey. That person has been diagnosed as gastric cancer in terminal stage. Since he is now in his 80s, he denied to take chemo. Alan was sad to see and take dinner together with him, as he said.

That person was born in Belgium and has spent hard time for 4 years at a house hidden from Nazis while his parents were killed by them. His bio is here.  What a dramatic life he has spent! Thinking of his life, Alan must be in the fullness of his heart for him and could not see him in such a situation with peace in Alan's mind.

I fully understood what he felt about that event. It might have been good enough for me just to listen what he felt about it. I dared to say about that guy as follows.  

There are different ways to die. Cancer takes some time and often accompanies pain and anxiety since the condition worsens gradually. Don't worry about that so much. Highly progressed terminal care would help him a lot. It was a good choice for him not to take chemo. Together with terminal care, he might spend the last days with better quality of life than receiving chemo. The terminal care may minimize his pain and agony. He could spend peaceful time left with his folks. In another words, he would spend the last days for the people around him being left in this world. So I hope Alan to see him just as always. Enjoy the time together with him and folks as always. It is the time prepared for you to be together with him. It is a gift from him to the people around him.

Alan turns to be 60 years of age next week. I welcomed him to brilliant 60s of life and also sent him very happy birthday in advance. He and his wife would spend his birthday in UK. Also wishing him a very pleasant trip.

Sharing life through ham radio is not bad, is it?

To Summer VE5SDH

I have received an e mail from a friend of mine, Summer, VE5SDH, today. She has started CW for only 2 years and a half. She is a visually handicapped person and has been very eager learning CW. For the past couple of years, whenever I met heron the radio, I felt she had made much progress at CW. In each QSO, I have told her this way. Don't to be only a contester but go ahead to the right way to be a real ragchewer. It was a kind of kidding to her knowing she had been pretty active in contests but was still what I wished her to be.

Her mail said like this; 

it's such a beautiful signal and so much history

i don't think i could be just a contester :) they're fun but also sort

 of mindless and also frustrating, and you don't get to learn much abo

ut the people you contact

with CW being such an effective communication mode :) why would people

 not want to use it to get to know each other?

I was sorry if I had forced her to write this to me. But I guess it was what she thought on CW. I replied to her that contesting is a fun but could not occupy all of ham radio. Explaining more fully on this subject, I could tell in this way.

Cppying CW is handled by the center in the brain relevant to reading printed material. I have quoted on the fMRI study on this subject showing this fact in the prior post in this blog. I guess contesting might be handled by the other center in the brain. Copying CW is to communicate and understand the others while contesting is to exchange certain symbols meaningless to our lives. The former gives us life long pleasure itself while the latter is only competition and stimulation, which last only for a moment. The former is like reading a biography of the other highly personal while the latter is like playing an impersonal game.

I fully know how exciting and amusing it is to do contesting. I won't make any infertile debate with contesters here. It is what I have reached in my ham radio career for 53 years.

I am sure Summer is heading to the right way.   

Nuclear power energy could never be "clean"

The recent issue of BMJ has published a report by an international research team regarding the threshold of irradiation dose for carcinogenicity. They have made an epidemiological study on more than 300,000 workers at nuclear power plants in the western countries. Unlike the established theory on this issue that irradiation dose of 100mSv per year is the threshold for carcinogenicity, they have found the carcinogenicity/mortality rate is increased even if the dose is below that level.

I believe this large scale study has revealed the dose response effect of irradiation to carcinogenicity in human being. It means it is advisable to minimize the irradiation dose. It is known some people are genetically rather liable to cause cancer with low dose of irradiation. From that standpoint, we should also limit the irradiation dose as low as possible.  

An former worker at the accident of the Fuskushima nuclear power plant is reported to occur leukemia recently. He has been authorized as a case of compensation insurance. He has been reported to have been irradiated up to 19mSv while working at the plant. Half of 20,000 workers are reported to have received mora than 5mSv a year. There could be more patients with malignancy from this group of workers in the future.

Nuclear power plants, either in normal shape or in accident, cause much irradiation to the workers there, which could result in their serious health problems. In addition to the used nuclear fuel problem, this fact tells us to give up nuclear power energy at present. It won't be "clean" energy at all.     

A trip to a hot spa

Another leisurely drive trip to a hot spa named Kitsuregawa, about 20km north of here. This hot spa used to be developed by semi public investors in 1980s. It was the days of so called bubble economy. The abundant fund mainly from the postal savings has been used for that those days. And in 2000s, these facilities went on declining after the rupture of the bubble. Some hot spa facilities had been run despite of that economical events. 

I used to enjoy dipping myself in those hot spas in '90s. I went there sometimes with friends and the other times with family members. It was located on a hill ridge. There was a park next to it, where our children played at before bathing in hot spa.

It was a fine and warm day. It has been over 10 years, no almost 20 years, since I last visited there. The town of Kitsuregawa is a quiet countryside without no hotels or amusement facilities. It has been one reason shy I was fascinated at this hot spa. With the guide of GPS, I reached the hot spa. It was closed. A panel said it had been damaged by the big earthquake in 2011, so that it has been closed since then. There used to be many cars parked there. But nothing at that time. the tower on the left was not familiar to me. It must be constructed for viewing the scenary from above some time not too long ago. The building on the right side was the hot spa facility.   

Another shot for the building. It seemed not to have cared for a long time. I remembered of another hot spa which I found to have closed and posted about it in this blog 2 or 3 years ago. There have been a number of hot spas developed in the same age. That earthquake has put end to most of them. What a waste!

There was a road running on the ridge. I took a walk there. Sunny and warm. You may see another ridge in the southern way. I had thought this area was acomposed of the stratum continued from Abukuma mountains. The latter moutains covers from the eastern half of Fukushima to, in the south direction, the middle of Ibaraki and north eastern part of Tochigi. Mohka we live now is located at the southern edge of the hills continued to that mountains.

I have confirmed what I guessed above from descriptions in the internet. This mountains were caused by upheaval of land, which has been eroded to be fairly flat on the tops. These low ridge of hills are the southern end of the mountains.

I felt, since the big earthquake in 2011, the quake is big when there is an earthquake in Fukusshima. I suspected there must be a continued stratum from there to our area, so that the quake is propagated directly here. In the big earthquake, our home was damaged a bit with roof tiles of the house for our parents were fallen on the ground. The operating desk was destroyed with all the equipment fallen to the floor. Ever since that, whenever we have had any earthquake in Fukusima, if not all, this area shaked according to it. That was shy I suspected of the geological relationship of this area with Fukushima.

Another hot spa next the former one was also closed due to the earthquake damage.

There was a hotel with hot spa adjascent to them. I was taking bath there. But since they haven't provided lockers, I gave up bathing there. Even though no one in the large bath at all.

On the way back home, there were peaceful farming scenes. No souvenir this time.

Okinawa questions about the fairness of the US

I love America and American people. But there is one thing I could never agree or approve what your government and military are doing. Purporting to lessen the burden of the US military base in Futenma, on behalf of the US military, our Ｍinistry of  Defence is constructing a new military base at Henoko, where they are destroying its beautiful beach at present. Majority of Okinawans are against that move.

In 0.6% of the land of our country, Okinawa has been crammed 74% of the US military base. In addition to the battle in WWII in the islands having resulted in death of 1 out of 4 Okinawan civilians due to its battle, they have suffered from crimes and accidents related with stationing of the US military there. The US base has been in extraterritoriality.

It is Okinawans' urgent demand to lessen the burden there. The governor of Okinawa has made an address to appeal about this issue. There is no improvement so far. Yes, it is our government's business. But there have been a party among politicians as well as bureaucrats who gains profit from the stationed US military.  They would construce the new base by force.

I know there are many kinds of discussions regardeing the US military presence in Okinawa. Pro and contra. But it is a matter of the human right and the right of self-determination of Okinawans. If the US government goes on constructing that new base in Henoko, it means Okinawans and some Japanese will lose faith in your sense of fairness.

The present situation in Okinawa makes us suspect the US people is fair to the minorities and those who have suffered from your military presence. The US should learn your presence won't be realized without the local people's approval for that.

Another driving trip along the Naka river

Several days ago, I have driven along a river named the Nakagawa, or the Naka river, running from west to east bound for the ocean 20 or 30km northeast of here in the hilly area. The traffic was very few. This road is the way we drove to the ocean from our home when the trunk road was jammed. A peaceful day in fall. 

We seldom have such a straight and less traffic road here. I often wonder how they will finance to maintain such an empty road. It will get less and less crowded from now since our society is losing the population. I am fond of driving on such an empty road but wonder if this is sustainable.

It was not typical for fall yet. Only few trees were changing their colors. This must be a place to enjoy cherry blossoms in spring for the people there. 

The river was running between hills. We used to bring our children for playing in the water in summer years ago. The width of the river should be a few hundred meters. In the riverside, trees seemed to stand in line. Three of them are seen in the front in this photo. Seemingly cherry trees. While they were surrounded by bushed, there must be a lane along the trees. That lane must not be used by any pedestrians any longer. There could have been farms in the riversides before.

Before it got dark, I headed back home. i found my driving skill was still getting rusty. For souvenir, I have bought apples at a farmer's shop along a street. Fresh and pretty good.

Oh HL4SF

Yesterday, I was called by a station with old call HL4SF on 40m CW.  I have doubted I got his call right at firest. Yes, it was still "Oh", a good friend of mine since 1980s. He was not very good at CW, so we have moved to SSB. I got a bit nervous for haven't talked on SSB for some time even in Japanese. A QSO after almost 20 years long absence.

He had finished his compulsory military service and was going through a med school when we first met on the radio possibly in the end of '80s. He was wondering what he would major in and where he would train himself as a doctor. One of his choices was coming to study in Japan. I have given him the info on the med school where I had served residency here. In a year or two, he has visited our home, which had been built a few years before then. A thin nice looking young guy. We have talked a lot even on the topics we could never handled on the air. He told me ham radio was still censored by the authority at that time. His sharp countenance might be not only his characteristics but also what the circumstance had made on him.

Later, he told me, he went to the states and studied family medicine there. I thought he would take over the hospital his parents had managed for years. I don't know why and had no time to ask about that in this QSO but he went on working in a university. A few years ago, he had changed his speciality from Gyn/Ob to occupational and environmental medicine. He told me he could go on working in this speciality until old age and actually liked working there.  

His daughter is going to graduate a university in Kyoto and is working near Tokyo. He would visit her there and might be visiting us here again. In our first meeting in person, both of us were young and still ambitious for our work. Now I have retired and he has found his 2nd career which he must go on working for until retirement. Possibly it will take him  only several years to retire. Much water has flown under the bridge. Maybe, we have a lot of things to talk about not on the air but in person.