Back to Okinawa

This empty harness is for the water buffalo whose job it is to turn the sugar cane crusher. There was a time when these huge animals performed essential labor. Now, when electricity provides the power, water buffaloes are only a bit of nostalgia from Okinawa's colorful past.

[for a fictional look at water buffalo, check out the newest post in the Chura Writer blog]

The Geology of the March 11 Quake

It must be a rare event when a whole country gets shoved out of its place in geography, and that is what happened to Japan on March 11. An AP reporter explains it as follows:

"Japan's northern half sits on the North American tectonic plate. The Pacific plate, which is mostly undersea, normally slides under this plate, slowly nudging the country west. But in the earthquake, the fault line between the two plates ruptured, and the North American plate slid up and out along the Pacific plate.

The rising edge of plate caused the sea floor off Japan's eastern coast to bulge up — one measuring station run by Tohoku University reported an underwater rise of 16 feet (5 meters) — creating the tsunami that devastated the coast. The portion of the plate under Japan was pulled lower as it slid toward the ocean, which caused a corresponding plunge in elevation under the country.

Some areas in Ishinomaki[in Miyagi Prefecture] moved southeast 17 feet (5.3 meters) and sank 4 feet (1.2 meters) lower."

For the full article, go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110509/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake_changing_terrain

The Little Engine that Could

In a place where tsunami and earthquake wiped out cars, trucks, busses and ambulances--not to mention the gasoline supplies that kept them running--how do you get doctors to patients? Food to the hungry?

With cars that skim over the landscape on battery power.

Mitsubishi and Nissan donated electric-powered cars to Japan's battered northeast. The cars flitted about by day, then at night returned to the City Halls, where they were plugged in to 200-volt outlets. Even the Japanese standard household 100-volt outlet would work, provided more time (12 hours, or overnight) was allotted for the recharge.

More information on these little engines that could can be found in The New York Times online.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/automobiles/08JAPAN.html?hpw

A Little Solemnity on the 49th Day

When a loved one dies and funeral rites are held in Japan, it's not a matter of one ceremony and you're done. Religious services are held over an extended period of time, and one of the milestones occurs on the 49th day after death.

For those who lost their lives in the earthquake/tsunami that struck northeast Japan on March 11, the 49th day is today. In Buddhist tradition, it is believed that it takes 49 days for a soul to make the transition from life in this world to whatever comes next. This is the day for the final good-bye.

Under normal circumstances, there is a wake and then a "departure" ceremony, after which the remains of the deceased person are cremated. The ashes are gathered and placed in an urn, which is enshrined at the home of the next of kin. Once a week, for seven weeks, incense is burned, candles are lit, and prayers are said in front of the urn. Then, on the 49th day, the ashes are taken away for interrment.

Though these are not ordinary times and the circumstances are far from normal, it is still the 49th day.

Please take a moment and remember the ten thousand and more whose lives came to an unexpected end on March 11, 2011.

Influential by Example

This is from the Japan Times online, about one of the many people who did his/her best for others during the March 11 tsunami.

"— A Japanese doctor who was recently chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people said Tuesday he believes he was picked as a symbol of all the people who have been courageously fighting against difficulties after being affected by the March 11 disaster in his homeland.



Takeshi Kanno




Takeshi Kanno, a 31-year-old internist, spoke with media outlets in New York, where he was visiting at the invitation of the magazine. He was noted for helping evacuate patients at his hospital in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, after the tsunami alert and waiting until the last of his patients had been helicoptered out before he too left.

Then on March 16, Kanno attended his wife's delivery of a baby boy.

Asked about the latest conditions, Kanno said, "Needs for goods and housing are being met to a certain extent, but (the survivors) still cannot fully live like humans. The question used to be how to survive. Now it has shifted to how to live and be independent."

What is Influence?

Influence is the power to make things happen.
Influence means being listened to by the people who can make things happen..
So, if a person cannot make something happen and no one who does have that power is listening to him, is he influential?

Time magazine should think again.

If a person who has to complain to You-tube that he personally (as mayor!) couldn't make an evacuation happen in his village and that no one else who might have had that power would listen to him, is that person really one of the 100 most influential people in the world?

Can you say GE?

Everyone by now probably knows the acronym Tepco, for Tokyo Electric Power Company, the people in charge of the damaged nuclear reactor in Fukushima. How many people know who sold Tepco a plant that, as early as 1972, was described by a US regulatory agency as "guaranteed to fail"?

The answer is in Time magazine, April 4.

Guess who sold Tepco the Mark 1? The same company that doesn't have to pay taxes!

GE