Monday, May 9, 2011

Golden Week

 Friday ended the Golden Week we have here in May, a string of holidays where everyone takes time off.  We never go anywhere because we don't like getting caught in traffic.  Stayed home, wrote for two days, then took time off for two more days.






We had a BBQ, just the three of us, Hubby, J, and myself.  E does her own thing so it was only the three of us, FIL had Day Care as usual.







My hydrangea







BBQ of three on the fourth.  Relaxing, with tastey treats right off the shichirin, good beer, in-line skating and a nap afterwards, filled me with a feeling of satisfaction.








We went to the park, after eating.  Enjoyed the azalias while watching J skate, too much beer in my system to give the skates a spin myself.







On the fifth I took off with a couple of friends to Yokohama to a steak house called Ukaitei.  It was very posh with the best fillet mignion I have ever tasted.  Have you ever been able to describe steak as 'fluffy'?  It was so very tender, melt in your mouth kind.  Once in a while it is great to treat yourself to such extravagnaces!  The steak was cooked on a teppan right in front of us by an entertaining chef, then we retired to another place, like the booth above, for dessert and coffee.  One of the most excellent meals I have ever had!







We walked the grounds, very walkable and full off all kinds of beauty.








Ukaitei, if you're ever in Yokohama, in the mood to treat yourself to 'fluffy' meat, well here is the place for you!


In the news:




It looks like the automic energy plant near us, Hamaoka, will be shut down!  The prime minister made a speech announcing that because there is a 87% change that a magnitude 8 or bigger will hit us here in the Tokai region, with its epicenter right where the plant is, the plant should be shut down.  I believe it is a wise move. It is a recomondation so now the plant has to decide to shut down, which may take a while... We will lose 10% of our electricity, but that sounds reasonable, managable, through the summer months to avoid blackouts we will have to save energy.  I think we all are willing to do whatever we can to save electricity just so we don't have that 87% threat hanging over our heads!






I signed a contract for one of my stories to be included in an anthology to be sold with the proceeds to go to the earthquake fund in Japan.  The editor is in Alabama and I am afraid that they have just been through another kind of disaster, tornados.  I hope everyone is OK there.  I am worried because I haven't heard back.






Does the world feel safer without Osama Bin Ladin?  As someone who has to periodically get on planes, NO!  I say I am glad he is dead, but the dancing in the streets seems like stooping to their level.  I just feel very very sad that this world is such a very frightening place to live in.  I can't drown in saddness!


On a brighter note:


May everyone have a wonderful Mother's Day!

 



Branches reaching in every direction all ending in beautiful blossoms and leaves!

Blue

Very behind on my blogging, a few days ago, well actually a couple of weeks ago I wrote this, on April 25th, I am posting it before the recent one from yesterday...






I love these blue hydrangea.  Blue is a beautiful color in all its different shades and hues.  As an emotion it has many hues also.  I think we are experiencing many hues of blue here in wake of the earthquakes, mega tsunami, and the nuclear power plant accidents.


If I was planning a trip to Japan I'd cancel it too, in fact my friend was going to come and now she isn't but we are going to meet in Tahiti, sometime in the fall, hopefully.

 
Watching the news I get high with the will, power, and exuberance, of life.  People are handed the mike and what they say is so profound!!   One woman put it very well
'I can't expect full recovery anytime soon, because it isn't possible, but I am full of gratitude for my life which was spared me.  If things had been just a little different I would be dead, so I will live as full a life as I can every day.' What am I, Karen Bremer Masuda,  doing complaining about anything ever in my life??



Then I continue watching, the prime minister is shown talking to the evacuees in the twenty mile radius of Fukushima.  They are yelling at him.  Well it is good to get this anger out.  Kan didn't even address the nation after any of this disaster upon disaster.  Even the worst president in history knew to address the nation after 9/11!  Now in the diet they are asking for Kan's resignation!  At least he is not resigning. By this time my 'high' has been dashed to smithereens against the rocks.



The dying cattle roam the streets in the twenty mile radius.  Veterinarians are going in to keep the dead ones from rotting with some kind of powder.  They will round up, feed and water the live ones, try to get them back to their farms (they are numbered).



They are setting up road blocks and instigating times for people to go home for a couple of hours to get necessities.  They don the protective clothing and are allowed to go home for a short period.
Reparations will add up to the billions and billions and billions, how can all this be paid?  Cannot begin to fathom the bureaucracy to be wadded through, no, to drown in.



There are 12000 people still missing they will continue to look for them.  But aren't they.... gone?  At the bottom of the sea?  The closure needed is impossible to find.  In Japan the dead are memorialized according to Buddhist practice. 



By now, still watching the news, I am in tears. But in the loss the fact remains that the survivors hearts are beating, they have blood pressure, and they have oxygen to breathe.  Even though the loss is complete, houses cars jobs and loss of who we love... I can't put myself there, can you?



The area outside the 30 K evacuation radius is posting warnings for children not to play in parks for over an hour at a time.  Kindergartens and Nurseries are closing down in this area too. Bleak as bleak can be.







China wants to expand its nuclear power capacity, still?  China would be a country that would let the inhabitants get all contaminated before ever even reporting a problem.


Life is just too frightening I think the effects of a nuclear energy disaster of this magnitude are not really known.  The nuclear plant down the coast Hamanako is starting to declare its safety, Fukushima did the same before the fact.  I pray that Japan can become the leaders of alternative energy take steps needed to lead the world in it!  It will take years, but shut the plants down, please!  I will sign petition after petition to shut down all nuclear reactors in Japan.


Keeping educated is the best way to fight fear.