Kurashi - News From Japan

Kitchen Garden Japan: Largely self-sufficient, Tom farms, Izumi cooks, Kento throws our organic fruit and vegetables at the wall.　Haruto mainly gurgles and sleeps. Kitchen Garden Japan Quote: The quake just didn’t reach it this far. And nor, too, did the tsunami. The outlying island of Shikoku, home of Masanobu Fukuoka, an influence whose book “The One-Straw Revolution” partly inspires this project, blocked and diffused the wave. By the time it reached here, the wall of water was thankfully a mere 20cm high. And now you know why... Fukuoka’s message is most easily explained by his food mandala, pictured below, in which he advocates growing and eating seasonal foods. It’s not rocket science, just common sense, but it is sense that society’s “I want this and I want it now” culture overlooks all too easily. It’s all about harnessing seasons: Round and round So in the orchard, we’ve planted with eyes on succession; taranome, loquats, and cherries segue into apricots, plums and peaches, bef...

Learning to live with less, being innovative and finding ways to consume as little as possible, going with the trend to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Tepco is actually cancelling some planned blackouts because people are doing well, not using more than they need. I see a lot of drink machines that have been turned off, or at least the lamps are off. Factories are running daytime only, many offices tell workers to go home early. It can be done. What does it mean for the economy? Right now, we are all more worried about the workers at the Fukushima nuclear power plants and praying for their success and health and whatever it is that one prays for when one thinks of guys having to do shifts in dark, unknown, unsafe conditions like that. Power-down is taking its toll but so far we are lucky, as it is spring, and not too cold in Tokyo. Good citizens of Tokyo, we are all doing our part, aren't we? Some have left, others stay. How long can we power-down for? We kne...

Here are a couple of videos with views from many different harbours and port towns around Japan, and an enka melody first released by Shinichi Mori back in 1969. Here is the karaoke version: Do watch the version by Teresa Teng from Taiwan, who was a popular artist with a large fan base in Asia. The fan video is dedicated to the victims of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami: We express great sympathy to those who suffered from disasters in the following port towns in this song: 函館 (Hakodate), 宮古 (Miyako), 釜石 (Kamaishi), 気仙沼 (Kesen-numa), and in many other areas. I like how Asahi Shinbun wove this old standard into a fine essay about the fisheries of the region. Is a unique fishing culture lost forever? "Minato-machi Burusu" (Port town blues), an old hit by popular singer Shinichi Mori, mentions the then-fine ports of Miyako, Kamaishi and Kesennuma. Strung along a saw-toothed coastline, these port towns were flattened by tsunami waves that crashed into the bay from all ...

The ancient prayer here is the Heart Sutra, but there are many others. The Lotus Sutra (how we can all rise from the mud to become like an amazing lotus blossom) is another. You will hear them at funerals and at temple events, on a daily basis. There are lots of books with commentary even in ordinary bookshops. Many, many bloggers are adding personal stories and videos from such pilgrimage trips. Since ancient times, sutras, praying and deep mediatation have helped. You can do it too, of course. Whatever your religion may be, or be it science-based, your feelings and deepest thoughts and practice can help immensely at a severe time like this. Pilgrimages were always a part of how Japan slowly evolved, dealing with new ideas and concepts and medicine from abroad. The Chichibu fudasho here in Saitama is one such trail, with 34 temples that get increasingly difficult. Close enough to Tokyo, you can reach the first temples easily from Ikebukuro. All are worth visiting. You get to buy a...

...of the comic variety, that is. Yosuke Kihara made this brief animation with outtakes from the daily briefings of the Japanese government spokesman, Mr. Ho-hum-ehr. It ends with his usual, "And that's all folks." Mr. Edano has gotten a lot of sympathy for his tiredless efforts to answer and explain questions, but also some flack for all that has gone wrong, so far. Most of the comments are of the "Ganbare, Japan and Ganbare, Tohoku!" variety.

Kyodo and NHK (in Japanese) report that tap water in Tokyo has been tested for radioactive materials: The Tokyo metropolitan government warned Wednesday that infants should not drink tap water as radioactive iodine exceeding the limit for them were detected in water at a purification plant. According to the metropolitan government, 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine were detected per 1 kilogram of water against the limit of 100 becquerels. The levels are lower today Wednesday (190 becquerels/liter). For adults, the legal limit is 300 becquerels/liter. These are not dangerous levels, but parents should not let their infant babies drink tap water or use it for powder milk formula, according to NHK. Official data here (measured in Shinjuku-ku) do not yet mention these levels. The elevated levels were detected at a water plant in Katsushika-ku, which supplies water to all 23 wards (-ku) in Tokyo, as well as Musashino City, Mitaka City, Machida City, Inagi City and Tama City in Tokyo. ...

High levels of radioactivity was found in spinach in Fukushima, and in milk at a farm in Ibaraki. The levels are in no way life threatening but show how serious the contamination is in the Tohoku region, near the Fukushima nuclear reactors that were struck by the 9.0 earthquake and a tsunami on March 11. That it has taken this long before testing started (or showed result) is surprising, and it appears the Fukushima milk cooperative was planning to ship the milk without doing any testing. Wall Street Journal has the levels (hat tip to Japan Probe for finding). I'm stunned, but we are told by the government's chief spokesman not to worry, and frankly what he says makes perfect sense at this point: Mr. Edano said that the level of radioactive materials detected in the milk means that if a person drank that milk every day for a year, based on average Japanese milk consumption, total exposure to radioactivity would be about the same as one CT scan. If a person ate the spinach in ...