It is a beautiful saeson with fresh green leaves and early summer flowers like irises, azaleas, and peonies. Rice paddies are filled with water and rice seedlings are already planted in some of them. Blue skies and green mountains are reflected on the water. It must be one of the most beautiful landscape of Japan. But many of those rice paddies are disappearing. In the cities or along the roads they are changing into shops, or restaurants, or apartment houses. In the country you can see many abandoned farms. They have no people to keep farming on them. We can't make a living on a small farm now, and sons and daughters of the old farmers leave the farm.
Today's newspaper made a scoop that 90% of the workers of the Tokyo Electric Company left the exploded plant, against the order of the Head of the Fukushima 1, including the member who were responsible to take care of the plant with the accident. The Head told the fact but TEC has hided it. I've heard that the families of the TEC employees were the first to get away, on the other hand huge number of the people were left in the radiation without information.
I heard a talk of a comedian who has kept researching and reporting about the TEC and the accident in Fukushima and the government. She said she was asked in Germany
" Why don't you fight against the government?" " Do you think the posters can stop the nuke?"
Why don't we, Japanese get angry about the wrong? Why can't we fight against the power? Why are we this timid? Why are we this ignorant about suffering neighbors, about democracy? It's a shame.
Oh, again I'm complaining about this and that. We are planning to have a gathering and demonstration to protest the government that intend to change our constitution and join the wars all over the world. Now people are acting all over Japan though each one is not so large.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Why Don't We Stop Fighting?
Holidays called "the golden week" is over now and spring is turning into early summer around here. Spring flowers such as tulips and daffodils are almost gone and fresh green leaves are beautiful now. People enjoy going out and enjoy nature. In the field they are starting farming; plant vegetable seedlings or plowing the rice paddies.
Yesterday we made "miso"-bean past, one of Japanese basic seasoning. We boiled soy beans in a big pot and mushed them. Mixed it with malted rice and salt and packed it in a big barrel. In a year we can enjoy good bean past.
Until some decades ago most families here made bean past and soy sauce themselves, but now many of them stopped to make them by themselves, just go and buy at the supermarkets.
When I was working at school, I was too busy and felt too stressed to think of food for my family. After retirement I joined a women's group and I learned how to make bean past from them. Those women are so wise and know a lot about making food, farming, and sewing. To farm and produce food to eat is the basic skill for living, I feel now. To buy the ready made food from the shelves of the supermarkets knowing nothing seems a fragile way of life, isn't it?
March 3rd was our Constitution Day, so we had many kinds of act to appeal it. We also collected the signatures to ask for the Nobel Peace Prize to the article 9 of our constitution, which declares not to go to war and not to have army and weapons. In fact we have a big army, but we, people have protested to go worse. It's so strange that people have to act to keep the constitution against the government. The government is responsible to keep it.
Many conflicts in many places in the world were reported in the TV news this evening; Ukraine, China and Vietnam,Thailand and so on... Can't we stop fighting?
Yesterday we made "miso"-bean past, one of Japanese basic seasoning. We boiled soy beans in a big pot and mushed them. Mixed it with malted rice and salt and packed it in a big barrel. In a year we can enjoy good bean past.
Until some decades ago most families here made bean past and soy sauce themselves, but now many of them stopped to make them by themselves, just go and buy at the supermarkets.
When I was working at school, I was too busy and felt too stressed to think of food for my family. After retirement I joined a women's group and I learned how to make bean past from them. Those women are so wise and know a lot about making food, farming, and sewing. To farm and produce food to eat is the basic skill for living, I feel now. To buy the ready made food from the shelves of the supermarkets knowing nothing seems a fragile way of life, isn't it?
March 3rd was our Constitution Day, so we had many kinds of act to appeal it. We also collected the signatures to ask for the Nobel Peace Prize to the article 9 of our constitution, which declares not to go to war and not to have army and weapons. In fact we have a big army, but we, people have protested to go worse. It's so strange that people have to act to keep the constitution against the government. The government is responsible to keep it.
Many conflicts in many places in the world were reported in the TV news this evening; Ukraine, China and Vietnam,Thailand and so on... Can't we stop fighting?
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