Merry Christmas!!!

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My mom’s Christmas trees!!!!!!

No, I am not in the United States. I am in Fukushima City. So what’s the news here?

Two tidbits:

This is a news article about what is being considered to be done with irradiated water:

https://time.com/5754524/fukushima-nuclear-water-release-environment/

Irradiated water is still accumulating, says the article. What to do? What to do?

The Ministry of Magic’s Delores Umbridge has determined the best thing to do is to whisk a wand over the water and drink it like soup. Cornelius Fudge, however, thinks it would be best to raise tadpoles in the irradiated water and see what happens. Perhaps some very exciting results.

One thing is for sure. It’s not a laughing matter.

The second news article: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20191223/p2g/00m/0na/034000c

Thursday, December 26, 2019, the Emperor and Empress of Japan will visit both Miyagi Prefecture and Fukushima Prefecture. Their reason for coming to Tohoku is to visit two areas that were hard-hit (and still suffering) due to a terrible typhoon that struck in October (2019) in Japan, and to give support to the people of those areas.

And now one of my favorite dogs, Chako. She is super duper sweet.

Recovery Olympics?

Article about the 2020 Tokyo Olympics:

 

https://apnews.com/2a0ef15f82ed9a5c1d4fe78f48504e81

 

If you can’t read it, it’s about how parts of Fukushima Prefecture have not recovered yet from the triple tragedy of 2011, but the Olympics are being held in Japan in summer of 2020. Furthermore, some people still can’t return to their homes in Fukushima.

The article focusses on the extremely hard-hit town of Futaba.

My own personal opinion: It’s hard for me to get excited about the upcoming Olympics. I see it as basically a party for Tokyo, yet life is still hard for many in Tohoku due to the triple disaster.

Neighborhood Borzoi

We moved from Chiba Prefecture to Fukushima Prefecture in 2006. At that time, my son was small, so I often took him to Shinhama Park. Lots of people walk their dogs in that park. One man had a dog named Nikko that was just gorgeous. She was a Borzoi.

Well, Nikko passed away last year. Yesterday I was on my way home from shopping and saw that man out again. He told me he had gotten a new Borzoi, a female named Marie. (“Like Marie Antoinette,” he said.)

She’s beautiful!

She’s still a puppy, he told me.

Like Nikko, Marie seemed a little skittish around me (a stranger.) She reminded me of a slightly highly-strung colt!!

Most people in Fukushima City have similar sorts of breeds of dogs—Miniature Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, Poodles, Shiba, mixed-breeds……..

I don’t notice a lot of large dogs. Some, but not a whole lot.

The most unusual breeds I’ve ever seen were this Borzoi and once a woman had two Afghan Hounds.

Dogs are really and truly treated like children where I live! 🙂

Edano Yukio

Edano = Family Name

Yukio =Given Name

In the days after the quake on March 11, 2011, Edano Yukio was the man I remembered seeing on the news after the quake, giving press conference style reports of what was going on at Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Indeed, he is the man everybody in Japan remembers seeing on their TVs.

At that time, he was Japan’s cabinet minister.

I didn’t really know who he was. I just thought of him as the man in blue.

He was famous in the United States, too, I think, because a search reveals him to be among TIME magazine’s 2011 Candidates for Person of the Year.

http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2058044_2060338_2060035,00.html

Because Edano was the spokesperson on TV after the quake, I will be translating his early newscasts (now on youtube) from March 2011 to find out what Japan was being told/not being told.