I just started listening to an audiobook called Atomic Accidents:  A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters;  From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima by James Mahaffey.   Since I am at the very, very beginning, I don’t know how good it is yet, but I expect to learn quite a lot.  (I have read books before on the disaster, and every so often like to brush up on it.)

The author starts by discussing accidents, and ending with the disaster in Fukushima, saying “the problem of water inappropriately forced upon a large power plant would come up again, this time in Japan in 2011.  We now call this incident Fukushima.”

As a long-term resident (since 2006) of Fukushima City, it rankles me when I see the word Fukushima as equivocal to “the meltdowns that occured at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power in March of 2011.”    A far better name for the disaster is 3/11 (begging a thousand pardons to those who share that birthday,) similar to the appellation 9/11.

Because you see, many of us actually live here in Fukushima.  It’s a place.  NOT a disaster.   I tried to get that across in the two middle grade manuscripts I have written, which are far more the stories of Fukushima’s children than of its infamous disaster.

So you wanna see what Fukushima City has looked like recently?   These photos are near my home, on a day when I walked to a shopping center during a blizzard.

Stepping out, on my way there.   The wind was very strong, although it wasn’t snowing a whole lot.  My umbrella rebelled and turned itself inside out, due to the strong wind.

I actually was going to the mall for a tea ceremony.  (On the fourth floor, there is a center for classes and so forth.)  However, it was cancelled.  So I ended up buying these gloves at an end-of-the-season discount.  I always try to buy on sale!

Now I have to leave…the snow has picked up, and how!!!!!….no, I don’t wanna walk home…No…too windy too snowy……….Gah.

がんばります！(Ganbarimasu!  I’ll do my best!)

I speak a bit of cat language, so this kitty and I talked to each on my way home.  She said it was cold.

This building (which is roped off, although you can’t see that in the photo) is probably almost a hundred years old.  It’s amazing that the 3/11 earthquake didn’t topple it, but I am really glad because I love this building.  It’s a piece of history.

I thought this shade of blue was so lovely in the falling snow.  (This blue color is quite common for structures in Japan.)  Notice the graffiti.  Graffiti is most definitely not at all common in Japan.

Almost home!   The duty of shovelling this path falls on my family and on my neighbors.  So I have mixed feelings about snow!  It’s beautiful, isn’t it……..But sometimes a bit of a pain!

I hope you enjoyed these photos of my neighborhood from winter 2017.   And now excuse me while I go drink some hot green tea and cuddle in a wooly blanket…..