The Flint Water Crisis began in 2014, when the tap water became contanimated with poisons, especially harmful to children. (Flint is a city in Michigan.)

When I began to hear about it on the news, I felt that there were a lot of similarities with what happened here in the Fukushima area after the meltdowns in 2011. The meltdowns caused radiation to disperse, and radiation is especially harmful to children.

In May, I read a non-fiction book about the Flint’s water crisis because I wanted to understand more about it.

And recently, I watched a Nova PBS documentary about the water crisis in Flint (“Poisoned Water”) which I thought explained it very well.

My heart goes out to the people of Flint and especially their kids.

It’s the worst feeling in the world to think that the kids of an area may be at risk–due to problems that never had to happen.

We adults need to do better, and putting kids’ health and well-being FIRST!

It’s July now. I am very much a believer in Global Warming, but I will say that this year, July in northern Japan has been very cool considering that it is summer. It’s been raining a lot since the beginning of June (more than usual, despite rain being normal in Japan during June.)

Last summer, August was one of the hottest Augusts on record in Japan, reaching record-high temperatures. It made me nervous for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The last time Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics it was in 1964. And the games were held in October!! Wow! Frankly, October is my favorite month of the year in Japan, weather-wise. It’s usually perfect weather, almost every day.

I guess TV advertisers prefer the Olympics to be held in August, and thus the 2020 Summer Tokyo Olympics will be in August (my least favorite month of the year in Japan, weather-wise.) If next year is a hot and humid August (And I think it has been Every. Single. Year.) prepare for people to be keeling over from heat-related issues!

Okay, well, it’s July now as I type this in my home in Fukushima City. The end of July is said to be the hottest time of the year and thus it’s a tradition to eat eel at that time. If one goes to a supermarket at the end of July, eel will be on display in abundance.

Meals of Eels

Eels Heal

Eels keep you on even Keel

Don’t you Feel Eels are a great Deal?!

Actually, no. Eel is very expensive, so it’s not a Steal. It’s a splurge.

(The first photo shows prices of 1, 782 yen. That’s about 17 U.S. dollars.  !!!!! For one eel lunch! I know, right? PRICEY!!!!!!!!!!)

I am deterred by the high price, but furthermore, I try to refrain from eating eel because I’ve heard that eel is an animal that is decreasing in numbers rapidly due to over-consumption.

Some seafood can be raised by seafood farmers. Some seafood can be replenished so their numbers don’t go down. Unfortunately, it is impossible to do this with some animals, like eel and whale.

I know that eel and whale are a part of Japanese culture, but they’re not part of mine, so I don’t feel any need to consume them. My culture is beef, chicken, pork and turkey, so I’ll have me some of that. :=)

The following link goes to a map of California. You can click on the map and see the MMI for each area. MMI stands for “Modified Mercalli Intensity.”

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci38457511/map

Usually, we hear about “Magnitude.” Magnitude measures the energy that quake produces. It’s a number that doesn’t change, whether you live near the quake or far from it. The quake in the California’s Ridgecrest area (epicenter) in on Friday, July 5, 2019 was a magnitude of 7.1.

On the other hand, intensity (what the map in the link above shows) measures how a certain area is affected, the intensity that area feels. If you are far from the epicenter, the intensity of your area will likely be lower than the intensity of an area closer to the epicenter–because the closer area will probably be feeling the tremors more intensely.

********************************

The “Big Quake” in Japan on March 11, 2011 had a magnitude of 9.0. or 9.1–I’ve heard both numbers.

Here is a link to the intensity felt in Japan during that earthquake:

https://earthquake.tenki.jp/bousai/earthquake/detail/2011/03/11/2011-03-11-14-46-00.html?xlarge_image=1

My home of Fukushima was a 5+, so that is what I felt when that quake occurred.

*********************************

I’ve heard that they’ve been having a lot of aftershocks in California.

❤ Or if you are now in California, YOU have been experiencing lots of aftershocks!!!!! ❤

Those aftershocks are terrifying.

With the following link, we can see the aftershocks that California is now experiencing:

https://earthquaketrack.com/p/united-states/california/recent

Hang in there!!

(cat design from this site: https://www.irasutoya.com/)

California was struck by a 6.4 quake on July 4th, and then by a 7.1 quake on July 5th. The epicenter was near Ridgecrest, California. The epicenter is inland (not out in the ocean,) so there won’t be a tsunami. (Unless, of course, a different quake strikes the ocean bed. I very much doubt that will happen in the near future.) I googled the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant, which is located on the coast of California. I couldn’t find any current news reports at all (keep in mind, I only searched less than a minute. Yes, I’m a busy gal!) so I’m assuming all is well and good at that plant. Presumably it has been shut down due to the recent tremors.

Here is a link to the most recent significant quakes around the world:

(Yeah, I know my link is running off the side of the post. I apologize for the mess.)

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%2230day_sig%22%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22terrain%22%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Atrue%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3Afalse%2C%22timeZone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B-78.49055166160312%2C74.8828125%5D%2C%5B78.42019327591201%2C325.1953125%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%7B%22plates%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Afalse%2C%22help%22%3Afalse%7D%7D

As I’m typing this in the afternoon of July 7 (Japan time,) I see that the last “BIG” quake worldwide was the one in the Ridgecrest area, California at Magnitude 7.1 (They’ve been having aftershocks, but these are smaller. Nevertheless–and I speak from experience–aftershocks are extremely nerve-frazzling. Extremely! I found our aftershocks to be worse for my mental state than the orignal Super Big Quake.)

Goodness gracious, scrolling down I see a Magnitude 4.5 in Kansas that occured in June. That quake is likely causing by an oil removing technique called fracking. (Although I’ve not researched that June quake so I can’t be sure.) Fracking is very worrisome to me, but that’s another post.

And in my parents’-in-law home of Sakata (sister city of Tsuruoka, Japan) there was a 6.4 one in June.

So anyway, please use that link to learn more about quake and where they hit. 🙂

Have a nice day!

Maybe?

Possibly?

Yes!

Tanabata falls either in July (according to the new calendar) or in August (according to the old calendar.) I went to a free event where we learned how to make origami decorations for Tanabata bamboo branches.

It is fairly common to see origami in Japan. For example, a fine restaurant might serve your meal with an origami crane. At my son’s pediatrian, kids can take a free origami (if they want.) Teachers will decorate the walls of the school with homemade posters or calendars (often created by students rather than the busy teacher.) It is less common to buy ready-made decorations in Japan than in the United States.

Putting up my origami. I chose blue to celebrate America’s Independence Day (July fourth.)

My “Tanzaku” (My Tanabata wish is on this rectangular paper.)

I wanted to write “For a Better World” but I ran out of room, so I changed it to “For a Better Word” with “For a Better World” next to that.

We made lots of kinds of origami! This particular tree is fake bamboo, but traditionally people will use real bamboo. Bamboo is common in Japan and also very fast-growing.

Do you want to make the same Tanabata decoration I made? You need a square of paper (it can be a square of newspaper!), a pair of scissors for cutting, and glue or tape to connect the hearts to each other.

Here is a link:

https://www.origami-club.com/tanabata/star-t/index.html

Click the orange oval to look at the directions.

Click the red oval to see it done on Youtube. NOTE: While scissors are required for this origami, a needle for the thread is not. We just taped the string to the origami.)

(To tell the truth, this particular origami is not REAL origami, strictly speaking. Truly authentic origami does not use scissors.)

This blog is actually for kids. One of my reasons for creating it is because I believe kids were/are not getting information in English about the meltdowns here in Fukushima Prefecture.

Books for kids were also not published in the United States after the meltdown in Chernobyl. It was pretty much ignored by the western media until May of 2019, when a miniseries came out on HBO. It’s called “Chernobyl” and it’s about what happened there at the nuclear power plant. I’ve heard it is very well done, but the content of the show is not for kids, especially younger kids or sensitive kids. (So again, kids are left with not much to learn from.)

I’ve heard that a fiction book is in the works. It’s about a kid who is affected by the disaster of Chernobyl. That’s good to hear. It’s not out yet, though. Kids want to know what’s going on in the world, too. Right? And it’s imperative because kids are our future leaders and decisionmakers and voters and scientists and artists and journalists….  🙂

I found a link to kid-friendly information about “Chernobyl Disaster Facts.” Here it is:

https://kids.kiddle.co/Chernobyl_disaster

Matsukawa is slightly south of Fukushima City. It’s a beautiful area and it has lots of shrines dotting its countryside.

I went to Kuronuma Shrine.

It’s June, the rainy season. It was actually starting to rain a little when I arrived at Kuronuma Shrine.

Above……Kuronuma Shrine. It’s Shinto, not Buddhist.

potsuri potsuri potsuri…… drip drip drops of rain

Potsun… Solitude…

The Shi Shi guard the shrine.

The three hundred year old tree.

The tree and me

Forest….

The three hundred year old tree

path between the cedar trees

….potsuri potsuri….potsun….

On Facebook, I saw a post that a person named Lou had kindly put up. It’s about the Exclusion Zone in Fukushima Prefecture….how it has changed since the quake of 2011. (The Exclusion Zone–which I myself call the “Forbidden Zone”) is the area that residents were forced to evacuate after the quake due to the meltdowns at nearby Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.)

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3016044/?fbclid=IwAR3_ZsvrzBi96dre8hVVkN7Sb162BZGi6UzrGF0sun6yT3Z6lCGewVdSmIk

Thanks, Lou. 🙂

The video is quite long, about forty minutes. If you are quite young, you may want to refrain from viewing it, or view it with a guardian. It’s rather sad.

Today this post is about sports. But first–

Nadeshiko is a Japanese word that refers to a kind of flower, a pretty pink flower called “Dianthus” in English.

A photo of the flower: from this site: https://jpninfo.com/27299/nadeshiko-flower

Furthermore, in Japan the term Nadeshiko also refers to the idea of a perfect traditional Japanese woman. You know what I’m talking about. Her is hair is jet black, her complexion is snowy white.  She’s shy, demure, feminine, dressed of course in a kimono. She eats fish and rice, never pizza and burgers. Her build is tiny, but her fingers are long and slender. She covers her mouth when she laughs. She’s, well, perfect.

So what does this have to do with sports?

And moreover, what does it have to do with Fukushima?

Can you guess?

NADESHIKO JAPAN is the name of the Japan Women’s Football Team (Football meaning SOCCER. Not Ame Fu, or as they say in every country except the United States, American football.)

So NADESHIKO JAPAN is Japan’s women’s soccer team. Currently they are playing in France for the Women’s World Cup of 2019.

So these this team of awesome soccer-playing women is called NADESHIKO JAPAN. What a great name! I’m guessing the players are not at all shy or demure, but they do represent ideal Japanese women!

Here’s an article about the team: https://taiken.co/single/samurai-soccer-the-story-of-japans-nadeshiko-heroes/

Okay, next. What does this team have to do with Fukushima?

Well, since 2016, their head coach has been Takakura Asako (TAKAKO-family name ASAKO-given name.) She is from Fukushima. Yay!

Here is an interview with Takakura.

https://tokyo2020.org/en/news/notice/20180830-02.html

Japan loves the women’s soccer team, NADESHIKO JAPAN. I’m always hearing about them in the news. Everybody is so proud of them!

This is also a very old post. I’m busy writing my manuscript. Also, with the rain, I’m not getting out much. Therefore, I’m delving into my unfinished drafts.

These are posters that were created with giving hope to Japan so that people here can persevere after the quake/tsunami/meltdowns.

(I received permission to take photos of the posters.)