happylife

Between Natural and Unnatural

Once I heard an interesting story about our brains. Young born babies do not recognize their surrounding world as we mature persons do. They see things differently from us. For example, a triangle is not a triangle for them. It might be just a dot, a circle, even a strange animal or whatever. This is one of the two reasons for children's paintings are sometimes quite unique. The other reason is that their controls of their hands are too immature to draw lines as they want. Usually, they acquire the ability to recognize things correctly. However, I wonder what is correct -- no one can prove that a triangle is a triangle. There is even a possibility that every triangle which everyone of us recognizes is different each other. Anyway, you might say why I think such a strange thing. Because, when I was walking up this escalator half asleep this morning, I lost myself for a moment and I couldn't tell whether the escalator was going up or down. Human recognition is not so reliable, isn't it?

 

Obama's Speech

I watched the live video of Obama's Speech though it was midnight in Japan. It might have deteriorated through the simultaneous interpretation, I didn't think it was so impressive or encouraging. After I read the whole script on the Internet, my impression didn't change at all. Sure, I can't fully understand what he is saying, but it's not the major reason for my bad feeling. His speech started after hugging Bush. There was no apology to the world, especially to the thousand victims in the Middle East countries. It seemed that he is only looking inside the America, which must be called selfish. The United States are still overwhelmingly powerful and strong in the world. They must have the "responsibility" not only to themselves but also to the whole world. By the way, I also watched a news report in which Obama started his first job today. He is said to have called the leaders of four countries in the Middle East. I don't know what he said to them but something will "change" in the near future, hopefully to the better direction.

Return Flight from Naha to Tokyo

After one month stay in Naha, I came back to Tokyo a few days ago. Soon after the take-off, the airplane leveled off at 2,000 feet because of the airspace limitation of Kadena airport which is one of the largest U.S. airbases. We were not surprised at the temporary slowdown of the airplane thanks to the captain's notice. The return air time was thirty minutes shorter because of the jet stream. It is always blowing from west to east and is so fast that airplanes are strongly affected by it. It is just like an escalator; you can easily go up on an upward escalator while it's very hard for the opposite direction. As my seat was right side, I could only see the Pacific Ocean because the airplane was mostly flying east. It was more or less regrettable that I missed Mt. Fuji when the CA announced, "Passengers, we can see beautiful Mt. Fuji on the left side." Different from the cloudy sky over Naha City, it was fine in Tokyo with this blue sky. It was blue but I can't call it "clear" because the haze over this city never goes away.

What an Impressive News!

The news of the airplane crash into Hudson River was really impressive for me. I have watched the news report on CNN many times. It's literally a miracle of Hudson River because no one was killed in the crash. They all must have been lucky, but the end would have been opposite without the daily preparation and training of pilots, cabin attendants and other rescue people on the ferries and helicopters. I remember my flight training in Canada. Sure, I did practice emergency training many times, but I had never learnt to land on water surface because it is as hard and critical as concrete surface for airplanes flying in high speed. Pilots are taught to "land" in case of emergency, but it was in N.Y. this time. The pilot must have made an ultimate decision in a very short time. He is really a hero. It is reported that this accident was not a man-made disaster but a bird-made disaster. I think it is a perfect story because no one was evil in this crash. A lot of American must have been encouraged by this accident thinking "We are not so bad." It would be great if this news becomes the trigger for them to get back their confidence and pride.

Tomorrow's Joe

When I was walking along Kokusai Street, which is the most popular and crowded street in Naha City, I came across this boxer slumping over a rainbow bench. He is always sitting here even on a rainy day because he is a doll united with the bench. As most Japanese people know, his name is Joe, a very hungry, professional boxer. He is the hero in a 40-year-old Japanese comic whose tile is "Tomorrow's Joe." It's so old that I don't remember the detail of the story, but most Japanese including me know the last scene of this comic. It was such a impressive last scene. He fought a very hard battle with the opponent whose hair changed into white because of fear in the game, but Joe lost the match in the end. In the last scene, he died into white just like he burnt out into ash. This comic might look too heavy, serious and rough for the present young people, but no one can deny the fact that it is one of the greatest comic masterpieces. Anyway, I don't know why Joe is sitting here. Is he waiting for someone to fight with? He looks tired and burnt out, doesn't he?

Wonder of Dream

The bed in my hotel room is a little bit small for me though it is in the standard size in Japan. The other day, I woke up as I fell down from it. I didn't understand what had happened to me for a while because I was still in my dream. I remembered the story of my room just at that time, but I've forgotten it at all now. One thing I still remember is that it was quite natural in the long context of my dream that I fell down. As I experienced a lot of things in my long dream, it should have taken more than minutes to playback whole of the dream. However, it was an accident that I fell down from my bed and it must have been impossible to anticipate it in the middle of the dream. I wonder how the context of my dream and the fact that I fell down were connected so smoothly. Do I have a second sight and I could anticipate my falling in advance? Or is my brain is so fast that I could playback the long dream just in the second when I dropped off the bed towards the floor? I sometimes think that my life might be a dream which can be played back in a second and forgotten in a minute.

An Old Public Market

A huge, modern shopping mall built in the suburb monopolizes the local economy and the old stores become so called a "shutter street." That is the typical problem which most cities are holding in Japan. I have seen quite a few shutter streets here and there all around this county, but this old public market looks different. Despite a few visitors, each shop is still open with an old woman selling cookies, clothes and whatever. I doubt that they are getting enough sales, but they are working. As a whole, I felt something warm while I was walking around this old shopping street. Sure, money is an important purpose of working, but it's not the only one. We can get a lot of things from working besides money; friends, help, communications, something stimulus and so on. Everything brings us a feeling worth living. That's why we and I have to work. I think this is very important not only for retired people, but also for me who have spent lazy in this tropical island. I should say it's time for work!

Always with Something Hot

Thermos Bottle was always by me even when I was a small child. I used to carry a small bottle when I went to school with a lunchbox. I remember well that I dropped my bottle on the floor when I took a misstep which caused a terrible situation -- hot milk tea was spilt and scattered on my foot and on the floor. I was burnt a bit in my foot and I had to clean the floor. I can't forget the smell of the duster which was used to wipe it. Plus, I had to have my lunch without tea on that day. The biggest reason for the tragedy was that Thermos Bottle was made of glass in those days. Decades have passed since then and the Thermos has got a great innovation. As you know, the recent Thermos Bottle is made of stainless steel and it cannot be crushed even if you clamp it on a concrete floor. This is my new Thermos Bottle which I bought on the end of last year. The capacity of 500ml is enough for three cups of drink. It provides such an extra insulation that a sip of hot tea after six hours is still too hot for me to swallow at one gulp. Thanks to this bottle, I can enjoy whenever I want just a sip of hot tea or coffee or whatever. Furthermore, it can save money in Starbucks. Not only we can get 20 yen discount for "my bottle" but also we can sometimes get "Grande(480ml)" sized coffee for an order of "Tall(360ml)".

Japan's Population

This is a newspaper clipping today, the first day of 2009. (Actually, it is not a newspaper but an electric-newspaer on the iPhone.) The chart depicts the transition of Japan's population. The red line is the number of new born babies in each year and the blue one is those of died people. Sure, the horizontal axis is the year; the number 22 on the left bottom means Showa 22 in the Japanese era which is equal to 1947 and the 20 on the right bottom means Heisei 20 which is equal to 2008. The number 300 on the top left depicts 3 million people. What can be read from this chart is that Japan's population has been decreasing for these thirty years. While the natural increasing of died people, the decreasing of new born babies is radical. That is said to be a big problem in our country and a special minister has been assigned to solve it but in vain. There are a lot of reasons for that, but everyone of them looks difficult to solve in a short time. In my opinion, it's impossible to increase the population in the next century without mass immigration, but it will be more difficult for us to accept so many foreigners. We had better think about the way to run our country more effectively with a smaller number of young generations and a larger number of aged people. Therefore, the most important thing needed right now is good education and welfare for old people. Unfortunately, both of them are in terrible situations in Japan. Anyway, the remarkable drop of new born children in Showa 41 e.g. 1966 is called "Hinoe Uma" which is the ancient rumor saying "girls born in this year are going to kill their husband." Hinoe Uma comes every 60 years and the next one is 2026.