2016-03-11 03:49 The day my life has changed
Y (Kuma's owner)
Five years ago today, I was in Japan. I was an Adobe Flash creator, mainly making online games, but I didn't have a job on that day and I was relaxing with my four cats without knowing what would happen. My husband was also at home and he was working.
It was before 3 p.m.; the massive earthquake struck us. I was in the living room and quickly held on to the water tank of tropical fish with my hands. The water splashed everywhere, my four cats lost countenance and walked around the living room. My house was shaking unbelievably. I hoped it would stop soon, but it didn't. I felt it lasted so long, and it was really long. It went on for more than 200 seconds. The time of shaking was 7 to 10 times longer than the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake.
I thought that that day might be the last day of my life.
After the shaking stopped, my husband turned on the TV and we were waiting for the latest news coming in. I checked around inside the house' the water tank lost some water but it was OK, and the fish looked scared. The living room floor was wet with sprinkled water from the tank. The books fell onto the floor, and the kitchen shelf doors were all locked automatically. (Japan has many earthquakes and some daily necessities have a special function corresponding to earthquakes. For example, heaters have to have the function that extinguishes the flame when earthquakes occur. This is decided by law.)
I could see the people on TV were all in utter confusion. All the TV stations changed their program to the news. After a while, I realised what happened. The epicentre was offshore of Fukushima Pref. I sent some text to my friends and made sure they were all right. Then I went outside. There were neighbors on the street. They found that there was a gap of about 1 to 2 cm between the boundary of the public street and our sites which were flat before the earthquake. Unbelievably, the massive energy made the ground rise up. We lived roughly about 400 km from the epicentre. If we lived near the epicentre how much damage would we get?
I went back to the living room to hear about the damage on the TV. I don't remember when I heard the news about the Fukushima nuclear reactors. I just remember that I thought the awful thing had started. We had a guideline book for nuclear accidents and we knew what to do. We stopped the ventilator and closed all the windows. Sometimes, we talked with our neighbor about the direction of the wind because we thought that winds might contain radio activity.
As time passed, people knew the details of damages including the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. That news of the nuclear reactor left us uneasy, very uneasy. That was not only the news that made us feel uneasy, we saw the scene of the damage to the town in Fukushima. It was an awful disaster. Many people died, and of course domestic animals and wild animals died as well. The beautiful scenery has gone and almost everything around Fukushima was devastated. It was very sad.
I suddenly recalled the memory that I had read "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery when I was small. There was a phrase ""The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched." This story tells something good or beautiful, but I thought the opposite. The most dangerous things cannot be seen, touched, tasted or smelt. You know what I mean. I was worrying about cesium, strontium, plutonium and so on. We didn't know what was going on inside the reactor, and five years past, we still don't know what is going on now accurately.
Pandora's box has opened.
2016-03-09 09:18 It's a mozzy season
Y (Kuma's owner)
It is March, the month between summer and autumn. People say that March is autumn, but to me who grew up in Japan, it is still summer. The maximum temperature goes to around 30 degrees Celsius, and once I go outside, mosquitoes (Australian call them mozzies) follow me around.
In the middle of summer, we rarely see mosquitoes. I don't know why. Is it too hot for them?
From this season, I will have to be careful because of little vampires hanging around outside. They creep up silently and suck blood. I noticed that Australian mosquitoes are like a Ninja. They don't make noise. Japanese mosquitoes (not all mosquitoes) make noise like "Here I come." They are kind, aren't they?
My female cat likes to chase insects. I want her to get mosquitoes but she is not interested in them. Why not? Maybe she would say it is too small.
One day, I was watching a TV program, and saw a chameleon. They are experts in catching insects. I wish they could stay here and eat mosquitoes. Wait, do they eat mosquitoes? Maybe not.
I have a reason for hating mosquitoes. They love me, they really do. I don't know why. Long ago, I was on a camping tour and went to Northern Territory, Australia. It was a wonderful experience. I encountered lots of wild animals, of course including mosquitoes. Most tour members were Australian, some New Zealanders, and me, Japanese. The tour members were all bitten by mosquitoes but I was bitten the most. I heard that someone who drinks alcohol easily gets bitten by mosquitoes, but I didn't drink alcohol during the tour at all.
The guide said jokingly "Mozzies get tired of Aussie blood taste." He also said that he had guided Australian and Swiss tourists before, and Swiss tourists got lots of bites.
It does not happen only in Australia. I have heard that Sumo wrestlers who came from outside Japan got lots of mosquito bites.
I don't know for certain whether it is true or not. I would like to ask mosquitoes the reason. Is there a scientist who researches the reason that foreigner attract mosquitoes?
One biologist says that there are some blood types that mosquitoes like. Does it mean they can tell the difference of blood type without sucking blood? I have lots of questions about mosquitoes. Please do not take me wrong, I don't like mosquitoes. Oh, here she comes again.
Slap!
There are so many mysteries and so many mosquito bite scars remain.
2016-03-08 02:14 The long garden bed project 2
Kuma
My human J has been working very hard on the long garden bed project. If you have read my previous writing on 23rd January, I think you already knew. My humans decided to make a long garden bed (veggie patch) in their backyard. The timber of this garden bed is spotted gum, it is a kind of hardwood. That makes J more hard to work with.
In the beginning, I thought the project was too hard to complete but J made big progress. He spent almost every Saturday and Sunday on the project. He is now going to set up a water system inside the garden bed frame. Once it was set up, it would be easy to water the plants.
Please take a look at the following photo. This is long, isn't it?
Human Y, who loves gardening, has started to plant some vegetables and flowers. There are tomatoes, zucchinis, capsicums, okra and parsley. She is happy with the garden bed but it is not only her, wild birds are also happy. For example, King Parrots love to eat green tomatoes. Human Y seems to be disappointed a little but she says it is OK. She thinks she is paying tax for nature.
We live in a subtropical area. It is still hot in March. Y wants to grow sweet peas but it is too hot for them. We are looking forward to autumn coming.
