iPhone August 2, 2011

iPhone August 2, 2011, a set on Flickr.

Let's move on to our first apres-diving day back on the main island.
Will try to get those great fish pics back soon!
Till then, here are a few photos of different fish!

The way the goose egg waddles

Two financial matters not yet hatched are in the news this week. The first was the announcement that we will see our sales tax double to 10% by fiscal 2015. Why? Apparently, it is to "finance Japan's swelling welfare costs at a time when the population is aging." OK, but I am skeptical that that is the whole story, keeping in mind the disaster which recently hit the country and its continuing aftermath, which has given the national purse a flogging. In any case, it will likely happen, especially since the current 5% has been in place since it was raised from 3% in 1997.

The second piece of news is no surprise - only a fraction of the buckets of money (to the tune of 169 billion yen) that have been donated post earthquake have actually been disbursed. The reasons? The official news is that the benchmarks for distribution that were established in early April need to be "recalculated" by the national GPS (I jest) due to mistakes in the way the original allotments were determined (whatever that means). Furthermore, delays in the issuing of disaster certificates and the confirmation of family registrations in understaffed local offices have been blamed for the delay. Red tape and more red tape.

Amidst all the heat amidst this money talk, this year's Cool Biz campaign is soaring to new heights with the new name "Super Cool Biz"! Yet again, another "recalculation" in the dress codes and policies for reducing electricity this summer. Under the latest revisions, ministry workers can downclass to polo shirts, T-shirts, jeans and sneakers in the workplace rather than the original no-tie, no-jacket plan. However, how rigorously the new plan will be followed by civil servants and the private sector is uncertain. Speaking to reliable sources in the banking and insurance sectors, I learned that people involved in sales will maintain the suit-code since they deal with customers. Also, for people who stay in the office, the higher the rank, the less dressy they will be.

At least one aspect of the summer plan is being adhered to in most places though - less or no airconditioning. No more freezing cold trains and stores - this is my summer!

Fujifilm to the rescue!

May has turned out to be a much busier month than I ever imagined.  Not much playing going on here, and not much action going on this blog either, though I have been blogging up a storm with and for my students.
To break my recent dry spell in postings here, I have two items to report in the name of cleanup.

First, Fujifilm has been working hard since March to help people restore photos that were drowned and dirtied but not lost. In addition to spending hundreds of man hours cleaning up mud and seawater-damaged photos, the company has perfected a way that people can do the job themselves, without special equipment, and is teaching people in person and via their website how to do it (yes, I checked!).
     Fujifilm figures that on average, families in Japan take 200-300 photos a year, so photo memories tend to accumulate, even in these digital days. Restoration work needs to go quickly, since damaged photos will deteriorate rapidly when the temperature warms up.

Onsite volunteers cleaning up damaged photos

The second cleanup effort concerns removing radiation from the air and soil. It is known that sunflowers absorb radiation from the air. An experiment has begun to plant sunflowers in affected areas and observe how much radiation they actually collect. If the experiment proves worthwhile, we will be seeing a lot of sunflowers. 

Himawari power!

Removing radiation from topsoil is another project in progress. Here, researchers are experimenting with a liquid chemical combination that, when poured on affected soil, makes it hard like clay. This clay-like product should be full of radiation. If the method is successful, the next challenge will be how to discard the radiated result safely. 

Japan’s New Normal

Here is an interesting report from the streets. (click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right of the video image to link to a larger screen view of this video)

Report on Red Cross donations

This just in from The Japan Times, detailing the funds that have been collected by the Red Cross at home and abroad and what is being done with them.

¥174 billion in donations so far: Japanese Red Cross

Kyodo

The Japanese Red Cross Society said Wednesday it has collected about ¥174 billion in donations for people affected by the March 11 quake and tsunami, the largest sum it has ever collected, and that ¥65 billion of the amount has already been distributed to prefectural governments.

The Japanese Red Cross also said an additional ¥16.8 billion has been provided by its partner societies around the world and that the overseas assistance will be used to rebuild medical infrastructure and provide electrical appliances to those forced to move into temporary housing.

Tadateru Konoe, president of the Japanese Red Cross Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo that about ¥8.1 billion will be spent to build a temporary hospital to provide emergency medical care in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture.

"One of the biggest challenges for us now is to work on the recovery of regular health services," Konoe said. "State plans to rebuild are in place, but they will take years to implement and in the meantime the Japanese Red Cross will do all it can to bridge significant gaps."

In Ishinomaki, only about 40 of the area's roughly 70 medical institutions are still operating. Konoe said the prefabricated hospital planned by the Red Cross will operate until a new municipal hospital can be built in the area, a task that is expected to take three years.

The overhead costs have not yet been deducted from the donations collected by the Japanese Red Cross, and the society has used its own funds provided by supporters before March 11 to offer emergency relief supplies, such as blankets, and to dispatch medical teams to the affected areas, Konoe said.

The society will also offer appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines and rice cookers, to people moving into the 72,000 or so temporary homes expected to be built. The household items are expected to benefit up to 288,000 people at an estimatedcost of ¥16.5 billion.

As for domestically collected donations, Konoe said both speed and fairness should be considered when distributing the funds.

The Japan Times Thursday, May 12, 2011

Cool biz

The reactors are still hot and it was discovered today that the millions of litres of water that has been poured into them has been leaking out means that the expected schedule for cooling needs to be revised.
The country has already been bearing up for an extra hot summer in anticipation of electricity shortages and outages. Many industries have been quick to bring out new products to fight the heat. Cool biz, an annual retail trend since 2005, is back-- this year a full month early with its May 1st launch. It will be extended by a month until October 31st too - just in case. Cool biz was originally introduced by the government to encourage its employees to turn up office thermostats to 28 degrees and wear casual clothes rather than suits and ties in summer months. They have never really gotten into it, but it caught on big in the private sector, thanks to plenty of media hype to make Cool biz really cool.
There has always been a cool biz line for women too, but this year, it has been renamed "cool elegance," to attract nonworking women.
Besides the fashion industry, the home scene is humming this year with lots of gadgets for keeping cool - from bedding to window covering to the good old uchiwa. I messed around with the setsubun expression "fuku wa uchi oni wa soto" (good luck in, devils out)  for a special summer slogan: "cool wa uchi, heat wa soto" [get it? :-)]

the faithful uchiwa

  ice pack?

a cooling neckband - apparently it cools the body for up to 9 hours, and reusable, bien sur

cooling mattress pad designed to absorb perspiration

polar bear spray to help you get through your day

Golden Week

It's Golden Week, though it feels rather different from usual. But as this has turned out to be an unusual year, it comes as no surprise. For one thing, the holidays are interrupted by -- work (!), thanks to the way the calendar goes this year. Friday was a holiday for some (Mikiya was off, but my university had classes). The next holidays are May 3-5. Some are able to take a 10-day holiday, but others like us get only the above days off. Certainly better than nothing, though, since some universities are holding classes all next week to make up for their late start to the school year, and of course, others have to work too. We are glad to have the days off - since every year it is so crazy busy in April, everyone psyches themselves to the tune of,  "If I can make it till Golden Week, I will be OK. " And here we are, so we must be alright!
   The other thing that makes this an unusual GW is people are not going as far afield or being as extravagant during the holidays, to the dismay of the service industry. Spending is down, travel is down, and basic spending and consumption are down as people, including us, stay close to home. Our big events so far have been to attend a lecture yesterday and go out for lunch and to a nearby home centre today. But as we are tired from the hustle of last month, that suits us just fine.
   I will end this post with the story of the origin of the naming "Golden Week." As the story goes, with the launch of the national holiday law in 1948, a string of four holidays was created in late April - early May. As a result, people spent more and the economy felt golden as a result of this boost.  But that is not all: the 1951 movie Jiyu gakko enjoyed record returns at the box office and the theatres and the parent film company coined that week "Golden Week." Thus, the naming was created. In the spirit of the holiday's origin, perhaps we will go to a movie!