Typhoon Roke is appoaching

(images from the web)

My work today was canceled.

Due to the approaching typhoon, we had a heavy rainfall yesterday and much sooner than we expected two main rivers running across the city were observed to be in a danger of overflowing.

In fact at the upper streams, the water flowed over to the nearby residential areas and fields. The city claimed an evacuation advisory to almost half of a city population. I don't know how many people had actually left for the evacuation facilities, though.

The main roads downtown were covered with heavy rainfall in a short period of time and some of the underground shopping arcades and the subway stations were flooded. The transportation systems were paralyzed in the midst of the evening rush hours. My son was stuck in a traffic jam on a bridge when he drove back into downtown Nagoya.

My area was safe except the fact the typhoon is getting much closer no later than this noon. The rain and the wind are getting worse as the typhoon is approaching. No evacuation instruction is claimed here at this moment but only an evacuation advisory for people at a certain area of the city.

My husband called me from India to check if I am all right. He convinced me that our place is basically safe from flooding. I glue to the TV anyway. It's raining hard and the wind is threatening. Our little pond in the garden will be flooded soon or later. Gee, it is so relieving my son is off today. We’ll stay safe.

It's good to learn something you don't know

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Hello! I was away from blogging for a while because I was just too busy with this and that. Luckily enough, now we are the midst of the three-day-holidays over the weekend in our country. I've found myself a bit relaxed and I'm enjoying spending time just for what I abandoned for these weeks.

Today, I took a subway and attended the talk meeting.

A researcher from Vietnam studying at University of Nagoya gave a presentation on her country especially from a standpoint of preservation of genetic resources from an unfair trade work. That was so informative. She also introduced us a general history. Every picture she showed us was unfortunately what we already had seen over and over for 30 some years as the sad evidence of the Vietnam War. Despite the fact that the war was over more than 35 years ago, people are suffering from the fatal damages even now genetically over generations.

Vietnam is a very rich country with forests and water. The land is blessed with wild plants. People have been using it as medicine in the form of traditional knowledge. Now they are forced into an unfair reality that they don't get enough benefits from them. This is a global problem of ABS(Access to genetic resources and Benefit Sharing.)and I'm now really interested in this country not only as a very beautiful travel destination but also as a nation seeking for national development being free from unfair treatment from overseas countries.

It's always good to learn something you don't know.

Errrr, this is not a joke !

Well, I don't have any excuse to make.
I would have been too busy to make any baskets. Look, I did it again !

I'm addicted to making baskets and I'm feeling sick now because I don't have enough eco tapes to complete one anymore. It's not enough. I have to wait until I get new rolls of tapes.

I should discipline myself to put me away from eco crafts. I should get my work started.
My, my, it's already Wednesday here.

So here is a picture!
The front one is the newest.
Thank you for sharing an excitement with me.





Here is one more picture on the process.
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Excuse me but AGAIN !

You may be fed up with finding the same kind of baskets in this blog. But my friends, here is my newest cute little basket! (clap! clap! clap!)

"Again? Doesn't she have any other things to tell us in life?"

Sorry about that. I just start to get into making baskets.

I am always admired so many blogger friends who are very talented with hand crafts making. Yes, I'm talking about YOU and YOU and YOU-----every one I know here. Whenever I see their beautiful crafts, art works ---errrr--- everything created with hands, I cannot help admiring them. I wish I could make something with my hands, too. Then some day I will be able to tell a friend of mine proudly on her birthday, "Happy Birthday. I made this for you." Isn't it nice to give something only one in the world? So I put myself into it. Thanks to you all for inspiring me.

Will you be generous enough to share these updating on making baskets for the time being? I'd be happy if I can show you some more for advanced works.

Um, sorry I have to tell you one thing before I leave you tonight. This week will be a busy one for me. So-----my next basket may not appear so soon.(sigh)

Stereotyped or not?

Here are dozens of sliced rolled sushi called "makizushi" in Japanese. You may be quite familiar with sushi with a sliced piece of raw fish sitting on a top of a small piece of vinegar sensed rice as one of the typical Japanese cuisine.
Next to those sushi, this rolled sushi is very popular too. In my childhood, my mother used to make these for lunch box for a school one day trip or school sports day. So do I. It's one of typical cuisine every mother does here. This is a very popular lunch when you have some festive occasions besides school events such as family picnic at a zoo, at a park and at a cherry blossoms viewing in spring.

These rolled sushi in the pictures above were all made by a friend's husband, which is a kind of surprising for us her female friends. Aren't they nice and in fact they were SO good. This is something beyond my imagination that my husband would ever make it. Traditionally speaking, men were considered not to step into their house kitchen where women worked. We set a clear definition in terms of a man's roles and a woman's roles in a house. Along with the changes of our life style, it's not all true anymore. I see many couple especially young ones cook together or taking turns. It depends on each couple and family to share cooking, I presume. A stereo type of a man/husband is changing in many aspects.

Talking of rolled sushi then, there are two videos introducing how to make a roll sushi and an arranged one called "decoration sushi" or "art roll sushi." Be sure that both come along with music.



Enjoy the second video on how to make a carnation shushi roll.

Is our country strange?

I'd like to share this video here in case you haven't had a chance to see this before. This is an English Version. It's really cool and well explained using lots of statistics. Really a good job. It's created by one young Japanese graphic designer. Partly well generalized and partly not. Partly ironic and partly true and not true. Partly hilarious and serious. I like it. This video gives us the Japahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnese to think of ourselves, what we have gone through so far and consider what we should do next for the future. I'm pretty sure there's not only Japan in the world that has some aspects which are not welcomed. Each country has both sides. It's worth looking at our own country from another side of the globe. Enjoy!



For some reason, the English version from You Tube is not available anymore.
The video produced by Kenichi Tanaka was introduced in this site here.

Another basket!

I know this is not a good time to post it before I leave for job. I think this could be happened to anybody, though.

When I am really really busy with this and that, I feel I've left something behind me or put something aside. Although I'm so concerned about it, I'm just trying not to think of it. Maybe this is about time I can spend for my own sake. Time that I can easily get myself into it for something creative now in my case, some handicrafts, that is totally nothing to do with my work.

The other day, I felt like making this basket by all means before I get to start my writing. That evening there was no one else at home yet. Such a nice chance to spend time working on this. Just about a couple of hours before I completed. I think I'm getting good at it. Ready to go on to the next step! Yay! All right, I've got to go now.

one of my favorite time

(Click for larger images)

I'm not a crafty person but sometimes I do love working on a so called "eco craft bag." Isn't it something that I can make "the only one in the world?"

In fact I had made these before but since then I didn't have enough time to put myself into it. But then again, I had another chance to learn this from the same friend that showed me how at the very beginning.

It was really fun especially when a teacher and her three students were all close friends. What a busy class with handcrafting and chatting! Sometimes we need this. You'll feel accomplished in the end----- in many ways!!!

See also here and here for the previous works.

Our desperate effort to save electricity

Five months have passed since the huge earthquake hit the northern part of Japan on March 11. I believe you are quite concerned about the damaged nuclear plants in that area. In spite of the fact that more than 100 people in charge of the power plant are working every night and day for getting stabilized the power situation, we don't see any better results yet.

Of all 54 nuclear power plants in Japan, due to the breakdown of the power plant in Fukushima as well as some other nuclear plants being out of service for annual maintenance, we are now facing the upcoming shortage of electricity.

The government asked every office and manufacturing company to cut the 15% electricity usage from the previous year except hospitals and elderly care facilities in those areas up until the end of September. In many offices where there used to be quite formal dress code, men and women are now free from wearing neckties, long sleeves and jacket since a closed high-rise building temperature often gets over 28 degrees C. In many private and public buildings such as department stores, offices and stations, they now switch off some lights in the buildings.

Not only those public organizations but also everyone at home is now very much aware of how to economize the whole usage of electricity. Approximately 50% of electricity consumption at home during summer is used for air conditioners following a refrigerator, lightning, TV etc. So it is quite evident that the whole nation can save electricity so simply by way of giving up air conditions! Oh but No way! That's not possible. Summer in Japan is very hot and humid. In addition, the recent global warming spurs the summer temperature to over 35 degrees C. The heat is really ferocious. We can't do without air conditioners.

Now we get much information from TV, public ads, newspapers and almost any kinds of medias about how to economize the whole usage of electricity at home.

For example, they advise us we should set the temperature no lower than 28 degree C, clean a filter at least once a week, use a electric fan to circulate air in a warm room, etc. As for a refrigerator, they recommend us we should not pack many items, should use a plastic curtain to prevent warm air from coming inside when we open its door. Boy, there are many "to do" and "not to do". Yet despite these annoying advices, many people are so aware of power shortage and we are making a desperate contribution by sweating.

I'm back!

How I wish I had more than 24 hours a day!　 It's not a good excuse. 　I am a kind of disorganized person. When I'm getting busy, I'm just not good at making a schedule. I tend to leave behind what I have to finish first. As a result, I run out of time at the end of the day.
What have I been doing since I blogged last?
Well, I think that's what I am going to fill you in one by one for the coming days.
Where shall I start then?

One of the excitements I should tell you is I got one year older in June while I was away from blogging.

Here are some pictures of 100 gerbera daisies I got on my birthday.
Flowers! Where on the earth are any women who don't love to get flowers on their important days? This means so special when your loved one hands out the flowers to you on the day. It is another story. This bunch of colorful flowers, against the odds, was from my female friends. Since we don't meet as often as we used to when we worked together in the office, we just decided to send flowers one another on each birthday. We've been doing this for over 6 years. Isn't this a wonderful routine? It's not a surprise on a birthday, rather we know, say like, "Well, it's about time a delivery should ring the door." Yet, I always love to see those colorful gerbera daisies making my day so happy and cheerful all over in the house.

We're pretty sure the owner of the gerbera farm is very very happy about us.