The Panda Cub at Ueno Zoo

I was so shocked to read the article on the Internet that the panda cub at Ueno Zoo died this morning.
It was only six days old.

Some people in Japan say that we must not grieve for the death of this baby panda but for lots of nuclear victims in Tohoku district.
I feel sorry for both of them.

I have been in chronic shock since we had the East Japan Giant Earthquake and that terrible explosion at Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP following the earthquake.
I have been against nuclear power generation ever since; I can stand however tough regulations for saving electricity in order to stop all the nuclear power plants in Japan.

But it’s also true that we do need a heartwarming news to pump up ourselves.
The birth of panda cub is one of them.
All babies have great power to make us happy; I don’t know why but they sure do.

Rest in peace, our little baby.

A Blue Helon

Herons and egrets are my favorite birds.
When I see them in rice fields, I’m so relieved; assuming that the rice from here may be grown chemical-free.

In my residence, egrets are seen more often.
Brue herons make us happy somehow, because they are so careful and don’t often come down to residential districts.

Last month, I saw some egrets in a quiet rice field in northern Mito.
I went down to the path to take pictures of them.
I looked over the rice paddies and found one blue heron among two egrets.
This brue heron really made me happy and I photographed it many times.

Black Kites

A black kite,

it’s not a tool which we enjoy flying in the sky, but a very common bird in Japan.
I just learned to call it “kite” in English today!

We can often see them in the afternoon with gentle breezes, soaring and gliding around rice fields and river banks.

Last week, I succeeded in photographing a flying kite for the first time.
I want to try again with a bigger telephoto lens!

Swan Chicks

On the day of the annular eclipse, I saw cygets (baby swans) for the first time in my life while on the way back from my son’s school .

I was so moved that I rushed back home to grab up my camera, and revisited the swamp where I saw them.
Thankflly, they were still there with their parents.

“I wonder how many baby swans there are?” I thought.
So I counted them with my SLR camera.

There were four chicks in all =O)

Some chicks jumped into the swamp quickly, but there was one which seemed a bit afraid of going into the water.

I could tell each baby swan had different characteristics.

About a week ago I saw this swan family again at the mouth of the Sawatari River, which flows into Lake Semba.
The babies had grown bigger:-O

Catching the Sun!

This Monday morning, I enjoyed the annular eclipse with my mother and my son.

During the eclipse, my husband had left home for his workplace, my younger daughter went to school earlier to watch it on the school roof, and my older daughter was still in her bed.

My mother was completely fascinated to see the sun getting blocked by the new moon.
My son and I were so excited that we strained to take pictures of the sun, sinceeach of us has our own SLR camera.

He took really good photos of the obscured sun!

My Cute Deity

I’ve started growing cacti since last month.
I grow my cacti in the bathrooms!

Why???

It was one day in the beginning of April.
I bought a fuu-sui book (fuu-sui: tips for interior decoration to bring good luck), and it said that a cactus bowl in the toilet room would help you block bad luck and people you dislike.

It was one day in the beginning of April.
I bought a fuu-sui book (fuu-sui: tips for interior decoration to bring good luck), and it said that a cactus bowl in the toilet would help you block bad luck and people you dislike.

Since I was suffering from frequent quarrels with my mother at that time, I got an opuntia cactus for 100 yen and put it in the bathroom on the first floor.

My daughters chuckled when they first saw it, but I didn’t mind at all.
I simply believed what the fuu-sui book said and really thought the cacti were very cute.

From two weeks after I put a cactus bowl in the bathroom, my family members have had less arguments than before, and I got a job offer, even though it was a temporary one.

Happiness is surely coming!

My cactus is growing well too!!

I found one more good thing which has been brought with this cactus bowl in the bathroom.

I’ve become fond of cleaning the bathroom 😉

Another Midnight Earthquake

We had a big earthquake in Mito at midnight.
I heard my Android phone beep.

The Meteorological Agency said that Mito had a quake of three on the Japanese scale, I felt it was severer than reported. Takahagi, where was barely survived from the tsunami last year, shook the most seriously today, measuring lower 5 on the Japanese scale.

I’ve got anxious about Tokai NPP again.
Since I learned at an anti-nuke seminar that nuclear fuel rods were so fragile that it would be inevitable to cause a meltdown if we had an quake of magnitude nine anywhere in Japan.

Tokai village has two nuclear power plants, one of which has already been shut down and the other is under maintainance.
That means Tokai No.2 NPP may be restarted in the future, so we must consider what we would do if it exploded due to a big earthquake even though it doesn’t work now.
If it had an explosion, the central Ibaraki would be ruined just like some towns and villages around Fukushima No.1 NPP.

Aquamarine Fukushima Reborn on its 11th Foundation Day

Aquamarine Fukushima opened on July 15, 2000.
At that time, I didn’t go there. I visited Oarai Aquarium instead, since it is nearer from home.

The first time I visited Aquamarine Fukushima with my family was in August, 2006.
I thought it more interesting than Oarai Aquarium!
Sauries were so great, but what moved me the most was the film of coelacanth research by aquarium staffs.
I knew for the first time in my life that coelacanth was a live-bearing fish!

I had had pet fishes from March 2002 to February 2011, so I was afraid I had to wait for years till the aquarium completely finished reparing, since I assumed it would take a very long time to establish all the fish tanks again through my experience of keeping pet fishes.

One summer day in my lessons, I found a coelacanth charm on one certain student’s pencil case, whose parents were from Eastern Fukushima.
He told me he visited Aquamarine Fukushima, which was reopened on July 15 last year, on the same date as it opened.
I could imagine that he loved Fukushima very much and was so depressed by the 3/11 giant quake.

Now I’m so impressed to know how soon Aquamarine Fukushima was recovered from that terrible disaster.
I hope to go there again in my next holidays.

[226 words] sindicates with my lang-8 journal

The Most Inconvenient Thig Right After the Giant Quake

I thought that it was a real disaster when we had the three major utility failure, especially when we found water unavailable.

Why?

Water failure made us refrain from going to the toilet!!!!

We were too used to flushing water after doing our business, so many of us became at a loss when we were told to relieve ourselves at the outdoor toilet by the swimming pool WITH A BOTTLEFUL OF WATER FROM THE POOL:x

Some drugstore that were available at that time sold more urine bags as usual, for those who didn’t want to use outdoor toilets. Even a tip for vowel motion at places without any water was introduced on the local radio. I never wanted to try it…

I feel horrible even now imaging how it would have been like if I had had a stomach trouble on a few days after that giant earthquake.

仕事中に、地震 | An Earthquake During My Lesson

We had an earthquake in Mito again.
I was at work today for the ninth-graders’ practice test for high school entrance exam coming March 6.
It was so big that some cell phones with earthquake alert system rang during the lesson.

The cell phone beeps really made me frightened, so I began trembling and couldn’t concentrate on my lesson.
One of the students said to me, “Don’t worry, this quake is less serious than the historical one on 3/11.”

It was a little embarrassing but touching to be comforted by a student.