This is a happy news but still it also has a little sad aspect too.   Today, a dog was found 3 weeks after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  He (or she ) was staying on the roof of a drifting house in the ocean.  It means he has been there for 3 weeks just since the tsunami disaster.

Tsunami swept away houses, cars, and people. With them, many pets were also  spirited away by the power of nature disaster.

I’m a real dog lover, so this news makes me happy and sad.  It’s really nice and I’m happy to know he was found safe with all the long time solitude in the ocean.  At the same time, I suppose he was really sad and stressed with no food, no water, no scene he likes, no warm house, and without his dearest master. How could he stay OK on the small roof of a drifting house in that situation ?  In the night, the temparature was below zero, and that condition continued 3 weeks after he left the town he lived.  How sad he was…..

But he approached his master with his tale waved when he finally met his master again on the land.  I can imagine how he could be happy when he saw his master.  I suppose he forgot he was hungry, he was lonely in the vast ocean, and he wondered if he could again meet his master.

After all, this is a nice news because he is back on the land he lives and he was sent to his master again.   It’s nice, but it’s also a little teary news for me.

Probably most of the Japanese expected that someday a big earthquake would happen somewhere in Japan as it’s a common sense that Japan is an earthquake type country.  Japan is a kind of mountain stream on the pan-pacific ocean. We always had some kind of preparation in mind for the would-be disaster.

But this time earthquake and tsunami was far beyond our preparation and imagination.  Earthquake affected from Tokyo to Aomori, which is unbelievably wide disaster area. Also the tsunami recorded height of over 20 meter. Today’s news said the highest place of tsumani seemed over 32 meters high !

As Japanese seaside places have been worried about tsunami, some seaside places had 10 meter high embankments, which were thought to be high enough to stop any kind of tsunami from Pacific ocean.

Everything was beyond our average thinking.  Who imagined that houses or ships would stay on the high story building after the tsunami ??  It’s incredible scene we have never imagined.

We will start rebuild the cities from this nightmare godforsaken place.  I don’t know if we can.  But we have to, otherwise we can’t mentally hold memorial service for the people who disappeared with withdrawing tsunami into the ocean.

There are 47 prefectures in Japan, and Fukushima is one of the prefectures ( states ) in Japan.  There is the Fukushima nuclear power plant in this Fukushima prefecture.  And I live in this Fukushima prefecture.

Where I live is not that near to this spot, it’s about 80 kilometers away.  20 to 30 kilometers places from this sport is set as evacuating residential area.  People living within 30 kilometers need to get out of their hometown now.

I was born in Fukushima prefecture. I’ve never imagined that nuclear power plant would be damaged and broken.  Before that, I didn’t know there was nuclear power plants in Fukushima prefecture.  Here, Fukushima has been a peaceful and beautiful place to live.  People are nice and kind, food is rich, and nature gives us chances to enjoy swiming, skiing, and hiking through seasons.

But, what we enjoy here are about to be taken away by the crazy accident of nuclear power plant.

Doctors say on TV that this should not be like Charnobuili of Russia, and they seem to try to avoid panicing by giving us safe infomation.  More of less, accidents have good aspects and bad results too.  Media work with politics in Japan, so we can’t believe all the information without any analysis.

Anyway, even if I tried to believe good information only,  I would still want to say….Do we really need it ? Do we really need much power ? Do we really need more civilization by risking our safe life ?

I lived about 50 years in safe here in Fukushima in spite that I lived in other places or countries from time to time. That peaceful condition of life was suddenly finished !

If I think correctly,  ” Suddenly” is not correct.  Our life has always been risked under the happy life invisibly by nuclear power plant project by government, and some people with huge merit from this project.

It’s not hard to imagine how the nuclear power plants were introduced by breaking the hurdles of negative opinions of residents.  It again shows the power game or money game of politicians,  bureaucrats and industries.

If I’m even asked ” do you want money by accepting nuclear power plant in your hometown ? “,  I will soon answer ” absolutely NO ! “.   How can we live with money if we loose our land of peace ??  At least, I don’t take radiation money instead of my heart land.

In Akasaka, Tokyo, there is a beautiful archtecture standing high in front of us when we step out of Akasaka-mitsuke subway station. That’s Akasaka Prince Hotel.

This hotel was built when Japan was enjoying the boom of the growing economy in 1980′s. It’s a kind of symbolic hotel of Japanese good old time.  Its shining and solid looking exterior catch our eyes and staying there seems special occassion for travelers to Tokyo.

However, with some reasons ( I don’t know why ), Akasaka Price Hotel closed yesterday and put an ending on its history.

I feel a kind of streaming of time about it.

This hotel seems to be broken and probably new building will be coming up there.  Interestingly and luckily, the vacuating people from the earthquake & tsumani disaster of Japan can stay until the time of new building project starts. They lost houses and assets by tsunami.  That’s too sad.  But living here, even if it’s a short time, might take their stress away with a good-night sleep.

I well remember this person, Nicoly Andreanof ( unsure about his name spell) in Russian, it’s Николай Ефимович Андрианов.

He competed with Japanese gymnasts through some Olympic games of Munich or Montreal, and often he won in the competition of gymnastics to get gold medals. When we were seeing the matches on TV, he seems to be a monster for us Japanese. He was a really good sport player then and it seemed hard for Japanese players to win over him.

Later, the USSR went into confusion, and he came to Japan by the introduction of his rival gymnast, Mitsuo Tsukahara, and he played a good role in instructing new gymnasts in Japan. He loved Japanese culture and Japanese way of life.

Also he became a private coach of his friend’s son, Naoya Tsukahara. Consequently, Naoya got gold medal at Athene Olympic of 2004.

Andreanof was a really memorable gymnast for Japanese people, not only in his country Russia. His remarkable enthusiasm to grow the new gymnasts in Japan resulted in the gold medal of Naoya Tsukahara and many of sports fans in Japan know how he contributed Japanese gymnastics.

When he appeared on TV, Japan and Russia were still in cold war and a kind of mental gap was certainly existing even when we saw sport games on TV. But he took that walls away with his beautiful humanity.

Thank you.

I’ve been a POP music fan for so long time.  British music or American modern POP music have always attracted me and gave me a big influence in my process of becoming an adult.

Many legendary musicians came to Japan to give concerts and the tickets often became the platinum papers with high demand to get.

USA for Africa or many charity concert were also given by great musicians when the world got damaged by natural disaster or wars.

However, I’ve never imagined that a charity CD for JAPAN would be made by some great musicians.  Even if a natural disaster happens to Japan, I thought they would not care of us.  I often thought that Japan was only a market for them, not a kind of dear country.

It’s a little unfavourable word for this situation, but actually one of my dreams seems to have become true……because they sing for Japan.

I don’t know why musicians Okayed this album.  They all have money and they don’t have to promote themselves for new CDs.  This seems to be only a compilation album but as their names proves, this album already hits the top of the chart in many countries.

Japanese flag, this album jacket, prevails in many countries now thanks to this project.  And this really helps Japanese future and our mind.

Thank you all !