Friday, August 12, 2011
Color
I recently went to Tokyo and ended up with the most absurd firework viewing seats at one of Tokyo's largest displays. Most people have to reserve the seats at least a year in advance and pay a pretty yen-penny for them. So why was I sitting there? Can't really say, but I'll give you a hint, it has to do with a 5million yen diamond. Anyway, I hope you like the pictures, the Buddha is at Kamakura in Tokyo and the jellies are from the Nagoyako aquarium, which I was recently persuaded to buy a year pass to.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
So, it turns out that I'm really bad at blogging. Sorry.
My job in Japan has had an extra one year and one month length than what I had expected when I first came. Since my boss asked me to stick around for an extra month, I was able to take a long vacation at the end of that month. On June 26th I had one of the greatest adventures of my life. After about 2 months of planing, new lenses, a new camera, and a large backpack full of new camping supplies I was both broke and on my way to one of the Worlds most fertile islands that is home to (possibly) the oldest living tree.
There are several ways to get to Yakushima. A direct flight is the quickest, leaving from Osaka, Fukuoka or Tokyo, but it is also the most expensive. Yakushima has a tiny airport that can only support small jets and propeller planes so space is limited. The second is taking the train to Kagoshima, then hopping on a jet-foil to the island. Round trip on the jet-foil is about $180 alone, and a train to Kagoshima costs about $600 and takes 11 hours from Nagoya. I opted for the least expensive, most time consuming option. I took a 3 hour bus ride to Osaka, boarded a 15 hour ferry to Kagoshima and took the slower 2 and a half hour ferry from Kagoshima to Yakushima. Saving money takes time. Being alone and not having a solid plan worked out much better than it should have. If you look lost and approachable in Japan, you're bound to meet some of the friendliest kindest people in your life. The first was an elderly couple who seemed to fear for my life. The man approached me with a bento and a beer at the Yakushima port and said "Eat." He later came to me on the ferry and told me their plan for the day. "We go here and here. Waterfall." "Nice," I thought, "but why is he telling me this?" Then in one word "Come." After getting off the ferry he walked up to the first taxi driver he saw, slipped him $300 and asked for a tour. I had a new grandfather and grandmother. After a multiple hour taxi ride around half the island, they dropped me off on the southern side at a youth hostel and campsite where I set up my tent for the night. "Thank you!" I said as I left, really having no clue how to thank them. This was the last opportunity for me to speak English the rest of the trip. I woke up the next day at 4:00 to start on a small trail near Onoaida (尾之間). This one one of the worst outdoor experiences of my life. The first 2 hours were great, watching monkeys climb vines with their babies tightly gripping their backs, a small detour to an amazing waterfall, crystal clear steams with rocks covered in moss. The next 10 hours were hell. After the waterfall, the trail became poorly marked, I would often mistake a deer trail or an empty river bed (which are everywhere, since the locals say it rains 36 days a month) for the path and take 15-20 minutes to find the bright pink trail markers again. After an hour of constantly losing the trail, I felt it was time to take off my 20kg pack and have a rest. I felt something on my leg. Slowly reaching down to pull up my new hiking pants, I noticed a strange worm on my boot. I knew what I was feeling under my pant legs. Pulling off leeches isn't a fun experience. The holes in your legs continue to bleed after ripping them off your skin. I had to patch them up with most of the band-aids I brought with me. For rest of the day I had to constantly check my legs even though I didn't come in contact with them many more times. 7 hours had past and I was starting to feel uneasy about my adventure. I heard something in the bushes ahead. It was a human. I huge wave of relief came over me as I got my 5th or 6th wind (I was way past my second by this time). Nearly running, I approached him and had to ask. He was coming down. "How long have you been hiking?" (in broke ass Japanese) "6 hours." (anger/rage) "You?" "7." (feeling of another's anger/rage). We both went our separate was with our heads hung in defeat. About 30 minutes later I could hear a large river, which was good because I was about out of water for the 10th time that day. As I got closer, the larger the river seemed. I finally reached it. With a bit of happiness, I filled up my bottle, but I was soon overcome with another feeling of anger. Looking across, I could see the pink ribbon that marked the other piece of the trail. No bridge, no convenient line of stones to walk across. Just rapids. Bushwhacking up the riverbank, I came to a reasonably distanced set of boulders to hop across, missing a middle boulder. Jumping from mossy stone to wet stone then leaping to another boulder was the only option. I can't jump 2 inches off the ground on a normal day but something helped me in a leap of faith across the gap. Continuing further on the trail was the same story, more leeches, more deer trails, no people. One of the deer trails brought me to a beautiful spot, which I now know was 1400m summit. I could see both sides of the island, and Tanegashima (another island) in the distance, but no pink trail markers. 4:00 rolled around and I decided to give up, almost at the point of breaking down, set up my tent, force myself to eat (after realizing I hadn't eaten all day), drink the remainder of my water, and pull off a few more leeches that I somehow missed after habitually checking every 3 minutes on the trail. I crawled into my sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly. I was woken up once at night because Yakushima deer scream for some reason. 6:00 came, and with a new feeling of strength after my long sleep I started again, having no clue how long I would be walking to get to the parking lot that most of the sane hikers start at. 6:05, parking lot. Have you ever felt defeated and accomplished at the same time? The exit of the trail had a sign posted for people entering from the parking lot: "This trail takes approximately 9 hours..." (if you can find it) "Do not attempt this trail if there has been significant rainfall in the last few days. The water level at the river crossing will be too high to cross. Take an alternative route." Being the end of the rainy season, it had rained every day in the last week, would have been nice to know at the beginning of the tail instead of the end.
I studied the sign at the entrance of the next trail-head carefully. Nothing worth noting, but I stood there for quite a while studying it. It was 2km to the first of the mountain huts and I had decided the night before that it would be best to have a recoup day. I easily made it to the hut on a trail that seemed like a superhighway without any cars. I immediately striped off my wet, sweaty clothes and hung them up to dry. I felt like I had rented a cabin to myself. I sat outside and studied Japanese in the sun next to a crystal clear river of the most delicious water I've ever tasted. Throughout the day I talked to several people on their way to different places of the park. One of them gave me an extra bento he had brought to lessen his pack weight. I talked to several park guides who told me that no one goes on the trail I had taken before and that the next one would feel like a breeze (even though it goes over the highest mountain in southern Japan). I woke up the next morning at 4 to get an early start just in case it was me and not the trail two days prior that was out of shape. After snapping a few pictures of the sunrise, I continued on a trail that was amazingly well maintained with rope ladders and stairs and old hollowed out logs for bridges. It felt a bit like the trails on Yakushima were designed by a kid and at any turn would be a secret fort or treehouse. I met up with another hiker that was doing the same route as me. He was 56 and had 3 kids my age but after retiring the week before he was ready for an adventure. He became a great friend and I ended up spending 24 hours a day for the next 3 days with him. Our hike to the top of the mountain went smoothly, slowly watching the landscape change with every 100 meters in elevation, spotting many miniature Yakushima deer along the way. When we reached the top, a small batch of clouds came and covered us in an eerie fog, blocking the best view on the island. As we walked down, the fog cleared and showed us an immense forest with low clouds quickly moving over the canopy. We made it to the next hut in an hour less than what was posted on the sign at the entrance to the trail. My partner contemplated finishing the trail (another 12k) since the weather was so nice, but gave up after deciding it was a good idea to rest. We spent the day trying to get a decent picture of a 5 point buck that decided to make his home around the hut. Didn't get a good shot after hours of attempts. When it got dark there was nothing to do but sleep, so we did. 3:30 a.m. I was woken up by thunder and lightning. We stated the trail that had turned into a river at 6 in some of the hardest rain I've ever experienced. My boots filled with water and, since they are water proof, stayed full of water the rest of the 6 hour hike down. On the way out was one of the most popular areas of Yakushima. There's about a 1km stretch of the tail that is populated with more than ten trees that are anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 years old. It was raining so had that I didn't even attempt to get out my camera and we nearly missed Jomon sugi, the oldest tree of them all. Scientists can't tell how old it is since it became hollow in its core hundreds of years ago. It's estimated to be 3,000-7,500 years old. After about a minute of looking at it in the blowing rain we were on our way. We saw more than 100 people entering the forest to make their pilgrimage to Jomon sugi. This was quite surprising, since I had only seen 8 people in the last 3 days. Since my boots were filled with water, I ended up with several blisters on my toes and bottoms of my feet. The bottom half of my legs, including my feet, looked like someone had taken a knife to them with all the leech holes and popped blisters.
My job in Japan has had an extra one year and one month length than what I had expected when I first came. Since my boss asked me to stick around for an extra month, I was able to take a long vacation at the end of that month. On June 26th I had one of the greatest adventures of my life. After about 2 months of planing, new lenses, a new camera, and a large backpack full of new camping supplies I was both broke and on my way to one of the Worlds most fertile islands that is home to (possibly) the oldest living tree.
There are several ways to get to Yakushima. A direct flight is the quickest, leaving from Osaka, Fukuoka or Tokyo, but it is also the most expensive. Yakushima has a tiny airport that can only support small jets and propeller planes so space is limited. The second is taking the train to Kagoshima, then hopping on a jet-foil to the island. Round trip on the jet-foil is about $180 alone, and a train to Kagoshima costs about $600 and takes 11 hours from Nagoya. I opted for the least expensive, most time consuming option. I took a 3 hour bus ride to Osaka, boarded a 15 hour ferry to Kagoshima and took the slower 2 and a half hour ferry from Kagoshima to Yakushima. Saving money takes time. Being alone and not having a solid plan worked out much better than it should have. If you look lost and approachable in Japan, you're bound to meet some of the friendliest kindest people in your life. The first was an elderly couple who seemed to fear for my life. The man approached me with a bento and a beer at the Yakushima port and said "Eat." He later came to me on the ferry and told me their plan for the day. "We go here and here. Waterfall." "Nice," I thought, "but why is he telling me this?" Then in one word "Come." After getting off the ferry he walked up to the first taxi driver he saw, slipped him $300 and asked for a tour. I had a new grandfather and grandmother. After a multiple hour taxi ride around half the island, they dropped me off on the southern side at a youth hostel and campsite where I set up my tent for the night. "Thank you!" I said as I left, really having no clue how to thank them. This was the last opportunity for me to speak English the rest of the trip. I woke up the next day at 4:00 to start on a small trail near Onoaida (尾之間). This one one of the worst outdoor experiences of my life. The first 2 hours were great, watching monkeys climb vines with their babies tightly gripping their backs, a small detour to an amazing waterfall, crystal clear steams with rocks covered in moss. The next 10 hours were hell. After the waterfall, the trail became poorly marked, I would often mistake a deer trail or an empty river bed (which are everywhere, since the locals say it rains 36 days a month) for the path and take 15-20 minutes to find the bright pink trail markers again. After an hour of constantly losing the trail, I felt it was time to take off my 20kg pack and have a rest. I felt something on my leg. Slowly reaching down to pull up my new hiking pants, I noticed a strange worm on my boot. I knew what I was feeling under my pant legs. Pulling off leeches isn't a fun experience. The holes in your legs continue to bleed after ripping them off your skin. I had to patch them up with most of the band-aids I brought with me. For rest of the day I had to constantly check my legs even though I didn't come in contact with them many more times. 7 hours had past and I was starting to feel uneasy about my adventure. I heard something in the bushes ahead. It was a human. I huge wave of relief came over me as I got my 5th or 6th wind (I was way past my second by this time). Nearly running, I approached him and had to ask. He was coming down. "How long have you been hiking?" (in broke ass Japanese) "6 hours." (anger/rage) "You?" "7." (feeling of another's anger/rage). We both went our separate was with our heads hung in defeat. About 30 minutes later I could hear a large river, which was good because I was about out of water for the 10th time that day. As I got closer, the larger the river seemed. I finally reached it. With a bit of happiness, I filled up my bottle, but I was soon overcome with another feeling of anger. Looking across, I could see the pink ribbon that marked the other piece of the trail. No bridge, no convenient line of stones to walk across. Just rapids. Bushwhacking up the riverbank, I came to a reasonably distanced set of boulders to hop across, missing a middle boulder. Jumping from mossy stone to wet stone then leaping to another boulder was the only option. I can't jump 2 inches off the ground on a normal day but something helped me in a leap of faith across the gap. Continuing further on the trail was the same story, more leeches, more deer trails, no people. One of the deer trails brought me to a beautiful spot, which I now know was 1400m summit. I could see both sides of the island, and Tanegashima (another island) in the distance, but no pink trail markers. 4:00 rolled around and I decided to give up, almost at the point of breaking down, set up my tent, force myself to eat (after realizing I hadn't eaten all day), drink the remainder of my water, and pull off a few more leeches that I somehow missed after habitually checking every 3 minutes on the trail. I crawled into my sleeping bag and fell asleep almost instantly. I was woken up once at night because Yakushima deer scream for some reason. 6:00 came, and with a new feeling of strength after my long sleep I started again, having no clue how long I would be walking to get to the parking lot that most of the sane hikers start at. 6:05, parking lot. Have you ever felt defeated and accomplished at the same time? The exit of the trail had a sign posted for people entering from the parking lot: "This trail takes approximately 9 hours..." (if you can find it) "Do not attempt this trail if there has been significant rainfall in the last few days. The water level at the river crossing will be too high to cross. Take an alternative route." Being the end of the rainy season, it had rained every day in the last week, would have been nice to know at the beginning of the tail instead of the end.
I studied the sign at the entrance of the next trail-head carefully. Nothing worth noting, but I stood there for quite a while studying it. It was 2km to the first of the mountain huts and I had decided the night before that it would be best to have a recoup day. I easily made it to the hut on a trail that seemed like a superhighway without any cars. I immediately striped off my wet, sweaty clothes and hung them up to dry. I felt like I had rented a cabin to myself. I sat outside and studied Japanese in the sun next to a crystal clear river of the most delicious water I've ever tasted. Throughout the day I talked to several people on their way to different places of the park. One of them gave me an extra bento he had brought to lessen his pack weight. I talked to several park guides who told me that no one goes on the trail I had taken before and that the next one would feel like a breeze (even though it goes over the highest mountain in southern Japan). I woke up the next morning at 4 to get an early start just in case it was me and not the trail two days prior that was out of shape. After snapping a few pictures of the sunrise, I continued on a trail that was amazingly well maintained with rope ladders and stairs and old hollowed out logs for bridges. It felt a bit like the trails on Yakushima were designed by a kid and at any turn would be a secret fort or treehouse. I met up with another hiker that was doing the same route as me. He was 56 and had 3 kids my age but after retiring the week before he was ready for an adventure. He became a great friend and I ended up spending 24 hours a day for the next 3 days with him. Our hike to the top of the mountain went smoothly, slowly watching the landscape change with every 100 meters in elevation, spotting many miniature Yakushima deer along the way. When we reached the top, a small batch of clouds came and covered us in an eerie fog, blocking the best view on the island. As we walked down, the fog cleared and showed us an immense forest with low clouds quickly moving over the canopy. We made it to the next hut in an hour less than what was posted on the sign at the entrance to the trail. My partner contemplated finishing the trail (another 12k) since the weather was so nice, but gave up after deciding it was a good idea to rest. We spent the day trying to get a decent picture of a 5 point buck that decided to make his home around the hut. Didn't get a good shot after hours of attempts. When it got dark there was nothing to do but sleep, so we did. 3:30 a.m. I was woken up by thunder and lightning. We stated the trail that had turned into a river at 6 in some of the hardest rain I've ever experienced. My boots filled with water and, since they are water proof, stayed full of water the rest of the 6 hour hike down. On the way out was one of the most popular areas of Yakushima. There's about a 1km stretch of the tail that is populated with more than ten trees that are anywhere from 1,000 to 7,000 years old. It was raining so had that I didn't even attempt to get out my camera and we nearly missed Jomon sugi, the oldest tree of them all. Scientists can't tell how old it is since it became hollow in its core hundreds of years ago. It's estimated to be 3,000-7,500 years old. After about a minute of looking at it in the blowing rain we were on our way. We saw more than 100 people entering the forest to make their pilgrimage to Jomon sugi. This was quite surprising, since I had only seen 8 people in the last 3 days. Since my boots were filled with water, I ended up with several blisters on my toes and bottoms of my feet. The bottom half of my legs, including my feet, looked like someone had taken a knife to them with all the leech holes and popped blisters.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Fukushima Disaster
I understand your fears and I have been thinking a lot about my situation here. I really appreciate your input and care for me, but I have decided to stay for now. I will keep a close eye on what's happening here and I have no fears that the US government won't be able to get me out of here in case of a real crisis. The radiation levels are extremely low right now and they have a long way to travel to Nagoya. Some minor amounts have gotten to Tokyo but we are still far away from there. I don't want you to be afraid, but I want you to keep Japan in your hearts. I'm sorry if my decision upsets you, but I will keep you informed of my plans.
Below is a letter my sister received from here former employer, a professor and specialist on chemical weapons and toxins
Below is a letter my sister received from here former employer, a professor and specialist on chemical weapons and toxins
Hi Corina:
Nagoya is pretty far from Fukushima so I would not worry too much. The First Fukushima Atomic Power Station is right on the beach so any radioactive heavy metals floating in the air tend to blown to the Pacific. The most of wind is from the west to the east. Of course due to local geography some wind blow from the east to the west or to the west or to the south west. Kaz's relative in Kochi asked me today what they should do. Well there is not much can do for the radioactive materials as they flow in the air and keep emitting alpha and gamma rays. I think beta ray is weak so will not worry too much. One should not inhale the radioactive contaminated air because these heavy metals tend to stay in the lung when you inhale. The radioactive iodine is dangerous because will bind to thyroid gland. You can prevent that by taking nonradioactive potassium iodide.When the nonradioactive iodine occupies the thyroid gland then the radioactive iodine is hard to go to the thyroid gland.Another dangerous radioactive floating in the air is strontium that is similar to calcium so it will go to your bones and teeth.
You brother should monitor the radioactivity of the in Nagoya often.If it becomes high then he should leave.I don't think it is to the stage yet.
It is obvious uranium 235 rod is melt already because of lack of cooling water. But the reaction vessel is made very strong and walled by stainless steel. If the reaction chamber's wall does not melt then it is slightly better. Of course the failed atomic chamber are spewing radioactive metals. But if the chamber's steel wall is melt then it will become like Chernobyl that is total disaster. At the moment the Fukushima's reaction chamber is melt within the chamber's wall so it is partial melt and not a total melting yet. It is somewhat similar to Three mile US atomic disaster. In this case the chamber's wall did not melt so the radioactive spill out was not too disastrous.
Tokyo Kagakudoji asked me to write the article about the atomic power station and the danger of radioactivity so I sent it today. It will appear in the May issue of Chemistry Today. The May issue will come out on April 15.I am interested in almost anything about poison and toxic substances. Tokyo Kgakudopujin's editor said there are only 2 persons in Japan who can answer anything about poisons immediately. He said one is me. So they always asked me at the last moment when some poison case happened.
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