Aki-Essays: Mother's Day for my grandma; Tamayura (5-11-09)

My mother, 62, and I were standing in crowds of a train car heading to the Fukaya station in Saitama prefecture from the Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo. Out the windowpane, the sky was gradually falling into the twilight on May 2nd (Saturday), the day before the beginning of my four consecutive holidays. The transit was taking about one and a half hours. After I had been seeing two young guys occupying the seats right before me, my mother was finally allowed to sit down on a separate seat--I was done as well shortly later. We were going to a hospital to see my maternal grandmother, 87, after she suffered a brain stroke, infarction, about 15 days early on the day.

I had not seen my maternal grandmother ever since she was accepted by her son, my uncle, in exchange for her assets and moved to Fukaya from a neighborhood around the Ikebukuro area. She lived there until shortly after her husband passed away in 1998.

On one of the four beds in a hospital room, my grandmother didn’t meet even part of my perception about her as a cheerful elderly woman, with a tube inserted through her nose, being haggard and unconscious. After making a quiet word, “See you soon,” to her, I, with my mother, left the hospital to go back to Tokyo on the same day. (Meanwhile, I would sacrifice my free time in the form of an overnight trip to Yamanashi prefecture, having scheduled the trip for two days later on this day, for her birthday (May 5th) and Mother’s Day (May 10th). So I would still have a day off for myself before the Yamanashi trip.)

Later, in the morning on Wednesday (the last day of my consecutive holidays), the call from my mother notified me that my grandmother had passed away. I was supposed to work from the next day on, so our talk had us settle on Friday (May 8th), hence I would see the face of my grandmother after work even just for as short as thirty minutes in time before cremation, which was slated to take place on the following day (I would work on the day).

Having taken the arduous transit again, I solely arrived at a mortician’s building, about ten minutes from the Fukaya station by cab. Being guided to the main room for “tsuya”, a part of the funerary ceremony, by the staff, I lit two incense sticks and placed them in a small pot and made a silent prayer to the photo of my grandmother likely at the age of somewhere about 40, and the coffin behind. Walking past the portrait and opening the small doors of the coffin, the face of my grandmother was neatly made up and therefore looked even more beautiful. Yes, she was beautiful. In the other room, some visitors of the yet-ended tsuya were remaining and talking with each other, including my mother and her sole younger brother.

My maternal uncle, his wife, and their daughter used to live on the second floor of the duplex of my grandparents (who lived on the first floor) in Toshima ward. But in the wake of a spat on something trivial between my aunt and the family of the first floor, the family of the second floor decided to move out and followingly took out a mortgage on a newly-built condominium in Fukaya. And later, my grandfather drew his last breath some days after an accident--tripping over short steps--and my uncle chose to take care of his mother in Fukaya.

Even considering that my uncle inherited assets from his father--stepfather to be more accurate--and mother, I respect his solid determination and dedication--he has completed looking after his mother although she had lived her remaining life at a care facility not far from his home. If he hadn’t accepted her, my mother and I might have had to nurse her and end up looking for nursing facilities in Tokyo.

Inconvenient cases of this kind have actually been happening in other households, yet.

A fire at a care facility “Tamayura” in Gunma prefecture in March this year made a death toll of ten elderly dwellers due to lack of preparation for emergencies and divulged the shortage of care facilities in Tokyo.

Tokyo has a cap on the number of registered care facilities while the national administration has been going with a policy of asking each household to look after their own aged members in order to curb the budget. But looking after a senior family member at home could mean asking the income earner to quit his or her job, therefore despite the limit on the number of facilities the household would likely result in knocking on the door of a care facility, even one that is not registered and/or located outside Tokyo.

In fact, it is reported that Tokyo’s Sumida ward had recognized that Tamayura had not been registered, but had supported facility admissions for the citizens of the ward who had been on welfare. Furthermore, it is also reported that Tamayura had operated in a way similar to that of private nursing homes which charge higher fees.

Six out of the dead ten were Sumida ward citizens of the kind. If Tamayura was a registered facility, precautionary arrangements with fire extinguishers and the resistance of the building to the development of fire would surely have been more adequately made according to the regulations. But unfortunately, hundreds of private care facilities like Tamayura have been operating with poor safety standards although there are other facilities which are not registered but well considerate to their customers. (For these contents I have relied much on the blogs of Mr. Wataru Suzuki, economics professor at Gakushuin University.)

After talking with other visitors, I made a quiet message, “Good bye,” to my grandmother and carefully closed the doors of the coffin.

My aunt gave me a ride from the funerary place to the Fukaya station, and we exchanged some words.

“How deep had my grandma’s dementia progressed?”

“When my husband asked her, ‘Can you understand me?’ at the care facility, she in a wheelchair responded as ‘I can.’”

When I was very small, although my memories are vague, I and my relatives, perhaps all on my mother’s side except my father, were flocking together and they were saying to me something like, “Look up! Look up!” under bright ceiling lights despite me being made even more shy, in the living room of my grandparents’ home.

When I was in high school, I cycled to their home for a room tidy and quiet enough to allow me to be tutored. I took a private lesson on a major subject or two, math, English and/or Japanese, once a week during each period when I needed to study harder. (The custom of employing a tutor started when I was preparing for the entrance exams of high school.) My grandparents had operated a Chinese restaurant, which was located ahead of an upward slope near their home, together. Even after they retired, at my every visit they bothered to cook things like omelet-rice and/or fried chicken. My grandparents packed them and my role was to bring the foods to my mother.

But ever since my grandmother moved to Fukaya, the locked home has never lit its inside lights for me. There were no hints of life from the inside everytime I dropped by it.

I hadn’t made a visit to her ever since, as I haven’t had personal contact with the family of my uncle since my childhood and it would take a considerable time to get there. My mother had seldom been to Fukaya too, probably because of the distant location, and is now regretting the negligence afterwards.

On Saturday (May 9th), the day of cremation, I was working at a hospital in Tokyo as a radiographer, where aged patients were hospitalized and about ten licensed care workers faced someone’s important person every day.

Today (Sunday) is Mother’s Day. Hey grandma, mothers are receiving red carnations. Can you see?

Aki-Essays: ￥12,000 special allowance (4-27-09)

As a citizen of Tokyo, I sealed up an envelope with a filled letter and the copies of my identification--my driver’s license--and bank account, and posted them to receive the special allotment of 12,000 yen, or roughly about 120 US dollars. It had been telecasted that citizens from prefectures outside Tokyo would go to a public office and receive the amount in cash over the counter. But for Tokyoites, the allotment would be forwarded to each individual’s bank account and I am waiting for the arrival.

This scheme has the same purpose with one in America as a measure to counter a sluggish economy, although the amount is much less: In the States, that is 600 or 300 dollars while in Japan, that is 120 dollars (or 200 dollars if the beneficiary is aged less than 18 or more than 65.)

The other day after Japanese citizens began receiving the cash, a bunch was interviewed by TV news reporters as to how they would spend it and many of them answered, “I want to buy some food,” or, “I will save it.”

The form of this special allotment is basically cash, not vouchers, therefore people with a conservative mindset would be inclined to save the sum especially when they didn’t care about what economic effect the allotments could bring about.

An economy will be more effectively encouraged when more consumers buy expensive products, as in many cases the manufacturer is a conglomerate. As a conglomerate is composed of a number of companies, an increase in sales will benefit all the employees. And in order to fill the shelves which have been empty since the products were sold, those workers engage in meeting their quotas while holding on to their positions. Meanwhile, as these employees are also consumers, their purchasing power is stronger when their incomes are higher, and they can in turn buy more expensive products to generate an upward economic cycle. On this theory about the maintenance and improvement of the health of businesses, a negative sales performance in the sector of expensive products is an alert for a bad economy. On the contrary, a sales increase in that of cheaper products like ones for daily use is likely indicating an economic slowdown. As a matter of fact, however, convenient stores are successful in managing their businesses to reflect the phenomenon. UNIQLO as well, which sells clothes at affordable prices despite their qualities.

(So, a question appears as to if 12,000 yen has potential to ease the slow economy. Even for my personal interests the allotment of 12,000 yen is unsatisfactory.)

Meanwhile, for survival conglomerates must stay innovative: while they keep putting into the market their old products with reduced prices, new products should appeal something different from former ones, which may just be a better quality, or a unique feature.

The video game industry comprises conglomerates as well. According to an article in the March 31 edition of The New York Times, sales in the industry rose over the previous year despite the recession. However, notwithstanding the overall result, game makers (for Xbox 360 and/or PS3) are having difficulty doing their businesses, confronting higher production costs, an attachment to the devices’ high performances such as high-resolution pictures. What is worse, while facing a wave of cell-phone games and downloaded games whose prices are quite low or even free, these game makers can’t afford to raise the prices. On the contrary, Nintendo refrained from letting Wii adopt high-resolution pictures sensing a hunch of a bad economy approaching. Instead, the device has been gaining popularity with its unique remote control. Thanks to lower costs in the production process, game makers for the console can reap profits more easily. (As I checked the prices of software with a video-game magazine, there were no noticeable differences between Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3: those pieces cost about 60 dollars on average.)

In addition to its intrinsic games, Wii enables its users to download old Nintendo games at low prices. The Japanese video-game industry is in somewhat of a “retro-style boom” in which games composed of somewhat nostalgic pictures with a smaller number of pixels are selling well, and this phenomenon may be supporting Wii’s sales. Currently, UNIQLO is using a character of “PACMAN,” a ghost-like enemy, on its TV commercial. I just guess that the retro game connotes simplicity and affordability, both of which are the concepts of the company’s attire.

The 120 dollars may be a small amount, but still enough for the purchase of a video game. In addition, if four family members round up all their allotments, the total accounts for 480 dollars, an amount large enough to help buy something expensive. Now, it’s timely to nose into electronics stores: 5% of the price of a designated eco-friendly appliance is rebated in points. This scheme is something unique and not bad.

After all, I spent 50 dollars on Kasumigaura marathon, and about 30 dollars on the train fares. And I pigged out on pastries worth about 20 dollars on the day before the race, a way of carbo-loading. I did all these unaware of the special allotment, but somehow I am feeling, even without the sight of cash or vouchers, as if the money spent on those came from the 120 dollars. I haven’t been motivated to have a happy time at a pub. 12,000 yen is probably insufficient to ease my personal financial difficulty.

Aki-Essays: contemplation ahead of the lay judge system (4-13-09)

As the Supreme Court’s letters sent on November 28th would notify 295,000 Japanese citizens of candidacy for six lay judges at trial, the inaugural lay judge system is scheduled to kick in on May 21st this year. These chosen six lay judges will cooperate with three professional judges to decide what punishment a defendant will receive.

All of these judges will engage only in most serious cases, most of which are associated with a death or severe injuries, such as murders or violent robberies, so a judge’s decision carries a major weight, leading to verdicts as heavy as capital punishment or life imprisonment. Therefore, once the chosen individuals accepted the responsibility, they should definitely be judicious.

Opportune or not, before the implementation of the system the news of two serious murder cases, both occurred within the last two years, was spread across the nation, and these cases gave citizens an opportunity to consider what decisions they would make.

On August 24th, 2007, a trio of nefarious men--two jobless men, aged 32 and 40, and a 36-year-old male employee of the Asahi newspaper [incidentally, why are the jobs important?]--all of whom first virtually met with each other on a dark website--which had recruited those who would conduct a crime--and conspired to kidnap a 31-year-old woman, a stranger, in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. Confined in a car, the woman begged for her life. Regardless of her fears and hopes, these men mangled her with a hammer, asphyxiated her by wrapping her head with a bag and buried the corpse in a mountainous area of Gifu prefecture after stealing money. Followingly, one of those culprits put the Aichi police onto the crime, being scared of the death penalty, and eventually all of them were arrested. (The website was closed on August 27th.)

Accordingly, the Nagoya district court was held on this incident on March 18th this year, and decisions were concluded: while both the aged 38 and the aged 33 were sentenced to death, the verdict on the 42-year-old was mitigated to life imprisonment because he snitched on the group to the police.

In April 2008, in Koto ward, Tokyo, a 33-year-old man forced open the door of one of his neighbors in his condominium building, threatened the resident, a 23-year-old lady, with a kitchen knife which had been placed near the entrance and killed her with it. He dismembered the body and flushed the pieces down the toilet. Later, he was arrested.

After the perpetrator was put between the death penalty demanded by the plaintiffs’ side and life imprisonment done by his side, eventually the latter decision was concluded on February 18th this year. In response to the result at the Tokyo district court, the prosecution has been proceeding to the Supreme Court.

So, being involved with these two cruel cases, the plaintiffs believed that the death penalty was most severe to the convicts and desired it. But is this true? To be an argument against their such notion, there are people facing grim problems and preferring escaping to death.

For example, there are patients suffering from severe diseases accompanying acute pains or sorts of physical or psychological problems, and eventually euthanasia could serve itself as an option to take.

And, for the last year again, the number of people who committed suicide was reported to be over 30,000. Many victims of this kind dread the days of payments due, feeling hopeless in preparing them, and choose to kill themselves and be free from financial pressure.

Thus, the death penalty might not precisely meet the request of the plaintiffs, if it means that the defendant goes through the fears and pains that the victim had been afflicted with. Neither will life in jail--the second heaviest sentence--accompany the fears and pains given by a killer. Moreover, a prisoner can be released on parole after 10 years if he or she behaves well, as the average time to get parole is said to be about 20 years after incarceration.

This said, when judges and the bereaved relatives of a murdered victim seeks for the most suitable punishment for the criminal perhaps between the death penalty and life imprisonment, while applying rehabilitation to the defendant should never be a negligible option, the intensities of the fears and pains of the victim should be grasped as accurately as possible. Then, when the bereaved relatives tend to exaggerate the intensities of the fears and pains of the victim more or less (bereaved relatives have been able to participate in trials since last November), lay judges should keep composure in the process of settling on a best decision.

(“In a manner of speaking,” Japan is said to be the only developed country to hand the death sentence to a convict. [I don’t follow your meaning] If this feature involves the idea of reincarnation about Buddhism, in which the convict will be reincarnated as a much less desired life form like a bug after execution, the belief as to karma presumes that cockroaches don’t live happy lives.)

As long as lay judges lack years of legal training, the mass media will also be responsible for their decision-making [unclear on meaning], to bear on how the public sees a defendant. Unfortunately, Japanese media don’t reflect a widest range of opinions about and interpretations of an incident because traditionally reporters from media companies flock into a team to investigate the case. [what do you mean?] While it’s important to try to make a systemic change across media companies to enable comparison between different information sources, however, still, to minimize misunderstandings of the public, the team of reporters can and should take a balanced position and exercise high accuracy in telecasting or publishing more abundant information.

The manner of publicizing is a factor for citizens speculating the strengths of the fears and pains of a victim. Public views must rely much on how the media translate an incident while they introduce the background of the culprit, his/her life history, social status and living conditions.

For instance, the culprit might have been a member of more difficult part of the economy and urged to perpetrate a murder. If the mass media neglect to refer to the details of the culprit’s life, both old and recent ones, the general sentiment about the culprit must lean toward a harsher sentence, considering him/her to merely be a killer and an outcast. Although the information about the defendant is prepared by professional judges, such preconceptions formed via the works of the media could be difficult to wash off.

Back to the 2007 murder case in Nagoya, passed under the incumbent justice system the death sentence for the two seem desirable from the perspective of the prosecutor and the plaintiffs. Yet, I, taking the general respect to the death sentence, can’t fully understand why the verdict to the guy who had confessed to the crime was exempted from execution. In fact this man conspired with two others and the motivation for telling on themselves was perhaps fears about the death penalty. In the society with plenty of such hazardous websites, studies about what drove those three criminals to the website must lead to preventive actions against recurrences, as these guys may just be the tip of the iceberg, as it’s one possible action to sentence capital punishment to online haunts of the sort. [why punish free speech?]

On the 2008 murder case in Koto ward, with no sufficient information about the convict but how he murdered and disposed of the lady, I don’t feel up to making my own opinions.

After all, I may wish the cohort of those three convicts would be sent to Afghanistan or Pakistan to work as peacekeepers near the hotbeds of the Taliban and/or Al-Qaeda. Strenuous labor there would be accompanied with a high incidence of being shot or bombed.

Aiming to facilitate legal proceedings, the lay judge system is ready to take effect in this virtually homogeneous country whose prejudice amongst citizens is less visible than other developed nations which have yet experienced trials under the lay judge system, many times. [I don’t understand this; how does being a seemingly “homogeneous” society come to bear at all on objectivity? If anything, if Japan really were a homogeneous society, I should think that there would be far more bias against people who are different.]

On Friday, April 10th, the Supreme Court disclosed that a candidate out of 5,593 citizens would be chosen for a court case. If such a “lucky” candidate declines to take on the responsibilities including studying about the defendant with their background in a limited time, he or she will have to pay a fine [pay a fine? What do you mean?]. It’s the situation I’m dreading.

Aki-Essays: Tokyo Marathon, and WBC (3-29-09)

How jubilant people were in those two days, as the felicitous air originated in their positive-minded attitudes.

About a week ago, March 22nd, Sunday, about 30,000 runners drew a trace, a crisscross of 42.195 km (or 26.2 miles) to cover eastern Tokyo. Two days later, the Japanese contingent procured the trophy in the WBC (the World Baseball Classic). Both of the events amused and energized each group of supporters.

I am a so-called “fun runner,” who is not a serious athlete but customarily enjoys running (or rather jogging as the pace is slower.) In this state, unlike professional runners, I’m free of peer pressure. Instead, festive events held in each of my more than ten marathons were energizing, which I participated in at a straight pace of once or twice a year. This was the third Tokyo Marathon whose inauguration in 2007 taught me how difficult winning the participation was: I lost the lottery for the first Tokyo Marathon, and the chance of winning the 2009 marathon ticket was about one seventh. I opted to go see the marathon for this year.

Currently Tokyo is competing with Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Chicago, for hosting the Olympics in 2016, and the Tokyo Marathon plays a role in the promotion. Part of Tokyo’s appeal is its compact size and mass transit system, as with the former it could hold 90% of stadiums and other facilities for the games within an 8-km radius.

On the day of the Tokyo Marathon, those civil runners covered eastern Tokyo and demonstrated this advantage: they began running in Shinjuku eastward and arrived in Hibiya, the center of the crisscross. There, they turned north and headed for Asakusa. After turning around there, runners went to Shinagawa past Hibiya. Again, they turned around to get back to Hibiya. Having come back to the pivot, they turned east and finally arrived at the goal place, Tokyo Big Sight.

The place I went to was about the second corner forward of the goal. Wow, the procession was runners gutting it out in drizzle and gusty winds, but spectators were cheering from the sidewalks! There also were relatively old runners having agonized faces. Seeing them not a marginal number I could not help making cheers! (On a tangent I wonder if I yelled to non-Japanese runners, “Break your legs!,” how they would feel about the phrase.) [Probably not too well, as the expression is “Break a leg!” and typically only used during performances!]

It was not until I arrived at the spot on the course that I began cheering runners every so often while walking to the goal. They would very soon cross the finish line at a time later than three hours, attesting to their highly competitive but non-professional statuses. I was just urged to call out to help each of their paces last to the end. (I didn’t shy away!)

I, myself, 34, am in the amateur class and yet feeling difficulty in maintaining my physical abilities by spending the same amount of time on exercising.

This current state of mine enabled me to sympathize with those runners about the same age as me and get a word out. They performed well and deserve respect! While recognizing the sort of mutual intelligibility between runners, I have no idea how many of those spectators had the same custom of running. But even if they were not sympathetic from a runner’s viewpoint, still their motivation for cheering might have come from their ages (or their nationalities or what kind of creature they were.) And if they were encouraged to aim to participate in and achieve a marathon, the effect seems a synergistic cycle to produce new runners with spectators (when benefits of running are proven by many experts.) I, meanwhile, yet knew how a single act of cheering could encourage runners.

(Chicago hosts a major marathon as well. The well-known official event is scheduled to take place on October 11th this year. Chicago also is keen on hosting the Olympics in 2016. I don’t know up to where the Chicago marathon is promoting the Olympics, but can just imagine it’s a spectacular scene in which such 40,000 runners challenge themselves while being beheld by spectators.)

***

Two days later on the Tokyo Marathon, Japan topped the WBC consecutively for the second time. Despite the Tuesday daytime when the showdown took place, everyone was heeding the whereabouts of the close scores, via radio, cell-phones or something else. The game’s tensions were so tight that they erupted into raptures as Yu Darvish struck out South Korea’s last batsman. And parties were held at night!

After all, through the tournament (the games were held from March 5th through 23rd), Ichiro Suzuki, 35, with the Seattle Mariners, among all the Japanese players, was perhaps the largest fodder for the media.

There were both praise and criticism around him.

He was beleaguered due to poor performance through all the games except the second: Though he produced three hits out of five chances in the game, his overall average was .211 before the final game. Some baseball specialists attributed the causes of lost games to his low productivity.

Yet Ichiro was Ichiro, proving that he was still at stardom: in the final match he subverted somewhat harsh opinions and analyses by producing four hits out of six chances, including the decisive one in the last inning. In the end, Japan could not win the WBC without him.

His usual playing field is Major Leagues where criticism always resides. In proportion with the leagues’ size and competitiveness, players are under the eyes of critics, but therefore salaries are extraordinary.

Some critics point out decreases in Ichiro’s physical abilities such as stamina and eyesight. Concerning both professional and amateur athletes, the age around 35 is considered to be a turning point to make signs of physical deterioration visible, like one in running.

My curiosity, meanwhile, turns to how the performance of Norichika Aoki, 27, appeared to Ichiro during the WBC. Aoki is an up-and-coming outfielder, the same type as Ichiro, recording a high batting average and a small number of homers and running fast. In the WBC, his batting average was .324 while that in the Japanese league has been .338 over five years. (He left .347 in 2008.) I don’t fully advocate the trend of Japanese players moving to Major Leagues, while enjoying following their performances there as much as doing domestically-held games. But it’s said that Aoki is at the attention of scouts from the US.

Now, yet, Ichiro is at the plate. Under the watchful eyes of his teammates in the dugout, the skipper began circling his bat clockwise and poised it on the end of his right arm stretched toward the pitcher. This signature movement of his has not changed ever since he became popular in Japan. Doubtless, Aoki watched this, somewhat of a ritual, many times conducted in both America and Japan. He must admire Ichiro.

In pursuance of additional achievements, Ichiro must go through harsh weather conditions like heavy rain or strong winds. But imagine, from behind the clearing dark clouds millions of stars are shining for him.

Aki-Essays: nurse essay (3-16-09)

I still remember the high demand for nurses and the incentives of high salaries, while being in difficulty finding a position as a radiographer in 1998, 11 years ago. As I was engaging in the search browsing a weekly job magazine, the pages for medical workers were brimming over with the ads of hospitals or clinics looking for nurses and other kinds of professionals.

Although the Japanese media have been saying that doctors are in short supply and certain hospitals have been closed as a result, surviving medical facilities need additional nurses.

Tokyo is small, actually. Even during my customary jogging, a number of medical facilities every once in a while piqued my interest by showing an ad with “Need Nurses,” like one on a bulletin board near the building. Meanwhile, near the Higashi-jujo rail station in the suburb of Kita ward, the huge building of years-closed Higashi Jujo Hospital has been cordoned off with steel/metal fences.

The nurse shortage phenomenon will likely linger due to the overall graying of the country: the number of births was about two million a year in the secondary baby boom (1971-1974) and had dropped to about one million in 2008; the decreasing rate of the population increase fell in the red in 2005. The more elderly people, the higher demand for nurses.

But in the ongoing slow economy and with the growing jobless population, there must be some facts which dissuade those job-seekers from turning into nurses.

To begin with looking into how Japanese women find jobs, the situation stands at odds: while men are dominant in number in companies, almost all nurses are women. In companies, regular employees were composed of men for 71.6% and women for 28.4% in 2007 (while part-timers were made of men for 26.5% and women for 73.5%.) On the other hand, nurses included men for 4.7% and separately male practical nurses for 6.1% as of the end of 2006.

In analyzing the data about companies, marriage seems to play a part. Still typically in Japan, after marriage female workers opt to leave the office to spend time with their child/children. In the case of quitting a job, some years after marriage some of them can afford to join a company as a full-time employee, but sadly in fact most Japanese companies don’t hire regular workers midway: For 62.1% of companies not-right-after-school job-seekers had been able to just apply, according to the census released in 2006. Meanwhile, female job-seekers have no choices but part-time positions and indeed the sort of jobs is often considered to be useful to support household finances as some of them are wives still rearing a child/children, given more flexible and shorter working hours.

On the front of nurses, there were about 810 thousand nurses and 380 thousand practical nurses as of the end of 2006. However, a different blog puts the total number of nurses at 1.2 million, which includes 550 thousand latent nurses who just hold the license. Such a huge number of license-possessors likely also stems from the need to raise a child/children, a responsibility which requires time, attention and efforts.

No doubt, the nurse is a responsible profession, facing and dealing with patients, handling a variety of chemicals, as a single mistake could lead to a serious consequence. The heavy responsibility might elicit some antipathy from potential nurses.

For the contemporarily active nurses, to regularly come to the medical facility, keep concentration and engage in teamwork with colleagues is integral to maintain the quality of their service. Indeed, some part-time nurses I have seen evoked the posture of a secretary, just standing next to the doctor in the room for a considerable space of time each day. Meanwhile, I have also seen regular nurses who resumed working after an off-duty period of some years.

There must be some women who want to come back to societal functions as a regular worker after marriage and quitting a company. In order to meet such their demands and confront the aging society, the position of a nurse must be a legitimate option. Yet besides three or four years of schooling, the tuition fees must also be a concern to ponder on. The government may better consider subsidizing school fees to produce more nurses.

In the event of the subsidization taking effect, male job-seekers can also be a recipient as the male population between jobs is increasingly being a problem. Men actually have significant potential to reverse the entrenched preconception of a nurse as women’s calling and cope with the aging society. (It’s a shame of Japan that the image of a nurse often becomes the subject of men’s, or male otakus’/geeks’, sex-related activities. [?])

Although if in a hospital a gender group is closer to another in size, more sophisticated dynamics may be an additional burden on nurses than when female nurses are predominantly many, the male nurse seems a prospective profession to help alleviate the dearth of nurses.

In my opinion, nurses’ working environment seems to have high potential to demonstrate good work sharing. Currently, each nurse tends to work overtime receiving extra wages, though, at the moment they should be able to reduce working hours and income to allow other nurses to start working. This is a form of effort to bring the economy upward and tackle the aging society. [?] In addition, easing prerequisites for foreign nurses like ones from the Philippines and Indonesia will also invite new members to the nurse section. As for working with foreign nurses, there just is a concern that they need to make extra effort to cross the language barrier while meeting norms.

According to my experiences, medical facilities in residential areas tend to employ nurses from the neighborhood, including those who haven’t worked as a nurse for some years. Due to this background some of them seem to lack a sense of professionalism and social skills.

Yet for nurses committed to taking care of patients on the local level, occasional contacts with more seasoned nurses, who deal with more difficult cases at a larger medical facility, are essential, giving them opportunities to learn skills including social ones and helping keep up with technical upgrades. Alongside, to participate in lectures and/or studies must give them not only new info but chances to meet experts or reps in a certain field.

On such an occasion, a practice of social manners through an actual exchange of words with hosts, some of whom are in white-collar positions, must help local nurses keep their workplace attitude correct, especially for the time when business people are the patients to deal with, whose daytime population is smaller in residential areas.

Besides nurses who have moved from larger medical facilities to more localized ones, if there are nurses who used to do jobs separate from medication, however, their experiences may play a role in instilling such social skills and sorts of topical knowledge into other nurses and getting them to be level with patients from multiple social positions.

May I put on a nurse uniform?

Aki-Essays: golf essay (3-9-09)

The head of the club draws an arc. Being charged to its full potential, it pauses momentarily in the air. It, then, swings with full force and hits the stationary ball sitting atop the ground-level tee toward the net ahead.

This series of movements is a common scene seen at golf driving ranges as people might imagine. At a practice place, after being clouted with a clank, golf balls ceaselessly get absorbed by the net. Recently in Japan, amateur golf players are showing an increase in their number, including even kids.

Even those who don’t have much interest in golf must identify, as I hope, a male professional golfer, Ryo Ishikawa, 17, an influential being in Japan. Notwithstanding his young age, Ishikawa earned more than 100 million yen, or roughly around one million dollars, in 2008, ranking fifth amid other Japanese professional golfers. On every occasion of making an appearance, this suave young lad has never failed to lose his courtesy which lets people regard him as shy and be familiar with his nickname, “the hanikami prince,” or “the bashful prince.” Recently as he returned to Japan after his first participation in the Northern Trust Open in America, there were a lot of personnel of the mass media and others who awaited him at the airport. In public places, every poster of JAL (Japan Airlines) dons the face of the prince. The TV commercial of the airline is taking this way as well. More and more Japanese citizens are following each of his moves, and playing golf.

Amidst such a phenomenon, the morning TV news introduced another young golfer, this one being a lady, on Saturday (Feb 28th): the TV program informed me that Kumiko Kaneda, 19, turned professional while expounding her career in playing golf.

Kumiko began her golfing life at the age of three abiding by the intention of her father. Footage taken with a home video camera showed small Kumiko swinging a golf club. According to the footage, she seemed to always play golf, also practicing putting in her home. Later in the TV program, the principle of the father was introduced as “bring nothing close to her, except things about golf”: the father was managing to prevent Kumiko from being distracted by any other hobbies. Additionally, for instance, he devised a system in an effort to keep her interest: Kumiko hit a ball which was attached to a spoke to let the ball rotate around the axis on the other end. [I don’t follow this image, sorry.] [I meant sth looking like a roulette machine.]

Having grown up, though, in her junior-high school days she was attracted to experiencing some romance and quit playing golf. However, coincidentally, her father fell victim to a serious health concern and was soon hospitalized. And this incident brought her back onto the track of golf, Kumiko said in the footage. Although she flunked the test and failed to get the professional license last year, the TV program was also intended to announce that she succeeded in becoming a professional golfer.

Japanese people including me should be proud of these successful and hopeful young individuals, particularly in the current circumstances that are prone to make somber news. However, while there are such winners, there must also be losers which usually don’t surface to the public’s notice. [Actually, tangent: do you think that the Japanese media intentionally avoid the more “hard” news?]

It must be true that society in general prefers to hear sorts of good news, as do I. From a macro viewpoint, such triumphs as those of Mr. Ishikawa and Kumiko must just sound felicitous to us: they are so far on the side of winners, based on the criteria about playing golf. However, meanwhile, the life of a human can hardly be graded just on some certain standards, I want to believe. [unclear]

A failure should have a reason (or more.) I found a sentence like this in a piece of writing about how to manage “positive thinking.” The piece, the summary of a lecture on the theme, was intriguing because it brought cases of reincarnation into the context.

Although the summary introduced the cases of people who turned the clock back to their past lives, to the time of Jesus Christ or somewhere around the Second World War by hypnotism, I hope the following will be the easiest explanation: some patients are fated to go through a serious disease as a plan set before birth. For some reason which depends on the history of each person with a number of reincarnations, they need to have the perspective of a patient and be able to sympathize with physically weak people more naturally. Although in this explanation the difficulty is a disease, a problem can take a different kind of form depending on the subject. The point is just that people won’t keep regretting by understanding that each of their problems or failures has some reason worth considering seriously.

After all, you guys don’t totally believe in reincarnation. Neither do I. Otherwise, I would feel sorry for those suffering from poverty, for instance. But, meanwhile, I appreciate this way of thinking positively, even just to some extent. Kumiko might have chosen a separate path from playing golf when she was in junior high school. Even if she did so, she would have been learning many other things. Indeed, there must be dropouts off the track of being professional golfers, some of whose backgrounds are similar to Kumiko’s, living circumstances in which they were obliged or destined to just engage in playing the sport, but it doesn’t mean that they are the losers of their own lives. Life is not that simple.

As far as I am concerned, it seems that only the positive aspects of Ryo Ishikawa are highlighted and telecast. Does he have no drawbacks? Every time I compare myself with him, I tend to regret being myself. (If he were a lady, I would call out his first name with joy.)

Aki-Essays: Eiken Topic (2-22-09)

Today, developed countries sometimes discuss how to ease poverty in developing ones. In history, however, successful economies have likely won their present statuses by unilaterally putting imposition on untouched lands and local people. Unfortunately, the respect for the developing countries hasn’t improved completely. Being retrospective, the haves should take the lead in making the situation better. This essay will pinpoint some major problems and give guidance.

First, the idea of fair trade is enforced only sparsely across developed countries. While workers sell intrinsic products such as lumber or coffee beans, their compensations are below minimum levels, though retail prices are stable. With fair trade put in practice, major corporations should be able to promise minimum wages.

Second, when developed countries look at their own financial divides, there seems not to be a narrative of having successfully narrowed economic gaps. Thus so far there is no persuasive conviction as to helping out needies, lacking the demonstration at an individual level, when there should be that.

Third, while technological advancement has been rapidly piecing the world together, each national government should secure the filtering down of money from the highest income group. In developing countries in particular, to achieve this effect, smoother social mobility and communication across classes and genders with an impartial election system is essential. In reality, however, national governments often appear to behave monopolistically, autocratically, and violently. Unrest is not a condition that leads to supplying people. Each government should rethink its own behavior.

After all, many from the developed countries contend with poverty overseas. Feeling responsible as not only a representative of the richer side but also the same human being must be the driver for actions.

Aki-Essays: romance; about cross-gender dynamics (2-8-09)

Wake up in the morning. Go to school to study. After the classes of the day, go to a cram school to support the contents given at the main school. With this daily routine, he or she keeps up with every prerequisite to enter university--and subsequently [or “ultimately”] a company. Even after fortunately becoming an employee, he or she still needs to work to earn a living. By and large, each person is busy. While each one manages to square away such standard tasks, the chance of experiencing romance is always merely a chance, a tick of the clock. Though study or work may seem to be nearly incompatible with on-the-spot romance, loving someone must also be an important life event which people should not neglect. For students of elementary schools to universities, a romance can impart flowery memories to each lifetime whether it eventually leads to marriage. And workers are disposed to get married as a result of having a romance.

But even if people wish to undergo romance, they must consider striking a balance between their study or work and a romance, with the timing of developing a relationship factored in.

Dissociated from adults’ terms in economics (money!) average kids can experience romance rather easily with their sharper sensitivity [what do you mean?] and their specific activities. In their own sanctuary, kids can enjoy spending time with others of the opposite gender and feel satisfied just by chatting and playing free of charge. And as these activities are done on a daily basis, kids are usually granted plenty of chances to get involved with romance. To raise the possibility, or the chance, kids can meet up together even after the curriculum of the day if there are no mandatory plans. In addition, there also are special events such as an excursion, the sports day, and a school festival. These events, intended for a mass of kids, usually take place at the school or somewhere not so distant, and thus require less (or no) money from parents than activities that would amuse adults. (Although the cases mentioned above may not apply to kids in demanding private schools that are linked with prestigious universities.)

Regarding my ideas above, if there are busy kids who are urged to study hard to advance to a reputed private junior high (or one combined with a high school), they might be discontented, missing out on such precious moments of romance. What is more, some of these junior high schools (or high schools) are composed of students of a single gender. (It may sound nice for gays or lesbians, though.)

Despite educational circumstances in which they have to study hard, I hope that these kids (or adolescents) can afford to become the subject of even a fleeting romantic scene. [this idea keeps getting repeated without any developments being made on it; I would rewrite more concisely or consider removing the repetitive portions.]

Cram schools may give kids opportunities to interact with those of the opposite sex. As it would appear that both gender groups had the same/similar life goals and lifestyles around certain common interests, one might think that they should be able to cooperate together toward their nearer goals through conversations. [what do you mean?] (Co-educational private junior highs or high schools may provide the same kind of opportunities.) [this doesn’t really make sense; what are you proposing? Sounds like you may have two ideas running into one here]

Meanwhile, there are kids who prioritize club activities, putting these and study in order, over experiencing romance. In some ways club activities are primacy in school life, as in some ways romantic experiences are priceless.

But even average kids growing into adolescents are not so distinct exceptions that the increasing scholastic requirements make them concerned as to their future and increase the time to study. (Or, in some cases for club activities as they would raise the students’ appraisements on file and make it to some extent easier to enter the target school. Indeed, through club activities students cultivate key skills which will be helpful on multiple fronts in their future jobs.)

Still, hopefully, many students can deal with mandatory norms and a romance in each situation, but some exceptions: students divided into two stereotypical extreme groups, those who just study (or do club activities) and those being idle with the opposite sex. [I don’t understand what you mean by idle…]

The former minority group, hopefully or not, sacrifices making memorable moments during school days and a fair desire is to anticipate a desirable job and opportunities to have a romance, though the opening for finding and meeting someone attractive may not be as wide as expected.

For the sake of the sort of late bloomers, companies are better if they are able to help employees have meeting or dating occasions to make society happier at large, but in the absence of corporate productivity and revenues (as there are fears about the existence of the company) no such an invitation will come in. [Well--I understand this is more of an essay written on a trail of thought, rather than on a specific thesis, but I remain confused as to why you are on this tangent--you will need to provide more persuasive evidence as to why companies should be involved in the personal lives of their workers.]

So, taking those priorities into account, employees must keep maintaining or even increasing productivity, to even often have to work until late and put having a romance on the back-burner, when female regular employees are still a minority in Japan. [this sentence doesn’t make sense; what are you trying to say?] If there is consideration from companies which intend to promote the development of a relationship and help reach marriage, extra working hours are curtailed, giving the men time for meeting/seeing ladies--who perhaps have had similar academic footsteps to those of the men, as to the context--outside the office, having ramped up the size of the workforce. [a> while, again, this isn’t a formal essay, please be aware of your extreme sexual bias against women here; that can have the direct effect of alienating or even angering your reader. b> I’m still confused; you are saying that companies should become involved in the personal lives of their workers--but the reason why is unclear. Also, how are you defining “romance” in this context?] [A certain kind of delusion.] Otherwise, these men must use higher salaries and limited spare time efficiently, to find and please a girlfriend.

As a fate this sort of work sharing goes hand-in-hand with a reduction in employees’ salaries. However, unfortunately, it requires a man to spend some large amount of money to court a lady, so the measure may not be so friendly. [what do you mean by “measure”?]

On the other hand, companies may be able to hire more ladies in place of men. But regarding the general importance of smooth communication between employees for the benefit of the company, the outcomes of having a larger ratio of female employees must be unpredictable, like rolling a pair of dice, due to sophisticated dynamics operating between the sexes. [be careful: Sex, apart from the act of having it, refers to biological or physical traits that determine whether one is a man or a woman. Gender refers to society’s classification of characteristics perceived to be particular to a certain sex.]

In this situation, if a team/section composed of both male and female employees shares closer backgrounds--being that they studied hard through their school days--with less concerns about inner-circle mobility, the dice must show the office cases of good intimacy across genders with a higher incidence. [very unclear; please rephrase] In this case, having a romance in the office is a possible option with steady concentration in working, good manners and little trouble.

On the contrary, if competitive men need to work together with average ladies from a more ordinary path but in the same or some close position, the dice may roll unfavorably: there may not be middle ground between the two groups, a situation that could destroy the office atmosphere. [actually, I don’t fully understand what you mean by your explanation in this paragraph. You speak of a certain dynamic between men and women that companies should foster. But the way you have painted it, well…it sounds as though people inherently lack common sense, and that they lack any emotional aptitude whatsoever. I think there’s much more to this story; remember before, about the people you said who just played around with romance during school? What of them, they never got jobs? The basic operating assumption here is that people are, once cast in some form, slated to stay in that form forever; I don’t think it’s that simple. Please offer a convincing counterargument.]

However, there possibly are mediators who have studied fairly hard and graduated from a renowned university and are able to have nice communication with both groups of people, those from a top-notch path and those from an average one. In most of the cases I know, those parents played an important role as average citizens, paying tuition fees for the class at their children’s schools and teaching them people skills at home, while their children not only studied fairly a lot but also had communication with their friends, which covered romantic experiences. The presence of this kind of mediators seems to make a situation ideal. [I don’t clearly understand your thoughts here... who are these mediators? What do they mediate? And why?]

At any rate, Valentine’s day is approaching. For ladies it must sound nice that just preparing chocolate could lead to the initial step in developing a relationship with someone they like the most. Have you decided whom to serve chocolate and where? Please give me even a tiniest piece of it as your obligation. [Actually, from a sociocultural perspective, I find it extraordinarily intriguing that “Valentine’s Day” is so one-sided in Japan; in all other cultures that celebrate the day, it’s a mutual exchange, from women to men as much as it is from men to women. It strikes me as odd that Japan must have two holidays [V-Day and White Day] to foster reciprocity. Or perhaps chocolate companies are far, far too greedy.]

Aki-Essays: Charmy (1-24-09)

It was a cold night in Tokyo. Getting off the elevator in her condominium on its sixth floor, Takeko, 52, was coming back home holding two plastic bags filled with bought stuff. Nearing the entrance she heard something approaching on the other side of the door, making crescendo taps on the floor. Opening the door, Takeko again found her companion in her loyal position: Charmy, 10, a female dog (/Cavalier King Charles Spaniel), kept panting, welcoming Takeko’s return. What sort of loyalty was this? It must have been intended for edibles hidden within the plastic bags.

Some decades ago, more people must have owned dogs as a guard against perpetrators. But as time moved on, in accordance with the shift in the type of housing, from detached houses with yards to constricting condominiums, smaller and more social dogs had been garnering popularity amongst people. As a modern-day norm, people didn’t want their pet dogs to bark and cause trouble with neighbors. But Charmy immediately began yapping at Takeko, didn’t she? Yes, she did. What she was saying to Takeko, however, was probably something akin to, “Give me that food! I’m hungry!”

Takeko’s husband, over 60, was one of the old school. In the living room of the 3LDK condominium, the breadwinner, a construction worker, who was idle at home but whose presence was dominant nevertheless, kept sitting and watching TV while having his wife cater to him. Sometimes he was over-demanding, reducing Takeko’s sleep. [I don’t understand what you want to say with this sentence.] But even considering all the tasks assigned, she, so tolerant, could feel content, acting as the traditional sort of Japanese wife. And, Charmy was there.

Despite being naughty, Charmy was cute, a standard Cavalier, a Blenheim. Her long fur, a combination of ruby and white, was slightly matted. Every time Takeko held Charmy, such a fluffy female Cavalier responded by giving a comfortable sensation, a specialty. On top of that, Charmy became a practical warmer for Takeko in cold seasons. As they slept together, the live stuffed toy was so warm in bed that Takeko could fall asleep more easily. Stroked on the head, Charmy made inculpable eyes at the owner to express her affection, which were so lovely.

Still, Charmy had been mischievous since she was accepted by the family, as Cavaliers were known for their relatively high intelligence, calm personality (or dognality?), and ‘high disposition to play,’ and she was not an exception.

On one evening, I chatted with Takeko about Charmy over coffee in a cafe in Iidabashi.

Charmy loved to be taken out for a walk, but she often made her way on her own. Takeko said to me, “I wondered where Charmy went. I looked around, then found her. She was sitting on a stranger’s lap. The same kind of incidents sometimes happened when she was pretty small. She tended to like anyone.”

Before this occasion, I had heard from her some other stories about Charmy: that she loved pickled ume, a kind of plum; that she tended to eat grass on the field under rustling verdant tree leaves; and that during a walk an elderly lady petted her on the stomach into joyful laughter each time.

Actually I have met Charmy three times. She was unarguably cute, but freakish in behavior. Or just energetic? It must have been in spring or fall about two years ago (excuse me for my bad memory), I accompanied her walking. I witnessed her zigzagging across the road: she hurtled toward the other side of the road, hit the wall, and came back. Having arrived in the plaza near Takeko’s condo, which was fronted by the station, I crouched to be more level with Charmy but failed to draw her attention. She just kept jumping at each passer-by, but not at me. I would rather consider Charmy to be just a crazy dog.

Still, Charmy-related anecdotes kept running.

Charmy saw a veterinarian somewhat near the Kinshicho rail station. As dog owners must know, dogs see a vet every so often to not only go through health check-ups but get groomed as well. Last summer, I saw Charmy for the second time. I met up with Takeko with a portable dog-carry case about a boulevard near the Kameido station. Having crawled out of the case, a completely-shaved Cavalier looked quite pathetic. Her abashed face told me, “Don’t ogle at me.”

At home, Charmy often attempted to escape the mandatory application of eye lotion. She tried to hide behind a wall inside a room, but her whole body except the head was trembling, being open.

Takeko was slicing a watermelon, her favorite fruit. To preserve the whole piece and make it convenient to deal with it, Takeko cut it up into pieces, put them in a container and kept it inside the fridge every summer. During the process, Charmy yapped, importuning Takeko for a bite. To temper the appetite, Takeko gave her only a piece of the rind. Notwithstanding the quality of the deal, Charmy felt thankful, jumped at and ground her teeth on it.

Charmy loved pineapple too: “I love pineapple as well!”

Off the balcony on the sixth floor, whirlwinds seemed to be getting colder. Disrespectful to a man-made heater, Charmy often enjoyed sunbathing by the window panes. Through the opening between the curtains, shafts of sunlight brought some warmth in and invited her to sprawl out on the floor and nap.

A later day in the season, Charmy was a little grumpy, keeping yapping at Takeko, complaining of cloudy skies hiding the sun.

A recent day it was during my work that Takeko called me to communicate that Charmy was hospitalized, as she’d fallen into a severe health condition, suffering from pneumonia. (Charmy had been behaving unusually, as she would just curl up onto Takeko and had no appetite, according to what she said later.)

Three days later, I was allowed to accompany Takeko going to the vet hospital at night. On its second floor, in an icy metal/steel cubicle at the bottom (the set of those reminded me of rows of shelves which held shoeboxes), Charmy was sitting so quietly as an IV drip was running into her small, left front ankle, that the continuous barking of a dog in a separate cubicle made me perceive the volume to be even larger. In front of Charmy, a portion of served food looked intact in a container. As we had yet left the hospital hoping that Charmy would get well, chilly gusts were scorching my and Takeko’s minds.

After the hospitalization, Takeko told me that Charmy had a congenitally weak heart and it must have prompted the onset of pneumonia. Cavaliers were known for being subject to a weak heart of their own, and Charmy was no exception.

The next day, after work I saw Takeko at a restaurant near the Kinshicho station. She was hardly suppressing exhilaration in reporting that Charmy had gotten better and come back home, although some negative remarks would ensue for the following days: “But she is just sleeping and doesn’t welcome me having come back home, ask me for a walk nor eat food.”

“Charmy died.” The fifth morning after she left the hospital, Takeko’s voice was trembling across my cellular phone.

Later during the same day, Takeko told me: “Last night I came back home after shopping. I felt my heartbeat being faster as I heard approaching sounds behind the door. I opened the door, but Charmy was not there. Instead, my husband was standing upright and said, ‘Charmy died just now.’”

Takeko and I were having a conversation in the cafe near the Iidabashi station in the evening. We met up together after she witnessed Charmy be sent for cremation. It was the day after yesterday when she informed me of Charmy’s death, in the morning.

“As Charmy would be sent very soon, she was putting on a chaplet on each of her front ankles. Those chaplets were designed small so as to fit her ankles nicely,” Takeko said. (There had been another trembling voice of hers, which let me know that Charmy was gone for cremation.)


Given one cold winter night after her companion’s passing, Takeko helped Charmy’s eyes close. “Don’t worry, Charmy. I won’t give you eye lotion.” She looked around. In the living room, the short table had no electric heater attached underneath, ever since young Charmy was unwilling to come out to pee in the right place and left the mat wet.

When the family was having a hotpot, Charmy put her front paws on Takeko’s lap and made eyes at her, asking for some of the ingredients.

Takeko embraced the fluffy carcass, which was still tactile but no longer warm.

“Charmy, you feel cold, don’t you? Don’t worry, I warm you up,” Takeko draped a blanket over both of them.

“Charmy, let me share your dream, please.”

Aki-Essays: Yasufukugo (1-11-09)

“Yasufukugo,” a bull which had lived from 1980 until 1993, had been rated as amongst the most tasty progenitors and has produced lots of offspring. More than two decades after death, “the legend” welcomed its secondary advent, accompanying seemingly conflicting outcomes: prospects in the beef market, and questions about animal rights.

Today around the food industry in Japan, sorts of food advertisements--fliers and TV commercials--appeal forms of beef to consumers and indeed many of them relish such products without consideration of animal rights. Though the ongoing economic conditions are not so good, still these consumers normally can afford to purchase meat products and pay extra for higher qualities. “Hida-gyu” is on the list.

Hida-gyu is a qualified kind of cattle that originated from Yasufukugo; they have black fur and are raised in Gifu prefecture for more than 140 months; they are graded between the 5th and the 3rd classes by the Japan Meat Grading Association. (Otherwise, they are labeled as different “Hida-wagyu.”) [this doesn’t quite make sense; if they are not rated between 5 and 3 they are given some other designation, you mean? If so, some additional explanation may be needed.] In fact, it is said that Yasufukugo has produced some 39,000 offspring, but only 25-30% of them have been qualified as Hida-gyu. The relatively small population made Hida-gyu further expensive.

After his death more than 20 years ago, Yasufukugo was “resurrected” in a manner of speaking. It was reported last week that a Kinki University team used cloning technology and succeeded in giving birth to four cubs which were identical to Yasufukugo. The team took sperm out from the bull’s frozen and preserved testicles--which had lain in storage for 14 years--and selected live sperm cells with no chromosomal damage. The team used a special cultivation medium to culture sperm cells. Then the team removed the nuclei from these sperm cells and put them in place of nuclei whose sperm would be engaged in the uteri of five cows. As a result, these cows became pregnant and gave birth to four clones, two of whom are still alive.

This success alluded to the possibility of the production growth of Hida-gyu and marketing it at more affordable prices, to be good news for some consumers. Indeed, the mass media introduced positive public reactions to the report about the successful cloning while others were skeptical about the safety of the facsimile beef. (To reassure those consumers, it was announced that the Food Safety Commission in the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, would guarantee the safety of the beef.)

Japanese make use of animals: They take in protein from various kinds of animal meat--beef, pork, chicken, deer, boar, horse and others; There are those who own pet animals--a dog, a cat, a bird, a snake, and other varieties--to be pleased or consoled by them; And there are those who go to zoos and circuses.

Japan has a long history of eating animal meat, although the kinds of hunted animals have changed over years, according to a website.

From the primitive period until around the beginning of the sixteenth century, Japanese had hunted animals such as deer and boars, even experiencing a ban on eating the meat of cattle, horses, dogs, chickens, and monkeys by the emperor Tenmu in 676 (although he didn’t put the ban on deer and boar meat, and lifted the ban during the agricultural span between April and September.)

Later on, there was another suspension of eating animal meat, but it was lifted in 1871. Occasions for eating animal meat had not been as often as today. But since Japan began accepting different food cultures from abroad, the disposition of Japanese to eat animal meat such as beef has become significantly higher up to the present. Today, Japanese consume all available kinds and larger amounts of animal meat.

As it is already an established norm to eat meat, regular Japanese may be incapable of attributing any importance to the lives of livestock. What is unfortunate is that the word, “vegetarian,” those front runners many of whom care much about animals with their rights, hasn’t seen the prevalence of itself in this country, and there is usually no one around who objects to eating animal meat and brings the topic in.

This situation, however, may possibly change. [Supported by computerization and mechanization, --makes no sense in this context; how does computerization/mechanization support ability to talk?]

These days growing numbers of people in developed countries like Japan tend to talk about obesity. Some in this kind of discussion groups have successfully been in shape, living on recommendable diets which consist of reduced meat intake and calories. Even though their diets are not as strict as vegetarians’, if the success was combined with ethics and they got the word out, Japanese might begin thinking about animal rights. [how? Unsupported; how are ethics and dietary preferences related?] Otherwise, in the near future tens of thousands of Japanese might be relishing cheaper Hida-gyu without consideration of cloning or animal rights. [again, unsupported; is cloning bad? If so, why? How are animals’ rights being violated? How are the two issues connected?]

While those are animals adored as pets--dogs and cats are perhaps most popular--others are slaughtered to be eaten. Cattle, pigs and chickens are respected as food rather than a refractory pet when they are delicious and loaded with a lot of protein. Breeding these livestock is easier than doing deer and boar. In short, the destinies of animals rely much on how they can be helpful for humans, being involved in their commercial and economic activities. Yasufukugo and his offspring may have been fated to fall victim to bioscientific manipulations.

Meanwhile, the general perception of a kind of animal may fix how its members are dealt, depending on the country.

For instance, average Japanese people wouldn’t mind eating whale meat, regarding it as fish, while those who regard it as mammalian meat don’t. A scene in which a mother whale is nursing her baby helps conjure up the equivalent one of humans and keep people from mistreating the animal.

In a separate case, Australians know how annoying hopping kangaroos are and sometimes eat kangaroo meat. It is reputed as chewy and smelly but more enviro-friendly because those marsupials don’t emit as much methane as cattle and swine do. Some people familiar with livestock even suggest that putting kangaroo meat in place of beef will slow down the pace of global warming. However, most Japanese must perceive kangaroos as the cute symbol of Australia, and it is uncertain whether they can immediately begin consuming kangaroo meat even if packages on shelves show reasonable prices.

After all, not a smallest number of Japanese must have got excited hearing the news about the successful cloning of Yasufukugo and the scientific method’s high potential to churn out Hida-gyu beef, although ethical questions were hidden under the surface, which the public didn’t seem to be concerned about.

During this writing (/typing) a female pet dog of my best friend fell into critical condition due to her congenitally weak heart. “She has gotten hospitalized,” she told me on the phone. I know that the canine has supported her life so much. Yet I can’t say out loud that the pet should welcome its secondary birth even if conditions for cloning are in place.

Aki-Essays: an unmarried man captive in Odaiba (1-1-09)

Already in bed in the dim room late at night, a man, 33, was soon to end his Christmas. Lain on the floor by a bedpost, below an ugly grin, a sock [or stocking?] [I meant a sock.] with a hole in its big toe, expectantly waiting for some gift, hopefully had only a few moments. Around his fellows the conviction as to the existence of Santa Claus had dwindled to a less than infinitesimal degree, but his was alive, some portion. Ever since being told about Santa Claus for the first time, he had prepared a sock every Christmas night. While fortune had never shined on him, he still could feel excitement.

He was still awake when the long-awaited moment suddenly and finally came around: near his head the pair of expansive pink curtains was becoming brighter and brighter, struck by some sort of light from the outside, which was accompanied by a crescendo jingle of bells, both of which began to wane and eventually died out.

Thrilled, he got himself out of bed and slid the door open while wondering whether his neighbors hadn’t noticed the incident. Santa Claus was coming down from his sleigh, what was tethered to which was not reindeer but two dogs with leashes. The flabbergasted man and Santa Claus approached each other in the small backyard of his condo.

“Merry Christmas! I am G.G. Santa! Nice to meet you! But I don’t hesitate to say that you are a culprit and that I am about to arrest you!” Santa Claus bellowed out with a manly tone of his voice.

“What!? Am I a culprit!? You mean I committed any crime!? What’s the charge?” retorted the man.

“You are accused of three crimes: you have made innumerable gaffes and broke wind to inculpable others; you, the idiot, unconscionably believe that there is a Japanese nanny who resembles Roberto Carlose with Manchester United F.C. and she is capable of shopping as skillful as his ball-control; and the crucial one that you wrote an essay against marriage. So I am busting you!” As soon as the explanation ended, the thick arms of Santa Claus snatched the man, pushed him into the sack and brought it up onto the sleigh.

The jingle of bells began rising as the dogs were pulling the sleigh into the chilly night skies. The stricture around the opening of the sack was slack and allowed the man some outside view. On the sleigh now whisking he felt early on as though his neighbors were sneering at him through the almost shut openings of their curtains. Yet the altitude was high enough to let him see the dotted lights of buildings guiding to the Odaiba area.

The man got thrown out of the sack as Santa Claus tossed it to the surface, and his environment came into sight: The group had exactly traveled to the plaza in Odaiba. At a distance from them, the well-known Fuji-television building, amongst other ones, was holding its spherical symbol high in itself. Though the scene appeared as usual as it was, a towering figure made of timber was built side by side with the smaller replicated version of the Statue of Liberty. The newly-built structure looked modeled on the muscular body of G.G. Santa, which was taller than the statue by some length. The pair made the man feel as though they were staring at him.

The situation was unnervingly real: in the darkness pairs of light-reflecting eyes were fixed on him. “Sure,” gasped the man. “Odaiba is a popular place for couples especially at night.” But it was a surprise that they belonged to a variety of animals: bears, cats, rabbits and more, all standing upright. Even just the size of the population at this late time was unusual.

As well as the figure structure and the statue, those animals, with those reindogs counted, were couples. They were also eyewitnesses encircling the man’s predicament. With their sardonic and sinister eyes cast at the man, Santa Claus again snatched him, went down a curved slope and climbed up the effigy to tie him onto its face. Half a minute after the last groan of the man, those witnesses were staying quiet, attributing every perceptible sound to sea breezes.

“So, you, the defendant. You are now on trial with these engaged couples. Let me ask, are you still against marriage?” already back about the plaza Santa Claus yelled, making some agitated facial expressions, with his nose crinkled and upper lip curled, to the man.

“Definitely I am! I don’t see the point of marriage! Are there any pros? For me, a free lifestyle makes perfect sense, you see? Why? Cuz I don’t have to care for a partner nor her relatives. And I can stay liberal with money. This situation is best and ideal in today’s society. How would I be supposed to care about how to behave and what to say even at home? Are you arguing that marriage is the foundation for having kids? Do you not regard them as annoying? Why not? Don’t you know that as a matter of fact marriage doesn’t guarantee having kids? There are many couples who caaant have kids! And you know, after marriage many of them dread a divorce! That sort of life is just hell, don’t you think!?”

Appalled, Santa Claus made a predatory snarl, clenching his teeth. Subsequently, he bellowed out a question to the witnesses: “Raise your hand if you think this man deserves capital punishment!” (Technically it’s a foot though.)

In a quiet pause it seemed all of them raised their hands, as those reindogs had left the place.

“The decision is concluded! I will carry out the execution of this man for Christmas this year! If there is anyone opposed to it, make yourself known!” bawled Santa Claus.

No one moved. In the silence, from the head of the structure the man identified something bright coming from afar: one of the gone dogs was coming back with a torch attached to its back.

“In the final leg of the international relay, the torch is brought as scheduled! The fool didn’t change his mind! Put the fire on the bottom of the effigy!” commanded Santa Claus.

“Burn him! Burn him!,” the witnesses were chanting.

The dog suddenly halted ‘her’ steps, being distracted by a place which seemed suitable for urination, but she soon resumed the task, finding her partner urinating at one of the effigy’s feet in a trance.

From the bottom upward, the fire was raging. That was man-made warmth in the winter. In the scene was the female dog being embraced by Santa Claus. The male dog was wagging his tail by his feet.

“Burn him! Burn him!,” the witnesses were chanting.

The moment of it was coming true, burning of the man.

During the moment of agony, the man turned his face to the Statue of Liberty. Tears were trickling down her cheeks.

“Again, my fiance is burning. Ever since I was built here, every fiance of mine has burned down on Christmas. I was with them just for a day. You don’t understand how important a partner is? Living together even just for a limited time, I and all of my past fiances shared scenes and the weather: rain, wind, or snow. Sometimes it was harsh, but we encouraged each other. We wished ourselves a long life as a couple, but there hasn’t been such a case. Don’t you know what advantages humans have? We can’t have a baby, but it’s possible for humans! I don’t understand why there are some who can’t get over how fantastic the event is. It’s also a merit to be able to support each other.”

As she was finishing the remark, even in the unbearable situation, the man felt hints, the importance of marriage. [unsure what image you are trying to conjure here; sorry] His entrenched understanding of marriage was still hard to break, though, there was a certain change in his mindset. In reply, the night air started to breeze aggressively at the fire and suffocated it into the smolder. The man found himself left unscathed by the pedestal of the statue, though cinders were resting about there.

On Christmas next year, the statue of G.G. Santa Claus was next to his wife in Odaiba, finally in complete form not to have ended up in just the bones of logs. The newlyweds were looking in the same direction while conversing over how the man was spending time now.


“Merry Christmas! And have a good start in the new year!”

Aki-Essays: Christmas under Toyota Amlux building (12-14-08)

The glitter of lights and ornaments is a symphony played through the weight of tranquility. Those man-made products cooperate together to make up trees and buildings for Christmas. But even for all of the inanimate decorations, the nature of Christmas which is approaching seems formal. Those devices are merely mechanisms operating on and off like clockwork.

The feeling of indifference exists for people, too: there seems to be no concerns over human matters such as the recent slew of layoffs.

At some companies, those were the decisions made to bid farewell to each over 300 employees, an example figure, some of them had just joined the company, while other companies were determined to effect a more radical layoff, like Sony which would let go of 16,000 of its employees.

Given the situation, what one might wonder about is not only how those terminated people would get by but also what expression Santa Claus, were he real, would be wearing when he delivered gifts.

Still, whether believing in the existence of Santa Claus, one might hold a hard preconception that an act of exchanging Christmas gifts imparts a certain degree of pleasure and peace of mind to help people feel better. [Would need a better transition to link this idea and the rest of the story together.]

On a personal note, for the first time my best friend Takeko recently asked me to let her follow my small journey to Animate, a chained store dealing with comics and animation-related items, in Ikebukuro. We made an arrangement to see each other at the Sunshine 60 building shortly after 6:00 p.m.

The store with its closest station, Higashi-ikebukuro, on the Yurakucho subway line was located between Sunshine 60 and the TOYOTA Amlux building. The Amlux was abright with stripes of blue neon lights, a splendid juxtaposition with the darkness of the yet cool sky just behind the store. High on one side of the Amlux building, a certain not large space gave life to white lights to compose animations. The animation showed two sets of movements alternately: a bell was swinging from one side to another; two lumps slid to form a snowman. Those works kept me company and amused as I was waiting for Takeko’s arrival.

Shipping a Christmas present to my friend, a lady who teaches English in London, has been my annual custom. Every time I choose somewhat odd-seeming items that “otaku guys” (geeks who are into animations and video games) would likely be pleased with. Indeed, last Christmas I sent her a figure of a pretty girl made of rubberized plastic. As I would follow the same tradition this year again, Takeko, then, was wanting to buy a Christmas gift for her private English teacher, the reason why she joined my shopping. This occasion was not for purchasing a gift for one another between us.

The Animate building required shoppers to do some exercise as they moved up and down across eight floors by steps. (There was an elevator but it was not a comfortable mode of moving due to its small size.) Yet each floor nicely impressed both me and Takeko, by a wide range of products. The floors from the first to the fourth were mainly filled with comics, and the seventh and eighth were mainly for DVDs and video games. The fifth or the sixth floor seemed the best place to find a Christmas gift, showing assortments of items, such as figures, accessories, cards, stationery, toys, clothes and cups, making her look mesmerized. Thanks to the wide variety and relatively low prices, she, given a good choice of things, spent a pretty fun time while looking for something expected to match her teacher’s taste.

While she was engaging in her own business, on the sixth floor I was wavering between two kinds of stuffed toys: one was “Ponyo,” an animation character designed by Hayao Miyazaki, while the other was a taiko, a traditional drum of Japan, a character from “Taiko no Tatsujin,” a popular video game. While a small Ponyo out of a range of sizes was cheaper, the taiko enchanted me with its comical face and was expected to give tactile comfort as a cushion. And, while I was afraid that goods about Hayao Miyazaki were selling in London as well, I conceived of a taiko as specific to Japan. So, the decision was made on the taiko which shortly later got wrapped in Christmas-themed decoration on the eighth floor free of an extra charge. I just believed that the recipient would be pleased with something unique, finding none of the traits of the chosen gift offensive. [What do you mean by this?]

After the purchase, I descended to the fifth floor where Takeko was deciding on a box of a jigsaw puzzle. She chose the smaller one of a pretty girl, curbing the cost.

Those blue neon stripes were shining behind us as Takeko and I got out of the building for dinner.

We first considered looking for an “okonomiyaki” (Japanese style pancakes) restaurant in the basement of the Sunshine 60 building. That was where I and my classmates shared lunch during my technical college days, probably several times. Though, I was unsure about the exact location of the restaurant. To attest to the uncertainty, the restaurant didn’t show itself as we passed a big white Christmas tree and other ornaments hung around the basement area. So, after having the view of the blue neon stripes once again and crossing the highway, we decided on a Chinese restaurant near the Tokyu Hands building. Although another available route was an underground tunnel from the shopping mall on the same level, we just missed the cool night air.

After relishing Chinese dishes at affordable prices, we moved to a cafe on Sunshine 60 Street and had coffee, having dismissed the idea of walking to the basement under the Ikebukuro station building.

We parted, then: I headed home while Takeko would have an English lesson in private and hand her teacher the present.

The night was memorable, even though we didn’t spend so much money on either a Christmas gift or dinner, although it was not the exact day of the festivity. [This doesn’t make sense; what are you trying to say?] Instead of any brand new product, I bought the stuffed taiko and Takeko bought the jigsaw puzzle. However much we paid, we could still feel Christmas Day just by seeing artificial achievements as even Santa Claus himself was a human creation. He may know the brightness of the midnight sun, but may actually not do the darkness of night. Despite the possibility of his ignorance, people strive to decorate the secular void. Although each present of importance is bound to lose its original physical state over time, experiences in the merry days, in which people put each difficult situation to a halt, will stay calm in mind and out of nowhere spring back to his or her sensation every time the festive day, even if it’s not going to be snowy, approaches.