Happy Birthday, celebrating origami

 

Today is the birthday of Akira Yoshizawa, celebrated by google today in its "origami google".  Yoshizawa is credited with internationalizing origami.  A short biography can be found here.

http://origami.about.com/od/History-Of-Origami/a/Akira-Yoshizawa-Origami-Biography.htm 

Seishun 18 season

Seishun 18 season is here again, and tomorrow I am 

venturing north for Hiro's niece's graduation. I have checked the route and this is how it's looking.  From here to Fukushima.  From Fukushima to Shinjo (the Fukushima-Yonezawa stretch I haven't travelled before), Shinjo-Sakata, (also the first time to travel the Rikuu line), then from Sakata to Odate via Akita.   A long day of travelling - but hopefully interesting!  The timetable for the trip is below.  I may leave a little earlier if I can find anything of interest around Fukushima station.    The latest train I can catch leaves Akabane at 8.07am, but that would be cutting things very fine.

The "paint"  program that I have used to label the map is very unsophisticated, perhaps more to the point my use of it is very unsophisticated... & it's looking rather messy. I think I have all the labels right - noshiro should be higashi noshiro, but  after I couldn't get the text box for Odate to change size, I   decided not to worry about noshiro... 

u 

It hasn't been a very good couple of months. Making a decision to finish my masters in 3 semesters not 4 made for an incredibly stressful final semester.  A month into the semester Hiro's brother went missing, and was found dead a month after that.  A week in Akita for the funeral and another week for New Year ... trying to navigate the complexities of the situation ... took its toll... the benevolence of my professors meant an extra week and a bit to get assignments in beyond the end of the term.  I went back to Aus feeling totally burned out but with a  sigh of relief - prematurely. Syllabi for this year's teaching had to be written and uploaded in their final version  three days after I got home - I had a thought that was the deadline for the draft version. Rush to finish .... in.  Then my favourite uncle in Tokyo, who has been so good to me had a stroke followed by the spouses of two good friends in Tokyo dying from cancer. It  was good to be with family - with a lack of cheerful things to say I didn't look up most of my friends.  I regret that I wasn't able to attend the funerals.

I have just come back from seeing ojisan in the hospital now. Sometimes Japan makes me so mad I can't bear it.  I know it's not Japan, it's the Japan I live in.   I took an ipad with enka and photos  and pictures, I was stupid to go in the afternoon when Hiro's aunt was there.  Although nice lady but she doesn't do anything that is not explicitly the doctors orders.  Music, photos, talking ... mada mada mada....   How can you ever recover from a stroke if you don't get stimulation.  He understands what is being said.  He just can't move or communicate verbally.  He'll never improve if people don't talk to him directly in stimulating conversation.  He's intensely political with a keen interest in current affairs. She has no interest in politics or that kind of conversation.  She told me visiting was meiwaku to other people in the room, so it is better not to come unless she asks me.

I am so upset I will leave it at that.

Never let the truth get in the way of a sensational story

TOKYO —

The number of people who took their own lives in Japan drastically increased in the aftermath of last year’s huge tsunami and the nuclear disaster it triggered, the government says.  A more than 20% rise in the amount of suicides in one month was likely attributable at least in part to the widespread anxiety Japanese society felt in the aftermath of the catastrophe, an official said.

In May last year 3,375 people killed themselves, more than 20% up on the same month a year earlier... (AFP)  http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/suicides-in-japan-spiked-after-march-11-disaster

AFP (Agence France-Presse) has continued to propagate the myth that suicides in Japan have risen drastically as a result of the earthquake, syndicating stories that are at best gross distortions.  It might make for dramatic headlines, but it is minimizing the resilience of the people in the most affected areas,  it's demoralizing for the people who are working hard to reduce Japan's suicide rate, and trivializes the complex reasons behind suicide in Japan.

There was  a spike in suicides in May following the earthquake but data released by the Cabinet Office last week shows that was an aberration for the year and overall there was a 3.3% decrease in suicide numbers nationwide.  This decrease also listed Miyagi and Iwate as among the top 5 prefectures to have had a decrease in numbers, Fukushima, and every other prefecture in Tohoku also registered a decrease.

The actual figures are here.

  

  Heisei 23 (red line) = 2011

  Heisei 22 (green line) = 2010

  Heisei 21( blue line) = 2009

  Heisei 20 (pale blue-green line) = 2008

Or in table form

For more detail and a prefectural breakdown see
http://www8.cao.go.jp/jisatsutaisaku/toukei/pdf/siryou/gaikyou.pdf