The Nissan Leaf

I don't usually get exited about cars.  The primary school Ford v Holden debates never made much sense to me; I was hard pressed to tell which was which.  And still now the brand of a car never impresses me. But... concept cars on the other hand....  in Ginza the other day I walked past the Nissan show room on 4 chome crossing which  had a prototype of the Nissan Leaf in the window. Wow!  Too cool - straight from the Jetsons.

It is a zero emission electric car which can go 100miles before needing to be recharged. (At high speeds though this decreases to more like 60miles).  According to Nissan it will not need regular maintenance,  though  after five years it will need the batteries replaced.  According to the Guardian newspaper it will  be comparatively expensive at   28,350 pounds   but  running costs will be about  0.3 pence to the mile.

 It also has gimmicky functions like being able to use your mobile phone to ask it remotely to start warming up and a continually updating GPS that tells you among other things were the nearest recharge places are.

Over time, presumable battery life will get longer and recharging time shorter.  There seems to be consensus that long term success will depend on both of  these being achieved, as well as a big increase in the number of    recharging stations. 

It's a pity the real cars, available from next year,  won't look like the prototype, 

http://www.insideline.com/nissan/leaf/2011/2011-nissan-leaf-first-drive.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/17/nissan-leaf-electric-car-cost

Decision making at Tokyo Met govt

I was having a chat the other day to a high school teach who teaches in a  high school run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (Tocho).  Tocho has finally addressed the problem of lack of computers teachers have access to, by issuing each teacher with his/her own laptop.   Hurrah for Tocho!  A long overdue move.

But....

Apparently there are restrictions on the computers.
The computer network is operated from the Tocho office in Shinjuku and works on Tocho hours - 9am-5pm Mon Friday.   Oops... schools start at 8 here...  Ooops - most high schools  work two Saturdays a month.... Ooops - teachers often don't finish club activities till five and are frequently at school till 7. Ooops - teachers work in the evenings and weekends...

Futhermore the computers allow people to copy from the hard drive onto a USB, but don't allow someone to copy from a USB to the hard drive....To bad if you want to use your home computer at night.....


Apparently the laptop makes a good placemat.

Dark days in Japan's beef industry

A dire sense of desperation has fallen across the Japanese beef industry. Foot and mouth disease, which appeared to have been eradicated, has come back on a devastating scale.  The outbreak began before the Golden Week holidays, and emergency measures such as halting livestock movements with in a 10km radius, limiting livestock movement in a 20 km radius, culling all cattle and pigs on affected properties were introduced immediately.    The measures to date have not been effective and the government made a decision yesterday to cull all cattle and pigs with in a 10 km radius.  Reports are saying 200,000 head will be vaccinated against FMD, and then culled to prevent the spread. The numbers of pigs are much greater than cattle; however it is in the cattle industry where the devastation is being most felt.

Miyazaki is one of Japan's most important areas for cattle farming; it has its own premium beef label 'Miyazaki Beef' and is a important centre for cattle breeding.  Almost half of the cattle  from Miyazaki are shipped to other prefectures for fattening as high end beef.  According to Asahi newspaper Miyazaki cattle become much of the the Matsusaka beef of Mie prefecture,  the Omi beef of Shiga prefecture and the Saga beef of Saga prefecture.    The impact on the supply chain  will start to be felt in months.  In the long term, more troubling  than the disruption to the supply of feeder cattle, is the loss of genetics.  The Miyazaki Livestock improvement Association,  which is responsible for developing all the stud bulls for "Miyazaki Beef"  has also been infected. They hope their six "ace" bulls, which currenlty account for 90% of stud bull genetics  have been isolated in time, but the remaining forty nine stud bulls will be slaughtered.   Theres is apparently a years supply of frozen bull semen (I hope they have a generator attached to the freezers....), but the damage is extreme - there is nothing close to a final figure of economic damage, though reports at this stage are of around  $200 US million dollars.  The psychological damage is immeasurable. Herds built up and improved over generations have been killed en masse.  Hiro has dealings with Miyazaki at work, and says people there are completely gutted; carcases are pilling up and farmers feel utterly without hope.  To quote directly 'it's like they are in hell'. With an election coming up, it has become a hot issue - hopefully it means support will be put in place to enable the people and the industry to recover.

The map below is from a branch of the World Health Organisation and shows outbreaks of FMD in Asia since 2009.   It is definitely on the increase. It seems like a lot of research on transmission and prevention is needed.

*** Update - one of the 6 stud bulls has tested positive. 

Foot and mouth disease outbreak

http://www.glews.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88:foot-and-mouth-disease-detection-in-the-republic-of-korea-and-japan&catid=64:disease-priority-list

Map of Miyazaki from Wikipedia.

The unheralded flowers of Tokyo

With the exception of cherry trees, Tokyo isn't really fame for being flower city.   After the plums in February come the cherry blossoms in March, then the azaleas,  the wisteria, hydrangeas then  irises.  It's kind of a set menu.  Wandering around the local neighbourhood, many, perhaps most,  houses have pot plants outside their home. In the absence of a 'real' garden, Tokyoites take pride in maintaining their colourful pot plants - you don't tend to find dead stalks on a plant. It's these unheralded flowers of  Tokyo that inject life and colour, taking an edge off concrete grey.  Many shops also have flowers out the front and local governments put time and effort into maintaining  hedges, parks, and gardens.   No-one seems to steal them;  perhaps even would be flower thieves appreciate how bright and happy they make a megopolis look :)

A rice / sushi shop in Yanaka,  not a flower shop as it might appear .