I went to Tokyo station to see an aircraft that succeeded in manned flight, using only Oxyride dry-cell battery as a source of power.

They were playing a video of the flight, and it was very impressive.

Though I have absolutely no relationship between the project team, it really moved me when the aircraft floated off the ground and up in the air. Well, I'll leave the details up to Mr. Cow, for he seemed to be very interested in this project, that maybe someday he might want to write about this project himself.

As I was wandering inside Tokyo station, I found an outlet store of 'Tokyo Banana'.

'Tokyo Banana' is a small cake-like sweets, made of fluffy sponge cake with banana cream fillings. Someone I know once brought me this 'Tokyo Banana' as a souvenir of Nagoya, but it said 'TOKYO Banana' on the package, so I was pretty sure that I could find them in Tokyo. And BINGO, I found it.

I love to have them cold, so I've put them in the fridge a couple of hours ago. It ought to be ready by now .... Mmmm yummy.

Caterpillar

A couple of days ago I wrote some advice to English learners, and in the text I used a phrase that 'most Japanese has experienced English education as a second language'.

Yesterday, A friend of mine fed me back on E-mail, saying that English education in Japanese junior high schools are not a 'SECOND language'.

Well, he may be right about that.
You see, in Japanese junior high school, English is taught as the first foreign language ever to learn, for most Japanese. In higher education, that is to say in most Japanese universities and in some high schools, you'll get a chance to learn other foreign languages besides English, such as French, German, Spanish, Korean, or Chinese. These are the languages that are usually recognized as a 'SECOND language' in Japan.

It really gets me confused.
Well, a 'SECOND language' literally means 'the second language ever to learn in your life', I guess, and if you count your mother language as one, English could be a 'SECOND language' to Japanese, right? But your mother language is generally not a language that's taught in schools or anything, it's something that you grow up with, it's a language that you can speak without being taught. So if you interpret the meaning of the words 'second language' simply as a second language, English is the SECOND language that Japanese generally learn in their life, besides their mother language which is Japanese.

But if you interpret the meaning of the words 'second language', as 'the second FOREIGN language ever to learn in one's life', languages such as French, German, Spanish, Korean, or Chinese taught in universities, would become the 'SECOND language'. And my friend would be perfectly right about calling English a 'SECOND language'.

A-HA, I get it. So I should have used the words 'foreign language' instead of 'second language'. If I had, the former phrase would have been written as 'most Japanese has experienced English education as a foreign language'. Then I could have been able to avoid the confusion of interpreting the meaning of the words 'second language', and I wouldn't have had my friend to feed back to me.

I also noticed now, that it should have been written as 'most Japanese HAVE experienced English education ... ' instead of ' most Japanese HAS experienced ... ', to be precise. Forgive me folks, I guess I'm not a good writer. But I'll keep trying my best to write in both English and Japanese, in order to make communications easier for both language speakers.

And thanks Ogi, for giving me a chance to re-recognize the importance of choosing the right words, for I think choosing the right words may be the entrance to smooth communication or conversation.

Caterpillar

Basically, I'm not interested in a new trend, but it would be all right to go with the flow sometimes. So I guess I'll write about the boxing title match at the center of talks right now.

There was a boxing title match yesterday, 19-year-old Kouki Kameda, the oldest of the Kameda brothers fought against Juan Landaeta ( Venezuelan ), in WBA Light fly weight championship match, and it was broadcasted on TV.

Kouki was on the canvas at the beginning of the match, but he won a close decision to Landaeta, and the dubious judgement is sending the media into a frenzy.

Unfortunately, I missed the show so I'm not in a position to say anything about the judgement, though Mr. Cow who was watching the match on TV has told me a lot about it. What caught my attention even more than the debatable decision, was the fact that the TV station broadcasting this match, have kept the viewers waiting for more than an hour until the match actually begun.

According to Mr. Cow, the broadcasting began at 7:30p.m. and it was 9:00 p.m. when the title match finally started ... .
So you've done it again, TBS.

I remember having the same sort of experience about a year ago, when I was up in midnight patiently waiting for Dai Tamesue in 400m ( I think it was ) hurdle race, in the World Championships in Athletics held in Helsinki. The MC said that the hurdle race was gonna be on air right away at about 1 o'clock midnight, but I had to wait struggling against sleepiness until 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning, to see what I've been waiting for. I'm positively sure that the broadcast was on TBS.

I think you'd better have something done about this, TBS. I'm sure Mr. Cow was pretty mad about it. Me? Don't worry. I've already marked a cross on the '6' button of my channel changer, so that I won't press it by mistake.

Caterpillar

Today is the 'Doyou-no Ushi-no-hi ( literally, the day of Ushi during Doyou )'.

'Doyou' is said to be the last 18 or 19 days of every season, according to the ancient Chinese toughts of the five elements, and 'Ushi-no-hi' is a name of the day which comes around every 12 days, which also originates from the thoughts of five elements. So 'Doyou-no Ushi-no-hi' means the 'Ushi-no-hi ( the Ushi day )' that falls on 'Doyou ( the last 18 or 19 days of every season )'.

But generally in Japan, the word is usually used to represent such day only during summer, which in other words 'Doyou-no Ushi-no-hi' is used to point out an 'Ushi' day that falls on the 'Doyou' of summer. This year it's July 23rd and today. There are times when there's two days of 'Ushi-no-hi' during summer, depending on the calendar of each year, but I think I'll write about that some other time.

On 'Doyou-no Ushi-no-hi', there is a custom in Japan to eat 'Unagi-no-Kaba-yaki', an eel dish, with eels split and cleaned, then broiled over a charcoal fire while being dipped in salty-sweet soy sauce dip several times.

The best season to eat eels are said to be winter when they gain just enough fat.

Back in the days of Edo (1603-1868 ), eel sellers were having a hard time selling them during summer. They asked an academian called Hiraga Gennnai, if there's anything that could be done about it. Gennnai remrmbered that there was a folk tradition, that eating things that has an 'u' in the name of it on 'Ushi-no-hi' would prevent sickness, and suggested to pin up a sheet of paper that said 'today is an Ushi-no-hi'. The eel sellers did what they were told, and in no time Edoites full of curiosity, crowded around to buy 'Unagi-no-Kaba-yaki'.

Since then, it has become a Japanese custom to eat Kaba-yaki eels on 'Doyou-no Ushi-no-hi'.

Foreign people might need some courage to try this eel dish at first, for the idea of eating eels simply seems disgusting, but I think it's worth trying.

Only be careful to try the good ones though it's a little expensive.

Aaaah, that savory smell of broiling eels and the burning dip ... boy, I'm dripping.

Caterpillar

I rode a community bus for the first time.

I've known that there was such a thing called community bus, since two or three years ago, but today was my first experience to ride in one.

Community buses are local buses run by municipalities, to ensure means of trasportation for residents living in each community. Generally, the actual operation seems to be entrusted to the local bus companies, and it covers residential areas where the usual local buses don't run.

The fares are mostly at a flat rate of 100 yen or 200 yen, with some municipalities running a free bus. For the present, there seems to be 32 different lines running inside Tokyo city.

Well, my personal opinion is that it came in pretty handy. But I really think that the drivers should treat passengers more nicely ... .

Caterpillar

As I've wrote yesterday, the driver of the community bus wasn't very nice.

Actually, he wasn't nice at all.

There was an Asian woman who apparently looked like a foreigner in front of me, when I was getting on the bus. The bus fare was 200 yen at a flat rate, and the woman who seemed to know that had a 500 yen coin in her hand, though she seemed not so sure of where to insert her coin.

She hesitated for a moment, then asked the driver in a small voice, whether it was all right to drop her 500 yen coin into the fare box in front of her. The driver hollered back at her, "what? 500 yen?" as if to intimidate her, but didn't answer her question. So the woman assumed that it should be all right, and dropped her coin in the fare box.

As she was waiting for her change, the driver suddenly started to complain that the lady had dropped her coin in the wrong box, and started to make a fuss about it all, that she should have asked before she dropped the coin in the wrong box.

But she DID, you idiot, she DID ask. It was you who weren't listening at all. You weren't even looking at her. If you had, then you must have noticed that she was apparently not a Japanese, which must have made it possible for YOU to avoid this situation.

The stupid driver continued to mumble trying to put all the blame on the woman, as he broke his 1000 yen bill with an exchanging machine to give her back the change, while she stood quietly by the driver's seat without complaining a word.

God, I wish I was the president of that driver's company. If I were, then I'd definitely fire him, first thing tomorrow morning.

Caterpillar

The temperature in Tokyo has been over 90 degrees F since last weekend, and I'm sweating up a storm.

I'ts all right while I stay home, but when I have to go outside I'm always kept busy, worrying about my shirts getting drenched with sweat. I wonder why other people look so dry. Do they ever sweat at all? Maybe if you lived in a 24-hour air conditioned circumstance, you don't need to sweat. They must be living under such condition, and that is actually the main reason for high temperatures in Tokyo.

The air conditioners that exhaust as much heat as the cool air it provides, is contributing to the heat-island effect in Tokyo, together with the concrete jungle paved with Asphalt. Huge air conditioning systems in numerous tall office buildings, sure must be the main contributer at that, but you can't ignore those air conditioners used in homes, since nowadays they usually have one in every room.

So as to make the growing of this heat-island effect at least a little slower, and to try to make the enviroment at least a little better, I haven't been using my air conditioner for the past four years. It sometimes becomes unbearable during summer, but so far I haven't given in to my desire. Well it's all for the sake of making the place where I live just a little bit cooler, and to bring the place back to what it once was.

Though I think that my little efforts wouldn't be much help, I'm not gonna quit as long as there's faith, and who knows? Maybe some day other people might join in, and maybe it might become a world wide trend. I just hope that it doesn't become too late for them to join in.

It was a drenching afternoon slowly coming to an end, as I was going under a delusion that Tokyo was a little more cooler, and a comfortable place to live in.

Is the heat coming to my head?

Caterpillar

I was gonna write about 'what if it gets even hotter', but it rained today. They say it's a typhoon.

I don't really like it when it rains especially during this hot season, because it gets sticky and my laundries don't dry. I don't usually use dryers to dry them. I think most Japanese don't, but maybe things have been changed in the past ten or twenty years, I don't know ... .

Another bad thing about rain, is that I get my feet all wet when I go out in them. You see, I usually walk a lot once I get out of my house, and walking in the rain gets my feet soaking wet. I don't like it when my socks are damp, and I hate it when they are completely wet from the rain, with water squish-squashing inside my sneakers. It's ... it makes me feel terrible just thinking of such situation, making me reluctant to go out.

Though the good thing is, that it has cooled down a little and the crazy heat is gone for the moment. Thank God, it's a lot easier to stay in. It also must be a lot better for my computer too, since the past couple of days the humming noise of my computer, seemed to be louder than usual. I think it was because of the heat that the fan inside it had to speed up its rpm, in order to avoid overheating.

I hope it's the sound of the fan, and not the sound of the hard disk ... .

I've had enough of it when Mr. Cow's hard disk of his computer broke down ... .

I had to go out in the heat of my personal estimating 92 degrees F, to get another picture of Tanabata decorations, because we couldn't rescue the picture data of last year's Tanabata festival from that hard disk.

Thanks to you, Cow. I'm not feeling very well since that steaming day of Tanabata festival, you know ... .

Caterpillar

It may be a little sudden, but did you know there was such a thing called Google Earth?

Google Earth is an application that combines satellite imagery, maps and Google search, which enables you to learn more about a specific geographic information of the world.

I didn't know about it at all, until I heard about the existance of this application, from Mr. Cow who had already downloaded and installed it about a week ago. I had a chance to see how it worked on Cow's high-end computer, and WOW it was amazing.

A picture of the globe seen from space is displayed at first, gradually closing in to the place you have chosen to see. You can fly from space and zoom right into your neighborhood! Type in your address and you can fly to your own house! It's like diving straight down from space at your own house.

You can search for schools, parks, restaurants, hotels, tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings, and do a lot more! It covers a wide range of the globe, making it possible to go exploring on a virtual trip around the world. It even covers details for individual buildings for most of the major cities in the U.S., Western Europe, Canada, and the U.K.. And the most impressive thing is that it's FREE!

I went searching for my house in Japan, and there it was! Though these images captured by Google Earth is not in real time, and were taken by satellites and aircraft sometime in the last three years, it's enough to have some fun.

But the problem IS that I can't run them on my own PC, for mine's a little too out of date. Too bad ... .

Caterpillar

Skies become clear and temperatures tend to rise after typhoons have gone.

Well, today didn't seem to be an exception. Yesterday it rained cats and dogs early in the morning, and today ... oh, please isn't there anything that could be done about this heat?

I suppose people living in countries near Japan such as Korea or Chinese Taipei, must be experiencing the same kind of heat. Iwonder how they get over it.

Usually when typhoons come, they bring high humidity at first followed by rainstorms. Most of the time they'll be gone whithin a day or so, sometimes leaving us serious damage, with an additional clear blue sky as if to say nothing wrong has happened. As the sky clears up along comes the heat, and this pattern probably must have been the operation of nature, that haven't been changed for tens of thousands of years.

What could I do? I'm just a tiny ... caterpillar. What would it change if I bluffed without using my air conditioner? Typhoons keep coming on and when they're gone the skies clear up and the heat comes back. I don't think it would make any difference ... .

Souichiro Honda, the founder of the famous Japanese car company Honda had once said, 'Don't be afraid of screwing up, but be afraid of not doing anything.' His younger workforce followed his words, and earned the victory of winning the Fomula One Grand Prix held in Hungary last weekend, after an interval of 39 years.

Well, I think I shall take after them. As they say, 'many small make a great'. Maybe it WOULD make a difference after all, and the day might come for the world to take it as a matter of course, that it becomes cooler on the day after typhoons, 500 years out from now.

Caterpillar

There seems to be some serious affair going on in the airports.

Airports in Japan have tightened its security, due to the air terror plot in the U.K..

CNN tells that 24 men were arrested in Britain by the British and Pakistani authorities, who were in the "final stages" of a plot to blow up 10 jets, leaving Britain for the U.S.. The news have effected all over the world, with Japan not being an exception to this, Japanese airports and passengers are experiencing a chaos.

They said in the evening news on TV, that passengers headed for the U.S. were banned to bring carry-on bags, and any sort of liquid from drinks in plastic bottles, to cosmetic gel or cream, even toothpaste (!!). Wow, there's massive lines of people for all those security checks. Some of the flights may be delayed and there's a possibility that it could be even canceled.

Good thing I didn't have any plans to fly abroad. I don't think I could stand waiting in those long lines of people ... . I'm already feeling reluctant to travel by air these days, since they've completely banned smoking inside aircrafts, and in most airports.

Basically, I love to take a trip abroad to enjoy some free time experiencing different culture, but when I think about the hours I have to spend on that damn plane, it makes me wither. No matter how comfortable air travel may become, 8 hours is the best I think I could stand. That resultingly narrows my choices of destinations, but that's all right with me. I'd be perfectly happy and content on a beach in Guam, and it's only 3 hour's flight from Japan.

Though I know that now certainly isn't the time to travel ... .

But I sure do hope I could make it to Guam next off-season.

Caterpillar

Speaking of Guam, I had a great time last time I visited the island.

At first, I wasn't that excited about going. "Guam? Touristy island with Japanese sightseer all around huh? I wonder if there's anything nice to see there."

I was wrong, and I owe an apology to the people in Guam. In the center part of the island where hotels are crowded together, I was partly right about touristy attractions. And there were so many Japanese scattered all around, that for a second I almost forgot that I was abroad. There wasn't actually so much to see either.

Maybe it was a bad timing to visit Guam in the first place ... . It was 2003 when I went to Guam, just a couple of months after a big typhoon had hit the island. Serious damage was done by the typhoon, with some of the hotels not being able to run. There were actually still some hotels that seemed to be closed, when I was there.

I was looking forward to enjoy some dog race, but the driver of the taxi that gave me a ride from the airport to my hotel, told me that the roof of the race track had been blown off ( I think he also said that it blew away the dogs with it ... well, that can't be, mister you must be kidding ), and the digital display had also been damaged by the typhoon, so there would be no races held until they're fixed. I suppose I was down on my luck, so it might have been rather good that I wasn't able to bet the races ... .

But not all was bad, for once I stepped out from that 'all for tourists' area, there was something nice that I hadn't expected.

I went trail riding on horseback at Southern Confort Ranch on the southern tip of the island, and there I met a magnificent coastal scenery, together with a beautiful sunset. It even made me feel something spiritual, a healing sort of power. I didn't expect to have such a good time, just 25 miles away from the hotel road. Thanks Tony, it really was a great experience.

Though I had to have Tony from the ranch, to pick me up and drive me to his ranch twice, until I was able to experience such a great view, because it had rained the first time. Also to my diappointment, the camera turned out to be broken which I noticed after I've came back to Japan, and all those pictures of that beautiful scenery came out blackened.

So was I lucky or UN-lucky?

Caterpillar

It was a hot day that I dragged myself to Asagaya, to take some pictures of Tanabata decorations, since the pictures that I had taken a year before sweating bullets in my T-shirt, were unable to rescue from the broken hard disk of Cow's PC.

On my way, I happened to see an unpleasant situation of a supposedly Indian lady being hollered at by the driver on the community bus, which made me feel VERY unpleasant. After I got off the bus, I had to walk up and down the arcade packed with large crowds of people to take the pictures I needed, for nearly an hour in that steaming heat, and I was pretty much in a bad mood.

I stopped by a cafe to take a short break before catching the bus for home, and there I happened to see a heartwarming sight.

I was sitting by the counter, and behind me was a family sitting at the table. The family consisted of three little girls, their mother, and an old lady that should be their grandmother. The youngest of the girls ( or was it a boy, I'm not sure ) was still a baby, and the mother seemed to be busy with her ( or him ).

Suddenly I heard a crushing sort of sound followed by a thump behind me. I turned around to see what happened, and I realized that the second youngest girl had fallen off her high chair on where she must have been perched. Unfortunately, her Kaki-gouri ( shaved ice with colorful syrup ) seemed to have fallen off the table with her on to the floor, and with her mother saying something like 'I told you to watch out, didn't I,' she started crying aloud in a voice everyone in the cafe could hear.

I was wondering what's gonna happen next, when a man who looked like the manager of that cafe came running up to the table, helped the girl get up, and started to say something to her with a smile on his face.

I couldn't follow every word, but he seemed to be telling the girl that it was all right, and then he said something that grabbed my attention.

"Let's say we go together up to the counter again, and I'll get you a new one?" And then he turned to her mother who intended to pay for the new Kaki-gouri and said, "It's all right ma'am, you don't need to pay."

WHAAAATT? He's giving it away for free? What a generous manager!

After he took the little girl to the counter and left her with another staff, he came back to the table to clean up the mess she had made, without a word of complain, saying it's all right and smiling all the time.

What even moved me was, after the girl came back smiling with her new Kaki-gouri, her mother told her to say thank you directly to this manager, and she being too shy to go alone went up to him with her mother by her side, and thanked him in a small voice.

AWWWWWWW. Isn't it nice to see that there's still a piece of kindness in this cruel world! I bet she'd grow up to be a kindhearted decent adult. And I sure do think that the community bus driver, should take a lesson from this family and the manager.

Caterpillar

I heard that the electricity had been down this morning.

The whole district around my neighborhood seemed to have experienced a sort of blackout, and everything that used electricity as a source of power, seemed to have went down. I heard that the lights were out, air conditioners stopped, timers went off, and trains stopped.

I'm not actually sure what exactly had happened, for I was still in my dreams tumbling and tossing on my Goza ( literally, straw sheet ) sweltering like a whale driven ashore, when the unexpected accident fell upon my neighborfood.

It was good though, that I wasn't up using my computer at the time.

I heard about the news from my mother. You see, I'm staying at my parents' house against my will for certain reasons.

Anyway, my mother told me about the news, and she told me to be careful when I'm using my computer. Does she know anything, totally ANYTHING about computers? I'm quite sure that her high-performace PC, has been left untouched on her desk for at least more than 4 years, and now it's covered with dust.

I fed her back asking, specifically what I should be careful about when using my computer. I thought I was gonna faint when I heard her say in reply, "you'd better backup all your data ON YOUR SOFTWARE, or you could lose them when something like this happens, while you're using your computer."

WHAAAATTTT!? I didn't know that computer SOFTWARES also work as a data storage medium, mother. Since when did you become so familiar with computers? I thought you still don't have an E-mail address yet.

Well, it's not unordinary for her to act like an I-know-it-all kind of person, she's always been acting like that. I guess she wanted to reach up a little, watching me using my computer all day. It might have been her appeal, to uphold her dignity as a person who has lived longer than me, that she's experienced more and knows more than me, which in her equation form, must be equal to thinking that she's wiser than me, resulting in a demand for me to respect her as such person. And she is a proud person, very proud.

I just answered I'll do so, and left her in the kitchen.

Oh boy. It's tough being a child.

Caterpillar

There's a simple dish of spaghetti that I enjoy eating for lunch during this hot summer season.

I usually cook it myself whenever I have time to do so. It's not that difficult to fix, and it's also good to eat when you have a poor appetite. Let me introduce the recipe.

Ingredients : 1 fresh tomato, 3 to 4 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Men-tsuyu ( Men-tsuyu is a ready-made soy sauce based sauce, used to eat Soba or Udon, and it could be purcahsed in every Japanese supermarket ), accordingly assorted condiments ( I use minced green onion, shredded Japanese basil [ it said 'perilla' in the Japanese-English dictionary, but I think Japanese basil would be more understandable for Shiso ], sliced Myouga and Asa-tsuki[ I'm sorry but I can't think up of a right English name for this ], and a sprinkle of sesame ), assorted vegetables such as eggplants, paprika, whatever you'd like to eat, and of course spaghetti, as much as you like.

Procedures :
STEP 1 >Put salt accordingly in a pot of water and heat the pot to boil. Carve a cross with a cooking knife on the tomato, opposite the hull side, then dip it completely into the pot when the water has reached a full boil, for approximately 10 to 15 seconds. Take the tomato out of the pot, and cool it down with running water, and peel off the skin.

STEP 2 >Cook spaghetti in boiling water until it's ready. Meanwhile, get the other vegetables and condiments ready. In cases when you're using eggplants, wrap them in wrap film and leave it to cook in the microwave for about 50 seconds, then turn it over and cook another 50 seconds. If you're using paprika, cook them together in the microwave, as you did with the eggplants. But when using paprika, be sure to cut them up in advance cooking in the microwave, for it may explode and can be dangerous. Leave the vegetables a while to cool down until it's ready to be cut small.

STEP 3 >Cut up the tomato into cubes of about half an inch, and cut up the vegetables also into bite-size. Put them in a bowl together with olive oil, vinegar, Men-tsuyu, and condiments except sesame and Asa-tsuki, and stir it well. When the spaghetti is ready, take them out of the pot, cool it down in running water. Then roughly dry the spaghetti with paper towel, and put them in the bowl to mix well with the other ingredients.

STEP 4 >Taste a bite and add a pinch of salt and pepper to adjust the seasoning, put them all on a plate, sprinkle the sesame and Asa-tsuki you have left.

You can add a can of tuna fish, or a little bit of anchovy to the ingredients, according to your taste.

Yesterday I was cooking this Caterpillar's special menu, and I found some Japanese basil sticking out from a glass of water, on the kitchen windowsill. Just when I wanted it, I thought, took a leaf, cut them up and used it as condiment.

It tasted a little wierd, sort of ... bitter, but I didn't care much about it at the time.

Later, I went down to the kitchen to wash my dishes, only to find out that they were sage, not Japanese basil. I should have noticed the flower ... the leaves really look alike, you know ... .

Caterpillar

I did know that I was formerly a little overweight, but I have put on at least 10 pounds in the last couple of years, and now I'm going completely out of shape.

So I decided, that it was time I had to do something bout it.

But I didn't think I could stand the restrictions in diet since I LOVE to eat, that means I'll have to think of taking off some extra pounds off from me, by using more energy than I eat.

So I went Google-ing for some effective physical exercises. In no time, I found some information suggesting 7 different exercises to take off the skin pouch under my arms, 4 to make my sagging stomach a washboard, 5 to tone up my flanks, and 6 in order to acquire an elegantly-sculpted back. That totals up to 22 different exercises ... .

Well, I tried going through all these exercises, though some were impracticable.

It took me about an hour to go through them all, and I was drenched with sweat when I have finished doing them. Gosh, this IS tough ... . How am I supposed to continue such hard work? If I can do these exercises for a year every day, I'm sure that my photo book would become a best-seller if I ever make one ... .

Caterpillar

It's been the most humid day I have ever experienced in my life.

According to the weather forecast which I saw yesterday, today's humidity was supposed to hover between 70% and 90%, but I doubt if there was a second when it dropped down to 70% ... . I have a hunch that it's even more humid than it is in the tropical jungles.

Each time I had to go outside from the air conditioned buildings, I felt the unpleasantness of this sticky moistness all over my body. It's like walking around the edge of a heated swimming pool wearing a jacket, not in a bathing suit.

They say it's because of another typhoon that's coming up, but evev so, I don't think there was such a humid day as today ever in Japan, as far as I can remember. As for foreign tourists, I really feel sympathy for those who had to spend such an unpleasant day of their vacation, here in Tokyo today. It just wasn't your day.

And no matter how bad it may be during the day, it was even worse going home.

The train for home was packed with people, so crowded that there wan't even a chance for my bag to fall to the ground without my holding it. It was supposed to be air conditioned inside the train car, though I felt it didn't change much from outside, or even hotter because of the passenger's heat. And as usual, I sweated buckets ... .

I dragged myself home, only to find that my room was hell. Where has the wind gone? I thought there was a typhoon coming up? Then why is there absolutely NO WIND? Everything's sticky and nothing dry ... I feel terrible.

I hope there won't be any mushromms growing from my head tomorrow morning ... .

Caterpillar

The unusual degree of humidity has abated, though Tokyo was exposed to boiling heat instead today.

Squatting down, smoking on the balcony with a comfortable breeze, I suddenly realized that I was content and happy.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine seems endless, Iraq is still under chaos, there must be warfare going on in some parts of Africa, or in east Europe. People living there must be in pain, or in hunger, or in fear, not able to go about their ordinary daily life.

Fortunately, I'm not under such conditions. I don't have to worry about my house being bombed and blown away while I'm asleep, I don't have to worry if I would still be alive tomorrow. I shall count my blessings.

Living in a world where you can lead an ordinary life normally, sometimes makes you numb, making you take it for granted. Sometimes you forget about other people, embracing an illusion that the world you live in, is the one and only on this whole planet called earth. But today I realized. Or maybe it was the contentment that I felt, that brought back to my memory, the reality of OUR world.

Thinking that way, my ordinary life could be said that it's built upon sacrifice of many others, and my daily life could be something they can only dream of, to the people living in other parts of the world.

I often tend to lose my temper when things don't work out as I've planned, I'm often offended by other people's behavior and speak bad language. I'm actually pathetic.

But from now on, I think I'm gonna try. Try to be a better caterpillar who thinks more about other people. I'll try to learn more and try to understand more about other people.

All over the world there must be people living under much more difficult conditions, but they are struggling every day to live, and they must be trying ( of course, there are always some who don't ... ) real hard. If so, I'll have to say that it'll be bad karma to complain about such small things, every time when it gets hot or humid.

HEY, shut up cicada, you're too LOUD. Ooops, sorry.

So I'll try being a less selfish caterpillar, starting ...tomorrow maybe.

Caterpillar

When I was a kid, it was a daily scene of a hot summer day for elementary school kids, to go swimming in the school pool dangling and swinging their bags of swimming kit, during the summer vacation.

It was part of the school curriculum of gymnastics, to attend this swimming program at least 10 to 15 days, in most elementary schools and in some junior highs, around the district where I lived.

But recently, there don't seem to be any school kids swinging their swimming kits. Actually, I don't see any school kids outside at all. Where have they all gone?

I used to hear kids' cheerful voices around my neighborhood from July through August, which was the period of their summer vacation, that they must have been looking forwar to all through the spring season. I used to hear shouts, cries, laughs, all sorts of children's high-spirited voices from morning to sunset. But they all seemed to have gone somewhere.

Is it because today is a Saturday? Nah, I don't think so. When I was a kid that age, it didn't really matter whether it was a Saturday or a Sunday or even a national holiday, because every day during summer vacation was a holiday to me.

Is it because the number of kids are rapidly decreasing? It could be. Though I think there still would be a chance to see them or hear their voices.

Maybe kids these days, don't go out to play any more. Maybe they spend their summer vacation staying inside their houses, in a super-comfortable air conditioned room, playing video games.

If so, now I think that's a problem. Aren't they supposed to be the ones who have to learn most about all those ecological problems going on such as global heating? Aren't our future on these kids' shoulders? How should they learn about all the imporatant things in life that they need to know, if they stayed inside their houses all day?

I'll have to ask the parents in Japan a favor. Please let your kids play outside. I'm sure it'll make a big difference ten years later. They'd learn so much more than you think they would, and grow up to be a fine person who can think, choose, and make a right decision on their own. And if they do grow up to be a fine adult, I can assure you that Japan would be a better place to live in. But it's all up to you, folks.

Caterpillar

I was asked to take care of my niece's beetles for a couple of days, during her short family summer trip.

I have a little experience in taking care of dogs, cats, parakeets, gerbils, and goldfish, but I've never had beetles as pets before. I didn't know much about them, but my sister told me that my only job was to feed them, and that it was only for 2 or 3 days, so I said it would be all right.

Yesterday morning, two beetles each of them in small plastic cases arrived at my house, together with a package of beetle feed.

In Japan, beetles have alwas been gathering children's interest, especially during summer when they grow active. When I was a kid, it was one of the major events during summer vacation, to capture beetles in the woods though today, things have changed leaving less places for beetles to live in. It became difficult to catch beetles on your own, especially in the urban areas and with petshops selling them and all, children's interests seemed to move on to other things. But thanks to the break of an arcade game called Mushi-king ( literally, insect king ), beetles and stag beetles have been gaining youngsters' attraction again.

And it's not only kids that are crazy for beetles these days. Even grown-ups are captivated by this little creature, with some of them actually becoming a breeder.

It was my first time to have an up-close observation on beetles, and as I watched them I felt like I can understand why some people love them so much. With their eyes apart which seems to be the recent trend, it could be said that they have a winsome face. And they move around quite as much than I had expected during night too. Well, I knew that they were nocturnal, but I didn't think they would move this much.

I fed them with their jelly-like feed and went to sleep last night. But our pet cat seemed to have been chasing them around in their cases during the night, and the poor little creatures looked exhausted in the morning.

I scolded the naughty cat, but I knew she wouldn't stop. After all, she's a cat. So I had the beetles moved to my room. They'll be safe here. I assure you little ones, the cat won't be able to come barging into this room, not through that door. She can't open the door by herself.

Caterpillar

Waseda Jitsugyou high school representing the west Tokyo block, became the champion of this summer's National High School Basball Championship Tournament held in Koushien, for the first time in 27 challenges.

They defeated Komadai-Tomakomai high school representing south Hokkaido block after 24 innings of breathtaking game, who were fighting to be the second school ever in Japanese high school baseball history, to gain their 3rd straight victory in the summer tournament.

The final game held yesterday became a mound duel, with both teams fighting to gain one point. Yuuki Saito the pitcher of Waseda, performed a great pitching while his opponent Masahiro Tanaka of Komadai, fought back against him with a spirited pitch. Both teams earned one point respectively, but the game remained unsettled until the game was finished in a tie of 1-1, according to the tournament rule after fighting 15 innings, and the tide of the battle was left up to the results of today's rematch, a final game rematch to be held after 37 years since the last.

Kou-kou-yakyuu, the Japanese High School Baseball Tournament is one of the major attractions to Japanese during summer. The tournament is held twice a year annually in spring and summer, but I'll have to say that it's definitely the summer tounaments, that gets us off. The tournaments are held in Koushien ( Koushien stadium ) in Nishino-miya city Hyougo prefecture, which is also known as the homeground for Hanshin Tigers, a professional baseball team. It's a place where high school ball players dream to play in, to win the High School Tournament.

And today, a new champion school has been born.

Both teams had fought well with every ounce of strength they've got, and I was very much impressed by this great game which I think, would go down in history.

It also must have been a good present for Japan's proud-to-present, world-famous homerun king Mr. Sadaharu Oh, who is now recuperating from a gastr-surgery because of gastric cancer, for he is a graduate of Waseda Jitsugyou high school, and he wasn't able to win the tournament during his time.

I'd like to thank the members of both teams, for such a wonderful performance. And I'd like to tell the members of Komadai-Tomakomai, to be proud of themselves. You might be unsatisfied by the result, but that's that. You have performed a great game and it couldn't have been better, if it weren't for each and every one of you. Don't droop your heads guys, you should be proud about it. And to both teams, you guys gave me hope, faith, strength and a little courage, to carry on my life from tomorrow.

It was a really good game, though I think that the authorities' speech during the ending ceremony was too long. As they always say, speech is silver, silence is golden.

Caterpillar

It's been almost a week since I first heard the news about a Japanese fisherman, shot to death by the Russian border patrol.

A Japanese crab boat No. 31 Kisshin-Maru, was seized and fired upon by a Russian border patrol vessel in disputed waters near Russian-controlled Kaigara-jima, an island located off coast of Nemuro Peninsula, Hokkaido on August 16th. A fourth crew member was killed in the incident, while the other three members were captured and are now detained in Yuzhno-Kurilsk in Kunashiri.

The body of Mitsuhiro Morita (35) was finally carried back to Nemuro harbor, by the patrol vessel Saroma of the Japanese Coast Guard August 19th afternoon, though three other crews including the skipper of Kisshin-Maru Noboru Sakashita (59), and crew members Akiyoshi Kawamura (29) and Haruki Kamiya (25) are still being held by Russia.

News source told that the detained crews were being questioned by the prosecutors of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and so far the Russian authorities haven't released the three crew members, despite the request the Japanese Foreign Ministry had made.

It is told that the Russian border patrol boat spotted the Japanese crab boat near Kaigara-jima in the Habomai chain on the 16th early morning, without showing lights in the darkness. Russian officials said that the Kisshin-Maru tried to flee when the patrol officers aproached them in a rubber boat, so the officers shouted to stop in English and fired six green warning rockets. But the Japanese fishing boat tried to get away ignoring them, so they fired two warning shots from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle as to warn them, not intending to hit the crab boat.

Russian officials explained that it was because of the choppy sea and the unpredictable maneuvers of the boat, that one of the crew members got shot in the head, which resultingly took his life. It is said that the Russian border security was fortified against poaching recently, and that Morita who was shot and killed in the incident, was throwing catch into the sea when the shot was fired.

But was it really an accident?

If it was just an accident, why are the three other crews still detained?

Was the crab boat really poaching? What if they weren't ... .

to be Continued ...

Caterpillar

It must have been dark about the time when the Japanese crab boat was prized by the Russian border patrol. Why weren't they showing any light? Or were they?

There are so many things left unknown.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Japan in 2000, Japan and Russia are supposed to have agreed 'not to fire upon each other in case of prizing' though it was nonofficial and was not formalized as signed documents. The Russian Border Patrol Agency has prized more than 20 Japanese fishing boats after 2000, but none of them have been fired even in warning until this Kisshin-Maru, which means that the agreement was accepted to be effetive and it was kept till then.

Isn't this a serious international problem, then?

Isn't Japan supposed to take action against Russia more aggressively? Promises have been broken and a man has been killed, you know. WHAT IS JAPAN DOING?

Or maybe Kisshin-Maru was actually poaching. Even if it was, I think that gives Russia no reason to ignore the agreement and shoot a crew to death, not even in an accident.

It's understandable that Russia has come to enforce strict control over poaching near disputed waters of the Northern Territory, for I've read in the papers that the number of poaching by Russian and other fishing boats unauthorized by the Russian government, has increased rapidly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, attributed to the problem of illegal trading of their catch such as crabs.

It said that they don't usually eat crabs that much in Russia, while Japanese do and the crabs traded illeagally pay several times as much foreign money, compared to legitimate export value.

The Russian authorities also must be unsatisfied by the cooporative structure of Japanese Coast Guards, which they seem to think that it's insufficient. It may be so.

But no matter what happens, the fact that the Russian patrol have shot an unarmed Japanese civilian to death, can not be erased. I'd hope to hear some sincere words of apology to the families of Morita who was killed in the incident, not in diplomatic or politic senses but as a same human being.

As for Japan, I wish the politicians to make more specific actions such as to protest more strongly against Russia, establish domestic laws involving violation of territorial waters if necessary ( Japan does not have any domestic laws involving violation of Japanese territorial waters for the present ), to build equal cooporative relationship between Russia, in order to avoid this sort of tragedy from happening again.

And I sure do hope that Japan would quit fooling around, basking in the afterglow of the summer High School Baseball Tournament, though yes, the final was a great game but it's already behind us, I think it ought to be time we turned our heads and focused on some reality. After all, the man got killed for the crabs WE eat.

Caterpillar

I don't mean to be too personal after writing about a serious incident, but I bought a pair of Teva sports sandals. I have been wondering whether to buy them or not, and I finally made up my mind to get them.

I've been searching for some INEXPENSIVE sports sandals that can satisfy me in both function and price, though I couldn't find any that met my demands. When I've been to Ame-yoko ( a famous shopping area in Ueno ) just about a month ago, I found that the closest thing I could find was Teva sports sandals. Though I decided not to buy them at the time, for I hadn't heard of the brand and didn't know anything about it until then, and I didn't feel like paying 2,980 yen only for a pair of sandals.

A young male shop staff had attended me, picking out the right size for me and all, and I asked him if he could discount a little more, but he said 'not a yen', so I delivered him a parting shot that I would have bought them if they were 1,980 yen, and left the shop.

It didn't look like it would cost that much ... well, I thought it didn't.

But I was wrong. I'm sorry, Mr. shop staff ... .

As I went Google-ing afterwards to check on the brand Teva which I didn't know about, I found out that the price 2,980 yen was not at all expensive to pay, for what was sold. 2,980 yen was actually a fire-sale price for Teva sandals.

I hesitated to go right back to the shop and buy Teva sandals after I've revealed my ignorance, and the days passed away while I was getting wishy-washy, divided between buying them for 2,980 yen acceptingly, and looking for a cheaper alternative.

But I've finally made up my mind and bought a pair.

I tried them on and realized that the fit wasn't that good maybe because I've bought the cheapest model, though the cushion against my feet felt pretty comfortable. There also were two tags attached to the sandals, one with descriptions about Teva, and the other said that the sandals were featured with 'a new zinc based technology to fight the growth of odor causing bacteria and fungus', and that 'built-in protection provides continuous odor control that won't wash off or wear away over the lifetime of the sandal'.

Wow, that's nice. A couple of years ago I bought a pair of sports type sandals for 1,000 yen, but it smelled from the first time and the smell didn't come off 'over the lifetime' of THAT sandal ... .

Caterpillar

Pluto has been officially demoted and it seems that it's no longer a planet.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has held a meeting yesterday August 24th, to take votes for their definition of planets. Resultingly, Pluto was demoted from its former status as a planet.

According to IAU's definition of a planet, a planet must 'orbit around the sun', 'form a spherical shape by its own gravity force' and 'must not have any other astronomical objects ( excluding small secondary planets ) near its orbit'. Pluto meets the first two requirements but does not meet the third, since it has 'other astronomical objects' near its orbit although it is not a secondary planet.

Relying upon this definition of IAU, Pluto was defined as one of the several dwarf planets, which are not considered as true planets.

So we now have only 8 planets in our Solar System, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I guess we have to think up of new sentences to memorize the new order of planets ... .

In Japan, kids usually used to remember the order of planets in 'Sui-Kin-Chi-Ka-Moku-Do(t)-Ten-Kai-Mei', connecting the first letter of Kanji-Characters of the name of each planets. I must have learned it right at the beginning, but I always stumbled at the 'Do' part, which represents Saturn in English and I never went further. So it doesn't really matter to me whether Pluto is a planet or not.

In English some of these sentences, I think, are well known.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

My Very Eager Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets

My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

Most Voters Earn Money Just Showing Up Near Polls ( HA,HA. This is good. )

My Very Erotic Mate Joyfully Satisfies Unusual Needs Passionately (!!)

I remember using the first sentence to memorize them in English, but I like the 'voters' version. I didn't know there was a sentence such as the last one until I looked it up in the internet, but if I'd used this sentence I couldn't have forgotten any of the planets ... .

I wonder what's to become of the last 'P' part in these sentences ... .

Caterpillar

For people who are taking a late summer vacation, here's some more information about Guam.

Another thing that attracted me during my stay in Guam, besides the beautiful coastal scenery seen near Souther Comfort Ranch, was food.

I used to love American food when I was younger, but it seems that my sense of taste have changed as I grew older, and I was pretty fed up with eating heavy dishes by the end of the first week of my stay.

I wandered through the center of the island where there were many restaurants, hoping to find a satisfactory place for me to eat in, though I knew it was almost impossible to find a restaurant that could measure up to my expectations, especially when I was overseas.

But that was when I found Tsuruya Cafe.

Tsuruya Cafe is a small Japanese deli, located inside a shopping building next to Outrigger Guam Resort, with a sign that says 'South Plaza' on top of it.

Well, there's nothing special about it, but they offer light tasted food including Japanese food for a reasonable price. That was exactly what I was looking for.

For example, a beef steak set with an additional cup ( it comes in paper cups ... ) of beer ( Asahi Super Dry ) is for $10.00, Sashimi-teishoku is for $10.00, Sushi-teishoku and Unagi-teishoku is for $12.00 each, Yakiniku-don and Maguro-don is for $8.00 respectively. You might think that the price isn't that reasonable, but surprises come after this.

Oyako-don is for $6.50 with Miso-soup, Oshinko ( Japanese pickles ) and Mugi-cha, and I suppose all the '-don' series comes in the same style with Miso-soup, Oshinko and Mugi-cha. Drinks including Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke, iced tea with lemon, orange juice and root beer are an all-you-can-drink for $1.50, while a box meal of a side dish with either white steamed rice or fried rice costs only $3.99.

You'd only have to pay $1.00 more to add a second side dish, then a small bowl of salad and a cup of soup would come along with it. For people who want to choose 3 kinds of side dishes, a set of 3 different side dishes with either white steamed rice or fried rice, and an additional soup and salad, costs only $5.99!! That's actually cheaper than the price of a meal in Japan ... .

There's even more. Tsuruya Cafe offers a breakfast plate of pancakes or toast with sausages and fruits with an all-you-can-drink-coffee for $4.99, and a set of Japanese style breakfast for $6.50. I believe it's the most valuable price for a breakfast in center Guam, for I've been up and down the hotel road a hundred times, but I don't remember seeing a cheaper price.

As for people who might be worrying about the taste, I can assure you that they're good, they'd probably be well off in Japan too. The dishes of Tsuruya Cafe is generally light tasted, which I think is perfectly suitable for most Japanese, especially elder pepole. Beseides, the 'owner chef' is a Japanese so you don't have to worry about language either.

Interested? For people who'd like to try, here's how to get to Tsuruya Cafe. Find the building of South Plaza next to Outrigger Guam Resort, in the northwest part of Tumon area along San Vitores Road. There's a small food court on the second floor with a Japanese restaurant on the corner of its entrance ( this one's a lot more expensive ), so take a bend there going right past that Japanese restaurant, into the passage with signboards on your left. Go straight ahead to the far end of the food court, no matter how much the staff from other shops tried to stop you. There you'd find a small Japanese deli, Tsuruya Cafe.

It's been 3 years since I've been there the last time but I think it's still there, for the Christmas cards I've sent haven't returned so far. I'd like to hear from anyone who's been there recently ... .

Caterpillar

I went into the bathroom to do the business the other day. Approximately 3 seconds later, I found myself unbuttoning my shirt ... . What in the world am I doing ... .

When I came back from the bathroom, I noticed a sound of a Higurashi ( evening cicada ) right outside of my window. Honestly, I was a bit surprised for I didn't expect to hear such a sound in my neighborhood, not far from the heart of Tokyo.

Higurashi is a Japanese name for evening cicadas, which literally means 'something to make the sun go down'.

The reason why they bear such a name is said to be that it's because they usually make sounds, only in the twilight after dawn or before sunset. They are a kind of cicadas which you can hear more than see during summer time in Japan, though Higurashis make a more musical sound compared to the noises the other cicadas make.

They usually live in cool woods of Japanese cedar or Japanese cypress, and you can hear them making sounds from the end of June to mid September. I'm not quite sure if they can be seen abroad in other countries. But I suppose it's unusual to here them in the streets of Tokyo anyway ... .

Higurashi is also known in Japan under another name Kana-kana-zemi ( literally Kana-kana cicada ), since to Japanese' ears, their shrill voices are recognized as 'kana-kana-kana-kana'.

Japanese generally have special kinds of sensibilities for many things in nature, and the sounds insects make are not an exception. We accept the sounds of insects, as 'insect's voices', and are able to distinguish several different 'voices'. It could be said that it's Japanese' sense of beauty to even find some musical tone in those 'insects' voices'.

I've once heard before that to Westerners, 'insects' voices' are nothing but noises that sound all alike.

I wonder if that could be true ... .

Caterpillar

A rerun of a Japanese TV drama 'Hikari-to-Tomo-ni ( literally, together with light, probably also meaning together with Hikaru )' seems to have started from today.

I'm not sure, but I think it wsas last year or perhaps the year before, when I first saw the drama on TV. I liked it so much the last time I saw it, that I couldn't break myself away from the TV today, when I almost accidentally happened to turn on the TV to see the opening of the rerun.

The story is about a mother and her autisitic son named Hikaru, with episodes involving the people around them, the strives and growth they had experienced through the painful days since the boy was first diagnosed autistic. This drama is fiction but I think I've heard or seen somewhere, that it referred to the real story of Kenzaburou Ohe a famous Japanese writer, and his autistic son.

I have some experience of spending some time with autisitic children when I was a student, and the drama reminds me of those kids, how they had shared with me a gentle period of time.

Autistic people usually have trouble buiding up relationships between other pepole and themselves. It is said that it's because they have receptive defect, though the cause of such defect is still said to be unknown. Many of them have seious trouble in communicating with other people, and they sort of live in their own world apart from our human relationships.

But looking close on them, I realized that they were generally very peaceful people. There are times when they panic and become violent sometimes, but I noticed that they weren't trying to hurt other people, they were just being confused. I felt like I understood a little of how they must feel, for I often get pissed off and violent myself, whenever I get confused or depressed or when things don't seem to work out.

They seem to have a special talent in sensing things, especially things which we can't see, and some of them are incredibly talented in memorizing things, calculating, drawing, painting, and music. They seem to live ignoring many of the rules that we are usually bounded in, yet they have a strange sort of order in their life, and ... and... I don't know how to express in words since I'm not a good writer, but there's something special in them that made me feel warm inside. I think it was an experience of a lifetime.

I've heard that the way people see autistic people have changed a little, after the drama had been on-aired the first time. I wish this rerun would change the situation even better for them, and hopefully give a chance to stop and think to those who aren't concerned about other people.

Caterpillar

Associated with the TV drama 'Hikari-to-tomo-ni', I'd like to have this opportunity to write about an autistic boy I met during my school days.

I met Y at a care home for autistic children.

People with autism usually have a tendency to persist in doing particular things. It's mostly small things seen from our eyes, such as butonning up their shirt to the top or buying the same things everyday at the same shop, and it seems that they can't move on to the next action without doing whatever they persist in.

For Y, it happened to be the greetings .

Y persisted in greetings and he couldn't move on to the next action without saying the greetings. He took part in farming activities inside the care home, and every morning he had to start his work with an 'Ohayou-gozai-masu ( good morning in Japanese )', or he wouldn't be able to start working.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

It is admiring of Y to say the greetings every morning, in a sense to be polite. But the problem was that he had to say his greetings at his own timing and his own pace, sometimes surprising others by starting 'Oha..Oha..Ohayou...' so abruptly in a thundering voice.

It also took him some time to finish saying his morning greetings, for he went 'Oha..Oha..Ohayou...go..go..gozai...ma........' with an unpredictable interval between this short word of greeting.

Sometimes his greeting stopped at the 'ma' part, not being able to reach the last 'su' part for minutes. Meanwhile we just stood there waiting untill he finished... .

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I've asked the staff there, how long has Y kept everyone waiting at most, and the staff told me that he had established a record of 30 minutes(!!) at most.

Wow...30 minutes is quite long, you know. I think it's amazing that the people around him had been so patient, but I think it even more amazing that Y had made them to wait that long.

However, there are times when Y can't finish the greetings on his own. I don't know why but sometimes he stops right in the middle of his greetings, and never reaches the end.

Then what exactly would happen, if he is not able to finish his greetings by himself?

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar