Still in Covid Mess2022/08/05

 Believe it or not, Japan is now the world's largest producer of new CIVUS-19 infections. So many people have been infected that JR and Nishitetsu have reduced the number of bus and train services.

 Postal services are generally delayed by 2-3 days. ...Japan is no longer Japan you might imagine.
 Surgeries and Hospitals have long been no-go spots. It feels better to put up with a little discomfort than getting infected with something troublesome in the waiting room.
 Thankfully, refuse collections, water, electricity and gas services are still working. But it could stop anytime if this keeps going.
 
As very usual, there have been no clear statements from the government or local authorities on this issue . All they say is: "we will closely monitor the situation" and "we will do our utmost efforts", which can be said even by me or a cat walking around. There are neither restrictions on anything, nor declarations saying "It's OK. Don't worry. You won't die from this virus, though everyone eventually die one day, anyway!" If there is nothing they can do, or they can't think of any measures at all, why not say so?  I wonder if it was like this in Japan at the end of the Second World War. Losing the grip on reality and letting a vast number of people to meaninglessly die...

 信じられない人も多いでしょうが、日本は今世界最大の新型コロナ新規感染者産出国です。余りにも感染者が多いため、JRと西鉄はバスや電車の便数を減らしています。
 郵便は大体、2~3日遅れで届くようになっています…日本は日本ではなくなりました。
 病院はとっくに行けなくなっています。待合室で待っている間に面倒くさいものをもらうよりは、ちょっとぐらい具合が悪い方がましだと思うからです。
 ありがたいことに、まだゴミの回収、水道や電気、ガスも止まっていません。

そして例によって、政府や自治体からは何の明確な発信がありません。いつものように「状態を注視する」「全力で取り組む」というばかりで、何かを制限したり、逆に「もういいよ。死にゃあしないし。ま、みんないずれ死ぬんだけどね!」という宣言もありません。手の打ちようがないなら、はっきりそう言ってもらった方がかえっていいような気もしますが、それもなし。第二次戦争末期の日本もこんな感じだったのかなあ。現実が見えなくなった挙句にものすごい人数を見殺し…。

Aging World2018/01/24

need a makeover
The consequence of public investments.
I have leant that if I possess something, I have to have enough money to maintain it. 

are you ok?
Is this just a crack? Structurally OK? Do we really need a new underground line leaving everyday facilities in this status?

Airing2016/05/26

free, fresh air

The roof of a dome stadium was partly open today. It looks comfortable taking in fresh air (with a quite bit of PM2.5 dust).

Floating Car2013/02/01


a public work

While I was taking a walk, I photographed tree pruning in a park.

After I got home I found the car was floating. ..

How can it be possible?

Did I happen to photograph something supernatural?

Frogs in a Construction Site2012/06/13


Why frogs?
Idols of the town.


As You Like It2012/03/16

meaningful?

The city hall has had this walking path redone. The path used to be a natural-looking (it is actually artificially made—how could you find a natural footpath on a reclaimed land?) unpaved footpath.  And now, it has three surfaces: yellow asphalt, stone-pavement, and existed well-draining, well-treaded-down (artificial) earth, to entertain your feet. If you prefer, a mushier, wetland-like surface is also available.

Like many other cities in this country, Fukuoka is very much in debt (1.7 million yen per a citizen).

 How long the city hall wants to spend our tax money (or our debt) on this kind of projects?  …Personally I don’t need such an entertaining pavement. I just wish bin bags became free (I was about to forget to tell you. Unless you put your rubbish in "official" bin bags that cost 450 yen for 10 bags, binmen will not take your rubbish away)!

Built with Guts!2011/12/19

wooden structure

The other day I visited a Western-style building built in 1910, less than 50 years after the end of Edo era during which Japan closed its door to foreign countries.

French Renaissance?

Despite that, this building looks very “west (the French-Renaissance style, according to the guide there)”,

Can I eat it?

using imported materials

Made in English (must be hugely expensive!))

and having high ceilings, and western-style bathrooms (How did people used this then? there was no boiler or water pipes at the time. The water supply system in Fukuoka began working in 1923!) .

No ventilating fac

Despite the somewhat frightening western looks (probably only for me), the interior felt somewhat Japanese-friendly. For example, the doorknobs were set at much lower position in proportion with the size of the doors,

Japanese-friendly position

No ventilating fan, too

and there was even a Japanese-style bath room which was much bigger than the one in my home.


As listening to the gentleman guiding the building as a volunteer, I learnt the building was in fact designed by a local engineer who didn’t study abroad. He must have studied hard through books and other learning materials without knowing how it would “feel” the “real” Western buildings, and designed this (and other culturally important buildings in this area) only with knowledge and guts.


This has nothing to do with this building, but having heard about the architect, I felt somehow encouraged to try to do translation between English and Japanese. If a Meiji person could do this job only with knowledge and guts and without knowing the real thing, maybe I don’t have to be ashamed of my “desk-top English”, getting nice marks at examinations but useless at supermarkets—as Antonio Inoki said “Guts can make anything happen!“(translated by me). …Sorry, I seem to have made a huge jump in logic, as usual.

Under the Motorway2010/11/24


Very much Fukuokan
There is a dry garden.
But, I haven't seen anyone relax here...the surface is too hard to sit on?