Monday 25 July 2011

Workers at Fukushima Plant Report Harsh Conditions

Introducing Myself on Video & An Interesting Debate on Nuclear Power

I wanted to bring to your attention the podcast Badcommunication ran by Andrew Hawkins and Hiroki Matsuuchi, and their website is Bad Communication.  They run a podcast every Monday and are pretty cool. They also have a YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/BCPodcast and it swell worth a look.  Here is me on introducing them (not that they need it) followed by them:














Saturday 23 July 2011

News Saturday 23rd July 2011


With the terrible gun & bomb attack in Norway - 85 people killed at the time of writing this, it has been difficult to find out what's going on in Japan, but here are a couple of things.

Reuter reports an earthquake with a "preliminary magnitude of 6.5 hit northeastern Japan on Saturday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said the epicenter of the earthquake was off the Pacific coast of Miyagi prefecture, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) from the capital Tokyo, adding that no tsunami warning had been issued and no reports of damage. " Reuters Report

Kyodo News reports that  "Todaiji temple, part of a World Heritage site in the ancient Japanese capital of Nara, western Japan, will open a museum in the fall  exhibiting its Buddhist statues and other artworks.The museum will comprise of a five-room exhibition floor of about 600 square meters will open Oct. 10 in the temple's cultural center facility near the Great Buddha hall, the temple said Thursday. The main exhibits will include statues of sunlight bodhisattva, moonlight bodhisattva and Fuku Kenjaku Kannon bodhisattva.     
'
'I believe the museum will help visitors realize the charms of Nara, as the cultural base to promote Todaiji temple,'' said Kosei Morimoto, a Todaiji priest and director of the cultural center.
     
The admission fee is set at 500 yen for adults and 300 yen for elementary school students." Kyodo Report

On a personal note, I do envy you guys in Japan, I've been to Todaiji, it is beautiful.

Friday 22 July 2011

The Difficulty in Finding News on Japan

There are so many things going on in the world. Recently in Oslo, there has been a terrible attack, we do do not know at the time of writing this how it occured. Because of so many news stories such as 'phone hacking' in the UK and Oslo, it has been difficult today to find news about Japan.

NHK World Snapshot

I like NHK, I love their Taiga dramas & wish we could get them in the UK.  I understand there is one about the wife of the 2nd Tokugawa Shogun on this year.  At such times I turn to these guys, who give a podcast from Japan:

Bad Communication

They are really cool.


About Me & This Blog

Hello there. I decided to start this blog to keep news stories about Japan after the Great North Eastern Earthquake alive and available to interested parties whose native language is English. If anyone one is curious, the title of the blog comes from Japanese history, it was the name given by the Japanese people to the American ships commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry as the Tokugawa Shogunate ended. Of course I have no interest in 'invading' Japan merely reporting on it!

Every week or so I will give a summary of news using Japanese newspapers and will present them in form of an article and maybe, if possible podcasts. For this first post, I just wish to pass on the good news, reported by 'The Epoch Times' that the Fukushima plant is one step closer to shut down, although much work needs to be done before cold shutdown is possible.

Pleas see http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/world/fukushima-plant-progresses-toward-shutdown-59347.html