We had a couple of big tremours today. One about ten in the morning and the other at half past four. The one in the afternoon was closer (off the Fukushima coast) and magnitude 5.2, so force 3 or 4 in the office. The big cracks on the stairs were definitely wider after the shocks. I have a plasterer coming in next week as I thought we were over the worst. I'll be upset if we get more cracks after the work's done.
Spent a good part of the day trying to decide whether to get in touch with our lawyer about claims for payment of goods not delivered to several kamaboko (fish sausage) producers which were swept away by the tsunami in Iwaki. Actually it's nothing to do with us. Our boxes go through two wholesalers and we didn't supply after the quake. We did make 4,000 cases on March 11th but they were never delivered and are still sitting here. In the end it seems it's going to be sorted out further down the line but people are losing money and it's not pretty.
Another hot day. It's getting too hot to walk to work so I've gone over to summer mode - I bike into work - much cooler. As I biked back tonight I heard that summer sound: frogs. You wouldn't think there would be frogs in the middle of town but there's some disused land near the railway tracks which must be home to a lot of frogs. Quite loud. Meanwhile, Fukushima city has announced there will be no swimming in school swimming pools this summer. And according to the news, the shops are full of long-sleeved clothing. What a life.
And now let me introduce you to GReeeeN (sic). This is a pop group that's been going a few years - first hit was Kiseki (Miracle 2008, six weeks at No.1). They're good and have a song you can download for free (see link below) that they wrote in support of and to cheer up the victims of the disaster. It's much better than the 'I love you baby, Fukushima' song I mentioned a while back.
I first heard about them last summer and the interesting thing is that they're anonymous (you never see their faces) and a bunch of dentists from Koriyama! None of their patients would take them seriously if they knew they were musicians! Maybe I'm reading too much into this but this is a very conservative area and to be seen to have outside interests does not go down well. Renaissance man has not arrived here. Whatever you do, you have to give it 100%. Otherwise you wouldn't be taken seriously. Likewise, my blog, and my books are my secret. It would do me no good to be seen to be digressing one moment from my heavy responsiblities. (On the other hand, serious dedication and quiet singlemindedness are just the qualities needed to cope in this disaster.) BTW another piece of trivia regarding GReeeeN is that some of them used their knowledge as dentists to help identify victims of the disaster. So after all that, here's the song. It's got translatons in several languages and they're collecting photos too if you want to join in.
Good night,
Anne
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