Supermoon over Kyoto, Perseid meteors all month

Supermoon over Kyoto. (Photo: Robert Yellin) 

Sherry Nakanishi: "Music vs Militarism: OKINAWA"

"Music vs Militarism: OKINAWA" by BY SHERRY NAKANISHI

In total, 150,000 Okinawans died during the final battles of the Second World War, a third of the civilian population. The number exceeded the total of American and Japanese dead during the same period.

Things start off quite innocently. I receive two tickets from a colleague at school. On them is printed “Okinawa LIVE.” On the appointed day I arrive at the venue, Higashi Honganji, a large Buddhist temple in midtown Kyoto.

My husband, child, and I cross the vast pigeon-thronged gravel spaces of the temple precincts, reach the correct hall and are greeted warmly by monks...

The auditorium is large, and filled. Hundreds upon hundreds of people have come to hear the Okinawan message. On center stage, a man stands alone, holding a sanshin, the traditional Okinawa three-stringed instrument. “We can only fight through our music, it is all we have,” he says. And an hour and a half passes by as the truth of Okinawa’s recent history spills out, accompanied by intermittent notes played on the sanshin — sounds of nodding agreement.

The speaker is Chibana Shoichi, an Okinawan. Labelled an “anti-base activist” by Time Magazine [April/May 1997], perhaps he is more of a peace activist; one who out of love tries to protect the children, the people, the land, and the sea from being misused and ill-treated....

In ancient times Okinawa was independent, and known as Ryukyu Onkaku, the Ryukyu Kingdom. Before being annexed by Japan in 1865 this peaceful kingdom had no army. Looking into Ma-chan’s youthful face, I recall Chibana telling me how young Okinawans are picking up the traditional instruments, shamisen , jamisen, and sanshin, and proudly carrying on their culture. Okinawa has remained connected with its ancestral soul through its music, and this is how it has responded to an unimaginable military onslaught — with songs that are the spiritual poetry of peace, prayers for nature and for people.

We bow again, he departs; I am left holding the hope of Okinawa — the ancient teaching of the sanshin, the music and song of Okinawa; its gift to the people of Honshu, and the world.

I have a friend in Kyoto, a former soldier whose mind remains disturbed by his intensive military training. He knows he’s crazy, and travels the world sporadically, soul- searching for the truth. I tell him what I have learned about Okinawa, and ask for his response. He says:

This — as all things —
does not exist to be changed,
but for us to change.

His words send a shiver through me.
“I didn’t say it — it came from up there,” he says, pointing to the sky.

Read this rest of Sherry Nakanishi's beautiful essay at Kyoto Journal.

Edenwalkers' Akiko Morita finds her purpose in a Kyoto garden: KyotoBloggers session June 18th

"I have a secret for you. Whatever you want to be, you CAN be...you [just] have to be ready right now. Not tomorrow, not later, but right now."- photographer Akiko Morita (right) 

Edenwakers' Akiko Morita shared her story at the June 18th Kyoto Bloggers event graciously hosted by Impact HUB Kyoto. In her previous life she worked as a sociologist at a British university, but decided to return to Japan after a 12 year absence after developing a pressing need to transmit knowledge of Japanese gardens throughout the world.

When she lived in the UK, she loved visiting English gardens and thought there was nothing better in the world. After a quick trip home, and an off-chance visit to a Japanese garden in Kyoto, her life completely changed.

"I was touched by the beauty of Japanese gardens, even though I really had no expectations about them. I was so moved that I decided I would return to Japan and dedicate myself to sharing their beauty with everyone."

Borrowing her friend's camera, and not really knowing how to operate it properly, she started taking her first photos of Japanese gardens in Kyoto. She explained that it was so obvious she was an amateur that professional photographers would come up to her trying to help her as she fumbled with the different camera settings. She eventually bought her own camera and ONE lens, and started reading up on photography. One book made something click in her mind. The author explained how professional photographers, when asked about photos for sale, would quickly be able to procure a list of their work, while amateurs always say "when I get better." She decided to embrace her passion and her new field, and BE a real photographer.

"I have a secret for you. Whatever you want to be, you CAN be...you [just] have to be ready right now. Not tomorrow, not later, but right now."

She also built her own website, Edenwalkers:

"I chose to use the metaphor for Eden for my site because when people encounter each other in gardens, they share smiles, start talking to each other even though they may have never met. They share love and a great and wonderful feeling- gardens are a place that makes anyone become open and free. Garden walkers are actually Eden walkers."

A year and half later, she proudly calls herself a professional photographer (Flickr photos here) and hopes to inspire people to BE who they want to BE. Next week she will be in Australia for a training workshop and then will be touring 90 spots around Japan taking photos on behalf of a client.

Lisa Allen (left) listens attentively to Akiko Morita's (center) story of personal transformation 

Morita was joined by other Kyoto-based bloggers at the event who spoke about their own blogs and projects. Global Communications Coordinator Lisa Yamashita Allen (photography log) introduced the Kyoto Impact Hub emphasising how community has kept the creative energy of the space alive.

Hugo Kempeneer of Kyoto and Nara Dream Trips (http://www.kyotodreamtrips.com/ ) spoke of his yearning to discover and detail locations very much off the beaten path.

Michael Lambe and Ted Taylor elaborated on their newest publication, Deep Kyoto: Walks, and the process of developing the compilation of meditative walks (occasionally hikes, occasionally pub crawls) around Kyoto. The e-book, perfect for carrying around on your smart phone while taking an introspective walk, is available here. Ted gave a reading from "Across Purple Fields," one of the introspective walks in the book. To read the segment yourself, check out the Deep Kyoto page, or watch a video of the reading itself!

And finally- big props to the caterer, Wakako, from Obento Waka for the delicious and healthy vegetarian dinner!

- Written by Jen Teeter

Green Action briefing from Kyoto: Nuclear accident evacuation planning in central Japan

Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action, a Kyoto-based nuclear-free advocacy organization, speaks about nuclear power accident emergency planning in central Japan. Plans call for the evacuation of more than a quarter million people to sites such as Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.

Green Action: Japanese citizens sue, saying "No!" to restart of nuclear power in Japan

Instead of moving forward and focusing on the development of better energy conservation methods and renewable energy, Japan, under the Abe administration, is going backward.  Japanese energy companies, the second highest importers of coal in the world after Chinese energy firms, are spending billions of dollars on new coal-fired plants.  Moreover, the Abe administration has aggressively promoted the export of nuclear plants overseas and is now pushing for the restart of nuclear plants in Japan, despite the opposition of the majority of citizens.

Our friends at Green Action, a Kyoto-based nuclear-free advocacy organization led by Eileen Mioko Smith, recently released this video press statement about their legal action to stop the restart:

On March 20th 2014, Japanese citizens gathered at the Osaka District Courthouse at the final session of the injunction lawsuit (filed in 2012) against the restart of Fukui Prefecture's Ohi nuclear reactors units 3 and 4.

Currently all nuclear reactors in Japan have been temporarily shut down following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011. However, Japanese electric utilities have 17 applications in to restart reactors. The Ohi reactors are among the first slated for restart. The litigants are seeking that the courts address three main issues:

1) underestimation of earthquake impact on the reactors

2) no method of preventing radioactive discharge into the ocean in the event of a serious accident

3) not taking into consideration an active fault very near the emergency coolant pipe, or faults moving simultaneously near the reactor site.

(Note: Past earthquake examples show that Japanese earthquakes produce greater seismic motion with the same AREA of earthquake fault shifting than foreign earthquakes.)

Vernal Equinox in Kyoto: Weeping Plum Blossoms at Jonangu Shrine

Looking for images of Spring Equinox in Kyoto, and these are the most beautiful: Deep Kyoto's stunning set of photos of weeping plum in full bloom at Jonangu Shrine.

How Gary Snyder's and Daniel Ellsberg's chance meeting in Kyoto in 1960 changed them and world history...

Ryoanji stone garden, Kyoto (Photo: The Kyoto Project)

In The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, Donald Rothberg suggests that change is mysterious and always possible, illustrating his point by relating an encounter between poet Gary Snyder and Daniel Ellsberg in Kyoto.  This chance meeting influenced the latter's decision to release the Pentagon Papers to the media, with the hope it would speed the end of the Vietnam War:

Daniel Ellsberg tells the story of meeting activist, poet, and Zen practitioner Gary Snyder by chance at a bar near the Zen monastery of Ryoanji in Kyoto, Japan, in 1960. Ellsberg was living in Tokyo, working on nuclear weapons policy for the Office of Naval Research, through the Rand Corporation.  Snyder was then midway through a nearly ten-year period of Zen practice, staying at or near Zen monasteries for the bulk of that time.

Ellsberg had gone to see the Zen garden at Ryoanji because he had read about it in Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums in which Snyder was the lightly fictionalized major figure.

The impact and memory of Ellsberg's conversations with Snyder at the bar and the next day at Snyder's cottage, Ellsberg later reported, played a significant role in his later decision, some nine years later, to divulge the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of the planning of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg's action was a major contribution to the turn against the war in public opinion and political discussions in the United States.

Gary Snyder on the porch of 
Shoden-ji Rinzai temple, Kyoto.

(Photo: Terebess.hu)

Daniel Ellsberg in Vietnam (4 years after meeting Gary Snyder; 

5 years before he released The Pentagon Papers). 

(Photo: Daniel and Patricia Ellsberg) 

More about Daniel Ellsberg's shift in awareness (and advice to peace builders, and thoughts on Gary Snyder) in this 2006 interview at Busted Halo:

 I’d like peoples’ consciences to be re-thought and reshaped as much as possible to adopt new norms of nonviolence and truthfulness and that’s a fairly revolutionary change in awareness and specifically in conscience for many people...

Learning from people who have already had that conversion is very helpful. In my case, it was crucial for me to meet people who were of that mind and who were going to prison rather than to take part at all in what they saw as a wrongful war...So I think that courage is contagious and coming into contact or exposing yourself to people who are taking those risks is very helpful and a first step toward doing it yourself... And doing the reading, readings like Joan Valerie Bondurant’s Conquest of Violence, for example, on Gandhian theory, Gandhi himself or Barbara Deming...

You know, the difference that I see between Gandhi and Gandhi’s thought in Buddhism is that there is a very explicit activist theme to Gandhi in which the idea of organized nonviolent civil disobedience in particular but withdrawal of support and even obstruction of wrongful activities are a major factor. And there is a strain of what is called Engaged Buddhism that Joanna Macy and Gary Snyder and others have been prominent in and my wife is attracted to. But that is just one way of being Buddhist and in general, the teachings didn’t point toward organized activity, mass activity, dedicated to changing processes in society or wrongdoing in society. It had more of an emphasis on inward transformation rather than transformation of a society.

---

Daniel Ellsberg's website: http://www.ellsberg.net/

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers: http://www.mostdangerousman.org/

Daniel Ellsberg: Secrets: Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers: http://www.uctv.tv/shows/Daniel-Ellsberg-Secrets-Vietnam-and-the-Pentagon-Papers-7033

-JD

Stories from the spirit world and heart of Ainumosir @ Sakaimachi Garow, Kyoto - February 22, 2014

Ainu Art Project founder, artist and storyteller Yuki Koji will be in Kyoto for the first time in years to share his new hanga (woodblock prints) and stories from the world of the spirits. Nagane Aki will also be performing on the mukkuri and tonkori and tea and snacks will come with entry. **English translation not available.

Stories from the spirit world and heart of Ainumosir (note the play on words in the Japanese title!)

2/22 (Saturday) 15:00 doors open 15:30 event starts
Location: Sakaimachi Garow (http://sakaimachi-garow.com/blog/?page_id=110)
Nearest station: Karasuma Oike
Entrance fee: 2800円（with reservation 2500円）

For more information contact: information@sakaimachi-garow.com

Deep Kyoto: "Taking my time getting to work this morning (in snowy Kyoto)"

Nishi-Honganji, Western Temple of the Original Vow," 
one of two Jōdo Shinshu (Pure Land Buddhist) temple complexes in Kyoto.
(This & more beautiful photos of Kyoto in the morning snow: Deep Kyoto)

John Einarsen: Waking up to snow in Kyoto...

John Einarsen, Kyoto Journal founding editor:

Waking up to snow in Kyoto is one of the best things in life. It is an event, an occasion when the world is totally transformed...

Here is one of my favorite Kyoto spots in the snow—Nanzenji

Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate - A transcendent journey in poems and photographs to Japan's ancient capital

A few years ago, when I received the chapbook incarnation of Edith Schiffert's and John Einarsen's Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate, I felt like I had been surprised by a dream of the ancient capital in the mail.  A new incarnation of this luminous book has been launched; with an IndieGoGo campaign to finance publishing costs. They are asking Kyoto lovers to help support and be a part of this beautiful project (JD):

                                                  Resting on the earth

                                                  who needs satori or faith?

                                                  Embrace what holds you!


Imagine a book enfolding some of the best expat poetry and photography of the 1200-year-old city of Kyoto, cultural and spiritual heart of Japan. For five decades Edith Shiffert, now age 97, has written haiku and poems inspired by the ancient capital. John Einarsen has been making striking yet serene photographs of Kyoto for more than three decades.

Now Edith and John share their vision and love of this magical city with the book Kyoto: The Forest Within the Gate (144 pp, more than 100 duotone photographs and 30 poems). In addition, three renowned writers on Japanese culture, Marc P. Keane, Diane Durston and Takeda Yoshifumi, have contributed illuminating essays. Rona Conti's calligraphy is yet another treat for the eyes.

We plan to publish an edition of this singular book. Its design is complete to the last detail, but for this first edition to go to print we need your help.

Take this transcendent journey to Kyoto by contributing today. All donations are warmly appreciated. Those giving $60 or more will receive a signed edition of this remarkable book.

Fireflies

Have to share this magical photo of fireflies 

taken by KJ's amazing web designer, Rick Elizaga!

For more of KJ, visit  Kyotojournal.org

Kyoto Journal is Back, with New Digital Issue

Via our friends and colleagues at KJ:

Kyoto Journal is Back, with New Digital Issue

With release of our 77th issue, the long-established all-volunteer-based Kyoto Journal is back in production!

Our transition from print to digital publication (and a total rebuild of our website) has been a challenging and time-consuming process. This issue puts KJ finally back on track as a quarterly melding of wide-ranging “insights from Asia,” noted for long-shelf-life content and distinctive design (now iPad-friendly too!)

Based in Kyoto, KJ’s network of contributors extends far afield: the 22 articles in this issue of over 200 pages take readers beyond the ancient capital to Hiroshima, Tokyo and Fukushima, to Korea, China, Nepal, Tibet, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, delving into film and fiction, poetry, “off-the-beaten-track” travels, craft and calligraphy, architectural and archaeological investigations, yoga, post-disaster initiatives, and an informative reviews section.

Featured articles include:

• “Strong Children,” on a post-quake Tohoku support project, by Geoff Read

• “Engineering the Japanese Islands,” an interview with environmental historian Brett Walker, by Winifred Bird

• “Contested Terrain: Development, Identity and the Destruction of an Ancient City in Afghanistan,” a first-hand report by Isaac Blacksin

• “Between Darkness and Light: Reflections on Hindu India,” by Vinayak Bharne

• “Okamoto Taro; Nuclear Proliferation, and the “Myth of Tomorrow,” by Donald C. Wood and Akiko Takahashi“

• Tsa’lam: the Nomadic Route of Salt,” a yak-trail traced by expeditioner Jeff Fuchs

• Illuminating profiles of contemporary filmmakers Amar Kanwar, Koreeda Hirokazu, and Asoka Handagama

KJ was highly fortunate to have been supported by Heian Bunka Center from 1986 – 2010. The magazine is now a fully independent non-profit. Our next concern is to expand our subscriber base. Bandwidth and monthly charges for digital publication webtools aren’t cheap; we need to cover ongoing production expenses, hoping also to produce occasional specially-themed publications in print. Without a sponsor, we now depend on our readers — the KJ community — for vital support.

KJ is not a business. Neither staff nor contributors receive any payment.  We believe that KJ fulfils an important role as a place for non-mainstream material that digs deeper into the fertile soil of Asian experience. With the new potential of our website and digital format, we are eager to see KJ’s ongoing evolution, and to welcome new readers and subscribers.

Downloads of individual issues cost 1,200 yen (US$12.50). A full year’s subscription (4 issues) is an affordable 4,000 yen (about US$42). Check out our sampler of 77, and please sign up (or take out a gift subscription!), to help us keep on producing KJ.

We also have a newsletter – please sign up on our homepage and receive a full-length download of a classic issue, KJ 73, for free.



Visit the KJ website for more: http://kyotojournal.org/

Noh Workshop @ HUB Kyoto, where things appear and disappear

"Is it comfortable? Good, it shouldn't be!"

Noh means skill, noh means talent.humorous Dr. Diego Pellecchia reminded us of an often overlooked definition- possibility! Last Sunday, Diego led a workshop at  Kyohakuin, the venue for the HUB Kyoto initiative to bring change makers together in one place. Indeed, in a gorgeous venue with such a rich history, the possibilites truely are endless.

Originally the residence of a Nanga (Chinese literati style) painter in the Meiji era, HUB founding member Lucinda Cowing explained that following the Second World War, Kyohakuin became a finishing school for girls. Here, they were trained in the traditional arts, including tea ceremony and calligraphy, but also Noh theatre. Hence it is believed that the recently-restored Noh stage was built during this period.

Diego started the session by describing how he first began exploring his possibilities with Noh when he met Monique Arnaud in his home of Italy in 2006. After taking Noh classes from her there, he decided to pursue a PhD focusing on the reception of Noh theatre in Europe at the Royal Holloway University of London,  Drama, and Theatre Department.

Currently he is a student of Kongo school of Noh at the International Noh Institute in Kyoto. He also is a researcher at Ritsumeikan University and gives Noh workshops internationally. This workshop was his first in Japan.

For some of the participants, it was their first experience with Noh.  Others like former dancer Julien de Vries, used to watch Noh every Sunday at midnight on NHK. Another participant/observer was photographer Stéphane Barbery who took some stunning photos of the workshop that are available here.

Before moving on to Noh chanting and Noh movements, Diego explained how Noh represents the potential for things to happen. Noh starts with an empty stage. Things appear- the music, the masks, the costumes, the dances, the chants. When the performance is over- they disappear. Diego reminded the workshop participants to keep this in mind as they tested themselves at becoming one with the Noh chanting and movements.

"Noh is like a mirror- it is honest, it reflects."

The workshop focused on a shimai, a self-contained unit of a full Noh performance, entitled Oi Matsu, the Ancient Pine.  Oimatsu is the first shimai that Diego ever learned. It depicts how the protagonist Sugawara Michizane, after being expelled to Chikuzen, Kyushu from Kyoto, would long for days of old.  He reminisces on the plum and ancient pine trees that used to adorn his courtyard in the capital when the next day they appear to him in his Kyushu residence.  Click here for a synopsis of the entire play.

According to the Samurai Archives:

Oimatsu, literally "old pine tree," is an auspicious Noh play depicting, symbolically, an old pine tree. In this play, as throughout Noh and other theatrical and artistic traditions, the pine represents longevity and strength, especially through difficulties, as the pine is evergreen through the winter.

The participants would become the traveling ancient pine tree.

After leading the participants through the chants for the shimai, Diego explained how the performers, no matter what their size, would form a strong skeleton for the large and heavy Noh costumes that they would wear should they perform. The masks would block a large part of their vision— it's normal to be restricted to one eyehole, and not be able to see one's toes —they  so Noh performers must know the stage like the back of their hand. This also is why Noh performers seem to move as if they are sliding across the stage. Diego guided the workshop participants through the movements in their new skeletons.

"Focus on reproducing a beautiful shaper. You are now an old pine visiting from Tokyo to Kyushu."

All of the participants, experiencing Noh as performers for the first time, took a while to feel comfortable with the movements and chanting, which although steming back from 650 years ago, were very new to them.  It is no wonder that Noh performances take years of dedicated training to perfect the simple yet very technical movements.

Diego ended the workshop saying, " When you see a Noh performance, I am sure that you will think of it differently."
  
For those who missed this workshop, there will be more to come and Diego will be appearing for the first time as the shite lead role in a full production of a Noh play at the bi-annual International Noh Institute performance on June 29th, 2013. 

-Posted by Jen Teeter

Cherry Blossom Tree at Night at Tazoin Zen Buddhist Temple in Kyoto

Photo: Taizoin Zen Buddhist Temple on FB 

Cactus Brothers performance: "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb" @ Kyoto - Jan 13 & 14, 2013

CACTUS BROTHERS is performing "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb"  原爆の影  at the Kyoto Prefectural Center for Arts and Culture (on Kawaramachi across from Kyoto Furitsu Hospital) this Sunday, Jan. 13 1800 and on Monday, Jan. 14 1000. 

 "Shadows of the Atomic Bomb" 原爆の影 is a satire on the US military establishment and its nuclear program.

The play is FREE.

FRYING DUTCHMAN special no nukes performance and talk by Toshiya Morita in Kyoto Dec 12th

Travel route of radiation from Fukushima
shared by Toshiya Morita and available here

During the parliamentary elections, the Frying Dutchman, a dance-rock band known for its outspoken stance against nuclear power, gave a special performance at Bukkyo University in Kyoto tonight. Following, writer Toshiya Morita who has been covering the nuclear accident since March 11, 2011, spoke to the need for everyone to be prepared for another nuclear disaster.

The Frying Dutchman became popular throughout Japan after their post-disaster performance of "Human Error" at Sanjo Bridge, a popular gathering spot in Kyoto. "Human Error" details the fallacies of nuclear power, the process by which the nuclear industry has tricked the public, and the tireless efforts of the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. Their set opened with this song:

Genpatsu Iranai!
No more nuclear power!
(Applause)

Dondondondondon Koe ageyou ze!
Keep raising and raising and raising your voices!
(Applause)

Ai wo komete FUCK YOU!
With love FUCK YOU!
(APPLAUSE)

Koe wo ageyou!
Koe wo agete minna de tomerushikanaize!
Raise your voices, raise your voices-
all we can do join forces to stop nuclear power!
(APPLAUSE)

Okashii da ze! Okashii da ze!
It's not right! It's not right!

(Applause)

Okane yori motto daiji no aru yo ne!
There are things more important than money!

(Applause)
Wasureta ha ikenai ne!
We can't forget!
 (APPLAUSE)

Shizen enerugi minna dashite ikou!
Everyone, let's all use natural energy!
(APPLAUSE)

Minna de koe wo agemashypu!
Enryou nakute koe agemashyou!
(APPLAUSE)

Nani ga daiji ka saikakunin shiyou ze!!

Ai!
Love!
(AI)

Ai!
Love!
(AI)

AI!
Love!
(AI)

AI
LOVE
(AI)

Genpatsu ha hitsuyou nai!
We don't need to nuclear power!
(APPLAUSE!!)

Genpatsu hantai!
(APPLAUSE!!)

For the full English and Japanese lyrics of "Human Error" check the FRYING DUTCHMAN website. Despite the ongoing nuclear disaster, there are still political parties that promote the continued use of nuclear power, do not discourage its use, or do not even discuss nuclear power in their platform. The FRYING DUTCHMAN may have power to convince people to vote against nuclear power.

The FRYING DUTCHMAN will also be one of many performers at the Nuclear Free Now! Conference in Tokyo on the 15th of December from 3:30-5pm at the Hibiya Outdoor Music Hall.

Following the performance, which was more raging than a dance hall, Toshiya Morita urged the audience to develop an exit strategy well before a nuclear disaster strikes, pointing out that Kyoto is within the exclusion zone for a nuclear disaster, only 60 kilometers from the Ohi nuclear reactor.

"My wife and I have planned to meet at Kyoto station should their be a nuclear accident. That way we can both meet and get on the bullet train immediately. If trains are not running, like after Fukushima, then we have a plan for which bus to take....By the way, who were the first people to leave Fukushima after the disaster? The family members of the workers at Tokyo Electric who controlled the reactor because they already knew how to evacuate in the event of a nuclear disaster." 

Regardless of stance on nuclear power, he urged the audience to not only prepare an evacuation strategy for themselves, but to be prepared to accept evacuees emphasizing the impossibility of depending only on the government. Next he discussed how radiation has flowed from Fukushima along the paths of major roads and trains tracks contaminating major cities throughout Eastern Japan. Osaka and Kyoto have also been contaminated through food coming in from contaminated regions.

Although the accident of four nuclear reactors of the Fukushima nuclear power plant has not been converged, 
the athletic meet of spring of an elementary school is being held in Fukushima. The children who do play 
ball and race have to do a mask so that the dust of radioactivity may not be inhaled. May 2002

He also noted how parents and children have not been vigilant in ensuring children are wearing masks to prevent the inhalation of radiation contaminated dust. He pointed out how the child to the left of the picture was clearly not wearing a mask properly during an outdoor Sports Day event, and showed other photos of unmasked children, or children that did not cover their noses with the masks.

Finally, he shared the advice of Dr. Shintaro Hida, a doctor who entered Hiroshima immediately after the U.S. government dropped the nuclear bomb over the city. Also, receiving radiation poisoning himself, he studied how radiation changed the lives of over 6000 people. He asked the oldest living survivors of the bombing how they lived so long, and they most common answer was "by not overeating."

In the end, he reminded us that the people in Fukushima are fighting harder than anyone now in Japan to get rid of nuclear power. It is because of their courage and determination that we have come this far.

- Posted by Jen Teeter

KJ Fresh Currents: Ongoing Friday Nuclear-Free Protests in Kyoto & Osaka

Via KJ Fresh Currents:

The Japanese government's commitment to a zero nuclear future is a significant step forward, but their ill-defined and somewhat distant deadline (sometime in the 2030s), and contradictory commitment to maintain the reprocessing program at Rokkasho cannot satisfy those who have been protesting each Friday since the controversial restarts in Fukui. The anti-nuclear movement has gained ground this week, but protests will continue until all the nuclear facilities are shut down for good. Here are the details for the Friday protests in Kansai (same time every week).

＊＊＊ PLEASE SHARE ＊＊＊

Kyoto 17:00-19:00
Outside Kanden Kyoto
https://plus.google.com/101615694937780488930/about?hl=en

Osaka 18:00-19:30
Outside Kanden
https://plus.google.com/101315689952581452988/about?hl=en

日本語での詳細はここで見つけることができます...
京都
http://ameblo.jp/harinaosu/
大阪
http://twitnonukes.blogspot.jp/
よろしくお願いします

Renowned nuclear-free activist Arnie Gundersen speaks in Kyoto tonight

Arnie Gundersen will be speaking at Heartopia in Kyoto tomorrow night (Monday, September 3rd). See the full-sized pdf of the flyer above.
LESSONS FROM FUKUSHIMA
What all involved in nuclear power must learn from the Fukushima Daiichi accident.
Lecture and Q&A in English, with Japanese translation.
Arnie Gundersen has 40-years of nuclear power engineering experience. He attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he earned his Bachelor Degree cum laude while also becoming the recipient of a prestigious Atomic Energy Commission Fellowship for his Master Degree in nuclear engineering.
Arnie holds a nuclear safety patent, was a licensed reactor operator, and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president. During his nuclear power industry career, Arnie also managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants in the US. Arnie is the chief engineer for Fairewinds Associates, Inc.
Date & Time: Monday September 3rd: 18:00~20:45 at Heartopia Kyoto
Entry: 500 yen (students: 300 yen)
Children under junior high age free
NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY!
Directions: Heartopia is just a minute walk from Marutamachi Station on Subway Karasuma Line (which you can take from JR Kyoto Station). From Kyoto station the train will take approximately 7 minutes / is 4 stops. Just go out from Exit #5 of Marutamachi station, and you will be standing just below the building of Heartopia Kyoto. Take the Heartopia Kyoto elevator to the 3rd floor. Here is a map.

Deep Kyoto is a reliable source of important event (and dining!) information for those in the Kyoto area. Rather than reinvent the wheel, we are reposting DK's post on this critical event tonight. See you there!- Jen

Obon, Kyoto: "The Rafts of Spirits"

Beautiful video short from Studio Red Dot...