"Obon" and the memorial days of World War ll

August is a special month in Japan.
Many people go back to their home towns in tolerance with heavily crowded transportation and stay with their families and friends around 15th of August.
For many Japanese people, this period is one of the longest vacations in a year.
We call this period " Obon", literally meaning a tray or a container carrying dishes and glasses filled with offerings on, then "Obon" has been symbolized the activities to welcome the spirits of ancestors in their family.

"Shoryu-Uma",  Katori city, Japan

"Torou-Nagashi", photo by Miki Yoshihito

These two pictures are typical events in Obon period; the upper picture is "Shoryu-Uma", meaning the horses and the cows for the spirits to move around during the "Obon" period.
The lower one is "Torou-Nagashi", a lantern ship to seeing off the spirits back to their places after "Obon" period.

"Obon" is a traditional and religious event, in addition to this, 15th of August has another aspect: one of the most important memorial day for Japanese and other countries, such as the anniversary of the end of the Pacific War (World War ll), even though it is not a national holiday.

Not only 15th of August, 6th is an Atomic Bomb Anniversary of Hiroshima, and 9th is that of Nagasaki.

Atomic Bomb Dome, Hiroshima
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
/media/File:Genbaku_Dome04-r.JPG

Atomic cloud over Nagasaki, 15 minutes later
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
/media/File:Atomic_cloud_over_Nagasaki_from_Koyagi-jima.jpeg

My question is why Japan did not quit the war before Atomic bomb attacks.

Before August, Japan had already got catastrophic damages at urban areas such as Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and many cities, moreover, met the US troops at Okinawa and resulted in the crushing defeat.

However, the termination of war seemed untouchable and it was difficult to speak up the termination for governors by sensing the mood in the Japanese government at that time.

We need to figure out what types of group dynamics let the military and government not decide to finish the war.

If we understand this dynamics of the hesitation to speak up whatever opinions against the mood are, I hope we will prevent Japan from repeating the bad decisions on the war; in other words, we may figure out other solutions besides the war.  Moreover, we can provide with the universal solutions for the peace over the world.

Japanese Garden

This picture shows a traditional Japanese garden, decorating trees, stone lanterns and big stones and pebbles, lying looking like a river with a stone bridge.  
The upper picture shows the whole view, and the lower shows the detail around the stone bridge.

The Bonsai has a similarity to the traditional Japanese style garden, in the sense of the shapes of trees and the allocation of stones with moss.

Stones and pebbles prevent from weed's growing, but in the hot summer day like this year, wild weeds are very active and let us make a lot of efforts to pick them off.

                            

Traditional Japanese Tea

This is a bowl of green tea, traditional Japanese tea.

We use several scoops of tea powder and stir the tea with bamboo-made whisk.

Usually, a green tea is for a tea ceremony with strict manners, but my grandmother used to drink it everyday at home without such manners.

I learned  only how to make it through her and now it is one of my favorite drinks.

Unfortunately, I don't know the traditional manners, I can't join a tea ceremony but I can enjoy it.

Life Sustaining Treatment

My mother, 81 years old, ate a piece of bread that clogged her throat and made her stop breathing.  Then my dad and brother called an ambulance and this happened on the last Tuesday, June 16th..

She had been unconscious for 5 days and in a coma on her hospital bed at the CCU room and she started breathing without artificial ventilation on Saturday but  with very weak brain wave.

Fortunately she is still alive, but unconscious now due to cardiopulmonary resuscitation comprising of an artificial hydration and nutrition, intubation and mechanical ventilation.

The doctor recommended that she needs to be on a life sustaining treatment, such as Tracheotomy for airway management and Grastrostomy for nutrition.

My mother told us that she would not like to be under life sustain treatment and she wants to have a natural death.  She has been suffering from Parkinson's disease for 6 years and she knew that now it is her time.

Some articles revealed that the spirit of a comatose person leaves the body and float around the bed. This spirit hovers over the body and sees it from the birds view angle.
Unfortunately, I did not feel her spirit around her bed.  She is still alive and I will be looking for her spirit for a while.

Hydrangea in the wet season of Japan.

Hydrangea is a symbolical flower with the wet season in Japan.  June in Japan is usually wet in everywhere besides Hokkaido, the northern island in Japan.  This wet season is called "tsuyu", which literally means "Japanese plum (Ume) rain", but the relation between Japanese plum and rain is not clear.  Some people say it is the time for Japanese plum to ripen, but no evidences.

Regarding to the rainy season, we have two rainy seasons in Japan; one is the period from June to early July, the other is from the end of August to the beginning of October, the same time of typhoon attacking at Japan.

I say "wet season" instead of "rainy season", because I would like to distinguish with each other and this season is more wet and makes feel blue.

Italy Journey during the golden week

I visited Verona, Venice, and Florence in Italy during recent Golden Week.

This year is the 30th anniversary of marriage with my wife and we took longer vacation than usual.
This was the second time to visit Italy in 10 years. In the previous visit, I missed so many places to visit and things to do. In stead of latest vist, I have studied more about Italy and have learned some Italian phrases.

The reason why I chose Verona, Venice and Florence is because these cities have their own specific characteristics with tourism spots and activities. Nevertheless, they have a lot of historical heritages to be appreciated.

I stayed at an apartment in Verona, close to the House of Juliette, as in the drama of "Romeo and Juliette" by Shakespeare.  The House is not so gorgeous as the apartment where I stayed, but it is big enough to make us understand that the family was rich.

 The center building is the apartment where I stayed in Verona for two nights.

This is the living room of the apartment where I stayed.
The compartment is 3 bedrooms altogether and I used one room with old wooden door.

My room has this wall paint on the celling.

This is the House of Juliette and a tiny balcony is in the left.
Romeo might have climbed up the fence in the left.






It looks 3venues with 3 floors building.  It is made of block, neither of marbles nor limestones.  That means the family was not super rich.

This is the castle of Vecchio and is famous with the wall pictures

The next city is Venice and I will post it on the next post. (to be continued)

Children's Day

May 5th is Children's day, used to be a boy's festival, just like a girl's festival on March 3rd, to celebrate or wish children's growth and to thank for their mothers.

According to WikiPedia, a boy's festival seems to have begun 800 years ago to wish the family will be succeeded by sons.

(see http://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/端午/)

Many families decorate samurai armors as below; dedicating special rice cakes. There are two types: one is called "Kashiwamochi", covered with oak grass, and sweet mushed black beans- inside; the other is called "Chimaki", covered with bamboo grass.

For kids, it seems more fun to have snack time to eat "Kashiwamochi" and "Chimaki", especially for me.

The first photo is the full set of the decoration, and it is almost 2m height.

The photo below is the real samurai armors.

The left photo is a tiny decoration in my house.
This is located on a piano and just 30 cm height.