Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)

"The govt intends to demonstrate the soil, which retains low-level radioactivity, is suitable for public works projects and other purposes across Japan"
"Previous attempts in Tokyo and other areas to use the soil have been halted due to local opposition"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250527/p2g/00m/0na/060000c
🔸PR event for the next Gojira movie and/or next batch of nuclear power plants?
#Fukushima #NuclearWaste #Tokyo

Is That All There Is? · Peggy Lee

Vocalist: Peggy Lee
Conductor: Randy Newman
Producer, Composer Lyricist: Mike Stoller
Composer Lyricist, Producer: Jerry Leiber
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsXjKBZM74
🔸Recall listening to this on a late night BBC radio jazz programme as an undergrad so many years ago.

Replaced the thoroughly worn-out strap on a digital wristwatch with a new resin strap, but inadvertently attached the piece with the buckle below the watch display (i.e. 6 o'clock position on an analogue watch).
Only realised when attaching watch to wrist and finding it difficult to buckle up🙁
Prior to that, had fitted the buckle piece inside out.
So many ways to get it wrong!😢
#repair #replace

"The Federalist Papers describe the courts as the weakest link in the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of govt."
"The authority of the courts comes into effect only when society accepts the rulings issued by the courts as just. We will need to see... how well, if at all, the courts are able to maintain the rule of law and to uphold the [US] Constitution."
Assoc. Prof Ayako Hiramatsu, Center for Pacific and American Studies
https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/features/z0405_00030.html

Stumbled upon the Yamayasu Turnpike Store in Odawara, Kanagawa Pref., whilst　en route to the Suzuhiro Kamaboko Village.
Unusual architecture certainly did a good eye-catching job!
Stocked up on dried aji (アジ= Japanese horse mackerel) caught locally and American-sourced dried hokke (ホッケ=Okhostk Atka mackerel) from the freezer cabinets.
#DriedFish #Odawara

Infection status
Released May 23, 2025.
- As of period from May 12 - May 18, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 0.96
Change from prev. week +0.02
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001488315.pdf
🔸Small increase
Saga at 1.21, Tokyo at 0.68, Akita at 0.96, Hokkaido at 1.17, Okinawa at 1.98

🔸#Influenza monitoring paused until Sept 2025
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001488357.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

"...to prevent heatstroke, basic water charges for all households in Tokyo will be free for four months starting in June or July, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said May 20"

"#Tokyo metropolitan assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party, Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) and Komeito requested the policy to Koike on May 19"

"The Tokyo metropolitan assembly election is scheduled for June"
🔸An illuminating innuendo😎
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15780280

"...there is compelling evidence that the #sakoku phenomenon has been exaggerated historically [and can be] ascribed to a form of Eurocentrism... in which... non-Western societies are viewed primarily from a Western perspective"
"Focusing on the religious dimension... implies that Europeans were the most important aspect of #Japan’s external world at this time [but] relations with neighbouring Korea and China were of far more concern to the Tokugawa shogunate"
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767724.2024.2361028#d1e197
#history

Have seen an increase of posts by relatively new accounts of the [Country or City name]@[server name] variety with a flag or city logo as profile picture and non-existent profile details.
The posts are mainly news items associated with the country/city in the account name without comment.
Not sure if they're simply trying to establish an automated Fediverse presence, but in preparation for...what?
So, have been muting, but it's beginning to look like "whac-a-mole" time.
#bots #WhacAMole

Ella Fitzgerald performing Mack The Knife (Live)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhg2VlayHTI

Attack is cheap, defense is expensive.

Attack is easy, defense is hard.

You can always overwhelm the system with more missiles, decoys, and countermeasures.

Shooting down regular missiles is hard enough as it is. Patriot had a 5% success rate and Israeli propaganda aside, analysis suggests its Iron Dome is little better even over a tiny area.

Shooting down ICBMs and hypersonic missiles is orders of magnitude more difficult and requires global coverage.

We know this won't work. We know this can't work.

"Trump rolls out Golden Dome missile defense project and appoints leader"

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/trump-appoints-michael-guetlin-golden-dome

"Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has decided to appoint former environment minister Shinjiro Koizumi to replace Eto as agriculture minister, according to a government source"
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/05/9792b3a6ed3c-urgent-japan-farm-minister-resigns-over-controversial-gifted-rice-comments.html

🔸Not sure that recycling former ministers will be any better than performatively recycling waste plastic (which largely ends up "thermally recycled". Oh, hang on...burning potential rival PM candidates?🤔)

"[#Japan's] Farm minister Taku Eto resigned on Wednesday after [saying] that he does not buy rice because he receives so much of it from supporters"
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2025/05/9792b3a6ed3c-urgent-japan-farm-minister-resigns-over-controversial-gifted-rice-comments.html

"[Eto] entered a cabinet for the first time in 2019 as [PM Shinzo Abe's] farm minster. The veteran is known [to be] well-versed in agriculture and forestry policies"
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20241104-220534/

🔸But seemingly didn't understand rice distribution, consumer concerns...and fresh thinking.
Just another ossified politician🙁

@David It seems to have started as manga which was turned into an anime and then live-action TV drama series plus movie.

"Tropical Race 4 (TR4), a disease that affects #bananas. Also known as Panama Disease, it is a fungus that has been rampaging through #banana farms for the past 30 years. But within the last decade the epidemic has suddenly accelerated..."
"...bananas are grown on a vast #monoculture, meaning not just #TR4 but all diseases spread fast..."
https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-pandemic-threatening-bananas.html

🔸After the banana disappears the Minions end up running after an apple...😓
https://archive.org/details/banana_202404

@David Was there in 2023 en route to Takamatsu after visiting Naoshima.
It also appeared in the 2024 film "Eiga Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san" (映画 からかい上手の高木さん), but it was a night scene and cut to show not much more than the railings😢
(The English title of the film includes an awkward translation of "からかい上手")

Robben Ford Band - Ocean Blue Jazz Festival 1999

#music #guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw2XapW4c6Y

I don't think most people fully understand just how much ice was sitting atop the continents during the last glacial maximum. A good chunk of Eurasia and North America are still rebounding from the removed load.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264370718301443

Went down a rabbit hole re whether "aubergine" was related to "auberge". Remembered school French teacher saying it was slang for "traffic warden" due to their purple uniforms, but found actual origins far more fascinating:
"All the aubergine-type names have the same origin, in the Dravidian languages..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant

Which reminds me. Early onset of summer calls for nasu nibitashi (ナス煮びたし) chilled overnight in the fridge🙂
https://www.japanesecooking101.com/nasu-nibitashi/