Japanese enjoy longest total solar eclipse this century

July 28, 2009

Japanese enjoy longest total solar eclipse this century

Iwojima Island, a World War II battlefield in the western Pacific, drew public attention across Japan last week as it hosted a spectacular astronomical event—a total solar eclipse. The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan provided images of the jet-black sun telecast from a ship near the island. NHK, Japan’s prestigious public TV network, continued to air images of the phenomenon from its staff on the island and aboard a ship in the waters. The total eclipse continued for about six minutes and a half before noon Japan time on July 22. Total eclipses this long will not occur any more this century, astronomers say. (The photo above was taken from NHK TV; an overlapped image of the sun completely hidden by the shadow of the moon and a sunset-like scene which appeared on the horizon in the surrounding area.)
Iwojima Island, located about 1,200 kilometers south of Tokyo, is one of the southernmost territories of Japan. Fighting between Japanese and U.S. forces on the volcanic island claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
The Japanese media kept showing many Japanese who got excited about the unusual event and followed the so-called solar eclipse hunters. The latest total eclipse was the first phenomenon of its kind observed in Japan in 46 years. The total eclipse band started in India, cut across China and moved on to small islands south of the Japanese Archipelago, including Iwojima. Islands which are nearer to the main islands of Japan were covered by thick clouds or hit by rain. As a result, Iwojima unexpectedly came into the spotlight as a good place to observe the total eclipse. Partial eclipse was observed at many places on the main islands of Japan.

The previous total eclipse in Japan occurred in 1963 when Japanese people had only started getting back on their feet from the ruins of the last war. This time, Japanese adults and children equally enjoyed the solar eclipse, while experts welcomed the event as a chance to make children more interested in the sciences. Some people thought the supernatural event was a good, epoch-making opportunity to restart their life.

Japan’s oldest confirmed total eclipse occurred in the year of 975 in the middle of the Heian period. The Imperial Court then announced a general amnesty. The astronomical event was generally viewed as an ominous sign in Japan until early last century. In a 1950 short novel written by Yukio Mishima, one of the greatest modern Japanese writers, the heroin recalls that she got married with her husband, who lost his eyesight due to injuries in the war, while knowing a solar eclipse would occur the following day. Her parents disliked the date for their wedding and warned “You’ll bring on bad luck.”

The unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso dissolved the House of Representatives for a snap general election while knowing the total eclipse would occur the following day. The odds are against him, but Aso and his Liberal Democratic Party had no other choice. They had no time to enjoy the solar eclipse, either. They have to fight for a showdown with the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan throughout this summer.

Dark side of pet boom in Japan

July 16, 2009

Dark side of pet boom in Japan

My routine starts with the six-month-old Boston terrier on weekdays. I take the cat-like dog out for a walk for half an hour, sometimes longer, in the neighborhood. His friends include a four-year-old female bulldog. He shits twice, and I take it home and dispose of it. My wife and I sometimes take him to the beach, which can be reached with a 15-minute bike ride. I always tell him in my heart, “You were really lucky, weren’t you? You were luckier than other dogs.”
One can see pet shops with newly born dogs and cats in small display cages at almost every corner of major cities. The pet boom comes at a time when an increasing number of Japanese people want to have something to heal themselves amid strong stress in their daily life.

I make you my pet, because I hope you may be a means of remembering her, my unhappy love. For what are you crying this way?
(A personal translation)

This is a poem made by a young noble about his one-sided love with a princess in the Tale of Genji, a long novel of the early 11th century around the peak of the Heian Period. The novel fields a “very small, pretty Chinese cat” in an episode involving the two figures and the husband of the princess, Genji, who is the main character of the saga.

Kashiwagi, the young man, was invited to see an event at Genji’s lavish mansion one day and happened to have a glimpse of the princess standing behind a blind when a cat darted out from behind the blind and became entangled with its cord, lifting the blind and revealing the princess and her women inside. Charmed by her beauty, Kashiwagi unsuccessfully tried to approach her again. Hoping to obtain the cat instead, he persuaded the crown prince to seek the cat from the princess, Onna San no Miya, who is his younger sister. Kashiwagi, the intendant of the right gate watch, then succeeded in obtaining the cat from the crown prince.
The pet boom in today’s Japan has a dark side in which more than 300,000 dogs and cats are “disposed of” every year. Dogs and cats deserted by owners are collected at “animal protection centers” established by local governments. The collected pets have a week to wait for new owners in what they call “dream boxes” at the facilities. If nobody appears, death by gassing waits for them. The number of pets killed at these facilities has been declining in recent years. Animal Rights Center Japan and other related organizations are on campaigns to reduce the number to zero, but there are many hurdles to clear toward achieving the goal.

ARC, a 22-year-old nonprofit organization, set up a booth at a community fair in Kamakura, south of Tokyo, in July, trying to enhance the public awareness of various animal abuses. ARC blames breeders and pet shops and their money-oriented business for the continued killings of dogs and cats. But irresponsible owners also prevent the situation from being corrected. Owners should remind themselves that they keep living creatures, not things, experts say. The pet-related problems must be addressed as a matter which concerns the whole of society, not just persons interested, they say.
Kashiwagi always kept the cat around him and a few years later, he finally obtained an opportunity to sleep with the princess. This was against her will, but she gave birth to a boy baby before Kashiwagi dies. The novel gives no hint about the fate of the cat after his death.

Star Festival gives Japanese opportunity to dwell on future

July 6, 2009

Star Festival gives Japanese opportunity to dwell on future

The “tanabata” Star Festival amounts to an opportunity for Japanese people to dwell on their future. People put up branches of bamboo with their wishes written on small pieces of paper in front of their houses. Separately, tanabata summer festivals take place in major cities, attracting hundreds of thousands or millions of visitors. People enjoy strolling through streets lined by tall bamboo poles with decorated lanterns and streamers hanging
The star festival, observed in early July or early August in Japan, originally comes from a legend in the ancient China in which the star of the weaver and the star of the cowherd, known as Vega and Altair in the West, make a rendezvous only once a year over the Milky Way. Japanese people make wishes to the heaven while thinking of the long separated heavenly couple.

In Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, which hosts one of the biggest tanabata festivals, organizers, mainly local shop owners, set up several stands to accept wishes from visitors with a 100-yen donation. Their wishes, written on tanzaku long strips of paper, will be dedicated to a shrine after the end of the festival. A father wrote “Peace continue on my family,” while a young woman wrote “A good partner appear before me.”
Most tanabata festivals form part of serious efforts by the local business community to prop up their declining economy. A Japanese-style restaurant in Hiratsuka built its own bamboo decoration, inviting school pupils to hang tanzaku strips with their wishes on the bamboo leaves. “I would like to cross Amanogawa, just one time,” read the wish of an 11-year-old girl. The Milky Way is called Amanogawa, or Heavenly River in Japan. A waka poem composed by an unknown woman and included in the Kokinwakashu poem anthology of the early 10th century says:

Ferryman on the Heavenly River!
Please hide your rudder when my lover has arrived here
so that he may not return to the other side.
(A personal translation)

About 34,000 pieces of tanzaku paper with visitors’ wishes were collected in the tanabata festival in Hiratsuka last year. “We expect more wishes to be collected and dedicated this year,” said a young man in charge of the campaign. Organizers and visitors equally look more serious this year as Japan is struggling amid the global recession.
In July 2008,, the then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda hosted an annual leaders’ meeting of eight major countries at a lakeside resort in northern Japan. He asked participants and their spouses to write their wishes on tanzaku strips of paper for a social function at the start of the event. “Our future be opened up with the wisdom of mankind,” Fukuda wrote. He stepped down two months later, however.

This year’s meeting comes at a time when the political climate is stormy for some participants, including those from Britain and Japan. Nobody knows what their wishes should be to overcome tough challenges facing the world.