Selfless heroes

Maybe you’ve heard that two members of the original Fukushima 50 who have been working inside the nuclear plant since the day it became damaged have been exposed to amounts of radiation well above the limit that the government set for the emergency workers.

It is for reasons such as this that Mr. Yasuteru Yamada, a 72 year old retired engineer, and a group of other retirees have announced their desire to replace the current younger workers in the damaged nuclear plant.

Yasuteru Yamada

The group consists of retired men with a variety of skills and knowledge that would be helpful in repairing the plant…such as retired engineers, university professors, military, crane operators, construction workers, welders and so on.

Mr. Yamada said that it’s not right for young people still have many years ahead of them, and may have or want to have small children to raise, to risk their lives when he and the other retirees who have decades of related knowledge and experience and have already lived most of their lives are willing and able to do this dangerous work.

I was impressed with their selfless willingness to sacrifice themselves to help others. Most of his group signed up without hesitation as soon as they learned about this group.

“We shouldn’t leave a negative legacy for the next generation.”
— Yasuteru Yamada

On this day…

Do you know the famous Japanese dog 「忠犬ハチ公」 (Faithful Hachiko)?

Probably every Japanese person knows the story of Hachiko.

Hachiko was an 秋田犬 (Akita-inu dog) who moved from 秋田県 (Akita Prefecture, Japan) to Tokyo with his owner because he (his owner) got a teaching job at 東京大学 (University Of Tokyo).

Hachiko would see his owner off every morning at 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station (in Tokyo)) and then go back to the station in the evening to greet his owner when he returned.

One day, though, his owner didn’t return because he died while at work. But Hachiko continued to return to 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station) every evening at the same time to wait for his master.

It’s a true story of loyalty and friendship.

There’s a famous statue of Hachiko at 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station) in Tokyo. (There’s also another lesser-known statue of Hachiko in his hometown in 秋田県 (Akita Prefecture, Japan)).

The statue of Hachiko in front of 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station) was erected on April 8, 1934.

So, every year on April 8th there is a memorial ceremony for Hachiko at the statue at 渋谷駅 (Shibuya Train Station).

Hachiko statue in Shibuya on the April 8, 2009 memorial ceremony.

There’s a Japanese movie about Hachiko…and now Richard Gere is promoting a Hollywood remake of this movie that he stars in.
(Click here to read my post about this movie and a bit more about the dog.)

The movie, titled “Hachiko: A Dog’s Story“, will debut in Japan on August 8, 2009.

On May 12, 2009, a new statue of Hachiko will be erected at お台場 (Odaiba, Tokyo). This date was chosen because it will be 88 days before the new Hachiko movie’s release date.*
(Eight in Japanese is 「八」 (“hachi“)…which sounds like Hachiko.)

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April 10, 2009 (tomorrow) will be the 50th wedding anniversary of Japan’s Emperor and Empress.
And last January 7 (2009) was the 20th anniversary of the day he became the Emperor (his father (the former Emperor) died on January 7, 1989).

So this year*, November 12 will be a legal holiday in Japan. It will be to celebrate both the Emperor’s twenty years on the throne and fifty years of marriage.

November 12 was chosen rather than January 7 or April 10 because it was decided it would be better to celebrate both on a separate date…and the Emperor’s 戴冠式 (coronation ceremony) was on November 12, 1990.

(*November 12 will be a holiday this year (2009) only).

六義園

Yesterday we went to the 六義園 (Rikugien Japanese Garden) because the 桜 (Cherry Blossoms) are in bloom now.

Before we left home, my wife and daughters made a picnic lunch for us…so we had a 花見 (Cherry Blossom Viewing picnic) in the garden.

From there, we walked up to the 東京大学 (University Of Tokyo) area before we went home.

Here are some of the photos I took:

桜 (Cherry Blossoms)

Japanese traditional tea house

鯉　(Carp)

Japanese landscape artists

椿 (Camellia)

Recent weekends

Do you know that you can click on all of the “thumbnail” size photos on this blog to see it in full-size?

A couple weekends ago, we decided to look around the Tokyo University campus.

We’ve been in the university’s area many times, but this was the first time we walked onto the campus.

Have you ever heard of Tokyo University? It’s an “Ivy League” school like Harvard or Oxford? When we visited Boston years ago, we checked out Harvard’s campus…just out of curiosity. And that’s why we went to 東大 (“Todai”…the common abbreviation of Tokyo University’s name in Japanese (which is 東京大学 “Tokyo Daigaku”)).

It’s a large, beautiful campus.

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The weekend before that, we went to 東武動物公園 (Tobu-zoo), north of Tokyo.

It’s a very nice zoo / amusement park! They have many rides, roller coasters, a ferris wheel, etc that the kids love…as well as a very nice zoo! And there’s a dog-park…where you can sit and hold and play with any of the numerous dogs there. We don’t have any pets at home…so my kids love that part of the zoo (my wife and I do, as well)!

Here’s a picture of the ferris wheel:

And I took this picture of the roller coaster as my kids were riding it. It was a very fast roller coaster! It looked like torture to me…but they wanted to ride it again (the line was too long, though)!

The hippo’s lunch time:

And this is a “Lesser-Panda”. They are very popular in Japan…because they’re cute—and one was seen standing upright at Ueno Zoo a couple years ago…it was on the news.

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Today is Saturday. The weather is nice and and it’s warm. So my youngest is at the park with her friends…and my oldest daughter took the train with her friend into downtown Tokyo to go shopping!

I recently have been allowing her to take the train with her friends…but always to go somewhere close. Today was the first time I allowed her to go that far. Her and her friend are going to a part of the city popular with teenagers.

I have to let them grow up…I guess.

Anyways…me and the second daughter are about to go to the local library together now.