もの思うゆえに

One day in Osaka

I visited Osaka last weekend. Incidentally there held a symposium about the Great East Japan earthquake at Kanasai University. The university is located conveniently. So I and my friend managed to go there although both of us were busy on that day.
In that symposium a presenter told that Science Council of Japan proposed to make "Basic Geography" and "Basic History" compulsory at high schools. I understood the presenter meant to say that students need to take them for living. In short studying geography and history prevents or decrease possible tragic results in natural disasters. for example, of one knows the history and condition of where one lives, the knowledge may save one's life.
I know a person who teaches domestic science at a high school and a junior high school. She often says that the domestic science is disregard at school. She and her company believe that the domestic science should be given more time to prepare their students for life.
I agree with them. But the class hours are limited. to increase the class hours for one subject we have to reduce the class hours for other subjects. It is difficult to deduce which class to reduce or increase. When one subject is not chosen for the entrance examinations for university, the allotted hours for that subject could be given to the ones for the entrance examinations, which is often the case although it is illegal. When something fatal happens, we have to survive with all our ability, knowledge, experience,intelligence, and physical power. So the members in charge of the entrance examinations have great responsibility.
Another speaker mumbled at the end of his sentences. it is hard to listen to such a person. He is a professor of a university and not young. Has he ever trained himself to speak clearly? I think it is a part of his job duty to speak in listener-friendly voice. Anyway we were exhausted by him. We didn't appreciate his speech itself either. We recalled a young associate professor who we met in our alumni reunion in September. She told that she sometimes went to a Rakugo theater to learn how to attract students. We complained about such and such on the way back home in the train.
Among the speakers Mr. Kawada was very good. Another friend of mine told that she listened to his lecture at the meeting for the teachers in Mishima Osaka. She said,"Mr. Kawada said that when East South Sea Earthquake comes, a tidal wave will reach as far as Takatuki. Although it is not easy to believe (Takatuki is 30km away from the sea as the crow flies.), it is true because Mr. Kawada said so." I understood why he was so popular soon. So did my friend who attended the symposium. He didn't say anything about tidal waves. He told the possibility of reservoir break (There are 210thousand ponds all over the Japan.), skyscrapers on the man-made islands, liquefaction and intelligent trouble when a great earthquake occurs.

ＤｒｉｎｖｉｎｇIn the U.S.

I drove a car in the U.S. after an interval of six years. It was a round trip from Las Vegas to Monument Volley via Grand Canyon. I got a lot of information about the trip from blogs, so I think I should write something on the net to give some information to other people.

We reserved Alamo rental-car online because it had an office in Japan so that we can ask them in Japanese when something goes wrong.

When we rent a car equipped with a car navigation system in Japan, it is pre-installed in the car; even if it is the cheapest one. We received a car navigation system in the box over the counter of the rent-a -ca office. We had trouble in finding a cigarette socket which supply electricity for the navigation, the lever to move　the seat back and forth, the one to operate the winker and so on. I twice asked the girl in charge of delivering cars where the lever was. The customers came one after another, she seemed to be busy. But she came to us without making face. We were able to set it in Japanese for the guiding language. It spoke standard language, and moreover, the distance was given not in miles but in kilos.

When we got the car, we were told "You can choose larger cars without additional cost. Here they are." There were shiny big cars. My husband said " Compact cars are better because they're easy to drive." then the worker said " There are compact cars over there." When he reserved the car, he considered the cost and the travel distance, and then decided the size of the car. So we were puzzled to hear that we were able to select any car at the same charge. Anyway he chose a full-size car as he had reserved. Our car was a shiny elegant light brown one like a new vehicle. It was easy to drive but exhausted much gasoline as I had expected. It may be understandable because its displacement was over 3000cc although it appeared to had an ordinary standard size. I once saw a Vitz and a Fit on the highway. they looked so cute.

Grand Canyon is 446.24kilos away from Las Vegas. We felt extremely sleepy while driving. When the navigation said " Drive along the road for 188kilos.", I got annoyed. A slow ascending monotonous slope seemed to last forever.
I often found pieces of tires on the highway. They looked like the pieces from bursting. Imaging if a tire of the car in front of us would burst into pieces, I couldn't afford to feel sleepy. Fortunately such an accident didn't happen. So we felt sleepy all the way along. It seemed that center lines and the side lines were painted rough on the surface. When the car crossed the lines, it made noise. Then I came to myself.

Like the Japanese navigation system the navigation also stopped guidance when the car came near the destination. It said "You are near the destination." When we didn't have a detailed map, it was troublesome. In Las Vegas, because it was in an urban area, we had a lot of trouble in reaching the hotel.

...

I have my composition corrected by my English teacher once a month. She seems to be thinking my composition should be an essay according to the way of paragraph writing; however, I thought it too hard. So I write an essay in a Japanese way, a group of sentences-written as one’s mind flows.
At least I want to write not an English translation of someone else’s writing but also an original one although it is a hard work for me.

I usually read and listen to other people’s stories. I have not casted my ideas into shape for a long time. Writing should have been easy and enjoyable- ,but...
One of my friends writes a blog and notes of a journey, which are popular among us. I have been reading his stories for years; however, I don’t know anything about his daily life, such as his favorite food and what he does in spare time, because he only writes about his hobbies and political views, that is to say, something in his mind.
I enjoy the blogs’ talks about the world and the blogger’s daily life. But I’m dreaming of writing something with no smell of a daily life like his.
When I write about current social situations, I can write only one or two phrases. And I do not enjoy writing it. To tell the truth, thinking about such issues makes me got worried about the Japanese future.
Not only when I write an essay but also when I have to do something, I start to think about from long before. I would even say I always think about it. Although sometimes I hit upon a good idea, I can’t recall it later. I cannot make out of the suitable passages either.
When I was an elementary school kid, we had to write an essay once a week and circulate our essays. I was looking forward to writing. I enjoyed my turn. Now I love to read others’ works rather than write myself. It is perfectly reverse compared with myself those days. (My teacher put students into some groups which had 6 members. Our essays bound up together and circulated among the members.)
The less I write, the worse my ability may become. (Any ability falls in decay when it is rarely used.) I had better start to write anything. Even twitter might do.

New year's visit to shrines

Which shrine shall we visit this new year?
Our sun was away from home this year, so we didn’t have the energetic driver who took us as far as we wanted last year and two years ago.
We didn’t want to wait in a long queue, either, as we did at the Meiji Shrine last year.
We decided to visit the Tokyo Daijinngu which is a Tokyo branch of the Grand Shrine of Ise because we thought it was not so crowded there.

We left home after lunch in a relaxed mood.
When we went out of the nearest subway station Iidabashi for the shrine, we didn’t see any line ahead.“Ha-ha! Just as we expected.”
We started to go to the shrine.
When we came closer to the shrine, we saw a queue. It seemed that the end of the queue is in the direction different from where we came from .
I thought that the main route for the shrine was from JR Iidabashi station. Any way we shouldn’t jump the queue.

If we waited in the line, we couldn’t make it in time when we had promised to pick up. We decided to give up this shrine and turn to the Yasukuni Shrine which was not far from there because we hadn’t seen a line at there.
But when we passed the divine gate, there was a line. A guard there said that around three was the busiest time. We also gave up to pray in front of the worship altar and went home after buying charms for traffic safety.

I noticed that there were a lot of young people in the queue to the Tokyo Daijinngu.

When we couldn’t visit the shrine, we often felt a greater urge to do. We tried to visit there again the next day.
There were a lot of young people in the line. We deduced that the youth are late risers, so the earlier we went, the shorter the line must be. So we left home in the morning.
As we expected, the line was shorter than that of the previous day. After one hour’s waiting, we were able to enter the ground of the shrine.

First of all we were led to wash hands quite naturally. After washing hands, a female attendant handed us a piece of paper, something like large kaishi. What a nice treat!
After that while we were in the line, a young priest performed a ritual for a group of five or six.
When we approached the front of the hall of worship, we found a sign which showed how to worship. It said two bows, two claps and then one bow. And everybody did so.
We bought a charm too in this shrine. This shrine sold pretty designed charms, marriage tie charms and the price range was lower than that at other prestigious shrines.

At the end of the route worshippers were treated to Akafuku, hot tea, sacred sake and zennzai(sweet red bean soup). There was a lot of money offering on the big sannpou(white wooden tray) although there were no sign to ask for donation. It seemed that nobody took treats and went back without offering. I went under the big parasol-like stove and enjoyed the treats. I felt satisfied with the treats of this shrine. How susceptible to food I am!

The Thunderbolt 3

When I searched for the thunder damage, I learned that damage caused by thunder was also covered by fire insurances. When we built this house, we got the loan from Government Housing Loan Cooperation which required us to take out the predetermined fire insurances.
I took out the document out the Documents out of the Documents File given by Sekisuihouse and called the insurance company the following morning. The insurance company told that there were so many houses damaged by the thunderbolt that it would take several days to send us the documents required for claiming payment; however, they could send them around Monday which was 6days after that day. I was also told that it was alright that we repaired the damaged parts before we sent the quotations to the insurance company although basically it should be the other way around.

The repairman for shutters knew that fire insurances covered the damages from thunderbolts and how to claim the payment. He sent us the quotation immediately after his visit. We got it just the next day. Shortly after we got his quotation, the insurance company sent us the form the required documents.
Although I had thought that we did not have to hurry, it was OK after the repair of the intercom; when other two documents had been ready, I called the Panasonic service station to send us the quotation.

Three weeks after the thunderbolt the process for the insurance claim was finished although the repairs had not been completed.
Ten days after the claim we got the insurance coverage. I was surprised to know that the company paid the full amount and more. They paid about ￥130000 and plus a little less than ￥40000in the name of expense insurance money. The person in charge called me to inform that I would receive a notice of payment in which the amount to be transferred and specifications are stated. I understood it as a reward for being busy for arranging the repair and so on.

the repair of the intercom was finished two days before the payment from the insurance company. It was just one month after the thunderbolt.
Although we couldn't have got our intercom repaired by that day because the Panasonic service didn't have appropriate parts, while the kitty-cornered house was repaired sooner because they had a suitable component. In the case of thunderbolts, so many houses are damaged all at once that the date of repair may be considerably different depending on how soon someone call service station.

A little before the repair of intercom YKKAP called us. I thought they had got the parts and would come to our house in a few days. It was far from my expectation. The man on the opposite side of line said "the metal mold for the parts was dropped and broken accidentally. So they have to make the mold first, and then they can start to make the parts. We calculate it takes about three months."
Even if three months is a rather longer estimate, we might not get it repaired before the end of the year. What a tough luck!
Well it's OK. I am going to go on a trip at the end of this month and before the trip I have to go to Osaka. I have a lot of thing to do. That would serve as a convenient distraction.

The Thunderbolt 2

But can those shutters or intercoms be broken by thunderbolts? I searched for the case by inputting “thunderbolt shutter breakdown” into the cell phone. Oh! There it is! I found the case that a shutter for the garage didn’t move in closing condition. When an electric shutter is opened by hand, it should be done from inside. In this case the person was outside the garage. It seemed to be such a hard job. The cause for the breakdown might be that its fuse was blown by the thunderbolt. The article said so. Oh thunderbolt does such a terrible thing! I was not able to find the case of intercoms.

The next morning I waited until nine o’clock to call the Sekisuihouse customers center. It is all right to call the Panasonic service center about the intercom; however, where whom should I call about the shutter? In such a case I always called Sekisuihouse. Sekisuihouse takes care of the old customers even after the warranty expiration date is expired. Tuesday and Wednesday are their regular holidays. The customers are served by their holiday office on the transfer telephone on those days. The Sekisuihouse’s headquarters are in Osaka. So you hear Osaka dialect when you call the Sekisuihouse customers center on holidays.

The man on the other side of the telephone asked me who the maker of the shutters. I tried to find the manual for the broken shutters in the instruction file. But I could find only a booklet for the unbroken one. Sekisuihouse gave us a fat folder in which they filed all the manuals for something like air conditioners, system kitchen and ceiling lights and the like when we built the new house. I was not able to find the manual there means that because we were not given it in the first place. I told the man that we didn’t know the name of the shutter manufacturer. He said to me “Take a look at the switch please. You can find the name on it.” “I see YKK AP there.” “That’s it. It means it is the products by Sanwashutter. I am going to contact them.” And he said “Is there anything else which is broken?” He told me that he was going to handle the intercom issue.

Meanwhile NTT called perhaps around 9:20. Of course I got it on the cell phone. “We dealt with the recorded complaints in the order they are recorded. Your turn was after 2 o’clock late at night. So we call you now this morning. “NTT man told me the repair person was going to come around 10:20. It’s so early. I might have called them at the number for general customers. From that reception they passed our issue to the “Hikari” section. Although I knew that the receipt number was different, I was so upset that I must have called the wrong number.

The serviceman came on the announced time. He changed the modem which worked as the gate from the outside to the house. Soon the telephone came back again and TV too. Just then did I get a call from Sanwashutter. Good timing! Sanwashutter was going to come 9o’clock tomorrow morning.

It took some time to reconnect the internet. We didn’t rent a router for wireless LAN from NTT. We bought NEC’s product. The price of the router was \3000, so it was rather economical. Nonetheless even after the modem was changed, our net didn’t work. It may because the router was also broken. The serviceman explained to me suavely with patience since I was slow to understand. He asked me where the data of provider were put, in the modem or router. I couldn’t tell it because I didn’t set them up. Anyway the router was broken, so he put the data in the modem. Now we were able to access the internet as long as by connecting PC to the modem directly. Good god. All we have to decide now is whether to buy a router for the wireless LAN or to rent a wireless LAN card which should be put into the top of the modem from NTT. I have to talk with my husband. It exactly means that we could use wireless LAN after the next day.

I remembered the “fon” which came with iPhone as a gift. My son left it because he didn’t need it. It may be the wireless LAN router for iPhone. I judged from its appearance. If I could utilize the fon, I might be able to use WiFi, 3G is a little bit slow. After the long struggle I succeeded in set it up. There is WiFi mark on it! All I have to do is follow the simple procedural manual which attached to the fon. But I couldn’t do it easily. When I succeeded in setting it up, I sent an email as a trial. There was a sign showing in transition. It lasted for a long time. After 20minutes, it said “the transmission was failed.” I was so disappointed and felt exhausted. “One shouldn’t give up after just a first failure.” I tried again when recovered. But the result is same. I got more exhausted.

We chose NTT rental as our wireless LAN device. We waited for the LAN card to come. The day after the next day it arrived. We have subscribed to the Remote support service of NTT East since last April. We bought a new TV set at that time. The condition of discount was subscription to Flet’s Hikari of NTT East and in addition, Virus Clear and Remote support service for more than two months. After one year interval I called the service for help. It was so easy in the case of new notebook PC. In the case of old notebook it was so difficult. It took almost two hours. The cost of the service is \525 a month. I may say that the one year’s cost was paid off.
Well it was the Wednesday morning. The Sanwa shutter service man came and said “They are not our shutters.” He told me that when he was called by Sekisuihouse and said “It is highly possible the shutters are not ours.” Oh no! Sekisuihouse shouldn’t do so. Although the serviceman said “ I am going to call and explain Sekisuihouse. ”, I called Sekisuihouse immediately. Because Tuesday and Wednesday are its holidays, I called the same Holiday Office as yesterday. I asked for the man who attended me yesterday. “The Sanwa shutter man said “It is not theirs.” When it is written YKK AP, it is YKK’s, isn’t it?” He said “Even if so, in many cases they are Sanwa shutter’s products. I arrange the repairmen again.” After a while YKK AP serviceman called. He told that he was able to come on Friday. I told that Friday was not good and he told he told that next time he was available was six o’clock Monday night.

At six o’clock Monday night I was waiting for him wondering if he can repair in the dusk. He came. He told that it was impossible to repair on that day because he didn’t have change parts. Because of the thunderbolt there were so many repairs that he had run out of his parts in hand. Ouch! If we contacted YKK AP earlier, we could have had it repaired. This repairman told that there was no possibility that YKK AP is written on the product of Sanwa shutter. Yeah! That’s make sense. I have never seen SANYO TV written on a Panasonic. When he has got the parts come, he will call me and repair.

As for the intercom, repairman came on Saturday. He told that he took the intercom back and came again at a future date. I imagined he also didn’t have exchange parts for the same reason as YKK man. There remains gaping on the wall of the first and second floor.

The Thunderbolt

I was watching TV. Suddenly the screen turned dark and the sign said “We have trouble in receiving conditions.”

Thunder has been rumbling for quite a while. While we were at dinner, I saw a lightening out of the window and said “Oh no! Flash? No, it can’t be a flash. It’s improbable somebody comes to my house to take photos secretly. It can’t happen.” I murmured such a ridiculous thing.

Speaking of lightening, the terrific crack a little while ago was so close to the lightening I saw from the corner of my eyes.
I recall and think the thunder bolt was not so far from around here.

Flashes of lightening and peal of thunder didn’t stop. One after another without intervals.
Shortly after the TV has gone out and stupor, I came back to myself. The sign means TV itself is OK. I should pull the TV cord off the outlet to prevent it from being broken by thunder.
Another TV is all right? I went to the other room and pulled the cord from the outlet. Taking this opportunity I also pulled off the cable connecting with the modem.
And returning to the living room, I pulled off this cable too.
We are provided with access to internet, telephone and TV by NTT.
There is something wrong with receiving conditions of TV now. How is it with telephone!? I picked up the receiver. No sound came from the main phone. Nor did it from the cordless handset. And on the second floor the situation was same with another set of telephone. Does this mean our internet is also dead? IPhone shows 3G. Inside my house it always indicates wifi. I went to see the modem or the router. I don’t know the name of the device. Anyway it is the gateway for three of ours. Wow! All the lamps went out spectacularly. It means all three are dead. They must have been killed by thunder.

Are others OK? I checked all the electric appliances in our house. I found the lamp of inter-phone showing in-use was blinking on and off on the second floor. I wanted to plug off the cord; however, I couldn’t find it. And the three of four electric shutters didn’t come down even when I switched on.

I went to see the power distribution panel. None of the breakers were down. I understood neither of the shutters and the inter-phone was fed electricity from this panel. By the way how is the outlet from which the modem is fed? I took the fan and plugged it in one of the two outlets. The fan worked.

What shall I do now? My cellular phone is alive. So I searched for information by my iPhone. If such disturbance by thunder is happening in this area, I don’t have to do anything about it. A Short while later they come back again. If this difficulty has happened only in my house or next door and mine or three houses, it won’t get solved without my taking action. I consulted NTT home page and found there was no problem with the facility of this area.

Now I have to call NTT. What is the contact number for trouble? Where are the related documents for this? I couldn’t recall where it was soon.
A little later I found the paper carrying the phone numbers. Oh! it begins with 0120. Is it possible calling the number beginning with 0 by cellar phone? Anyway I tried.
My phone was soon connected.
The counterpart on the other side of the telephone line was a machine as the paper said. “After 17 O’clock we accept by recording and deal with each issue in order.”
As soon as I hung up, I found I didn’t tell my name. I called again. Then I told my name first. Soon I noticed I hadn’t given our telephone number.
I called and told my name, telephone number and our trouble. A short time later I found out again. I told our home telephone number. From that number they can confirm we are a customer for NTT; however, they have no way of contacting us because the telephone is disconnected. I called again and said “My contact number is XXX XXXX XXXX.” at the end.
To be continued (may be)

ハーバード白熱教室＠東京大学

いや～おもしろかった
ハーバード白熱教室＠東京大学http://www.nhk.or.jp/harvard/

ＮＨＫのＢＳでやっていたのを録画しといて、昨日見た。
友達にもみてもらいたくて、ＤＶＤに焼きたっかけど、我が家のテレビには機能がない！
がっかりしていたら、今日の夕方６時に教育テレビで放映！というのを朝刊で見つけた。
さっそく月いちの英語のクラスの先生と友だちにメール。

友だちも「おもしろかったね」といってくれてうれしい☆
先生は先刻ご承知で、＠東京大学の方は録画してまだ見てないけど、本家の方は見ましたとのこと。
「Ｊｕｓｔｉｃｅ」は本になっていてあんまりむずかしくないよ。　・・・・　さすがぁ　釈迦に説法ではなく　お知らせ　だった。

落雷

今まで雷が鳴っても、「あ　雷　鳴ってるわ」とそれほど気にもとめませんでした。
それが、話には聞いていたことが我が身にふりかかってきました。
少し昂奮したまま、作文を書きました。おつきあいください。

***************************************************

テレビを見ていた。突然、画面が消え、「受信状態に問題があります」のような表示がでた。

少し前から雷が鳴っていた。食事中には窓の外に光が走り　「あら！　フラッシュ？　な、わけないよね。ここの家にフライデー（写真の隠し撮り）なんて来るわけないもんね。」なんて馬鹿を言っていた。
そう言えば、さっきのものすごいバリバリバリッ！は、目の端のぴかっ！から間を置かずだった。
後から思えば、それは「近いな」なんてものじゃなく、ほんのすぐそこだったのだ・・・・

光と雷音は止まず、しかもその二つはほとんど間をおかない。それがずっと続いている。
テレビが消え、しばしの茫然の後「はっ」と気をとりなおす。表示が出たということは、テレビそのものには電気がきている。無事なのだ。テレビが破壊されることを防ぐため、電源を抜かねばならない。
もう一台のテレビは無事・・・・・・・だろうか？　別室のテレビへ行って、急ぎ電源コードを抜く。ついでにモデムとつながっているケーブルも。居間に取って返し、こちらのケーブルも抜いた。

我が家はフレッツ光とかいうので、インターネット、電話、テレビをＮＴＴから引いている。
テレビの受信に問題があるとすれば、電話は？　受話器を上げてみる。何の音もしない。子機のほうも同様。二階の親子も。するとインターネットも？　家の中ではwifiになっているはずのiPhoneが3Gの表示になっている。すべてを束ねるモデムというかル-ﾀｰというかその機器を見に行ってみる。
「うわ！」見事にすべてのランプが消えている。三つともアウトということだ。雷にやられたに違いない。

他は大丈夫か？　家の中の電気関係を見てまわった。二階のインターフォンの使用中ランプが点滅を続けている。電源コードを抜こうにも、それらしきものが見当たらない。
電動シャッター四か所のうち三か所が、スイッチを入れても降りてこない。

分電盤を見に行く。ブレーカーはどれも下りていない。すると、シャッターもインターフォンも、ここを通さずに電気をとっているに違いない。ところでモデムが電気をとっているコンセントはどうなっているのだろう？　二口あるもう一つに扇風機を持ってきて差し込んでみた。扇風機は動く。

これから何をなすべきか？　携帯電話は使えるのでiPhoneで検索してみた。
停電のように、ある程度の範囲に障害が起きているならば、なにもしなくてもそのうち復活する。もし我が家だけ、あるいは隣家と二、三軒ならばこちらが行動しないと解決しない。
ＮＴＴのホームページを見た結果、この地域の設備には問題がない。

えー故障時の連絡先は・・・　この関係の書類は・・・　すぐに思いだせない。
しばし後、電話番号群が書かれた紙を発見。うーん　0120で始まってる・・・0で始まる番号へ携帯からかけられるんだっけ？　まあとにかくかけてみることにした。

すぐに電話はかかる。
「17時以降は録音で受け付けして順次対応いたします」と紙にあったとおり、相手は機械だ。機械にむかってしゃべる。
電話を切ってすぐ、名前を言っていないのに気づいた。
もう一度かける。最初に名乗った。今度はこちらの電話番号を言わなかったことに、すぐまた気付いた。
名前、電話番号を言って、こちらの状態を言った。少し置いて、また気付いた。家の固定電話の番号を言ってＮＴＴのユーザーであることは確認できても、連絡のしようがない。電話は不通なのだから。
再度かけて、最後に連絡先は・・・と携帯の番号を言った。

しかし、雷でシャッターやインターフォンが壊れるなんてあるのだろうか？　携帯に「雷　シャッター　故障」と入れて検索してみた。あるのだ！　車庫のシャッターが閉まった状態で動かなくなったそうだ。電動シャッターを手動で開ける場合、内側からだそうで、この場合人は外にいる。大変な苦労だったようだ。故障の原因は落雷でシャッターのヒューズが飛んだらしい、とある。そんなことがあるのだ！
インターフォンの例は見つけられなかった。
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　つづく　（かもしれない）

ハチにさされた

庭のながしのすぐ横、ハーブの茂みの中にハチの巣が！
カマキリの卵の抜け殻だ・・・・　ぼかっっと手に持ったスコップでたたいた。
痛っ！　さされた
ハチがたかってるのが見えてたのに　なんでそんなことをしたのか？？　自分でもわからない。
じわ～と痛みがひろがる。

ハチに刺されたのは初めて。一時はパニックになったが　しばらくして広がった赤みもひき、なんということもなかった。