Exposure to Asbestos and Harmful Mold in Tsukuba`s Earthquake Cracked Old Houses Might Pose a More Serious Health Threat Around Here Than the Radiation
A cracked bathroom wall might be releasing asbestos or harmfull mold into damaged houses
By Avi Landau
Despite the fact that we are assurred repeatedly by government officials and various experts who tell us that it is PERFECTLY SAFE, the fact that radiation is being released into the air about 180 kilometers away, has many of us here in Tsukuba in a state of unease. This feeling especially comes to the fore under certain conditions or at certain moments- when we realize the wind is blowing in from the north, when it is raining ( and especially when these happen at the same time!), when we sit down at a restaurant and the waiter puts the glasses of water down on the table ( is it radiated tap water?), or when spinach is included somewhere in a dish we`ve been served.
So even if there is no real danger from the radiation itself, the continuous stress IS taking its toll. I cant help but notice all the baggy eyes, haggard looks, and new gray hairs on people around town.
A crack in the wall outside the kitchen let some mice into the house
I dont want to add to everyones worries, but the fact is that some people in this area, specifically those living in old houses, apartments or dormitories ( and there are plenty of THOSE here in Tsukuba) are now very likely being exposed to some things BESIDES radiation that pose very serious long term health threats- especially to young children. I am talking about ASBESTOS as well as certain harmfull types of MOLD which have been released into living spaces through holes and cracks in walls, ceilings and floors, created by the earthquake of March 11th.
Asbestos, which is known to be a cause of cancer when particles of it are inhaled, was commonly used for construction in Japan, and MANY of Tsukuba`s older structures probably contain the deadly substance in the walls, under floors, under the eaves, etc.
Also, the amazon-basin like conditions of the Japanese summer are perfect for all sorts of mold to thrive in. And though we can deal with the mold that we can SEE ( though sometimes with great difficulty), it is almost impossible to get rid of it if it starts growing in those same normally behind the scene areas where asbestos can be found.
A moldy stain which appeared on the wall after a leak in the roof
Since the house that I live in here in Tsukuba was built in the Golden Age of Japanese asbestos use ( the 1970s),and also because it was severely cracked, both on the inside and outside, during the earthquake ( and subsequent aftershocks), I became immediately concerned about exposure to these dangerous substances ( especially with two small kids). My friends concurred with my insticts and recommended that I leave the house immediately.
After sending my family off to Tokyo ( and then New York), I stubbornly stayed on in the old place ( filled with so many memories), and was determined to find out whether in fact asbestos was used to build the house or not.
I figured that the best thing to do would be to go to the city office. I was surprised, however, to find out there that city governments are NOT responsible for, and do not deal with asbestos.
Mold and rot which formed under a bedroom windowsill
Calling the first companies on the list, I found that they would not deal with individual customers ( only the government or other companies).
I finally did find one which could help me- but they told me that checking ONE ROOM in my house would cost me about 60,000 Yen! This would involve an instrument being brought to the house and left in on of the rooms for a few hours. The instrument would then be picked up and taked best for analysis.
Look carefully! You can see all the way to the outside through a crack between the wall and the floor
Since I am not currently in the financial position to ask for this costly asbestos check ( after all the earthquake damage and subsequent work stoppage), I have had to WAIT on finding out whether or not there really is any asbestos behind my walls ( about mold, there is no question- note the photos I have posted!).
What I did instead, was ask my landlord. She said- "Asbestos was not used to build the house- I THINK". And for me, that I THINK has continued to ring in my ears.
I havent left yet. In fact, Im writing this post right here on the living room floor ( Im gazing now in disbelief at the piles of hail which has just fallen in a short but furious April 29th storm!).
Now I cant be sure if its psychological or not, but for the past few weeks Ive had the strangest feeling in my lungs and just cant stop coughing..................... and worrying!
One more reason to wear a surgical mask !
For more on asbestos and its effects on our health see:
Fallen camellia blossoms lie among the hailstones (April 30 2011- Tsukuba)
The next morning garden in Tsukuba was still strew with ice balls from the hailstorm
( If you are interested, here is an album of original music recorded ( by Xenophonia) in the tatami room at my old house in Tsukuba:
http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/2425 )
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Camellias (tsubaki,椿) Create Distinctive Japanese Spring Soundscapes And Groundscapes (again)
By Avi Landau
In DEEP SPRING , my household has finally emerged from its state of FUYUGOMORI (冬篭り), the shuttering up, bundling up, and holing up, that those of us living the traditional Japanese way do (that means without central heating!) for a few months out of each year ( though we have not yet completely emerged from the gloom brought on by the earthquake of March 11th). Now, when I sit in my quake-cracked tatami-matted Japanese style room, instead of huddling up by the noisy little kerosene heater or hunkering up with my legs roasting in a kotastu (a heated table), I can open the large windows, one set facing the garden, and the other the DOOMED Nakane Konda-Dai woods, and let the warm, pollen heavy ( radioactive) breezes drift in, occassionally bringing the intoxicating scent of some newly blossomed flowers to my nose. With this delicious air, and the raucus chatter of birds busy with their mating and nest making rituals, it is just about impossible to concentrate on reading , writing, or anything else for that matter. The only option seems to be to savor the moment.
TsubakiOne reason for the camellia`s popularity is its deep beauty. Its leaves are a rich green all year round, and its flowers are a sensuous red, pink or white. The fact that the flowers bloom in early spring (or late winter) have made them an important symbol of that season. In fact, the character used to write tsubaki is not the same as that used in Chinese. It is an original Japanese character (KOKUJI), that uses Chinese elements which mean SPRING TREE (椿）. Because of its evergreen folliage and flowers which bloom in the cold of the early year the year, the camellia had been considered a sacred tree long before the samurai class started frowning upon it. The Emperor, his family and the court used carved ritual sticks of camellia wood, called udzuchi (卯d槌)and utsue (卯杖), to beat the ground and drive away evil, around the New Year. Some scholars also believe that the numerous sacred camellia groves which can be found along the Japan Sea side of Japan were planted by wandering mendicant nuns called BIKUNI (比丘尼), who used camellia wood to perform various rituals.
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Japan Becomes a WATERWORLD, as TAUE (田植え), Rice Transplantation, Is About to Get Underway ( revisited)
By Avi Landau
If one were to have a window-seat on a daytime flight out of Narita airport in mid-April, down below, on the Kanto Plain, one would see densly packed clusters of houses,the small scattered green islands of evergreen trees (mostly cedar)which grow on uncultivatable hills, and between them, the dull, lifeless, brown and straw colored spaces where the rice is grown between May and October. Then, if that same person would fly back to Narita about two weeks later, again with a seat by the window, they would probably gasp in astonishment when they looked down below, as they would have witnessed what is surely the most dramatic annual landscape tranformation which takes place in this area (where there is practically no long lasting snowfall)- the creation of a veritable WATERWORLD as the rice fields are flooded in preparation for the transplantation of the young rice plants.
The scene from ground level can be just as impressive, but in a different way, with the mirror-like surfaces of the flooded fields dotted with egrets ducks and herons. Then, at night, there is the crazed chorus of frogs who sound as if they just CANNOT contain the sheer joy of having been so well watered.
This year, with the nuclear accident in neighboring Fukushima Prefecture and subsequent reports of radioactive contamination in vegetables here in Ibaraki, there were concerns about whether there would be rice growing at all this year. Fortunately, the government has given the go-ahead to farmers in this prefecture( though not to those in Fukushima), and even before I heard the official pronouncement I realized the decision had been made as I watched the fields in my neighborhhod being flooded and heard the frogs come to life ( heartening sights and sounds indeed!)
In Japan, the first week of May has a string of national holidays in it making up what is known as Golden Week. The original intention behind the creation of what is now a popular time for the Japanese ( and foreign residents in Japan) to go on a vacation, or just take a well needed rest, was to provide the rice farmers, most of whom also work regular jobs,with the time to do the rice transplanting. Since the 1970`s and the widespread availability of mechanical transplanters, this task has become much, MUCH easier than it used to be, when nearly everyone in the village would have to lend a hand to help complete the long, backbreaking labor. Now, with the help of the machines (which most of Tsukuba`s rice farmers own), the work can be done by one person, in less than an hour (for one field).
If you take a walk, bike ride, or drive, around the Tsukuban countryside this week (like Ive been doing for the past few days), you will be able to see the tranplantion (ta ue 田植え, in Japanese), for yourselves. The farmers are usually very friendly and happy to chat about rice production. If you are lucky, they might even let you try your hand at some transplanting (though the farmers who let me have a try surely regeret that they had!).
Some of you (from non-rice growing regions), might be wondering what I mean by TRANSPLANTING, instead of just plain PLANTING. Well, let me explain a bit about what the farmers have to do in the early stages of the rice cultivation cycle, between late March and early May(of course timings are different in warmer regions like Okinawa and parts of Kagoshima where farmers can get TWO rice harvests per year).
The Sun Going Down Behind The Ruins Of Konda Castle In TsukubaIn most regions of Japan, the process of growing rice begins in late March. It is then that the rice seeds are planted in soil in seedling trays (IKUBYO-BAKO, 育苗箱), which are then placed in incubators (IKUBYO-KI, 育苗機) which maintain temperatures at about 30 degrees centigrade. After about 3 days, white shoots appear and when these reach a length of about one centimeter, the trays are moved to large greenhouses, where they will be grown under controlled temperatures for about one month and the plants reach a length of 7 or 8 cm. These days in Ibaraki, and the rest of Japan, this process is often now taken care of by NOKYO, Japan`s huge and powerful agricultural cooperative. In past ages, however, rice seeds were planted in soft muddy soil, and then the seedlings which survived were transferred to the flooded fields.
In Mid-April, just as the cherry blossoms are often starting to drop away, the farmers begin preparing the fields. This is called Ta Okoshi (田おこし) in Japanese (literally- Awakening the Fields). Aftert the stagnant and freezing winter months the soil must be plowed. Of course in the old days, this was again BACKBREAKING labor for both humans and beasts of burden (horses and oxen). Todays tractors do the works 15 times more efficiently. The soil is usually plowed up to a depth of 12-15 cm, optimal the rice plants to take strong root.
When the plowing is done, the fields are also fertilized. In the old days, the fertilizer was of course all organic (fermented plant and animal waste matter), but now most farmers also use chemical fertilizers.
Then, at the end of April, the fields are flooded. This characteristic of rice culture , which involved a communities sharing of water resources is often pointed out by Japanese scholars as being the main reason for Japa`s having developed its unique group oriented culture (but is Japanese culture the same as that of other rice growing cultures which shared water resources?).
In the earlier days of rice cultivation in Japan, this all important crop could only be grown near wetlands, lakes or rivers. Water would be diverted to fields just before transplantation. In later years, new rice field could be developed by the creation of canals and reservoir. These days, rice fields are flooded and drain with pumps and built in pipes, which makes everything much more effecient.
While the fields are being flooded, the fields are plowed again, to mix the water and soil well and to make the soil surface under the water even, so the young plants will stick out of the water at the same height. This process is called Shirokaki (代かき)
Finally, in the first week of May, we get to the part that you can witness this week at various palces around Tsukuba. The trays of seedlings are brought out and placed in the tractor-like transplanting machines. It always amazes me how the farmers make such straight beautiful rows .
Dont miss having a look at this absolutely fundamental element of Japanese culture.This will not require much effort on your part as no matter where you are in Tsukuba, you can never be very far from a rice field (tambo). The flooded fields are most photogenic in the early morning and at sundown
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Japan Turns Yellow, as NANOHANA (Rapeseed Flowers) Take Over The Spring Landscape ( revisited )
By Avi Landau
The cherry blossoms might be Japan`s most famous flower of spring (or ANY season for that matter), but alas, in any particular part of Japan, the pulsating, pink, cloud-like canopy that they create usually lasts for just a few days. As the delicate petals start to fall away, filling us with a deep sense of MUJO (無常), the passing nature of all things, the ground does remain a scattered pink for another day or two. But it is at this time that the true color of Japanese spring begins to set in and then completely dominate the rural scenery. I am talking about the wavy yellow carpets of nanohana (菜の花) which take over the riverbanks, roadsides, vegetable field borders and just about any other undeveloped open space.When looked at from a distance, the clusters of little flowers blooming on the tall and slender stems can create a dreamlike scene, especially when they stretch to the horizon filling the air with their pasty, intoxicating scent.
The Japanese have long used nanohana as a food. Archaeological evidence shows that certain nanohana were eaten in the Yayoi period (330BC-300AD), and other species are mentioned in the earlest of Japanese writings (The Kojiki and The Manyoshu) If you are invited to a Japanese home in spring you might very well be served them in the form of OHITASHI ( the leaves , stems and flowers boiled and then flavored with with soy sauce), or my favorite- KARASHIAE (the same, but with some hot mustard added).
It was in the Edo Period (1600-1868), however, that nanohana (also called ABURANA) really came into their own as new techniques were devised for extracting oil (canola oil) from their seeds. This is called NATANE NO ABURA in Japanese, and it is still used for cooking. What made it so important in past ages, though,was that it was the main fuel used for lights and lanterns ( before that fish oil and sesame oil were used). You might also be surprised to learn that the oil from these same flowers can be used to run deisel engines!
It was probably because the oil made from the nanohana was used to LIGHT UP Edo (Tokyo), that the great Haiku poet Buson (1716-1783) wrote this, one of the most famous of all Haikus- Nanohana ya Tsuki wa higashi ni Hi wa nishi ni (Nanohana-with the moon in the east and the sun in the west!), in which the flowers which provided the fuel for artificial illumination stand between the day and night as the sun is about to set on a spring day. It is also probably because of this poem that the Japanese often associate the beauty of nanohana with dusk.
Another interesting tidbit which I remember when thinking about nanohana, is that these flowers are offered at the grave of the most famous of all Tea Masters and man of impeccible taste- Sen-no-Rikyu(1522-1591), on his memorial day, April 21. This is because the banks of the Yodo River were lined with them as he composed his final reminiscences, as a boat carried him to the spot where he was to commit ritual suicide (under the orders of Toyotomo Hideyoshi).
There are several varieties of plant which are referred to as nanohana, and if you see a field of them you might want to ask the farmer if they are for eating or for oil, or which vegetable they are (cale, broccolli, mustardseed etc…).
Even when writing in ENGLISH I prefer to use the Japanese word nanohana over the off-putting rape blossom.There is NO connection, however, between these flowers and violence against women in either English or Western culture. It is just that the latin word for turnip is rapus, and the nanohana is a member of the same family. Thus rape blossom means the turnip flower, and to tell the truth that does not have a very nice ring to it either!
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Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom, but Few Revellers in the Aftermath of the Great Quake and Tsunami
A somber sight- cherry trees in full bloom in a park on a fine day with NO REVELLERS, in the aftermath of the great earthquake
By Avi Landau
I had never seen anything like it. A small park surrounded by cherry trees (sakura) in full bloom on a beautiful April day at lunch time- with none of the traditional revellers ( in this case, groups of mothers with kids) who would usually be seen picnicking under the blossoms under such conditions.
A sad and lonely sight, indeed.
Though eating and drinking ( often accompanied by singing and carousing) under the sakura when their flowers are at their best is a cornerstone of Japanese culture eagerly anticipated by just about everyone each year- this time, in the aftermath of the great earthquake and horrific tsunami which struck Japan on March 11th, these trees, which our now exploding in their full glory, are standing very much alone.
There was no media build-up following the progression of the CHERRY BLOSSOM FRONT as it moved across the Japanese archipelago, a usual feature of early spring, nor could we find the usual ads promoting famous cherry spots which would usually have adorned the train stations at this time of year ( one of my favorite places, which features ONE ancient and magnificent tree, is unfortunately located in Miharu, in Fukushima Prefecture- not far from the damaged nuclear plant).
And now , as the sakura have achieved MANKAI ( full bloom), if there ARE any people doing HANAMI ( having a cherry party) at all, there is none of the revelry or ribaldbry which makes the tradition so unique- it is a quiet, solemn affair.
This is only natural. With what happened last month, no 0ne is really in the mood for a traditional cherry blossom party. And more to that, there are concerns about radiation ( in fact one foreign resident of Tsukuba who did go out to enjoy the cherries this past weekend, cut his outing short after having checked the direction the wind was blowing- right in from Fukushima Prefecture)- which despite the fact that the levels are NOT dangerous to our health ( as we have been assured) still makes it creepy and uncomfortable to linger outdoors for long.
As I walked around the perimeter of the park beneath the pink canopy created by the blossoms, I thought about the PASSING NATURE OF ALL THINGS (MUJO,無常), which these short lived flowers represent. And though the delicate petals would all be gone in a few days, I knew that they would be back next year, the year after that, and the year after that........
and by that time, the rebuilding of Japan, and the healing of our damaged spirits will already have been well underway-
and you can bet that the traditional revellers will be back with the blossoms.
Forlorn cherry trees in Tsukuba, one month after the great quake
I have written about what makes HANAMI ( cherry blossom viewing parties) unique:
and also about the great cherry tree in MIHARU, Fukushima Prefecture:
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