This article tells the story of Tsuyako Ito, who was preparing to perform when the earthquake struck at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 of this year. She began her career when she was fourteen and survived three previous tsunamis.

I enjoyed reading the article and though I would post it here, in case others have not come across it in their wanderings through cyberspace.

The Japanese says “Japan will be strong” - the image is from Pixiv, a Japanese community of artists. Images like this one started appearing soon after the earthquake.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the weird and wonderful world of fractal geometry. You might have at some point used a computer program to explore the famous Mandelbrot set and seen that as you go deeper and deeper into the iterations, the same fractal shape appears over and over again. That is the nature of fractal geometry and it is found in all sorts of surprising places from images generated by complex mathematical equations, to a head of cauliflower.

Here is his obituary: Benoit Mandelbrot

The Mandelbrot Set

Recent events concerning Japan's elderly population have brought more angst than admiration. It was discovered that Tokyo's oldest man was, in fact, naught but mummified remains and his family continued to fraudulently collect his pension for some 30 years after he died.

The Japanese government admits, in a nationwide survey released last month, that 230,000 of its citizens were "missing". Authorities believe most of the missing actually died during the war or in natural disasters or had moved abroad.

Part of the problem is a breakdown of the old system of family records, known as the koseki or household register. The koseki lists every member of a family along with details of all major life events -- births, deaths, marriages etc.

The koseki dates from the 19th century and was originally a means of conscripting soldiers for the army. The system worked well as long as Japanese lived in extended families, stayed put at one address and updated the register on a regular basis.

But modern Japan is increasingly populated by single householders that tend to move more than their parents and grandparents. In this situation, the koseki system is problematic for if no one records a death, then the authorities have no way of keeping track of such things.

The situation of the missing elderly in Japan highlights problems that all of us face in our increasingly mobile society. We don't live in the same town where we were born, as previous generations did and the elderly aren't automatically cared for by their family members.

I think it is something we will all struggle with as the family structure changes and evolves. So, do remember to keep track of your loved ones. :)

Japan's hunt for missing elderly exposes social woes -- article from Reuters.

Aerial photos of fields show the outlines of long lost structures from England's past. The crops growing over buried features apparently develop at a different rate from those nearby. If you follow the link you'll see the ghostly outlines of a prehistoric structure as well as the typical "playing card" footprints of Roman forts.

Image from Yahoo News...

The sakura zensen - or cherry blossom front - is the progression of the flowering of the cherry trees across the country. The lovely and fragile pink flowers are at their peak for only 5-12 days before they are swept away by the spring rains. They serve as a reminder of how fleeting and poignant life can be, and many Japanese look upon them with wistful eyes. If you are an anime fan, no doubt you will recall showers of cherry blossoms at significant or sad moments in the story. They are also a symbol for new beginnings as the start of the Japanese school year is 1 April.

The custom of viewing the flowers is called hanami. Hanami is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–784). At that time, however, it was ume (plum) blossoms that people admired at that time. By the Heian Period, it was the sakura that attracted more attention. From then on, in tanka and haiku, "flowers" meant "sakura."

Hanami was first used as a term analogous to cherry blossom viewing in the Heian era novel The Tale of Genji. A wisteria viewing party was also described, from this point on the terms "hanami" and "flower party" were only used to describe cherry blossom viewing.

Sakura were originally used to divine that year's harvest as well as an announcer of the rice-planting season. People believed in gods' existence inside the trees and made offerings at the root of sakura trees. Afterwards, they partook of the offering with sake.

Emperor Saga of the Heian Period adopted this and held flower-viewing parties with sake and feasts underneath the blossoming boughs of sakura trees in the Imperial Court in Kyoto. Poems would be written praising the delicate flowers, which were seen as a metaphor for life itself, luminous and beautiful yet fleeting and ephemeral.

The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court but soon spread to samurai society and by the Edo period to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, they had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts.

This tradition continues today and the best spots to view the flowers are quickly snapped up and if you are the junior partner in the office, you may get assigned the task of getting to the appointed place very early - sometimes the night before - so as to stake out the best spots for your superiors.

This year, the forecast of when the blossoms will open is in the hands of volunteers, instead of Japan's Meteorological Association. Volunteers take photos of the trees and their buds with their cell phones and then send them to a private forecasting agency. Updates are then released to the media as all prepare for the spectacle.

So if you've extra frequent flyer miles and a mad urge to see cherry blossoms in Japan this year, you'd best hurry for the blossoms will soon be at their peak! Here's a forecast for this year: 2010 Japanese Cherry Blossom Forecast.

Additional articles:
Parties start as Japan's cherry tree season blooms
Cherry blossom forecasts weather change in Japan.

More about cherry blossom predictions (at YouTube): Japanese monitor the first signs of spring

UPDATE! The fabulous Aria-sama has just given me a great link to this year's report of the sakura zensen: http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/sakura10/ Check back to follow the progress of the blooms!

A friend of mine has written to me to tell me that he thinks the coffee I have been drinking of late is too bitter. He's probably right. And is often the case with rants, I've probably done the very thing I'm railing against in the past...though not intentionally. After all, we all are humans with faults and foibles. I expect many of the "hang-ups" aren't really intentional either.

But we should all try and remember to be kind to each other. And stay away from the bitter coffee.

If someone takes the time to leave you a gram or a scroll saying how much she enjoyed reading an article/post/journal entry that you wrote or event that you prepared, how difficult is it to take the time to leave that person a brief response? It need not be elaborate. "Thank you." would suffice.

If someone came up to you in the street and said, "You know I really enjoyed reading that article that you wrote..." Would you walk away and ignore them?

Probably not. So why are many "I really enjoyed your [insert name of article/post/journal entry/event here]..." messages around this site ignored?

Perhaps it is a cultural thing? In the part of the country where I was brought up, simple courtesies like that are a given. If someone gives you a gift or a compliment, you always say thank you. Maybe it is not like that in other places.

I feel foolish and stupid afterwards when I leave someone a message like that and he or she doesn't respond. Why didn't he or she? Too busy to bother? Did that person think I wasn't being sincere? I'm not worthy of noticing?

It makes me far less likely to want to do something like that in the future. And I think that's sad. Aren't we supposed to be a community? If you find yourself indifferent or too busy to offer a reply to someone, you might have missed out on making contact with a person who shares similar interests to you. Maybe that person would have helped you revive a dead group or discussion of yours.

Or maybe not. Perhaps some people just don't want contact with others.