Business chance

After the news of methamidphos contamination, many Chinese restaurants and other food shops offering gyouza (chaoz) are afraid of prejudice to their foods. Utsuno-miya and Hama-matsu are the cities where many gyouza shops are located. They seem to be very anxious about whether it may reduce their sales. But I think that this is a great business chance for them. Many consumers avoid buying foods imported from China, including the cheap gyouza.
When the Japanese government determined to suspend beef imports from the USA, I had the same idea for Yoshino-ya, a major beef bowl chain restaurant. But they did not think so, and offered only some makeshift dishes instead of the beef bowl. So I was very disappointed.
Of course, I do not think that I can make a well-timed decision. Rather, I have little courage to take a long shot.

Pierre Marcolini

I tasted some chocolates that have bought for the Valentine’s Day. Photo is a tablet, Pierre Marcolini, and it was quite delicious. I agree it is not smart to buy them at the highest price, but I can get them only once a year.
On the last Friday, Ken vomited and did not accept any food for a day. The next day he completely recovered; however, I and Mari vomited on Sunday and Monday, respectively. We ate gyouza on Sunday, but I guess it came simply from a cold.

Kinki University

It seems that "Kinki" University of Japan is considering to be renamed "kindai" University. "Kinki" is the area of Kyoto and other four prefectures in Japan, and it sounds like kinky. "Kindai" means "Kinki Univ.", so "Kindai University" is the same meaning as "Kinki-Univ. University". I feel it is funny.
Katsuo is a character in the Japanese TV anime "Sazae-san", and it sounds similar to the Italian word "cazzo" that means dick. I heard that many Italian cheered a Japanese player "katsuo" in the Roma Olympics by that reason. So the name of "Kinki University" would be attractive for some people and help to make the name known.
Barack Obama is cheered by the people of Obama city in Japan, although that is not helpful for his victory at all.

Obstetric and pediatric problems

Mari and I have a plan to have a second child in the future. So it is important for us to know what state the obstetric and pediatric cares are in.
Sometimes I heard on the news that emergent pregnant women had been refused admission by many hospitals. Some commentators insisted that there is no issue if pregnant women have regular prenatal checkups. But I am very concerned about it, because that indicates that the maternity services have little capacity for emergent delivery. In Japan, a number of pediatricians and obstetricians retired due to the bad working conditions. I cannot fully trust these services in Japan even if my wife will have regular prenatal checkups in the hospital.
When Ken was born in the hospital, I and Mari were left in the delivery room while she had bad postpartum bleeding. Sometimes she pushed the nurse call button but there was no response. It was broken, and I had to call for the nurse. It is no wonder so many people consider that the system for these services should be improved.
I heard that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan decided to raise the medical remuneration for obstetric and pediatric doctors. I do not know this action will have any effect on obstetrical and pediatric problems, and on low birthrate in Japan. Perhaps it is only a palliative treatment.

Marriage and pregnancy

A popular female singer in Japan remarked on TV that the amniotic fluids in the pregnant women go bad over age 35. It has no scientific basis, and she became the target of criticism. Her comment is ridiculous; however, it is known that women over age 35 have increased risks to pregnancy. I think that it is better to recommend marriage and early maternity of University students in Japan. The more the couples know what the society is, the more they avoid having a child. For the double-income family, Japan is one of the countries where it is difficult to have a child. In particular, researchers are even difficult to find their spouses, although most of them know nothing about the society.

Marmalade

On Sunday, I had an interview for a position of assistant professor in a University in Japan. It was covered with snow and I worried about traffic conditions. The interview took about 30 minutes and I failed to sell myself. An interviewer told me just to relax.
After that, I met my family at the station. Mari went to a theater to watch the movie "L--change the world", and I and ken waited her on a bench. But we moved to the food store because an old man near us acted very suspicious. After a while Mari joined us and bought some brands of chocolate. We had dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
The next day, I made marmalade from iyo-kan, a sort of Japanese orange. I boiled the peel of iyo-kan and removed white pith from it. I cut it into pieces, boiled again, added the pulp and sugar, heated for 10 min stirring continuously, poured it into a sterilized jar, and voila. Subsequently I adjusted the flavor of blueberry jam made by Mari. I added lemon and grape juice to it and gave her the reformed jam.
I know that the term "marmalade" is derived from a French phrase "Marie est malade", which means "Marie (Mary, Queen of Scots) is sick". Sure, Mari was very sick of me.

China products

Several people in Japan were sickened by eating China-made gyouza (chaoz, a sort of dumpling) contaminated with methamidphos, an organophosphate insecticide. To date, many problems for China products, such as pet foods contaminated with melamine, toxic toothpaste with diethyleneglycol, and lead poisoned toys, have been reported in the USA. Perhaps it was very fortunate to have no such incident so far in Japan. Several companies make an appeal that their products are "safe China free".
When Mari heard about it on the news, she told me that she decided never to buy any China food. But the next day she bought some frozen foods, which contain many china products. Of course, it may be impossible to exclude all China products from our daily foods. With advance of globalization, numerous foods and products has been imported from China into Japan. The self-sufficiency ratio of food in Japan is less than 40% now.
The food companies are responsible for producing safety food than reducing the production cost. For the globalization of food, it is necessary to introduce the quality control engineering in Japan to the producers. At the same time, it should be given more importance on self-sufficient agriculture in Japan with localized food systems. To be a wise-consumer, one needs to be careful not only about the price but also the quality of food.
We have abundant resources of science, engineering, and agriculture in Japan. Japan desires to establish a nation based on the science and technology, although most scientists and engineers are working under poor conditions. I would be proud of our science and technology and hope the quality of products will be maintained in Japan.

Scientific news

According to an investigation by Cabinet Office, 60% people in Japan are interested in news about science. In fact, the number of scientific news is increasing in the Japanese media.
However, I feel that most scientific articles in Japanese newspapers failed to introduce the scientific values to readers. They tend to have grandiose titles, obscure contents, and misleading comments about the practical use. It would be better to employ more scientist as newspaper writer.
In contrast to above investigation, I do not know the reason why scientists have ill-treated in Japan. Many postdoctoral fellows cannot get their job in either academic or business. They become part-time workers and are called "highly-educated working poor".
Does Ph.D mean "peon having doctorate"? Or, only a "pipette-handling device"? It is very curious for me.

On a diet

Mari was on a diet for a year and gained 30 pounds. It is beyond my comprehension.

Setsu-bun

Last Sunday, we went to the shopping mall and watched the Planet Earth movie there. But it bored Ken and he soon squirmed in his seat. Sometimes Mari had to take him to the rest room.
In Japan, Feb. 3 is called "setsu-bun", which means the turning point of season. Many Japanese throw beans and call "fuku-wa uchi (fortune in), oni-wa soto (demons out)". Ken made a mask of oni, a demon in Japan, in the daycare. I put the mask and entered the living room. Ken laughed and ran away, and threw beans at me. We ate the beans as many as each age to kick demons out of ourselves.
Recently, it has become popular in Japan to eat eho-maki on this day. Eho means the good fortune direction. On 2008, the direction is South Southeast (SSE). To get a fortune, one should face in the direction of eho and eat a long sushi roll (eho-maki) without talking. But we ate it over taking in the car. We lost in the direction of SSE and failed to be SSE (silent sushi-eater).
Steer straight eho, that's SSE !

Nasu

Mari bought a guidebook for Tochigi, a Prefecture in Japan. She hopes to live in Nasu in Tochigi. She told me that we should make our home there before I get a job. But I disagreed with her. She fell asleep and dreamed of living in Nasu. I could not sleep worrying about my prospects. It is obvious which spent a happy time.
My son got otitis media again. His eardrum was inflamed, and he was prescribed antibiotic ear drops at the hospital. I guessed that he never let us to drop it into his ear. But Mari did it while he was asleep. Perhaps he felt as if a thunderbolt had fallen into his year. He got angry and cried out.

Patch

I patched Ken's pants without a sewing machine. I mended my torn sweater too. My clothes often have tears and holes for unknown reasons.
Mari attended a college reunion party and returned home at midnight. "Oh, So cold!" She slipped into Ken's bed.