"whatsoever thou wilt ask of God" - Cold Stories on Cold Streets

Around Tokyo...after an autumn rain...
(a tornado happened somewhere in Japan, though far from Tokyo...)

Cold Stories on Cold Streets

It was a little snowing when the M9.0 earthquake occurred in the North Pacific Ocean 150km off the Tohoku region of Honsyu Island, Japan, on March 11, 2011.

Again, the season has come back that surviving victims of the 3/11 Tsunami have to face coldness.  Those living in temporary homes are busy making their apartments resistant to coldness, say, by making the sash window frame double.  Some municipality is attaching insulated material on walls of temporary apartment houses to help those who lost their homes and now live in such temporary facilities.

As their old residential areas were proved to face a risk of tsunami hazard on March 11, related municipalities have forbidden rebuilding of houses in the same places.  This regulation has made recovery more difficult for those who lost their houses due to the tsunami.

Total 200,000 houses and buildings were wholly destroyed or half destroyed by the 3/11 Tsunami.

 
A Cold Story in Siberia

According to a reporter of the Yomiuru Shimbun newspaper of Japan, it is not pleasant at all to travel Siberia.

He recently visited a city near Lake Baikal.  He was walking on a street to take pictures.  He found some big paper factory on the great lake and tried to take its pictures from a public road.  Then he was virtually arrested and brought into the police.  He had to take two hours to explain that he was not a spy and he did not know the factory produced some secret material for Russian aircrafts, space crafts, or the like,  Then he was finally released.

In a hotel, he was in a room waiting for a taxi.  He had asked the hotel to call one for him.   But 20 minutes before the arranged time, a female employee of the hotel rushed into his room, shouting, "The taxi has come.  Be quick!"  But, he went down to the lobby at the exact time only to be told that the taxi had gone for another calling and he had to find one for himself on the street.  So, the embarrassed Japanese reporter left the hotel into the freezing street.  The temperature was 20 degrees Celsius below zero.  He had to go to another city, 170 km or 100 miles far, where an airport was situated.  He was almost frozen on the street but finally able to grab a shared-taxi.

So, he wondered how Russians could be so unkind while they were promoting tourism in every local region.


A Cold Story in Wall Street

In October a Japanese researcher traveled to New York to attend a UN related symposium.

He of course checked Occupy Wall Street.  He happened to see Mr. Jesse Jackson visiting the site occupied by Occupy Wall Street participants.

http://kazutosuzuki.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-streettea-party.html

However only several people welcomed Mr. Jackson.  Most of OWS participants did not even try to see Mr. Jackson.  So, the Japanese researcher found that there was a big gap between those in the OWS camp and those outside it.  Sightseers and residents around Zuccotti Park looked like being clearly separated.  It seemed to be very difficult for sightseers and residents to walk in the park and befriend OWS participants.

Every participant looked like having his or her own agenda.  Especially those who held up signs were spoken to or challenged by others.  Yet, there were no common themes.  Only a sense of protest and a liberal value judgment might be shared by various participants.  If you do not have a kind of faith in this way of self-expression, you cannot walk into and join Occupy Wall Street, the Japanese observed.  But, this movement cannot have a political influence.  It is too individual, he concluded.

Finally he wrote in his blog that unless Republicans should take up agendas of OWS guys, their discomforts and complaints will continue to be accumulated and things will get graver.


(to be continued...)

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

In the Gospels, no scenes are depicted where snow is falling on Christ Jesus and His disciples.

Snow and ice seem to have nothing to do with the story of Christ Jesus.

Yet, Christianity spread in the north of the Alps, though tropically born Buddhism spread into Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan all familiar with ice and snow in the winter.

Conversely, it tells how universal true religions are.  Yet, no global regions emerged from the world of ice and snow.   Probably, for people to live in the world of snow and ice, unique religion must be needed.  Anyway, Palestine is situated at the junction of Africa, Europe, and Asia.


(Note: This is the 2010th posting since I satrted this blog on May 13, 2005.  Tomorrow it will catch up with the number of this year 2011. It can be important.)

Joh 11:22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Joh 11:23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.