“Sir, it seems typhoon no.9 is coming.”

“Yes, it seems so, when will be the hardest time, do you know?”

“I am not sure, I am not following weather forecast.”

“See, but the weather was bad today, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, indeed. there was just squall before you got in. One of customers said, it is like being in Indonesia!”

“Yes, it is like we are in tropical zone.”

“You know, my customer, I remember when I was a kid, we used to check temperature on weather news every morning because we were so excited about swimming classes at elementary school.”

“I did that, too.”

“I remember temperature we used to see was always ranging between 28 and 30 during summer. It rarely went up higher than 32.”

“Yes, but driver-san, we see 35, 36, or even 37 in these days. This is something.”

“That’s right. Climate is changing.”

“Well, it will be a crazy day tomorrow because of typhoon. Take care. Thank you for the ride.”

Tokyo gets heat-island effect during summer. And it has become more intense over the years. Lots of people are anxious about it. And people in Tokyo have started Uchimizu project in 2003.
They basically set up special Uchimizu weeks from the end of July to mid August, and splash water on the street all at once. It actually cools down tokyo for few seconds.

I think this is a cool collaboration project that let people know one of the facts about Tokyo and big city in general. But, heat-island effect should be tackled by facilitating exhaustive and reliable plan like this one in Seoul.

Anyway, this Typhoon no9 seems to bring the beginning of autumn as well. But, firstly, I hope people careful about this typhoon and will be fine when they get out of house after it passes away.

Right now at 17:00 my room is a cosy 34 degrees, as the sun is setting, with the A/C on 26 and a couple of fans at full speed. The kitchen, where I do not have A/C is still above 37. That is HEAT.

I’m worried about global warming, this is just not NICE.

Incidentally, TEPCO, my electricity company, put a notice in my mailbox today. They are asking customers to save electricity as a result of the earthquake in Niigata prefecture in July. All seven nuclear reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station are shut down and that has created problems for TEPCO, who has had to secure power from other plants.

The leaflet explains that between 13:00 and 16:00, they are having trouble supplying the electricity needed, so please turn down the tempereture of your air conditioners, hang up curtains and blinds in front of windows, and turn off the TV if you are not watching.

I’m sure people can do more than that. Any good ideas, dear readers…?

(Photo from www.nippon.fr showing a fridge curtain, to save electricity when you open the door of the refrigerator on a hot day.

Koen Dori in Shibuya, the main street from the station to NHK, will continue to have eco events until June 10. Here is the NHK Kankyo website. The tema is 明日のエコではまにあわない (”Eco tomorrow will not be enough”) or a sense that we had better start doing something today, or it will be too late. And June 5 is Environment Day in Japan.

I had a great time at the Eco Life Fair last weekend and took some photos which I put on my regular blog, Kurashi News from Japan. Hope you enjoy seeing what is going on here in Tokyo and Japan. This event was sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and some large companies, so it wasn’t as wild and crazy as for example Earthday. Having said that, I also felt Japan is indeed taking a lead in the field of sustainable development and environmental protection.

June 5 was the opening day of the historic United Nations Conference on Human Environment in 1972 in Stockholm, and was stipulated as Environment Day in Japan in the Basic Environment Law in 1993 for its commemoration.

The United Nations declared June 5 Environment Day, responding to a Japanese proposal in Stockholm in 1972. On this day, various events and ceremonies are held to promote environmental protection activities.

What do you do in your country on this day…?

Some southern parts of Japan have already entered tsuyu; Tokyo has yet entered the season. However, last night heavy rain already reminded us all that thetsuyu season is about to begin. I bet many people would be rather annoyed with such heavy rainfall like last night that wet everyone’s clothes even having umbrellas; tsuyu season is also very beautiful and necessary for the agriculture and forestry of Japan.

Walking around my town today, I saw new lives coming out that are particular to this season. Earthworms are walking on the still wet road. Dokudami flowers flourish beautiful white flowers despite its rather strong smell. Don’t forget! This is also the time when mosquitoes start to annoy our peaceful lives with irritating sounds they make!!!　Be ready to set akatorisenkou (A traditional Japanese item used to kill mosquitoes with the smoke that is created from the rounded green thing in the last pic.)

Eco Life Fair 2007 is a very nice website, but couldn’t they have at least some information in other languages? I’m not saying English only, but how about Chinese, Korean…?

Lectures, music, booths and foods… Another fun-filled weekend ahead! If you are interested in what NGOs are doing in Japan, this is also a great opportunity to get information and make new friends. List of participating NGOs/NPOs with websites here.

Today, in Japan, gas costs about 130-140 yen per liter. That is around $4.50 a gallon. Compared to Northern Europe, that is a bit less: The Netherlands appears to have the highest cost due to taxes at $6.73 a gallon at the pump. The US average is $3.20 a gallon (Note that US taxes on gas have gone down from 32% to 14% since 2000 – who is paying for the war in Iraq?).

I found this Irish AA site that gives the following prices for European countries in Euro and local currencies (the chart is easier to see on the AA website…):

Local Currency per litre /Euro cent per litre
Country /Currency /Unleaded /Diesel /Unleaded /Diesel
Austria Euro - - 1.06 0.97
Belgium Euro - - 1.36 1.07
Finland Euro - - 1.29 0.99
Germany Euro - - 1.32 1.13
Greece Euro - - 0.96 0.93
Netherlands Euro - - 1.47 1.08
Italy Euro - - 1.27 1.18
Spain Euro - - 1.01 0.93
France Euro - - 1.27 1.06
Ireland Euro - - 1.11 1.07
Portugal Euro - - 1.30 1.04
Sweden Swedish Krona 11.79 10.64 1.33 1.20
Switzerland Swiss Franc 1.67 1.72 1.06 1.09
GB Sterling 0.93 0.96 1.38 1.42
USA US Dollars 0.76 0.76 0.58 0.58

May is the month when the rainy season, tsuyu starts. As well as the beauty of sakura, there are many other beautiful trees and flowers that will be flourished and give us joys and comfort to our eyes. I hope to introduce some of those changes in nature in up-coming Metroblogging Tokyo.

Below is the information on azalea of Japan. It is in Japanese, so if you cannot read Japanese, I apologize. Though you can still enjoy the pictures!!

http://www.sizenken.biodic.go.jp/pc/ikimono/thema/03/setsumei/tutuji.html

Japanese Sakura/cherry blossom is well known for its beauty. My young memory of sakura is the beautiful blooming flower at the gate of my elementary school. At the beginning of every school year, I remember it was so beautiful. It was almost the flower saying ‘Congratulations!!’ to start a new year.

On the other hand, sakura often comes with hanami (cherry blossom seeing). As I had long been away from Japan, I have never really had hanami that what seems many adults enjoy with a lot of food and alcohol.　I mean people get really crazy at hanami. They start drinking before it gets dark and people often get totally wasted. It is not surprising to see police looking after such drunken people. Moreover, homeless people search for food and drinks after hamani people leave.

Three weeks passed since the blooming sakura, the beautiful pink flowers fallen on the ground and now it is all green. I have to admit that pink flowers are really beautiful, but the green leaves that come after the flowers are also unbelievably refreshing to my eyes. It is now that the color of greenness gets darker and darker and the parks once filled with beautiful pink flowers are replaced with deep rich green leaves.

Posted from my mobile phone