I ran this morning. The weather forecast was for a 50% chance of rain, but as usual I adjusted my alarm and got up at 5am. Luckily it wasn’t raining and I was able to run my usual course safely.
Yesterday I got the time wrong and even though it wasn’t raining when I got up, I didn’t get to run even though it wasn’t raining.
This morning I ran 6.11km on my usual course, which means I’ve now accumulated 95.17km in 14 runs this month, with only 4.83km left to run 100km a month with 3 days to go. One more run on my usual course and I’ll have achieved my goal.
It was cloudy this morning as well, as if it was about to start pouring. The humidity was so high that my body felt heavy and uncomfortable even though I was running. I just wanted to run slowly to the end. After the run, sweat dripped from my forehead as I did some organizing exercises. I’ve lost about 1.5 pounds of weight just from mere dehydration. Since I’m dehydrated, I’ll be back soon, but running in the heat is really hard.
Crazy is the right word to describe the idea of holding the Olympics at this time of year. I can’t believe that they are putting the athletes who compete first. I think it is time for the Olympics to stop and reconsider.
By the way, there was a death notice in this morning’s newspaper. It was the news of the death of Olivia de Havilland. Not many people may know Olivia de Havilland. However, many of you may remember her as the actress who played Melanie in the famous film “Gone with the Wind”.
She died on July 26 at her home in Paris at the age of 106.
She is said to be one of the last of the main cast of “Gone with the Wind” to be alive and well. Both Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh died long ago.
The film’s portrayal of the pre-Civil War American South, where slavery remained in place, is currently facing strong headwinds. The way black slaves are portrayed is being spearheaded. It is difficult for us Japanese, who do not share the same history as the rest of the world, to understand this.
But if you think about it, Japan must have had a similar history. For example, the actions of the mainlanders, the so-called “Japanese”, towards the Ainu people are not something to be admired. I think this is a history of Japan that needs to be properly reconsidered.
It is easy to criticize other people’s history, but I believe that there is no history that does not bring pain to the people of any country. The nobility of a people is how seriously they are able to face that history.
I ran this morning. As usual, I woke up at 5:00am with my alarm, got up and after getting ready, I went out the door. It was really only a little bit of rain at the time, so I started running, hoping that the weather would hold up for an hour or so.
However, about 20 minutes after I started running, it started to rain. The temperature wasn’t low, so I didn’t have to worry about catching a cold just because I was soaking wet, which made me feel better.
I ended up running 5.85km, a little shorter than my usual course, which brings my total for this month to 89.05km in 13 runs, bringing me to 10.94km with 5 days left to run 100km per month, which is just under 11km in 5 days, so I only need to run my usual course twice to achieve my goal. So far it’s going well.
Anyway, it’s been raining every day. I went to Takasaki from Friday to Saturday and it’s a shame I couldn’t see the mountains of Gunma under the blue sky, but it’s a luxury. It didn’t rain much and we enjoyed the drive and came back safely, so if we complain about it, we’ll be punished.
■By the way, there were a number of articles in this morning’s Tokyo Shimbun that caught my attention.
The first was an interview with the new corona. The first one is an interview with Mr. Haruo Ozaki, chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association. In response to a reporter’s question about his assessment of the government’s measures, Dr. Ozaki answered as follows
“It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the cluster measures (to find infected populations), but the spread of infection has reached its limits. South Korea’s countermeasures were functioning well, with mass testing and institutionalization working in tandem.
It’s not good for Japan to imitate the West but not learn from other Asian countries. We should have focused on expanding our inspection and hospitalization systems separately from the countermeasure teams for clusters.”
That’s what Chairman Ozaki is all about. In another column in this morning’s newspaper, “Living the Corona,” French economist and thinker Jacques Atari gave an interview. Among other things, he spoke highly of South Korea’s response.
He said: “South Korea took lessons from the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) epidemic to strengthen its disease control headquarters and put in place a post-pandemic management system. This is a successful example of the measures taken.
Inspections to ascertain the actual status of infection and the wearing of masks were strictly enforced, and action was confirmed in the event of a case of infection. If we had taken the Korean-style measures instead of using lockdowns, we would have been able to limit the damage in terms of both economic and human resources,” .
The Japanese media rarely, if ever, accurately report on the current state of affairs, as if they don’t want to evaluate Korea at all.
Unfortunately, the Japanese media rarely report accurately on the current state of affairs, as if they do not want to give credit to South Korea.
As one would expect from the mass media, they don’t fall into the trap of self-congratulating other countries, as they do in the case of Nettoyo, but they are a hundred steps ahead of us in terms of not assessing the situation correctly.
When will Japan truly change? Looking to the east, we become obsequious, and looking to the west, we become stubborn. This attitude has not changed a bit since the Meiji era.
This may be Japan’s last chance to change in a post-Corona, multipolar world.
I ran this morning as well. As usual, I woke up at 5 o’clock with an alarm clock. This year, I started using air conditioning last night. I keep it running all night in the eco mode set at 28 degrees. Since I’ve done this, I’ve got a good night’s sleep, and my heart palpitations in the morning have almost disappeared. I’m sure that the balance of autonomic nerves will be bad because the ability to regulate body temperature is decreasing.
Until the summer of last year, I was trying to sleep by opening the windows and not using air conditioning, but it seems that I can not beat my age. Since last year, thanks to air conditioning, I have been able to sleep deeply even in the summer.
Today, I ran 6.11km on the usual course, and this month I have accumulated 70.79km in 10 runs. It’s 29.20km in 10 days to run 100km/month.
We will have consecutive holidays from Thursday. If there was no new coronavirus infection, the Olympics would have begun. It’s very incredible, but that’s what we have to accept.
■ By the way, today’s Tokyo Shimbun, “Series Verification Corona Countermeasures: To Prepare for Crisis,” is written as being fooled by “Government dodging.”
We are verifying the government’s response to request temporary closure of elementary and junior high schools nationwide.
“The prime minister requests elementary, junior high, and high schools across the country to temporarily close the school until March 2 from spring break,” wrote the article. It was stated that it was a sudden request, without consulting the government expert meeting.
At the end of the article: In May, a committee of the Japanese Academy of Pediatrics compiled a report based on medical findings.
“It was pointed out that the number of cases of infection in children is small and that the disease is rare. Analyzing the fact that there are almost no reports of clusters (infected populations) in which children became the source of infection at schools and elsewhere, “closed at schools is not effective in preventing epidemics,” he said.
In addition, the closure threatens educational opportunities and increases the risk of abuse, so it “warns the physical and mental health of children,” and warns of the harmful effects.
In short, it’s just a series of tactics in a certain sense, without any thought. The only purpose I’m good at is pretending to be doing. I can’t think of people struggling in the field. I can’t even imagine it.
They do not understand the lives and hardships of the common people. I think the unhappiness of having such a person at the top of politics will be created. But it is us voters who are choosing it. The result of voters’ political action is the current state of Japan.
I ran this morning. Yesterday we played golf in the first half, in the rain, and in the second half in fine weather, and enjoyed dinner with the Tsuru-chan couple once a month.
I was already tired, so I went to bed before 10 pm and took a rest. I was worried if I could get up, but this morning I got up at 5 o’clock as usual and started running after the gymnastics. Although my body was getting heavy, I ran 6.07km on the usual course, and this month, I accumulated 64.68km in 9 runs. I have reached the point of 35.31km in 11 days until I reach 100km a month.
Naturally, it was a hard time getting up this morning this morning. Even after I started running, I kept running with the intention of running slowly to the end.
It’s already July 20th today. It’s not strange that the end of the rainy season should be declared, but it seems that it will continue to rain. Although a slightly thin cloud came out this morning, I could see the blue sky and hear cicada rain.
■ By the way, this morning in the Tokyo Shimbun reader section, a post titled “I doubt the need for linear” is posted.
In the post-coronavirus society, we are wondering if we really need a linear bullet train.
In it, the research results of Mr. Shuji Abe of AIST are written. The Linear Shinkansen, which runs at a speed of 500 km/h, travels against strong air resistance, so it seems that it consumes more than three times the energy per passenger as the Shinkansen Nozomi.
While the automobile industry continues to make efforts to improve fuel efficiency, the railway industry is spending a huge amount of money on technology that makes it much less efficient. Certainly, the automobile industry is making a huge investment in how to drive cars with energy savings, but the railway industry is doing exactly the opposite.
Speaking of cars, it’s like developing only cars like old American cars. No one will drive such a car. It’s like switching a government car from a Prius to a Cadillac.
If you point it out, you can easily understand the anachronism of the Linear Shinkansen. I still feel the sense of incongruity that JR is chasing after the dream of the high growth era.
The problem is how society can respond when it recognizes the gap with such times or when it becomes clear. If society is not flexible, it will become a society where only battleship Yamato will continue to be made forever.
Only the tragic situation of defeat is waiting ahead. Now is the time to stop and rethink.