Kittens

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During our daily cleaning time, kittens were found!

One, two, apparently there are three of these scroungy critters wandering around now.

It breaks my heart that I am, once again, unable to take in any animals because of my limited stay here in Japan.

Wheelchair Marathon 車椅子マラソン

A week after the Sports Festival, comes yet another day of physical exertion: the Saga Ceramic Road Wheelchair Marathon.

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This year they coupled a foot-race with the wheelchair race, at separate times of course.

I've always enjoyed these events because it allows the students to see how empowered the disabled can be.

Onions

Ever harvest an onion? If you've ever played Super Mario Brothers 2, you probably have a pretty good idea as to what it physically feels like. With each onion I pulled up, I kept expecting some sound effect or some coin popping up or something!

They wondered why I was so darn fast in harvesting the onions. The reason was quite simple: it was loads of fun!

And who says video games don't give us real-world skills?

I'm not sure, who?

Sports Festival 運動会

A remnant of the military training days? Quite possibly.

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(It's probably best to view the gallery as a Journal to get access to all of the captions.)

Once a year, school academic life gets put on hold for a couple of weeks. Instead, day after day, from an hour before school starts to late into the early evening, our students prepare and practice and psyche themselves up for the oh-so-popular sports festival.

I still can't think of an equivalent school celebration from back home in the states.

At our school, the students are split up into three different colored groups: red, yellow, and blue. They then have to compete in various races, cheering competitions, and class matches.

A day full of cheers and tears.

弓道 Test

On Sunday, some of us from the Arita Dojo tested for our advancement levels.



Kyudo tests are comprised of a written section and a shooting section.

The written section has two questions (passed out in advance): one dealing with a specific kyudo technique and one dealing with our personal philosophies, hopes, and habits.

The shooting section is a synchronized performance of five shooters, two arrows each, shooting sequentially. In addition to the formal eight steps of kyudo shooting (hasetsu), there are formalities such as entering and exiting the shooting area, kneeling, and stuff like that.

From 四段(yon-dan) onwards, kimonos are included in the shooting process, as well as a more elaborate entering and exiting ceremony.

Alas, for this test, I failed to hit the target on either shot, and thus, failed to achieve a passing mark. But, I was fortunate to be able to learn from my kyudo partners the intricacies of kimono shooting. I believe I now have a strong foundation to work from for future studies and future testings.

Most probably, my next testing opportunity will be in two years, during the Miyakonojo International Kyudo Seminar and Competition.

Global Polio Eradication

The modern vaccine has been one of the most successful and useful scientific inventions of this past century.

Global Polio Eradication

Such a simple strategy: induce the body's own immune system to develop a strong long-term immunity to a disease before the body comes into contact with the actual, sometimes fatal, disease. And the beauty of the vaccine is that, being a preventative measure against the disease itself, it is extremely inexpensive and accessible to society as a whole, as opposed to most forms of medical care that is aimed at treating diseases (and more often only the symptoms) on an individual basis.

Probably the most famous and successful example of the vaccine program was the global eradication of the smallpox virus.

Unfortunately, not all pathogens that cause human diseases can be so easily and totally eliminated. Using only human hosts, causing easily identifiable marks and symptoms that help with tracking the vaccination process, and being transmittable only through close person-to-person contact, the smallpox virus was vulnerable to being isolated and forced into extinction, at least in nature. (No more virus exists, unless of course you count the strains being kept for research purposes.)

The success of the smallpox vaccination efforts has raised the hopes of vaccination as a means of eradicating diseases of all types; yet with raised hopes and expectations, comes disappointment and even reactionary opposition. Diseases such as malaria and the flu can never be eliminated because those pathogens spread so easily, mutate so quickly, and can exist outside human hosts.

But vaccinations have made this world a whole lot safer and healthier. So, it's unfortunate that through cultural differences, through misinformation, through paranoia, through religious resistance, and a whole slew of other reasons, there is still distrust and opposition to vaccines. This recent bbc article briefly reports how 11 Malian men were jailed because they refused to allow their daughters to be vaccinated for polio. These men cited religious beliefs, as well as conspiracy concerns of government forced sterilizations.

An issue I have been wrestling over recently is the general acceptance of science by the layperson. It's seems as if many people, lacking a proper scientific education (read, most people in this world), treat science with an almost mystical reverence/irreverance. They do not fully understand what a particular scientific or medical principle is, and so rely on the "professionals" to tell them what is good and bad, what works and what doesn't, what is healthy and what isn't.

This dependence on another person is dangerous. There are bad scientists, and there are bad "sciences." Just because a person has a medical degree, or has a PhD, or has whatever credential he is flouting, doesn't mean that what he says is the truth. (I remember reading how years ago, a cigarette company prided itself in being the most favored brand among doctors, and used that as their marketing strategy.)

Only with a proper science education, one that teaches analysis and reasoning and skepticism, can an individual determine for himself what is bunk and what might have some merit.

Let's go back to the issue of polio and the polio eradication program.

It's amazing to consider that,

"Until the 1950s, polio crippled thousands of children every year in industrialized countries. Soon after the introduction of effective vaccines in the late 1950s (IPV) and early 1960s (OPV), polio was brought under control, and practically eliminated as a public health problem in industrialized countries."

A dramatic success story, no?

Not quite, because unfortunately polio is still endemic in parts of the developing world, though at an extremely low rate. Maybe that's the most frustrating part of all: that polio is so close to being eliminated from the entire world, and that it is the resistance by indivuals such as the 11 Malian men cited above that is preventing the total global eradication. (Even more alarming is when goverments start resisting these vaccination efforts.) Hence the extreme solution imposed by the Malian goverment: a restriction of individual liberties for the common good of society.

Whether such an aggressive and extreme strategy is ethical or even effective is an issue much too large in scope for this poor blogger. Though maybe effective in the short term, and even if polio is eradicated from the world because of such intensive efforts, these tactics can cause a backlash of opposition that might hinder future medical and vaccination programs for other diseases.

(I do believe that there are situations when the good of the society requires the government to violate invidual freedoms. How this is to be done. . . .)

The good news is that there is great hope with polio. It appears to be manageable and it is a good sign that the polio eradication groups are looking forward to the future after polio is finally eliminated, hopefully within the next five to ten years.

"After poliovirus transmission is stopped in the remaining polio-endemic countries, the future phase of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative aims to achieve certification of global polio eradication, to develop products for the global cessation of oral polio vaccine and to ensure that the infrastructure and knowledge that has been gained through the initiative is transferred to address other important public health programmes."

In other words, with all the knowledge and experience garnered through the global polio eradication efforts, as well as the infrastructure created (such as nutritional distribution channels, disease surveillance, and immunization services), future programs to address other public health issues should be much much easier to manage.

So, when polio is eradicated once and for all, a lot of financial and manpower resources can be diverted to other causes. But as long as polio still exists and is still transmitted from person to person, even only a handful of cases can inefficiently consume a great deal of time and energy and money.

Global Polio Eradication

Arita Kyudo Competition

On Sunday, May 8th, the 有田道場 celebrated the fifth year anniversary of its construction.

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Over eighty participants from around the prefecture came to compete with us. Although it was held in our small dojo (only three shooters at a time), the competition went without a hitch and everybody, win or lose, took home some famous 有田 pottery.

I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the shooter for the opening ceremonies, and though I was a little nervous and though I made a few mistakes, we all thought I've improved a lot in the last three years.

We're all looking foward to the 10th year celebration now!

Shikoku Trip

During the Golden Week Holidays, we visited Shikoku.

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Taking the ferry from Kyushu, we drove through the prefectures of Ehime, Kochi, and Tokushima. We camped near the Oku Iya Kazura-bashi Vine Bridges, and hiked around Tsurugi-san. To finish off the trip, we made a quick climb up the stairs of Konpira Shrine, and then a dip in the old-bathhouse of Dogo-onsen in Matsuyama.

My favorite pictures:

the vine bridge at night
and
the shrine employees playing a traditional game of hacky sack.


It was a pleasant trip. I enjoyed the slow pace of life of Shikoku, and hope to return one day to experience the famous whirlpools of Naruto and the gorgeous valleys of Oboke Koboke.