Egg rolls

One of my recent favorites: Japanese egg rolls.

This is a variation of traditional egg rolls in Japanese cuisine: stuff boiled asparagus into chikuwa (竹輪 made of fish), and cook it as one does in traditional style.

Anti-Nuclear Demo on 11/March/2011

On March 11 2012, the first anniversary of the triple disasters - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant meltdown - last year in Japan, we joined a demonstration in Tokyo in support of anti-nuclear campaign. 

There were several events going on at the same time in commemoration of the earthquake in Hibiya park and across Japan. We marched on with other protestants, foreign and national alike, for a generally defined purpose of anti-nuclear policy in the country. Inevitably, in a big and crowded occasion like this, people came with a range of more specifically tuned sub-agendas. Some were more political than others, and some personal. It was impossible to agree with everyone on every single argument, but hopefully the general message for peace and a safe environment was carried through to the public. 

There were other protests at the same time around the world, for instance, Taiwan, my home country, where people demanded a referendum on the on-going construction of the fourth nuclear power plant. 

I have to admit that I do not know professionally about nuclear energy, but the close call after the quake last year has brought me to consider social injustice that the whole accident has caused. 

If it is too complicated to understand nuclear energy in scientific terms, is it not enough just to remember how we all feared for the lives of our beloved around the world last year? Yes, around the world, even though the accident itself was narrowly located inside Japan. The danger and risk that a mishap in a nuclear power plant can produce are still beyond human means of control and can simply spread across time and space to anyone. Even if it is claimed to be managed as the case in Japan, it is operated at the price of the lives of others, others whom we do not know, others who owe nothing to us, other who are economically disadvantaged and therefore are forced to disregard their own safety. 

Colm Toibin, The Empty Family

source

Colm Toibin

I started reading this book because of its title, The Empty Family, a topic in which an interest has been nourished and developed in me since my PhD days. And the title, as the combination of the words denotes, promises a heart-rending reading as I always like it, and so did it not fail my expectation. The short stories all develop around the theme of family, homecoming, home-leaving, home-abandoning, home-binding, home-seeking, etc., exploring every possible dimension of one's ambiguous feeling of attachment and detachment to the idea of and the place called 'home'. 

I remember I was on the verge of tears several times on the train when I was reading it through. 

It is the first time for me to read about same-sex love, too. I was ignorant about the fact that it is one of the featured themes in Toibin's stories, but the innocence has me  overwhelmed by the powerful emotion and unbearable afflictions contained in the author's masterful narratives.