Big Heat

The big heat of Midsummer (大暑) is almost upon us and the days have been hot and humid and the angels buy iced treats while they play in the park. It is so wonderful here amid the greens under balmy azure skies, so much so that the storms out over the Pacific are coming over to visit us quite soon. Over one year's rain fell in just a few days in the south-west and those heavy rains washed away roads, homes and the lives of thirty people. We are truly small before the great Earth, she turns, she shivers and she washes and notices us not!

The news lately has been full of worrying things like the ownership of the Senkaku islands. Taiwan and China both claim them. At present they are legally owned by private Japanese citizens and when Shintaro Ishihara, the Governor of Tokyo started a campaign to raise funds to purchase them for all of Japan, he received a fortune in donations. However this has upset China and they sent home our ambassador there and now the business fraternity worry that as we invest billions in China and they are a fantastic market for our products, it will cause major problems. The USA just upgraded military aircraft in Okinawa (close by) and that could further upset the delicate balances there.
What upset me the most in the news was that the ladies sports teams were flown to London Olympics in economy class while the men went business-class. Hold on you organisers, not only is this damn well sexist but the ladies soccer team are world champions - how far in progression did the men reach in their world cup? If only one team had to fly in a business class I know which team in my opinion deserved it.

Wednesday is midweek and perhaps it is the slowest day of all with most things seemingly happening on any of the other six days rather than this one. So to relieve the drab monotony of it all I have introduced meals from around the world as dinner on Wednesday evenings. It has usually been Italian with such wonderful pasta dishes of theirs, Greek Moussaka, Indian Lamb Korma and American Chilli con carne. Last Wednesday we ate Indonesian nasi goreng which is a chicken and shrimp rice with stir fry vegetables. There are hundreds of different recipes for this one dish alone which means I can try out the others and not have to make the same meal with the same ingredients and same spices each time.

On Thursday I went to visit with Tety in prison. He looks distinctly older but he brightened up on seeing me again. I took for him his stationary set that he'd asked me for on my last visit. I told him the children would like to visit him but he told me no. He could not bear the shame of his children seeing him like this but he promised me he would write to them. He then said something to me in English. Neither of the guards I think speak English and when the guard on his side of the partition became aware that he could no longer understand he stood and grabbed Tety's collar and ordered him to be quiet and shouted that he knew the rules. He declared the visit over and marched Tety back to his cell.
The guard on my side apologised and stood. As I stood he asked me what Tety had said. I told the guard that Tety had said that he hopes we could be a family again after his sentence was completed.
My guard nodded as if understanding as he escorted me back to the locker room.
I knew there was a camera on the wall recording every image but I don't think they have audio. Tety had said no such thing but what he did say was that his children will benefit from his misdeeds.
I can't see how he means. He has raised them correctly and I hope he knows that Hitomi and I will do the same. He refuses to let them visit but I hope his word to write to them is his oath. They will be so disappointed if he lets them down and so will I.
When I arrived home the angels eagerly sat with me for news of him and I told them all the good things that children should hear. They were happy and in childlike innocence they did not question anything I said. They accepted a totally positive biased report because more than anything else, it is what they wanted to hear.
I must teach my children to be more questioning and not accept things at face value.

On Friday night Hitomi stayed at home with the children and I had a date with my dear friend Terutaka. We went to the cinema to watch the Amazing Spider man. Teru is a comic-book fan and loves these costumed heroes. I have seen the old Spider-man movies and this one just seems to start again. A re-booted hero much like they've done with Superman and Batman but I'm no expert on these things. All I can say is just like the one hundred plus recipes for nasi goreng, you can produce the same story with slightly different ingredients and still have something to keep you happy. We had a little drink later before his taxi took me home. He is happy that things have changed for the better now and that we can share friendship once more. I told him that I'm happy too. He no longer kisses me goodnight. It is my hope that one day he finds someone special.

Hitomi is ordering some new clothes again. I think the black catsuit is a winner. Hitomi says that Masazumi would have looked fabulous in it. She has that glint in her eye that tells me she wants to improve. I used to be like that when I wrote articles. I'd write it, edit it, re write parts and think about it. Then I'd rewrite some more and then when I was happy I'd finally submit it. Then after it was out of my hands I'd wish that I could add a little, cut a little here and change this and that. The truth is that it was the best I could produce at the time. Five hours later I could have made it better. Five weeks later I could have made it a lot better. We have to have a point that we call cut-off. This is our our deadline which falls before the required deadline and then at that point if it is the best we can do then we can do more.

	Helen St John - Love Theme From Flashdance
	Found by Momo on a warm evening

It is a rather haunting melody.