Thursday, August 6, 2015

Not melted yet

Oh, but it is HOT here in Tokyo!
Within the past week, 11,672 people were taken to the hospital with heat prostration.
That is up from 7,743 people the week before.
Of those, 25 have died and 312 are in serious condition requiring at least three weeks hospital stay.
Of those affected, 5,689 are age 65 or above and Tokyo had the largest number of all the prefectures with 1,095.

This morning, Nikko and I walked behind a woman carrying an umbrella for shade and wearing gloves that covered her entire arms to above the elbows. I am wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt and carrying a towel to keep the perspiration from dripping onto my glasses. Though the temperatures are in the mid-30s, that is the average and the neighboring area next to us is much hotter.

Tuesday we escaped to the city, where we met one of my "old" scouting buddies. (actually, I was the oldest one there) We have been friends since the early 80's when he was in Japan with the navy. He and his lovely wife helped us celebrate our anniversary with a delicious meal and fried ice cream, while we caught up on several year's time and gossiped about our mutual scouting friends.

My friend had made a trip to the World Jamboree.

I had been half hoping to go ... I had attended the Japanese Jamboree at the same location two years before and, looking back to that week without shade and flooded campsites ... though I would have liked the experience, the lack of information about what might be different (other than thousands more people) along with the price in yen, gave me cause to reconsider.

Well, I got the first-hand report from my friend.

The next day, I also got a first-day-cover ... a real neat gift if you are a stamp collector. (my husband went over to our post office and brought back a sheet of stamps) These will go into my album of scout stamps from around the world. My friend and my husband both know how to make me happy.

This past week I have been working on an extension to the Women's Conference banner.

The end of this month, the church will have what they call a "Rally Day".

After the service, different ministries of the church have displays showing what activities are available.

In the old days, this was a good opportunity to get people involved in the activities of the church and show new members what goes on during  the year.  The last two years it has become just a day to walk around and have a look.

That day I have a scout event to attend so I added a pocket to the banner that can hold the printed brochures for those who want to know more.




I am not a fan of acronyms and this event has become WOCON.

For that reason I put those letters larger and darker fabric.

The owl fabric is the pocket.

The colored piano-key blocks are for attendees to sign their names so I added a few more around the pocket.


The park (where I borrow the fence for picture taking) was very hot in the morning sun but the Saru-suberi tree was bursting with blooms.

In Japanese this tree is called monkey-slip tree because of the very smooth bark.

Crape Myrtle is a tree I wish we saw more of in the city.
It comes in such a variety of colors and blooms throughout the summer and into the fall.
The tree takes in the pollutants which are flaked off in the bark. It can also be pruned way back to the main branches during the winter and yet come back with lots of shade and blooms in the next summer. I suppose it drops a lot of petals and flowers but both Linden and Zelkova drop sticky stuff and they are used for street trees anyway.


And one more piece of trivia ...

Sunday night ... or early Monday morning we had a "Blue Moon". Well, in Tokyo it really was rather orange and I thought I might take a picture of it dangling between the power lines outside my greenhouse windows.

For that, I needed to open the window.

Well, the camera was not keen on being awakened in the middle of the night and got confused about what I was focusing on.  I gave up.

BUT ... the mosquitoes didn't mind being awakened and took advantage of the open window,  I took a picture to show how tiny these critters are ... especially if you are used to those blood-sucking helicopters they have in Minnesota.

If they bite and you refrain from scratching, they do not itch for long. BUT, they never seem to bite me (like the nurse, they can't seem to find any blood), they just fly around singing in my ears and driving me nuts.  This one wouldn't sit down so I could swat it so I had to turn on the lights and pick it out of the air.
We do have bigger mosquitoes in the city and one park was closed part of last summer because those "Tiger Mosquitoes carry Dengue fever. These tiny ones are more common and can breed in the smallest amount of standing water.

I am still sitting with my foot up. The blocks on Ben's quilt are almost all quilted and by tomorrow I will think about how I want to do the border.  And while I am wiping my sweaty brow, I am thinking of my son, Ken, fighting fires in Washington State ... Maybe I don't really know what HOT is ... and I don't want to find out. Stay safe, big boy!

9 comments:

  1. I can take the heat, but, if you add humidity to it, I'm done. Try to stay cool.

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  2. What an alarming number of people succumbing to the heat, The banner, beautiful block shading, and blue ones by the words " Still waters".. perfect. And who better than an owl to have some knowledge tucked in beside him. Take care of your foot, so good to hear it has been on a stool for at least a short while.

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  3. What an eventful time you've had - I don't think I could bear the heat. We lived in the desert in S. California for 8 years but for the most part it was a dry heat - but those days when the rice fields were flooded and the temperatures were around 110, we all sweat buckets of moisture. Thankfully we have very few mosquitos here, but indeed one can make you crazy with their buzzing by your ears. One time I decided to see what they would do if I didn't swish them away and it just buzzed by my ear for a while, must have gotten bored and finally flew away.

    Washington thanks your son and all those fighting the fires - the Roosevelt fire is at the far southern end of Washington - along the Columbia River - we are at the top northwest of the state - far far away - so far, from the fires.

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  4. I guess it doesn't matter where we are, it is hot everywhere.
    I cannot go out when they have bad air days, hard to breath for me, so I think I need to move further north, lol. The pocket is a nice idea, wonderful piece.

    Debbie

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  5. I'm surprised you have mozzies up on the top floor. Must be breeding in the water in your outdoor plants. Earlier in the week it was reported that three Sentinel Chickens had tested positive for West Nile Virus in Pasco County. Today I see two confirmed human cases. We have lots of standing water with the recent rains. Some of it is still standing on a street nearby, causing it to be closed to traffic. Trouble everywhere.

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  6. TRY and stay safe ... and keep that foot up and rested!!... I don't envy you one bit .. I am not good in the heat OR the humidity xx Hope your son stays safe too x

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  7. Golly, I can feel the heat just from reading your post! I did wonder whether you would be at the Jamboree but it sounds as if you made a good choice, enforced maybe. Alan got Dengue fever in Singapore, he was rather poorly but not as bad as those poor people suffering in the heat. Here is a rather pleasant mid 20C, too humid to sew but nice anyway.

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  8. Happy Anniversary, Julie ! We're sending prayers and positive thoughts to your son who is fire fighting in Washington State. We love the WOmen's CONference quilt with the pretty colors and a place for the names. The blue moon was gorgeous, but just like Tokyo, it brought a heat wave to northern California. Here's hoping that the weather cools off soon.
    Take care, and happy quilting, from Marina and Daryl

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  9. I flew in last night and just hit a break in the heat. This morning Nikko is positively cool! But I hear that it will heat up later this week... Too bad. Stay healthy. Keep that foot up!

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