Monju FBR resumes operations: security fears wiped out!

"Monju’s relaunch was delayed for years in part because of outrage over the cover-up."

Monju FBR, Fukui region, Tsuruga bay, Sea of Japan coast

Troubled Monju reactor revived in Fukui‎

Monju operation resumes after 14-1/2-yr hiatus‎

Japan's Monju fast-breeder reactor restarts‎

Reactor fired up after 14 years asleep‎

Japan restarts fast breeder amid safety, security fears .

These are today's headlines on the restart of the FBR, the Fast Breed Reactor Monju. I remember this evening of December 8th 1995 and the following days when the name Monju FBR came to the headline news. I was at my desk in Tokyo and heard about a leakage of sodium. News-reports on Japan televisions tended to downgrade the accident. I could not believe it. How could they go so lightly!? Even though sciences are not my major I knew, and I guess many people did, that sodium meeting air equals fire. Fire in a nuclear power plant... Imagine...

The number 1 controversy with Monju was "a bad communication." A real problem in Japan where people have or pretend difficulties to express their ideas or are rarely willing to state anything. But hey, we are talking about the most sophisticated type of technology. Who are the people hired to handle the PR?

A few hours later, Japan nuclear companies denying questions, I called my good old friend Robert C... who was the top man at the nuclear office of the French embassy, had a chat with his secretary and then we evaluated the issue. Maybe risky but as Robert said: "we all have families and we're not crazy." We'll do the best to secure and help Japanese nuclear industrials. France and Japan nuclear cooperation is a long old story, "very profitable", industry says.

Monju closed and nobody would have dared to say that it would reopen without a sense of fear. 14 years passed. Local regional pressure is hard on Tokyo central government. Fukui prefecture is a nuclear entity. So much radioactivity concentration there. Fishes and crabs grow big...

I visited Monju heart reactor recently for an interesting foreign press visit set by the Japanese industry and thanks to the useful report organization of the Foreign Press Center of Japan http://fpcj.jp/. *

There, I met a lot of JAEA people whose motives was to say: "all is fine, do not worry...!" Outside Monju facilities, a no man's land perimeter reinforced after a long access tunnel, there are barriers and anti-riot security walls, police trucks in case of demonstrations from local residents. Not all agree to live near-by the FBR apparently.

Malfunction, again?

A few days ago, end of April, prior to the relaunch of Monju FBR, a malfunction (again) in a coolant-leak detector set off alarms at the Monju prototype nuclear reactor. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency displays a replacement sodium detector. The government-affiliated agency said then the sodium detector, housed in a reactor auxiliary building at the Monju center in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, shut down after a fan motor overheated, triggering an alarm. On the restart, industry minister Masayuki Naoshima had fell short of making a clear-cut statement, said, "It could or could not have" an impact... But one thing is that Japanese nuclear industry responded fast in communicating the incident to the local community and in handling the reactor's restart. No leak was detected but the incident was revealed just one day after Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa suggested he will allow the resumption of the reactor in exchange for pledges of subsidies and incentives from the central government.

Incentives!

Regions pressure Tokyo to get subsidies. Japan local prefectures are in genuine difficult situation and cruise in dangerous waters of letting the Hatoyama politics go beyond the sense of reason regarding energy related technical decisions, pushed by the so-called-clean-environment-lobby frenzy, as one of my source at the IAEA stated privately. Let's cross fingers... To me, it looks like they all learned the lessons, partly, but I cannot hide the fact that the facilities look rather old and lay on a seismic plate uncertainty! And this is something I worry about for the locals and the engineers over there.

Now the latest buzz with Wire news quotes. All papers talk about it today.

Quotes : "Japan's Monju fast-breeder reactor resumed operations Thursday after 14 years and five months of suspension due to a sodium coolant leak and a resultant fire. The prototype fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, restarted at 10:36 a.m. after plant staff pulled out rods that had prevented nuclear reaction. The reactor, operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, http://www.jaea.go.jp/ is expected to reach criticality, or the point when a nuclear chain reaction becomes self-sustaining, on Saturday. The reactor is then to gradually raise its power output and begin full-fledged operations in the spring of 2013. Unlike regular light-water reactors that run on uranium, a fast- breeder reactor uses an oxide mix of plutonium and uranium and is designed to generate more plutonium than it burns. The central government aims to complete the development of a commercial fast-breeder reactor by around 2050.

But a host of problems lie ahead, including the need to renovate outmoded facilities at the plant, and massive safety and development costs. Construction of Monju started in October 1985. The reactor first achieved criticality in April 1994. But the reactor was closed after a serious accident involving a sodium leak and fire in December 1995. A pipe carrying sodium coolant broke due to vibration, causing about 640 kilograms of sodium to leak out and come into contact with the air, sparking a reaction with oxygen and moisture. Fumes filled the room where the leak happened but the sodium was not radioactive because the accident occurred in the plant's secondary cooling system.

In 2000, the government decided to restart the reactor. But the decision met with opposition from a safety-conscious general public, resulting in a series of court battles. In January 2003, the Nagoya high court issued a ruling reversing an earlier decision to approve the construction of the reactor. In May however, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling, giving the final go-ahead to the reopening. While the planned reopening cleared the legal hurdle, resumption was postponed several times because of delays in repairs. In January this year, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency completed in-house safety inspections of the reactor, followed by a green light given by the government's nuclear safety panel in March. In late April, the governor of Fukui Prefecture hosting the plant endorsed the reopening."

Monju sodium leak and fire

"On December 8, 1995, the reactor suffered a serious accident. Intense vibration caused a thermowell inside a pipe carrying sodium coolant to break, possibly at a defective weld point, allowing several hundred kilograms of sodium to leak out onto the floor below the pipe. Upon coming into contact with the air, the liquid sodium reacted with oxygen and moisture in the air, filling the room with caustic fumes and producing temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius. The heat was so intense that it melted several steel structures in the room. An alarm sounded around 7:30 p.m., switching the system over to manual operations, but a full operational shutdown was not ordered until around 9:00 p.m., after the fumes were spotted. When investigators located the source of the spill they found as much as three tons of solidified sodium.

Fortunately, the leak occurred in the plant's secondary cooling system, so the sodium was not radioactive. However, there was massive public outrage in Japan when it was revealed that Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC), the semigovernmental agency then in charge of Monju, had tried to cover up the extent of the accident and resulting damage. This coverup included falsifying reports and the editing of a videotape taken immediately after the accident, as well as the issuing of a gag order to employees regarding the existence of the real tapes." End of quotes Wikipedia.

Sources: Mainichi, Asahi, Nikkei, Japan Times, wire news, Jaea http://www.jaea.go.jp/english/index.shtml, Reporter's notes.

* I wish France could create such an NPO institution same as the Foreign Press Center of Japan http://fpcj.jp/.

"Golden Week"... Time off !

Holidays! Golden Week vacations started in Japan with the escape of millions of travelers. It's the longest Japanese holiday with the exception of New Year and the Obon week. Millions of people get ready to travel to domestic resorts, beaches, sightseeing tourism, carnivals, and family gatherings. Overseas call catch a lot. Guam and Hawaii, as well as European countries France and Italy, are said to attract tens of thousands of travelers from Japan (Tokyo Narita airport expects over 1 million users) during the holiday season through early May. Some depart to nearby nations, Korea, China, especially to the Shanghai 2010 World expo. Thailand is the place with a big question mark even though the local gorgeous sea-resorts are far from being harmed by the current dreadful political instability.

Even if Japan recovered faster from the financial crisis than most other nations, the crisis strikes for a lot of Japanese and costs are severely cut. For many islanders the " G.W." will be a short trip, bathe in an Onsen station, gazing at a Zen garden, sipping local 'Sake', stay home and have good food and take a rest in front of a noisy TV with kids joyfully jumping around... while others will experiment the mecca of hi-tech products 'Made in Japan'. For others the Golden Week is the only time in the year to fill the islander with art and aestheticism, a national sport with museums filled by art lovers as bees in a hive.

The Golden Week actually started on Thursday and runs from April 29 through May 5. There are four national holidays during this period: Showa Day (April 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4), and Children's Day (May 5).

Quotes http://gojapan.about.com "The end of April through around May 5th is called "Golden Week" in Japan since there are many Japanese national holidays during this period. Many Japanese offices close for about a week to 10 days, depending on the calendar. People take a vacation and travel around the country or abroad, so tourist attractions in Japan are very crowded during Golden Week. Also, airports and train stations in Japan are overflowing with people. It is hard to get reservations for accommodations and transportation during Golden Week...

The first national holiday during Golden Week is April 29, which was the birthday of the former emperor Showa. Now, this day is called showa-no-hi (Showa Day). The second holiday is kenpou-kinen-bi (Constitution Memorial Day), May 3. The new Japanese constitution was put into effect on May 3, 1947. Then, May 4 is called midori-no-hi (Greenery Day) during which we show appreciation for nature...

The last holiday during Golden Week is kodomono-hi (Children's Day) on May 5th. It's Japanese Boy's Festival called tango-no-sekku and is a day to pray for healthy growth of boys. It's a Japanese tradition for families of boys to hang up carp streamers (koinobori) outside their houses around this holiday. Carps are believed to symbolize successes in children's lives. Also, samurai dolls called gogatsu ningyo (May Dolls) are displayed in their houses."

The EU That Can Say NO to Japan

“We could perhaps take some more time to first identify the objectives both parties want to reach,” Herman Van Rompuy, permanent president of the European Council and Haiku lover.

Herman... who?

"On a journey, ill

My dreams roam

Over a wild moo"

European Union President, Belgian born Herman Van Rompuy has humour, and he loves Japanese poems, the Haiku. He event dared a metaphor yesterday at the press conference ending the summit by adding a poetic note. "The sun is rising - sleeping yet in Europe - still the same sun," to a stunned Yukio Hatoyama.

Herman van Rompuy influenced by Greek Thucydides and Pericles of the school of realpolitik

Mr Van Rompuy, known to some as Haiku Herman, is a passionate writer of haiku, the traditional Japanese form of poetry. The 62-year-old former Belgian prime minister published his first book of haiku, which are composed of three unrhymed lines totaling 17 syllables. It is said he sometimes writes on political themes, but reserved comment Wednesday on the meaning of his latest work narrated in Tokyo...

Looks like the Belgium VIPs stick to cultural interaction, and maybe it's a pretty good idea to create ties with Japanese torrid claim of their genuine fascination for cultures of Europe...

I remember having interviewed for NHK the ex-Belgium ambassador the Baron Nothomb, yes the one who fathered writer Amélie (Fabienne) Nothomb! He was able to sing Noh theatre for hours to the stupefaction of my recording studio colleagues.

The dialogue of/trough/via cultures may be helpful for European Union Council president Herman Van Rompuy who yesterday told Japanese politicians that "Japan and Europe would be stronger in facing the challenges of a changing world if we work together." In other words: the EU asked the student Hatoyama to review his copy prior to launch an integration project.

No!

Telling this to a Japanese prime minister, whose popularity heading down dangerous levels and whose eyes are turned towards the East side of the Pacific a few months prior to the October APEC informal gatherings, was a "fatal gesture" some say, "no, very astute" others counter-attacked.

Betsu-ni...

Where we are now: Van Rompuy agreed with Hatoyama that Japan and the European Union will establish a "high-level group" to discus their economic relations, including the possibility of a free-trade agreement, as EU already signed with South Korea. The will for an integration agreement, EIA, is strongly supported both by the Keidanren, Japan's business lobby, and by European businesses in Japan, although business associations in Europe and big automakers have lobbied against. José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, made clear the EU expected progress on non-tariff barriers and regulatory harmonization before it would start working on a deal. Hatoyama said Japan understands the EU's frustration with non-tariff barriers in Japan, such as the tight regulations on public procurement and product safety screening, which Brussels blames for distorting fair trade.

The party seems tense, look:

EU Japan Summit, April 28, Tokyo

Clear enough. The free trade deal signed between the EU and South Korea last October sparked Japanese interest in a similar agreement. "Currently the EU impose 10 percent tariff duties on imports of vehicles and 14 percent on electronics, but South Korean companies such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motor will be eventually exempt from those tariffs.

I remember the EBC, the European Business Council in Japan, called for several years, towards such agreement under former president Richard Collasse, and for current president Tommy Kullberg, "the 2010 EU-Japan summit is an "unmissable opportunity" to start work toward an EIA. "Nothing will change if we don't have binding discussions."

Indeed.

The working group could take six to 12 months to review the progress that Japan and the EU have made to ensure free and open trade, Hatoyama said, adding he believes the two sides will be able to secure an FTA in the future. Van Rompuy called for strong "political will" to deepen the bilateral economic relationship, saying the high-level group must not work "in a bureaucratic way."

According to the European think-tank Copenhagen Economics, the combination of both elimination of tariffs and the reduction of non-tariff measures would increase "economic welfare" by €33bn a year in the EU and €18bn in Japan.

The EU delegation flew to China for a EU China summit in Shanghai, where the World Expo is to open there on Saturday. Maybe Mr Van Rompuy is to claim some Confucius thoughts and verses to the Chinese leadership?

Sources: Reporters' notes

✍✍✍ Et en Français, langue chère au président du Conseil de l'Union Européenne: "Herman Van Rompuy, a estimé mercredi que le temps n'était pas venu de signer un accord de libre-échange avec le Japon, en raison notamment des barrières non tarifaires qui entravent encore l'accès au marché japonais. "Il est bien sûr évident que le moyen d'intensifier les échanges entre nos deux blocs serait d'avoir un accord de libre-échange", a-t-il dit lors d'une conférence de presse à Tokyo avant un sommet UE-Japon. "Beaucoup de barrières non tarifaires restent en place, ce qui entrave l'accès au marché japonais et fait hésiter l'UE à aller plus avant", a cependant souligné M. Van Rompuy, ajoutant: "Nous pourrions peut-être prendre un peu plus de temps pour identifier d'abord les objectifs que les deux parties veulent atteindre". Le Japon souhaiterait abolir les taxes à l'entrée sur le marché européen pour les automobiles et les téléviseurs à écran plat. L'UE réclame de son côté que le Japon assouplisse ses critères de sécurité pour les automobiles européennes et accélère le processus de vérification des équipements médicaux en particulier. Présents lors du sommet UE-Japon mercredi, en présence de M. Van Rompuy et du Premier ministre japonais Yukio Hatoyama: son ministre des Affaires étrangères, Katsuya Okada, la chef de la diplomatie européenne, Catherine Ashton, et le président de la Commission Européenne, Jose Manuel Barroso."

Niigata's "Disaster Food"! A pack that will save your life!

Kobe earthquake, 05:46 am, January 17, 1995, magnitude 7.3, 6500 souls lost

In Japan where a natural disaster is prone to happen, whether or not we will learn from the past, from mistakes and those of others, in case of disaster, the best is to plan for a better future. How? With imagination and sense. But it helps to have comprehensive and immediate response with emergencies teams quickly dispatched on site, enforced with the involvement of special units (hospitals, Self Defense Forces, police, firemen, humanitarian organizations, Red Cross, NGOs')

Most needed: Immediate transport units (helicopters) which are required for rescuing victims our of their mountains and isolated farming villages. In case of nuclear power plants or chemical factories, it is necessary to send immediate Hi-Tech specialized rescue teams, perceptive to threats and helped by professional communicators.

Japan rescue team (Courtesy of Japan Ministry of Defense)

In 2007 in Niigata a fire broke out in an electrical transformer at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant. The fire was extinguished within two hours. But the earthquake also caused a leak of radioactive gases and the plant tried to conceal it to the local press.

In other words, emergency crisis answers are to be developed and personnel trained and updated. After earthquake for instance, survival has 3 requirements: Water, Food, Roof. I'll focus on food rescue after this most insightful report in Niigata region, on the sea of Japan, thanks to the help and organization of the Foreign Press Center, Japan (FPCJ) http://fpcj.jp/, the Niigata prefecture and the Niigata city-hall's administration.

Disaster food?

It means food products must be developed specifically for disasters and calamities. Here in Japan scholars and administration have joined hands to develop a new "disaster food" kit. This will be the topic during October 16 and 17 Niigata APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security. Many people in Niigata are involved in agriculture in various forms, and they are working hard to produce and deliver safe and tasty food. Having experienced two major earthquakes in 2004 and 2007, Niigata is leading Japan in the field of research and food supply at times of natural disaster.

Researchers of Niigata university elaborating high pressured eggs

The significance of Niigata as a major food production base is growing. In 2008 Niigata City and Yokohama City concluded an agreement on cooperation in critical phases, and they are prepared to help each other when a natural disaster occurs in one of the cities. If a great disaster occurs in the Kanto area, Niigata will help them by supplying food to Greater Tokyo.

In Japan compared to other countries as seen after the US Katrina disaster, people do not loot going for whatever they need to survive and protect one’s security when surrounded by desperate people resorting to desperate actions to feed themselves and their families.

In Japan people stay put and wait for government instructions, if it ever comes! In Kobe 1995 earthquake (Hanshin seism) no-one at the highest governmental level gave any instruction to coordinate and organize aid to victims under Socialist Prime Minister Murayama who felt powerless restrained by a cautious and irresponsible reading of the Constitution and especially because there was no law and still there IS NO LAW in Japan on Crisis Management.

A couples of hours after the earthquake that jolted the whole region, as I witnessed in Kobe, being the first French journalist reporting live for the French Radio and Television, such a magnitude of disaster caused thousands of deaths, more after in the next 48 hours, because of no help, and added death among abandoned food-less populations in the 5 days following the seism.

The Japanese government had refused to authorize in the early minutes following the earthquake to dispatch the only units which had the logistics to assist people in need, the Self Defense Forces based nearby in Himeji. A crucial and lethal error as sated by Crisis Management specialists such as Tokyo Governor Adviser Shikata Toshiyuki, an opinion shared by numerous scholars and disasters reliefs operators in and out of Japan. A reason why foreign nations such as France, US, sent immediately specialized units to try to save lives in the Hyogo prefecture.

Lessons were partially learned in the Niigata earthquakes...

A region with a past record of suffered repeated seisms:

The Niigata Chūetsu Earthquakes (中越地震) occurred at 5:56 p.m on Saturday, October 23, 2004. On the Richter scale, the moment magnitude of the earthquake is estimated at 6.9. (For comparison, the Great Hanshin earthquake, which devastated much of Kobe, measured a magnitude of 7.3)

2007 July 16, again a strong earthquake with estimated magnitude of 6.8 hit Niigata prefecture and its vicinity at 10:13 a.m. 14 deaths. The earthquake measured higher 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale in Chuetsu region of Niigata and northern Nagano prefecture, including Kashiwazaki-city and Nagaoka-city, Niigata. 300 houses were collapsed and about 10,000 people have been evacuated to shelters in Niigata prefecture at this point. his shallow crustal earthquake was followed 13 hours later by a deep focus magnitude 6.8 quake roughly 330 km to the west, 350 km below the Sea of Japan. (Foreign Press center Facts and Figures data)

The two earthquakes were generated by different mechanisms. The first earthquake was caused by deformation within the crust of the Okhotsk plate and the second quake was likely caused by faulting resulting from internal deformation of the subducted Pacific plate. Given their different mechanisms and physical separation of at least 10 rupture lengths, the second earthquake is not considered an aftershock of the first. Shallow earthquakes cause more damage than intermediate- and deep-focus ones since the energy generated by the shallow events is released closer to the surface and therefore produces stronger shaking than is produced by quakes that are deeper within the Earth. Two days after the initial earthquake, an aftershock occurred, registering 4 shindo in Izumozaki, Niigata.

Quotes of Foreign Press center http://fpcj.jp/ "Having bitter experience of not being able to deliver food in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (1995), the food industry vocally supported Niigata, where more than 1,000 food-related companies are gathered, to tackle the challenge to deliver "disaster food" for the sake of the victims, and this move is picking up momentum now. It is the Niigata University Local Collaboration Food Science Center which plays the central part in this movement. In industry-academia-government collaboration, it tries to reform, enhance and enlighten the "knowledge" related to food, hoping to "contribute to the development of the food industry in Niigata prefecture." It consists of researchers from various faculties at Niigata University.

Having also experienced earthquake disasters twice, it has looked at earthquake disaster reconstruction from the perspective of food. Collaborating with local companies, it conducts wide-ranging research and development including the kinds of emergency food truly needed in disaster-hit areas, food processing using ultra-high-pressure treatment equipment, and research into the quality and taste of food. In cooperation with this center, Foricafoods Corporation, which is located in Uonuma city, Niigata, has succeeded in commercializing "Rescue Foods" that are warm and tasty just like normal meals even in disaster areas without lifelines. In this tour, you will receive a lecture on disaster food by Visiting Professor Shigeru Beppu at Niigata University (who is also Director of Foricafoods Corporation), and cook and taste "disaster food". You will also look at an experiment in food processing using ultra-high-pressure treatment equipment." End of quotes.

Foricafoods Corporation produced "Disaster Foods" products that self heat using special chemical shown to the press at Niigata University, Uonuma city, Niigata prefecture. The university and local food companies produce tasty, healthy and easy to use meals for emergency relief.

"Disaster Foods" is self-heated food using chemicals

Here is the presentation of the sample of disaster food, a survival kit made for victims with numerous added values: it can be served hot after a 20 minutes of a chemical reaction and there are several menus answering to the nutritious requirement in case of emergency situation.

"Rescue Food" demonstration by Professor Shigeru Beppu of Niigata university

Highlighted too is the necessity of developing a "disaster medical kit" for immediate support of the person placed in extraordinary circumstances, medicines, vitamins, first aid support, vitamins, vaccinations. A concept the administration should develop to help the population to store such vital items at home and in the car.

Food Security

At Niigata Toki Tower Convention where the APEC meeting will be held in October, I met Governor Izumida and Mayor Shinoda who highlighted their expectations of a successful session on APEC Food Security based on their experienced in this region strategically placed at a crossroad in the Eastern Asia.

Niigata Mayor Shinoda and Governor Izumida

Having prospered as a seaport town, Niigata is a highly urban functional city with a rich natural environment. Facing the Sea of Japan, the city is blessed with water resources including the Shinano River, the Agano River, and the Fukushima-gata tideland, and rice paddies, making the city known for its large production of food such as rice, vegetables, fruits, and other agricultural products. With a population of 810,000, Niigata is also a largest hub city on the Japan Sea coast of Honshu mainland, and is expected to further develop as a gateway to East Asia. This is where I encountered the work of an extraordinary farmer who became a "food industrialist".

When research, green, water and farming become a top industry

Niigata being designated as a production center for mitsuba (trefoil), a chervil-like herb, by the government, Green's Plant Maki produces and sells, besides mitsuba, about 20 types of fresh herbs for cooking, and 11 types of baby leaves. It owns three farming plants including the 10,000㎡-size greenhouse that is the largest in scale in the Tohoku and Hokuriku regions. It annually ships out 230,000 cases of mitsuba and 240,000 packs of fresh herbs to markets in and out of Niigata prefecture. Fresh herbs are sold on the basis of orders from each market, and they are popular enough for restaurant chefs to order directly sometimes. 

President Kaoru Wakabayashi,65 lives with the motto of "making people healthy by giving safe and secure vegetables". He succeeded in producing safe and secure vegetables with high nutritional value by introducing new farming technologies.

For example, activate all the water need for the plants with a technology called "FFC technology" before use. This technology solved problems specific to tank farming such as bacteria that grow in water, and the perishable nature of vegetables. Through this, returns of vegetables from supermarkets sales declined, and their vegetables are reputed to have a long life on supermarket shelves.

As President Wakabayashi said "the most important component in vegetables is water, so we must use really good water for farming. Water that is good for vegetables is also good for the people who eat them." While cheap, foreign-produced vegetables sell well, this company competes on quality and taste. And I can say, he has the talent to prove that after 65 years old, far from thinking of retiring, Wakabayashi-san is at the top!

Wakabayashi-san

Fresh and crispy veggie

Having fresh products and offer them to the community in cities, it is the concept that existed for hundred of years in France. Here is a report from the Mainichi shimbun on the newest concept here: "Le Marché Japon" http://bit.ly/9vwMtM

"... The markets offer products developed and grown by farmers using organic methods. Hirokuni Hanami, a 31-year-old member of the Sambu Vegetable Network, a farm cooperative in Sambu, Chiba Prefecture, said one of the nice things about the market is that "We can tell customers how carefully we have plowed the field to cultivate vegetables." "Normally, we don't have a place for face-to-face selling," he said in Yokohama while treating customers to carrots, celery and ginger marinated in soy sauce. Moreover, by talking to customers, Hanami said he can get an idea of what they want and factor this into his production process..."

There's nothing like a fresh green salad, right?

✍✍✍ How Disaster Food will save you:

"Emergency food is so important that everyone should have some stored. In today’s world it isn’t a question of if you will need to draw upon your emergency food resources, but when. How many 7-plus magnitude earthquakes have you read/hear about lately? It seems like they don’t make earthquakes the way they used to. They are of greater and greater magnitude with more and more destruction and loss of life. And don’t for one second believe that those survivors involved in these catastrophes who were unprepared didn’t wish that they had access to emergency food supplies. When I say emergency food, I am also including water with that because the elixir of life is even more important than solid food for sustaining life. But, having emergency food isn’t weird, it isn’t excessive worry, and it isn’t hoarding. And none of thatwould matter anyway if you were in an emergency situation going hungry."

Sources http://www.emergencyfoodstoragepros.com

A report realized thanks to the help and organization of the FPC, Foreign Press Center, Japan http://fpcj.jp/ , the Niigata prefecture and city-hall administrations. They are all to be thanked for their warm welcome and insightful discoveries about Japan's window of technology and quality of life.

Bangkok's Silom district threatened by grenades attacks

Breaking news: Friday morning, hundreds of riot police moved in front of a barricade erected by "red shirt" protesters in Bangkok's Silom business district early on Friday and told them to dismantle it, television said. Television pictures then showed some protesters pouring what a TV reporter said was fuel onto the barricade, which is made up largely of tyres, with sharpened bamboo poles inserted. I killed in clashes.

In the latest violence in Bangkok, Thursday night, five grenades were fired from M-79 launchers at BTS Saladaeng station and nearby areas last night from unknown launch sites killing three people among them an elder woman and wounding more than 70, including a foreign tourist from Australia. Following demonstration of pro-government protesters who waved national flags to show their opposition to the red shirts and a House dissolution by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Images report of the Bangkok Post http://bit.ly/9Dhyw0

The spokesman Colonel Sansern Kaewkamnerd, of the Centre for the Resolution of Emergency Situations, confirmed that all five grenades were fired from M-79 launchers and said in an interview with Thai PBS that the first three rounds landed on the BTS Skytrain station, the fourth on the sky-walk under the station, and the fifth in front of the Bank of Ayudhya branch. He said dispersal of the red shirts during night time was not possible.

Sansern said the grenades were not fired from high positions but possibly from Lumpini Park or from a red-shirt stage close to the Saladaeng intersection. He added that soldiers were not holding their rifles in high positions but were standing on guard and trying to locate the launch sites. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva called an emergency meeting of security officials. Citing intelligence reports, Abhisit said in the evening before the attacks that the armed men in black, who had blended in with the red shirts during the April 10 violent clashes, were now dressed in white, and that it was not easy to separate women and children among the demonstrators in case crowd dispersal was needed.

At around 9.40pm, repeated loud bangs were heard among red shirts prompting a hurray from Silom residents. It turned out later that the red shirts had lit firecrackers to celebrate the attacks on the Silom residents. The Nation writes.

Over 60.000 thousand troops are now dispatched in the critical areas of the capital Bangkok. Observers say that law will be restored by force after the red-shirts rejected talks with the Abhisit government.

Foreign embassies called upon their nationals to refrain from visiting the financial and governmental districts of the capital. Citizens of France are advised to consult the Ministry of Foreign Affairs updated page www.diplomatie.gouv.fr

Sources: Reporter's noted, The Bangkok Post, The Nation, MAEF

Thailand: one step up towards anarchy

Red Shirts waiting for the clash with Army!

After April 10 worst political violence Thailand has seen in 18 years, leaving 25 people dead and more than 800 wounded, Thailand's political crisis extends to the northeast and the South, rural areas of the "Land of smile" as Red Shirts demonstrators blocked a train carrying military vehicles. Thousands of red-shirted protesters in the northeastern province of Khong Kaen yesterday blocked nearly 300 soldiers from traveling south of the country, as they feared the troops were reinforcements for an imminent crackdown on the protest in Bangkok.

The red-shirted group mobilized by community radio stations gathered at the railway station in the afternoon to stop the Thai National Railways train with 80 troops and 21 military vehicles aboard. Colonel Omsin Trarungruang, commander of the eastern Ban Pai district police, failed to convince protesters into releasing the military officials. Sabina Sar, a red-shirted leader, said, agencies quoted, that protesters would detain the soldiers in Khong Kaen for at least five days on instructions from leaders of the red group in Bangkok.

Thai authorities clarified the train was to send reinforcement to the south of Thailand where more than 4,000 people, Buddhists and Muslims, have been killed in six years of unrest in the largely Muslim, rubber-rich region bordering Malaysia. Also yesterday, alleged terrorists blew a grenade at a police station in Pattani province, leaving at least two dead and 42 others injured. Adding to the violence, a 20 kg bomb hidden in a car exploded less than 50 meters away from the police station, wounding another 17 people and damaging more than 10 vehicles nearby.

Red Shirt" protesters built a bamboo and tyre barricade in Bangkok Silom Road financial and red district

In Bangkok, "Red Shirt" protesters and security forces remained locked in a potentially explosive standoff in downtown Bangkok, near Silom road where banks, companies, hotels, and renown Patpong road are located not far from the river Menam Chao Prayah. One reason why the Red Shirts camp around Silom road is to target the ex Prime Minister and General Prem Tinsulanonda, faithful and close to the King of Thailand. Also a hand grenade was thrown into the compound of the Prem Tinsulanonda Foundation last night, a police officer confirmed.

Meanwhile, last night, added sense of anarchy came from the three neighborhoods' citizens who gathered on the Silom Road near the Dusit Thani Hotel. They exchanged abusive words and threw bottles to the red-shirt protesters who threw back two Molotov cocktails at Silom people, prompting them to retreat. Bangkok residents continuously tried to break through the line of police to clash with the red-shirt protesters who surged towards the Silom people as well. Government soldiers in full combat gears now guard nearby sections of the capital, in an increasingly tense standoff which could explode.

An Army Coup d'Etat?

Fear of a military coup rises as tension and anger escalate among soldiers. During the April 10th street battles, the military lost a senior officer and suffered scores of other casualties among its troops, who were mostly equipped for riot control rather than lethal combat. Calls are made to open negotiations to end 40 days of confrontations and chaos in the capital city with consequences for the economy and for tourists as some of the capital's finest hotels sent guests packing for fear of violence at their doorsteps.

So far, anti-government protests have cost lives and tailored a new pattern of fear among the population while the tourist industry is severely damaged, loosing hundreds of millions of Bahts, alarming the Asean regional powerless union except Vietnam's communiqué and Cambodia who called for a regional Summit, and the US government, maintaining bilateral military cooperation, calls for a truce and dialogue among parties.

Meanwhile in Japan, the question with no answer is: who killed the Japanese Reuters cameraman Hiro Muramoto?

Quotes of today: Reports in the local Asian press. "The political battle becoming dirtier by the day by Supalak Ganjanakhundee of The Nation http://bit.ly/cEpLAi with today's editorial from the Bangkok Post "Negotiation is best way out" http://bit.ly/bVrtA1 . Thailand lost its legendary smile as Thailand’s poor have 'decided that docility is a thing of the past,' an Op-Ed in the New Straits Time: "Thai elite in denial over new Thailand" http://bit.ly/bfH8ec and also this video report of NTDTV.com embedded on YouTube.

Sources: The Nation, The Bangkok Post, Wire news agencies, New Straits Time, China Daily, Dawn, Reporter's notes.