Blizzardboy | A Kiwi in Japan

We had a great weekend last weekend, with some fine weather. Saturday we were planning to go to the library in Tsukuba but ended up going for a drive in the complete opposite direction instead. We visited Tsuchiura Port, which is a mainly a marina for smaller sized pleasure boats about half an hour from where we are living. The port is on Kasumigaura Lake, a lake which connects with the Pacific Ocean. There was a fair breeze blowing and it would have been a nice day for a bit of yachting.

Tsuchiura fronts onto Kasumigaura Lake. The photo above is of the marina – I took a couple of photos of the lake but wasn’t happy with them. The recent photos on this blog are all taken with my mobile phone and I find it quite tricky to take landscape photos with the phone – and get the horizon level.

Apparently Kasumigaura is quite famous, if that is the correct way to put it, for being terribly polluted. Over the last 10 years the situation has improved quite drastically with significant improvements in the water quality which is great news.

The recent Chinese delegation to Japan headed by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao included a number of representatives here to learn about Japan’s approach to the environment. Japan, of course, experienced a period of rapid industrialization in the years following World War II much like that China is currently experiencing and thus, both countries share a great deal when it comes to these matters.

One hopes that the Chinese can both learn from the positives of Japan’s efforts as well as to recognize the deficiencies. It can be almost impossible to balance the needs of the environment with those of a developing economy, but the cost of delayed action is of course almost always much higher than the cost of prevention.

After having a nice wander around the wharves, we got back in the car and drove on until we came to a vegetable ice cream store. Whilst this might sound like the greatest cure for obesity since my cooking, the treats on display at Hokuto Vegetable Ice Cream would make any couch potato worth their remote control squeal with delight. I was feeling rather conservative, so I stuck with their rum raisin concoction whilst Chooch went overboard as she weeded her way through a collection of Spinach, Ginger, Milk Caramel and Natto ice creams.

Natto ice cream… innocuous as a hand grenade. It floats out gently with subtle overtones of vanilla. And then bang! It hits you like a ball of dirty work socks.