Robots Provide Comfort In Fukushima

With news that robot sales have risen 41 per cent in North America for the first half of 2011 comes news that Japan is using robots to help comfort people.

With many elderly (and young) people greatly affected by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and near-nuclear meltdown beginning on March 11, 2011, folks have been seeking comfort wherever they can find it. 

For some elderly survivors, this comfort comes from a pair of robotic seals called Paro.

Situated 27 kilometres south of the Dai Ichi (Big One) nuclear facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture) upon a hill hit by the tsunami, the Suisyoen retirement home is doing what it can to lend support.

Thanks to fears of nuclear radiation in the air spewed by the damaged nuclear facility, Suisyoen was evacuated for two months.

About a week after the people returned, Daiwa House's robotic division offered a pair of the Paro robots for a two-year period.

Each seal-shaped robot is coated with an anti-bacterial fur, and have been dubbed Love and Peace (obviously translated from Japanese!). The robot harp seals can blink their eyes and respond to touch and sound. And... the cute little bugger apparently develops a personality over time depending on how people interact with it... I mean him or her.

The robots are treated by the patrons as pets. Research has shown that pets offer amazing affects for those suffering from shock or depression.

While it is true that many retirement facilities in Japan and around the world utilize real animals to provide therapy for its residents, Suisyoen's facility general manager Katoono Taku (surname first) notes that using these therapeutic robots helps lower many of the barriers normally associated with live animals.

Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife assumes that to mean, no allergies, fears, cleaning, feeding, and of course, no pooping.      

AIST is the company that originally created Paro - but tried to do so using thej more familiar pets: dogs and cats. However, it was quickly determined that that while cute, people quickly began comparing the robotic cats and dogs with the real animals. 

By using a baby seal pup, it' is still cute and adorable and is familiar enough... but it is also unfamiliar enough to people who don't know what a real seal is supposed to behave like... so people just enjoy the robot for what it is... cute and fluffy. 

While real seals are nocturnal, the Paro seals wake in the morning and get sleepy in the evening. The Paro robots possess five senses which it uses to determine touch, light, sound, temperature and posture.

So... how does the robot act? Apparently Paro wakes up dazed (just like a real person... I'm unsure if a baby harp seal wakes up dazed, however), it enjoys cuddling, but will complain if it's not getting enough attention or food. 

The part of me that expects this to go horribly wrong assumes that eventually the baby harp seal wants to eat the raw flesh of Canadian harp seal clubbers, but no... Paro just needs a jolt of battery power. 

The seal - like any pet, will eventually learn whatever name you give it, as well as simple audio cues like greetings and praise. And, if that is to cool to creep you out, perhaps this will: Paro doesn't like you touching him/her in a certain way, and will wriggle away from you. It will nuzzle your hand, snuggle up when it is content and happy, and will bark like a seal if he's unhappy. 

It blinks his large eyes for attention, and meeps or mews when being ignored. Basically... this is a cool robot!

Should you wish to purchase a Paro Robot Seal Healing Pet...  I saw a price tag of US/Cdn $5,000.

For the folks at the Suisyoen, no price is to high.

Files by Andrew Joseph

Update on Fukushima-ken

Well... it's been over three months since the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake spawned a huge tsunami that helped create a nuclear crisis in Japan at the Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear facility in Fukushima-ken.

What's going on? This information below is current as of June 15, 2011:

• Japanese officials recently doubled their previous estimate as to how much radiation had escaped from the Dai-ichi nuclear plant. The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the radiation released from Dai-ichi has been estimated atabout 770,000 terabecquerels during the week after March 11, 2011. Previous estimates were at 370,000 terabecquerels;
• The Agency believes nuclear reactors No. 1 and No.2 meltedfaster than the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO is the owner andoperator of the nuclear facility) than previously stated.
• Japanese government says an extension of the exclusion zone around the plant will likely be enlarged;
• Nearly 90,000 residents have been forced to evacuate in the exclusion zone and remain displaced;
• Concerns about workers at the plant and their work conditions haverisen in recent weeks, with multiple incidents of exhaustion, heatexhaustion and dehydration; 
• A band of retirees, many over 70-years-old, have volunteered to take over work duties at the plant;
• Japanese government has banned the shipment and sale of green tea (o-cha) growing in prefectures near the nuclear plant after testing on tea leaf samples showed a high dosage of cesium radiation released from the plant,and higher than the legally allowed level. O-cha from Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefectuire), Ibaraki-ken (Ibaraki Prefecture), Chiba-ken (Chiba Prefecture), Kanagawa-ken (Kanagawa Prefecture) and Tochigi-ken (Tochigi Prefecture) are affected. 
• The Japanese Environment Ministry will allow theincineration of rubble and possible burying of rubble underground thatmay be highly radioactive in an effort to speed up theremoval and disposal of debris associated with the disaster.Some 23 milliontons of debris needs to be removed from coastal areas decimated by the disasters to allow rebuilding. 

Files compiled by Andrew Joseph

You Got The Silver

I don't know how many of you are aware that Japan has a very high rate of people hit their centenary years, that is, becoming 100 years-old or greater.
In fact, Japan's growing senior citizen population is becoming a major concern for the government. You can read an old BBC article about HERE.
But this blog has not come to bury the seniors, but rather to praise them.
Back in 1992, Japan was all abuzz about a set of twin sisters who were turning 100 years-old. While turning 100 was becoming a tad commonplace in Japan, this was the first known example of twins doing it.
Kin Narita (成田 きん) and Gin Kanie (蟹江 ぎん) were born on August 1, 1892 with the maiden name of Yano (矢野) in Narumi-machi (Narumi Village) in what is now the Midori ward in Nagoya, Aichi-ken (province of Aichi).  
Known collectively as "Kinsan Ginsan", they became national celebrities for their twin long lives and began appearing all over every type of media then known - heck, look at the telephone card above. Kin, whose name means Gold, is on the right. Her younger twin Gin, whose name means Silver, is on the left.
These two wonderful people were hale, healthy and with it, as I believe they even recorded a CD of their songs - sung during their 100th year.    
The girls were identical twins, though they did have differing blood types (The Japanese believe that blood types offer differing personality traits, much in the same way astrology does).
Kin, who had blood type O (agreeable, sociable, optimistic, and conversely, vain, rude, jealous and arrogant) died on January 23, 2000, at the age of 107. News reports noted that her favourite food was red-fleshed fish, and that her cause of death was heart failure.
Gin had blood type A (earnest, creative, sensible, reserved, patient and responsible, and conversely fastidious, over-earnest, stubborn, tense and conservative), and died on February 28, 2001 at the age of 108. She preferred fish with white meat. For some reason her cause of death was old age.
What I infer from their two deaths is that one is NOT considered old until you hit 108. Okay, I'm joking, but you can see how improper use of words and journalistic reporting can make something sound wrong.
What's not a joke, is that Japan pretty much went into national mourning when each of the ladies died.
Unfortunately, these two ladies did NOT smoke or drink heavily... so there's no hope for most of us!

Why do the Japanese live to such wonderfully long age? Some people say it's their diet - heavily based on seafood. I suppose theirs a lot of Omega 3 acids in seafood. Then again, the Japanese drink a lot of green tea (o-cha) - the Japanese who smoke, smoke a lot... and not once did I ever hear a Japanese person have even the slightest inkling of a smoker's cough. I have no proof of its powers... it's just an observation. 


Somewhere fishing for compliments,
Andrew Joseph
Today's song is by The Rolling Stones--sung by Keith Richards... who should have died many years ago, except for his deal with The Devil. Have a listen to the song HERE.

Teach Your Children

Oh Japan - what the heck is going on? In 2010, it has recently come to light that one of the country's oldest residents - a 113-year-old woman, is missing - no one knows where she is, if she's alive or dead. This shocking bit of information comes days after officials found Tokyo's oldest man - who was supposed to be 111 years of age - dead and mummified. In fact, he had been dead and mummified some 32 years ago. That's pretty creepy.

The family of that poor man is being investigated for pretending the old man was alive to collect pension cheques.

Read about both of those stories HERE.

This isn't a knock against government officials, rather it's a knock against the families of these people. Get a rife, people.

Japan has one of the largest - if not largest - population of centenarians (people 100 years of age and older) in the world, with a list of some 40,399 people. (I'm not doing any more research than is absolutely necessary here).

One of the most enduring aspects of Japan and its way of life is that the population looks after its elderly, not by placing them in a Home as we do everywhere else, but rather taking them into their own home.

In Japanese society, the oldest son is supposed to look after his parents when they get old, having them move into his place. If no son is present, the man the daughter marries will take on the in-laws.

While I can see it being a burden - what with more and more people hitting such great ages - it is still a time worn tradition.

For crying out loud - my job as an AET was not so much as to teach my students how to speak English, but rather to internationalize them - teach them that there are other ways of doing things rather than the staid old Japanese way. But did you all have to pick up all of our bad habits?!

Obviously it's not everyone in Japan doing this - all of the folks I knew and know in Ohtawara treated the elderly with respect and love.

Somewhere missing my grandfather - my last remaining grandparent - who died while I was in Japan in 1992.
Andrew Joseph

Today's title is by: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
You can listen to it HERE sans Neil Young.

PS: Photo above is of a 250-year-old netsuke--an ivory carving--of a koma-inu (a Korean lion dog) that are symbolic guardians and protectors of Japanese temples and shrines.
PPS: Photo below is my grandfather, Thomas D'Souza. I had sent him that Netsuke lion dog to protect him until I got back from Japan - telling him to keep it by his bedroom door. I know there's no correlation, but he didn't do that and gave it to my mom to place in a curio cabinet. He was gone before I made it home. But at least he died in at our house, his home.

My White Bicycle

Originally entitled: Bicycles Built For Your Tastefully Living, I re-phrased a national Japanese ad for an automobile manufacturer to instead mention bikes. Ah, English. It's a beautiful language.

I suppose I've always (always, in this instance refers to the past nine months) had a mute fascination with the Japanese obsession with the bicycle.

While I had learnt from watching those Japanese television programs depicting 'the wonderful dreamy world' of China (and why is ANY television show in Japan using an English lead-in?!), that the Japanese are a young nation when it comes to the number of bicycles owned, and that it causes me many restless nights sweating between my bedsheets.

It was recently pointed out by my shrink (Matthew Hall, friend and fellow local Ohtawara AET - though he's the tallest shrink I've ever seen - also the only one, believe it or don't) that bicycles are not the cause of my bed sweating. Still, I suppose it's the implied meaning of the metaphor that counts.

(Y'know... it made more sense in my head when I first wrote this. In hindsight, you should forget all of that crap up above).

Over the past few months, I've noticed that in Japan there are many stages of bicycle development and usage.

The primary school kids (Grades 1 - 6) generally ride around on small, knee-high two-wheelers of assorted colours that often have ridiculous English sentences printed on them. Want an example? Okay: "... she said to her mother, "Wh". It was an incomplete sentence taken completely out of whatever context it was in that means nothing to anyone except maybe the author - kind of like my second paragraph.

The primary school bicycles all have a banana seat and Harley-Davidson-like handlebars. They also possess nice quiet handbrakes.

The junior high school student (Grades 7-9, whom I teach) has a more advanced form of locomotion, as gears are present. The bicycles now have a front-placed basket of a colour to match the bike's paint job. Black for the boys and White for the girls. There is no in-between colour. Nobody knows why. The handlebars for both bicycles are low and flat. They too have handbrakes that are nice and quiet. Rear-view mirrors are present for reasons unknown to the rider(s). The same can be said for the bicycle light that works via pedal power. (There are no lights on a primary school kid's bike as they just aren't out that late.) There is usually a broken bell on the handlebar. The bicycle seats are not comfortable, and are now hard uncomfortable and thus considered practical leather triangles. The seats remain this way or the remainder of the rider's life.

There is very little English printed on the bikes, except for three or four incomprehensible paragraphs. This, too is a continued feature. Want your example? Okay: "ere is it then? How can you expect me to set the tableware for nine people when there is only enough for eight? "Relax," said her mother, "simply go next door to Mrs. Filmore's house and ask if you can borrow a set of flatware." "I thought you wanted tableware? What the Hell is fla".

Hmmm... the dialogue seems to have continued from the primary school kid's bicycle. I wonder what will happen next?

Helmets are now required for the chu gakkusai (middle/junior high student). Failure to wear one--along with your school uniform--every day, even when not at school, can cause ridicule and humiliation for the parents.

In senior high school (Grades 10-12), the boys graduate to a different, more cool-looking bicycle in an effort to get girls and to avoid being bullied to death by tough-looking boys from technical schools who weren't smart or lucky enough to be able to cheat on their high school entrance exams. The bicycles are identical to their junior high school versions, except that the handle bars are now vertical, with grips just large enough to contain the handbrakes, which are still very quiet. Helmets are no longer required as there are none that will fit over the average student's 1950's bouffant or 2000's goth hair-do.

The senior high school girls generally have the same style of bicycle they had in junior high school. If they want to look cool they never ride their own bike, instead they stand on the bolts that hold the rear tire of a friend's or better yet a boy's bike. They too wear no helmet for reasons of coolness and hair (often synonymous with each other amongst Japanese people and certain foreign teachers writing blogs).

Writing on the bicycles is non-existent, which now has me wondering what the heck is going on with that story!

Then it all just stops. After high school no one has a bike. Nobody rides a bike. Except for the old folks. There they are: 70-, 80-, 193-years-old, and their out riding a bicycle. Sort of. Can you imagine your grand-parents riding on a bicycle? Okay, even if mine weren't dead it would boggle my mind.

The old men ride a bicycle that is wholly reminiscent of the junior high school version complete with broken bell. They ride with their skinny legs pedaling a bike - just like Kermit The Frog (FROG LEGS).

As for the old women - it's the same bike as what they used in high school, except the women have now shrunk in stature. They hunch over with their hands thrust into mitts permanently welded to the handlebars. Their bicycles also lack a functioning bell, too. Nobody wears a helmet because the extra weight could cause their heads to snap down into their torso.

There is writing on the bicycles, however! The story continues: "tware? And Mrs. Filmore died yesterday after thieves broke in and ransacked the place. "They killed her?" asked her mother. "No, but she died of a heart attack when she saw the mess - you know how anal retentive she is about keeping her place spotless." "Oh, yeah," said the mother. "Better ask her husband about borrowing the knives and forks then."

I'm unsure who the writer is on these bicycles, but I like his or her style.

Although the old folks lack a functioning bell, fear not, they have something better. Whenever they slow down or stop their bicycle, they squeeze the handbrake which emits an ear-splitting whine that can shatter a rock. You know they are coming.

All bicycles for the elderly are built in this manner. The people who build bicycles are quite aware that if an old person takes a hand away from the handlebar to attempt to ring the non-functioning bell, they will probably swerve into a rice field where farmers could accidentally urinate on them during planting season. That's why all senior citizen bikes have the safety screech warning system.

I hate the noise. everybody hates the noise. But, it does keep them out of the rice fields.

Just today (before, if you aren't reading this when I wrote this, which was a while ago, even though I am writing it now), I was watching an old lady ride her bicycle agonizingly slow on what the Japanese fondly call a sidewalk (the rest of the world calls them sewer system covers). She was riding in a straight line averaging about nine wicked serves a minute. I heard her apply her brakes as there was a primary school boy a good 100 metres in front of her. The boy jumped in fright at the cacophony and quickly ran to the side (the middle of the road) and waited the two minutes for her to pass.

Then the real fun began. The old lady noticed another old lady riding her bike towards her. Swerving.

Brakes were applied in a friendly warning to the other. The swerving continued. As they approached each other, I could see one of the women squinting around looking for a high level of ground upon which she could step down onto until the trouble passed.

But there was none.

She bravely swerved on.

It took a full four minutes and 47 seconds, but they miraculously swerved around each other while bowing deeply.

I still have nightmares (today, as of your reading this) of the old women and their double-helix bicycle paths. I dread having to ride my bicycle past an old lady or Kermit the Frog on the street (shudder).

Somewhere bicycle writing,
Andrew Joseph
Today's title from Nazareth: BICYCLE