last night i was trying to look up some recipe on the internet for an italian dish and came across this amazing blog called FXcuisine.com by a swiss gentleman. the blog is about food & cooking – the theme may not be so unique these days (well, mine included), but his blog is something totally special from any other food blogs that i have ever encountered.

what is so special about it? perhaps it is the diversity of his recipes, the quality of all the photos (his kitchen looks like a photo studio), his nice & beautiful kitchen utensils, the attention to details, the preciseness of his explanations, the fact that the recipes are translated into 4 different languages (my gosh), his passion and interests to different types of cuisines, the consistency of his themes, etc. etc…. browsing through his blog, i realised that he’s even been here in japan, enrolled in a cooking class for soba noodles, visited a craft centre for japanese knives, went shopping at a famous kitchen tool street called 合羽橋 (kappabashi). and he is not even a professional cook, but is working in finance/legal sector… just incredible.

going through his blog, i felt as if i bumped into a long lost friend, with whom i used to share my childhood in the past. maybe it is because we share something in common, even if it is over the cyber space. it is funny to get caught by this feeling of nostalgia from someone i have never met.

due to the ongoing problem of the nuclear reactors in fukushima, there have been some concerns on contaminated water and food products also in tokyo. taking precautions, we have hired a water dispenser and are buying gallons of spring water from a company called canadian springs (its distribution agency happens to be located in our neighbourhood in tokyo).

we are using the spring water for drinking mainly, and sometimes mixing it with the tap water for cooking. it is a little more expensive than japanese mineral water, but we wanted to avoid buying the water locally so that the locally supplied water can go to those people who are in need much more than us (small babies and children, pregnant mothers, etc.).

until now, neither my husband nor myself ever thought of having the water delivered at home from a foreign country. in fact, i would have thought that it was such a ridiculous idea to buy water from overseas, have i not experienced the threat of radiation from the nuclear plant. however, the presence of the water dispenser filled with clean, safe water at home is definitely reassuring under the circumstances.

i am still a bit sad though. the water in japan used to be extremely clean that we never had to face the danger of using the tap water. natural spring water in the countryside being so clean that it could be drunk directly from the stream. i believe it still is clean in most of the areas except for the proximity to the affected areas and metropolitan areas, but what if it is not? the risk is there.

i wonder how long it will take for the threat to be vanished. a year? 2 years? 10 years? or it could be a lifetime.

sakura, cherry blossom, bloomed to its peak over the past weekend in tokyo. the city is embraced with baby pink petals floating in the air so gently, landing onto your shoulders, onto grounds, filling up street surfaces with its sweet pink carpet. couples walk hand in hand, small children with their parents and grandparents, friends gather giggling while taking pictures with their mobile phones. walking along the path of sakura trees, it inevitably brings everyone a huge smile, and every single smile is filled with contentment. the spring is here.

the life of cherry blossom flowers is about a week or so. because of the frail nature of its short life, we take in its incredible beauty as much as possible while it is alive. whether it is true or not, this year’s sakura appears to be exceptionally pretty and compassionate, as if to cheer our troubled minds and help us keep our chins up. everyone is encouraged somehow, by the sakura’s universal beauty, its friendliness, which is a great excuse for an annual outdoor spree.

i am grateful, to be in japan, to see the sakura blossom in my own eyes, and to feel the sweet touch of soft, warm spring air.

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as i was writing this post, another big earthquake hit (at 5:17pm) – this time it was M7.1. and scale 6, at its seismic center in fukushima.

our apartment in tokyo shook quite a lot too (scale 4 according to the news report), with the sound of glasses rattling on the kitchen shelf. actually, it has been exactly a month since the powerful earthquake & tsunami hit our country on the 11th of march, 2011.

the earth is still shaking, as if it is trying to tell us something, as if it is exploding with rage for something we have done in the past.

i wonder if this is ever going to end.

it is 26th of march 2011. it is a beautiful sunny, a little windy saturday in tokyo. i’m sitting at our dining table as i write this diary, thinking how calm and peaceful the city feels. looking out the window, i see the bright sunshine shining through the windows, warming up our apartment, my body, my skin, my soul.

japan update:

– the relief aid is ongoing in the north. all over japan, many families have volunteered to host the affected people at their own home.

– people are very cooperative for saving the electricity usage. it is quite dark wherever you go, such as shops, restaurants, metros, etc., which reminds me of my time in europe. i think japanese people finally realised how much energy had been wasted in the past.

– the nuclear reactor issues are still unresolved, but are continuously monitored and handled by the brave workers risking their own lives.

– the contamination of food, water, milk, etc. around fukushima remains to be a major concern for us. i read the news somewhere saying that the government is considering to buying out all the contaminated food from the affected farms to protect their business.

– thankfully the guideline to warn not to give tap water to infants has been lifted by the government. i am drinking tap water.

sitting in the quiet apartment on my own, it makes me feel that it is another normal, peaceful saturday. tonight, instead of checking news on the internet or on tv, i will play some music as i cook chinese for dinner (麻婆豆腐, mabo-tofu), then take a hot bath, then watch a film on our cable and stay in.

just like any cozy saturday evening could be.

it is 24th of march 2011, 14th day since the earthquake. we came back from hong kong 3 days ago, and have been feeling an aftershock quite frequently since then. sadly enough, we are used to it by now, and what scares us more is the continuous threat from the nuclear reactor.

yesterday the japanese government announced that the tap water in tokyo was found out to be contaminated with radioactive iodine. according to the news report, the level of radiation in the city water does not affect the adults nor children, but may affect infants who drink formula or eat baby food made with the water. as soon as the news was released, the bottled water in shops disappeared (which i think is a quite natural human reaction, being part of a self defense mechanism).

opening the tap in our kitchen today, a beautiful stream of transparent water started to flow.

growing up in a super modern & developed country like japan, it is hard for us to believe that water may be dangerous to you. the threat is totally invisible. no strange colour, no weird smell, no odd taste. how can we explain to small children that the water is threatening without scaring them too much? or should we just go ahead and scare them and teach them that the potable water is no longer potable because of whatever the difficult explanation of the nuclear power which even grownups like us can’t understand? is that a consequence of our cutting-edge technology?

the ceaseless problems occurring from the nuclear power plant are simply sad and mentally exhausting.