Snow Observation in Nagaoka

Nagaoka City from a hotel

Nagaoka is a city where they have much snow in Japan. I went there for taking a course of snow observation. I stayed at the hotel just in front of the Nagaoka station.
 I went around the city in the morning. There were Hinamatusri exhibitions at some locations in the city.

Hinamatsuri Decoration 1

Hinamatsuri Decoration 2

 Hinamatsuri is a festival for girls. We pray that a girl have a good marriage. It is on March 3rd and also called "Momo no Sekku" which means seasonal festival of peach flower. We have two festival on the same day probably because a peach flower is a symbol of Spring.
At the tourist information, I asked about the place to stay only for one or two hours. Thesn, they recommended me "Tanita cafe" close to the station.

Tanita Cafe in Nagaoka

"Tanita" is a name of a company who makes scales. These couple of years, they make good health scales and promote healthy life. Their scale can measure the amount of fat and muscles with electric current. In the cafe, we can have an advice after we measure the precise value of body weight, fat and muscle.

Result of my measurement!

 This chart shows the amount of muscle (upper, blue) and the amount of fat (lower, green). If the value is higher, the color is stronger.　It means I have much muscles on my arms and legs, while I don't have much muscles in the center part of my body. And I have much fat on my arms. Totally, my body balance was not so bad. They calculated an Index of Athlete (how much you are close to an athlete??). For me it was 72/100. It means my body is quite athletic. Wow!!

However, I need strong muscle in the center part of my body because muscle of body trunk is very important for classical ballet. I am now thinking how I can train this part.

Anyway, it was very nice day with blue sky!

Snow Observation Course

I enjoyed a course of snow observation. In the yard of the institute, it was easy. However, it must be hard to observe snow layers and measure physical parameters in Mt. Fuji. OK, I don't need to worry too much for the moment. Let's just enjoy!

Field Work in Sakurajima

Sakurajima from Sakurajima Ferry (from Kagoshima city to Sakurajima Island)

We went to Sakurajima which is like a Island (but not really an Island because it is connected to Kyushu at a point), in December 2014. Sakurajima is in Kagoshima prefecture, which is the south part of Kyushu Island in Japan. This Sakurajima is quite famous as an active volcano in Japan.

What is our work? I cannot say our idea for the field work in detail because we haven't made any publication with this study. Anyway, our aim is to collect volcanic ash samples and their pictures.

My colleague making an special box for collecting volcanic ash samples.

At first, we waited for an eruption in the observatory. When the strain of volcanic edifice grows, we moved to the downwind direction. And there, we waited for an eruption again. Once it happened, we ran by a car to follow the volcanic cloud. Then, we collect samples just under the volcanic cloud.

My cap was covered with volcanic ashes.

It was nasty to work under the ash fall especially when it rained. The first eruption we caught was with a rain. So the samples were wet and it was very difficult to take good pictures.

Ash covered car.

Our car is coated by ashes. Though it is not clear because this car's color is silver, people were surprised with our car completely covered with ashes. Of course, we followed ash cloud!

Starting of the eruption.

 After two days, the weather became better. So I could see the eruption starting from Showa Crater. It was not such a big eruption, while it was exciting to see the volcanic cloud. Fortunately, it was not so scary this time.

Tonkotsu Ramen in Kagoshima city

My colleagues came back as they had other schedules. Finally, I became alone... I went out for eating dinner by myself in Kagoshima city where I stayed. I chose "Ramen" because Tonkotsu taste is popular in Kyushu. Tonkotsu means a bone of porc/pig. The soup of this ramen is taken by bones of porc. I like Ramen, and it was delicious!

Now, I am analyzing the data which we took in Sakurajima. I feel that these data are not enough and I have to come back to Sakurajima later again. It's my pleasure to come back!

Year 2014 to 2015

For me, 2014 was very busy year.

A summit of Mt. Fuji from helicopter

This year, I saw many aspects of this volcano. I worked for this volcano.

A summit of Mt. Fuji from Nanamagari parking lot of Fujinomiya (in Shizuoka) route.

Sometimes I saw it from Shizuoka prefecture, but mostly from Yamanashi prefecture as I worked for a Yamanashi prefectural government in Japan.

Mountain hut on the slope of Mt. Fuji. Many people visit and climb up to the summit of this mountain.

My work is to think about how to mitigate disasters of volcanic eruption around Mt. Fuji. So we searched evacuation route everywhere on the slope of volcano.

Lava tree with a professor of Akita University.

Our work is to educate people around volcano.  So there  were many events to show volcanic features of nature and give lectures. I met many people and many mysterious places of Mt. Fuji.

Amusement park of Gaspard et Lisa.

Mt. Fuji is a popular touristic spot in Japan. So there are many parks and sightseeing places around. Gaspard et Lisa is a book for children originally in French. These rabbits are so cute. I sometimes visit this park because it is free to enter.

Big things for me in 2014 are firstly, a visit of Hawaii in the end of September.

Mouna Loa from the parking lot of Jagger Museum.

I wanted to visit my boyfriend and my field in Kilauea, but I couldn't visit in 2013. So it has been one and a half years since I left Hawaii. I was very happy to enter the ocean as it was not so easy to get to the coast in Japan.

Kailua coast in Oahu Island.

I was very happy to float on the ocean. However, there were lava flow approaching to the residential area of Pahoa, in Big Island. Finally, this lava flow reached a house in November.

In Hawaii, I had a heartwarming dinner with my boyfriend's family. I thought like that his family is my family. It was wonderful evening. Just after I returned to my hotel, I got a call from my mother telling me a disaster of Ontake volcano.
So, one of the biggest things is an eruption of Ontake volcano. This makes me so sad, while at the same time, it made my motivation to work for disaster mitigation research.

Mt. Fuji from Kawaguchiko (lake).

I wish year 2015 would be a peaceful and nice year for everybody!!

Happy New Year