Today, I received a Female Researcher Award from the Soroptimist Yamagata, Japan.

I am very honored and appreciate Prof. Ohnishi, a dean of faculty of science and Prof. Ban of the earth science course of the faculty of science. I think this award is to encourage me to work harder. So, I should work harder for my research and lectures more than before. Anyway, I am so happy to receive it!

Post-conference Field Trip around Yellowstone National Park (No.1)

 The conference of the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) was held in Portland, Oregon, USA. After attending the IAVCEI 2017 conference, I joined the field trip of the Yellowstone Volcano. It was one of the post-conference field trips, and so the guides were volcanologists, geophysicist and geochemist. And so the field trip itself was very interesting for me.

Landslide slope of the 1959 Hebgen Lake Earthquake at the west Yellowstone.

The field trip started from Bozemand, Montana and we drove southward to the Yellowstone. We could see the Galletin Range and Madison Range from our car. Then, the first geological stop was just next to the Hebgen Lake (the west of the Yellowstone National Park) where there was a big earthquake felt in 1959. We could see the fault which moved when the earthquake occurred and the landslide slopes. There is "Quake Lake Visitor Center" now. We saw some huge rocks which fell down at that time. Also, the lake surface moved up and down...the seiche occurred. I learned a word "seiche" here. For us, Japanese, we same lake Tsunemi. Interestingly, the epicenter of the earthquake must have been inside the Yellowstonem and it was not around the Hebgen Lake.
 Then, we went into the Yellowstone National Park. I was surprised that there was a traffic jam before entering the national park. I went to the Hawai'i Volcano National Park several times, but I have never seen the traffic jam around the entrance of the national park. 

Norris Geyser Basin

Hot Springs in the Norris Geyser Basin

 The most attractive stop on the day 1 was Norris Geyser Basin. It was beautiful place with many hot springs and some geysers. The color of the hot springs varies with the temperature and the kinds of bacteria. The hot spring water was neutral to alkaline and there was a lot of SiO2 make the white color of this area. 
　

Tuff Cliff of Lava Creek Tuff Member A

 The final stop of the day 1 was Tuff Cliff of Lava Creek Tuff. It is a bit confusing that the name of the tuff includes "Lava". Actually Lava Creek Tuff is pyroclastic flow deposits and it consists of member A and B. This pyroclastic flow occurred 0.64Ma. Do you know the unit "Ma"? It stands for "million years ago". Therefore, the Lava Creek Tuff is formed around 640, 000 years ago. It is about 10, 000 years later than the formation of Yellowstone Caldera (0.63Ma). 
It must be continued... However, now it is difficult to finish this travel diary because I stopped it and didn't take a look of this blog for a while. Sorry... I will continue again at some point when I have a motivation to do so.

My life never goes as I planned

I often complain that my life doesn't go as I planned.
I turned to be 40 years old this month, and I don't still have a permanent position. I am single though I had some boyfriends and I wanted to get married with them. Nobody really proposed me.
These days, nothing goes well. I had a back pain and couldn't dance for two weeks. I had a presentation in the Japanese conference. I presented a result with which I was not satisfied. I caught a cold the day I left for this conference. So I felt dizzy when I gave a presentation. My senior told me that I am not intelligent enough to work for a numerical simulation. He suggested me to work something else, but he didn't have any good idea. I lost my self-confidence to be a scientist.

My life... I have desired to be a volcanologist. I wanted to work like a Mr. Masao Mimatsu, Prof. Hiromu Okada, Prof. Tadahide Ui. They worked for mitigating the disaster of volcanic eruption. Their personalty were good and I respect them a lot. I studied volcanology and disaster mitigation, and obtained my PhD. I started to work as a volcanologist at the institute near the volcano and worked for outreach or consult with the officers of local government about the political measure of volcanic disaster mitigation. During these three years, I couldn't write so many research papers. I only published one paper with my name on the first author. It was not enough to impress other scientists. So it is very hard to get the next position right now.

I hated my destiny. I couldn't accept such my life with unlucky things. I worked hard. Why can't I get happy and stable life?

I bought a book "Omoidoori ni Ikanai kara Jinsei ha Omoshiroi" in Japanese. The title means "A life is interesting because it doesn't go as planned". It is written by a famous writer Ayako Sono in Japanese. Her life has been so hard. However, as she didn't have a happy and stable childhood, she got a strength not to get flustered even she faced to some adversities, she said.

A life is full of unexpected things. Nothing goes as planned. She experienced the World War 2. Nobody wanted such war and a hard life after the war. In that situation, she wanted to survive, only survive. That is why she can enjoy her life now. It is much better than death.

I should learn from her. When I thought about the suicide, I recovered from the depression because I noticed that it is miracle for me to be alive here and now. I wanted to try to be a volcanologist as it was my longing. If I die tomorrow, I wanted to say that I tried as much as possible. I would like to say  "I definitely enjoyed my life!!" when I die.

Although I couldn't write many papers and couldn't make big progress in my research, I can say that I tried many things these years. So, what should I regret??

Probably, I will get a new life from next year as my contract of the current position ends in the end of next March. Even though it won't be a scientific job, I can probably enjoy it because it is my life. There will be many unexpected events because it will be my life again. It is enjoyable because I am alive! It is miracle!!

Thank god! I am still alive and am enjoying my life!!!

Standing in front of the Kiyomasa's statue in Kumamoto city, March 2017

Christchurch in the beginning of Spring

This is my first time to come to New Zealand. They are similar to Japan at some points. Their land consists of small islands. They have volcanoes and earthquakes. However, my impression is... they are quite different from Japan. The buildings, towns, foods, language and nature are all different.

Interestingly,  I found their similar point with Hawaii. Their native culture is based on Polynesian and so their words sound quite similar to Hawaiian words. I found some words have the same spelling and pronunciation as Hawaiian words, such as Kai and Poi.  Kai means food in Maori but ocean in Hawaiian. Poi means Maori dance or a ball in Maori and taro paste in Hawaiian. These similarities make me a little sentimental. The meaning is different but they have the same pronunciation!

Anyway, their view of the town is very different from Hawaii or Japan. It is quite British!

Curator's house in the Botanic Garden, Christchurch

The street near University of Canterbury

My first destination of this travel was Christchurch because I work with people in University of Canterbury. So I visited some parts of Christchurch. As you may know, Christchurch is a town which affected by some earthquakes seriously. They are still in the process of recovering from the 2011 earthquake.

A university building under the construction

Some buildings in the university are still under the construction, and the vast area of the city center is very flat because the building were destroyed by the earthquake.

Large flat area in the city center of Christchurch.

In fact, I went to the city center for the dinner one day after I arrived, and I was so shocked that the city was quite empty. My friends explained me that it was the downtown, while now it is large space with only few buildings. And my friend added, "We now have good new restaurants coming. It was sad, but because of the earthquake, now we can have new good shops and restaurants". He is very optimistic even he was affected by the earthquake.

In 2011, I was in Geneva, Switzerland. I didn't feel any shake, but an east part of Japan and Christchurch had big earthquakes separately. At that time, I was so shocked and couldn't concentrate on my work. I was looking at the website of Japanese TV news. When I was so sad, one of my friends in Geneva said "Japan is such a strong country and they will recover soon. Economically, maybe the loss for the moment is very big. However, with this earthquake, the requirement of employment will increase and they will become stronger than before".

I am not sure that we became stronger than before. Many people in Tohoku area are still suffering from the loss of their life. However, I think that it is very important to stay optimistic in such a difficult situation. It is a chance to be reborn for everyone!

Tea time at the cafe in Botanic Garden

I myself was in a difficult situation this year. I had an impression that nothing goes well with my life. However, this city and my friend reminded me that this is my chance. I can find something new for myself and my life. For a while, I haven't had a feeling that I have been enjoying my life, but I started to enjoy my life again. The Botanic Garden was beautiful and the cafe in the garden was nice and comfortable!

From Hawaii To Makuhari, Japan

Just trees and blue sky near Alawai in Honolulu

My journey started from Hawaii this month. I had visited Hawaii one and a half years ago. So, some parts of the Honolulu town changed. In Waikiki, there were many constructions maybe because old buildings should be rebuilt.

The train of Honolulu Railway by Railway Age (http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit/prototype-hart-trainset-unveiled.html?channel=)

 

On May 3rd, I arrived at Honolulu. When I checked in the hotel, I found the newspaper saying the first train arrived at Honolulu and people celebrated it. I couldn't really believe it because it was very big issue in Honolulu and people seemed not to desire to have the train in Honolulu when I lived there. However, I think this is a good chance for Honolulu to be a comfortable city.

Waikiki beach

For my life, this visit to Honolulu was a bit bitter. Blue ocean comforted me in my grief. I have many good friends in Honolulu, and so I was not so so sad at that time.

The wave of real grief hit me after I came back to Japan. However, I didn't have much time to feel sadness as I had to present my work in the conference.

Makuhari beach

The Makuhari town which was the conference site is also along the coast. The color of the ocean is different from Waikiki beach, but there is a beach. I was not so sad anymore as I saw many old friends and researchers. I enjoyed presenting my study, chatting with my friends, and discussing with other researchers. I felt strong bond with my friends and this working field. I think one of the reasons why I continue to work for volcanology is that I like talking with these people.

A hamburger at KUA`AINA in Maihama, Japan

Strangely, I went to Kua`Aina not in Honolulu but in Maihama near Makuhari. I ate a big avocado hamburger with my friend from my university days. I think the hamburger is the best at Kua`Aina in Haleiwa, Oahu Island. Unfortunately, I couldn't go there this month... I am sure to go there next time!!

The last moment in Makuhari, I received an email saying that my paper was published.

Please visit my paper at http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40623-016-0463-8?view=classic

I desired to publish this paper after Ontake eruption in 2014. When the eruption started, I was in Honolulu. Since then, I came back to Japan and had worked for this topic with a feeling of my destiny. "This is my mission as my numerical model of ballistic trajectories in volcanic eruptions is unique to estimate the energy of blocks which killed many people", I thought.  Now, I am feeling that I can step forward.

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!