公開日：2020/07/15 /
We tweet about things that are not related to our work.
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”Kazunoko” (Herring Roe)
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Coronavirus is still having a great influence on the world.
In Japan, the supply of medical masks had been seriously tight until recently,
so it was taken up as the social problem to buy up all the masks.
There was also a serious incident caused by buying out in the past in Japan.
That is called as “Kazunoko(herring roe) incident” in 1980.
Kazunoko is called herring roe in English. This food is popular as New Year dishes in Japan.
It’s yellow in color and sometimes called “yellow diamond”.
Kazunoko is treated as a luxury foodstuff because of the short season for herring fishing.
Most of herring are fished at Canada and Alaska, for about 1 month from March to April.
Kazunoko, processed from those herring in spring, can be preserved long.
However, it mostly sells well around the end of the year.
The exchange rate also has an influence on the market price of it.
When the yen is strong, Japanese companies can get much profits from the sales of Kazunoko.
For these reasons, it is treated as a high-risk product.
A Japanese trading company imported a great deal of Kazunoko as usual in 1979.
In those days the Japanese yen rate was getting stronger, so they thought they could get enough profit.
However, the exchange rate of yen wasn’t so strong against the dollar as they expected that year.
If selling off the stock, the damage could be reduced, but then the market price of Kazunoko should slump
with increasing the distribution amount.
To avoid the negative impact to the industry, they decided not to sell their stock even in the wholesale season
and waited for the end of year when the price would rise.
As a result, the provision of Kazunoko to the market decreased and its price rose suddenly.
Many people thought that they would give up buying Kazunoko that year as the price was too high.
Their demand for Kazunoko was unexpectedly decreased.
Finally one subsidiary of that trading company went bankrupt with a great deal of stock.
(Y.O.)
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Working from home
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One month has passed since I started working from home.
I feel isolated because I haven’t been to the office.
Chat etc. when in the office or when going out …
I wonder if there is a slight negative impact on the mental side.
Also, since sitting in a stiff chair for a long time, my botom hurt, so use a cushion,
but it doesn’t work very well.
I improve my concentration and create documents.
Try to avoid omissions and mistakes without disturbing the attendants in the office.
I have some merits, so I do not feel dissatisfied.
I’m going to get used to lone wolf.
(T.N.)
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Airlines
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Due to the global pandemic of the new coronavirus,
the three major US airlines, American, Delta & United Airlines, clarify that
they are recruiting for large-scale voluntary retirement or early retirement.
These employees have announced that approx. 100 thousand employees have accepted
voluntary temporary leave and early retirement.
Based on US Coronavirus Assistance/Relief/Economic Security Act (CARES Act)
Domestic airlines with government support will be forced that they are forbidden to
reduce their salaries / employees until October 1st this year.
If a large number of employees are temporarily taken home,
business recovery will be almost impossible.
On the other hand, with a focus on demand recovery air lines should keep the minimum number of
employees and well trained on pilots who take time and money.
An airline official said “the difficult and hard situation / environment will continue for the time being.”
As you can see,
depending on the situation of the new coronavirus in the future,
we will have to make more difficult choices.
(A.A.)
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Mazu Pilgrimage
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Taiwan’s Mazu Pilgrimage – One of the World’s Largest Religious Events
Discovery Communications, an American mass media company known with Discovery Cannel,
called Taiwanese Mazu Pilgrimage as one of the largest religious events in the world,
along with Christmas Mass in Vatican City and the Hadji to Mecca.
This pilgrimage is also registered with “Intangible Cultural Heritage” of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
“Mazu” (媽祖) is a goddess of Taoism who collects belief mainly on the Chinese coast part as the guardian of sailing and fishing.
Many people moved from southern mainland China to Taiwan Island and settled in the past.
They prayed to Mazu for the safety of their sailing to Taiwan Island.
After arriving there, they gave thanked to Mazu and built a mausoleum, a kind of temple, in the island.
Mazu came to embraced widely and is one of the most popular gods there today.
They hold a grand festival all over Taiwan every year, around the date on lunar calendar March 23 as the supposed birthday of Mazu.
Due to the influence of coronavirus, the festival was postponed and started on June 11 this year.
This pilgrimage starts at Dajia District and lasts for 8 nights and 9 days, about 400,000 participants every year.
Although scaled down this year, all the schedules were broadcast live on the net.
(T.C.)
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Fossils of dinosaurs
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There are more than 1,000 kinds of fossils of dinosaurs reported in the world.
Then, for what reason are those of eggs hardly found?
Nature, an international journal of science and technology, issued on June 17,
published the paper that might solve this question.
They say that eggs of dinosaurs in early stage had soft eggshells like those of turtles rather than
hard ones like those of birds.
This is thought to be a reason why it was difficult for those eggs to be left as fossils.
I couldn’t help being impressed to know that a lot of facts in ancient times are still being discovered step by step.
Also I strongly recognized how attractive dinosaurs are for many people.
(T.U.)
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Morning glory
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From the remote work,
I grow a morning glory.
After the declaration of national emergency,
I growed it instead of my son.
He had no interest at all until yesterday.
However,
After the first flowers bloom
I forgot to serve water it for a few days…
This morning,
the morning glory seems weakly
My wife noticed him,
“They looks so weakly”
She told him,and he checked in a hurry.
He was going down…
He couldn’t hide his irritation
He seemed to think it was a cross that
Why nobody has water it
and I`ve never been doing it
Just after all
He has to do it himself,
He felt something,
When he is watering hard…
Does the morning glory have a strong vitality?
He said,
“It was good, it bloomed”
Like anything,
experience and feel
how to make use of it next time
think, act and grow.
From such a casual everyday child actions,
I thought that I would experience various things,
just like a child more greedy for growth anything.
(H.S.)
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PETRICHOR
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Do you like the characteristic smell when it begins to rain?
I learned it recently that this smell is called “petrichor”.
It comes from a Greek word “petra”, which means a stone.
The word “petrichor” was used for the first time by Australian scientists,
in an article published in the scientific journal Nature in 1964.
When a raindrop falls in the dry ground,
an air-bubble occurs and some ingredients of earth and rocks are included in it.
Then they are thrown up to the atmosphere, that causes the petrichor.
This smell of rain seems to be an commonplace occurrence,
so it was a surprise for me that there had been no suitable word
to express this matter until recently.
“This smell is called petrichor, I heard.”
How about telling someone like this as a small talk?
(T.H.)