Agitation

It’s weird the past few days here. I, and many others I suppose, feel kind of agitated for several reasons:

First of all it is much too warm for the season. We have over 20 degrees Celsius while we should have 10 to 15. In a way it’s kind of nice, but also a bit spooky.

Second, the warm weather and wind bring us two presents from China: sand from the Gobi desert, which in itself is nothing unusual, happens more or less every year in spring. However, this year people and the TV are kind of “charged” since the particles are as well. Maybe I’ve been living on the moon, but I have not heard anything about this in previous years. Now all the news are bellowing about “PM 2.5″ (= particulate matter and the respective particle size.) Here’s a definition. Frankly, I heard about PM 2.5 for the first time this year when Beijing was drowning in smog a couple of weeks ago. NHK shows now hazy pictures of Nagoya and Fukuoka and gets all worked up about PM 2.5.

Next thing that charges the air is pollen, hay-fever season has started and half the population is wearing masks, me included. Luckily I’m not feeling much yet, since usually it’s my hay-fever turn in April and May. I am apparently allergic against “hinoki”, a cypress species, rather than “sugi”, which is funnily enough also a cypress species and spewing much more pollen this year than last year.

The third factor for the general agitation currently is that 3/11 is coming up. Two years ago our lives got shaken up quite a bit. We still have plenty of smaller quakes that I am not writing home about anymore, if so I’d repeat myself every week or so. Only bigger jolts get written home about these days. Nevertheless, the news are full of “two years ago and two years on” reports. A major newscaster guy from NHK has visited the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant wearing impressive gear and a mask and all. I saw the report only with half an eye but did not notice any mentioning of radiation measurement = how many micro or whatever Sieverts he tanked that day at the plant or that any of the plenty of workers running around at the plant are exposed to every day = the most important/interesting information was missing…

Which brings me to agitation factor number four: North Korea. Now what the hell are those dudes doing now? Apart from the fact that I get to see and hear a lot these days from my “favorite” “newscaster” Ri Chun Hee or Hui (though Wikipedia says she is “retired”, she seems to be still around. The lady’s intonation and tone are just hilarious) the contents of what she is announcing though are not so funny. On what planet does the North Korean government live? It doesn’t seem to be ours…

So, these are the four agitation factors the past few days that are making me a bit jittery. Maybe I should stop watching news and more The Soprano’s instead (just finished season one and liked it a lot)…