#named 'bivalve proposal'

[patriciaselina]

Nakajima Yoshiki’s “Tomorrow will be better than today” #2

I'd been thinking that the parts of the world I know of is a small one. And what a person doesn't know, he doesn't understand, does he?

This is the second part of a canvassed twelve-part series of translations of Nakajima Yoshiki's KIKI VOICE diaries. The entire post is crossposted onto Wordpress but can be seen under the cut!

#2: That's right, let's go on a trip

Original date: August 18, 2016

It's hot! It's hot, isn't it-! Hello everyone, it's Nakajima Yoshiki.

Rather than it being suddenly sunny, the weather's smoothly turned into a hot and humid Japanese summer.

Nakajima's naturally curly hair hasn't been listening to him lately...sorry.

Honestly, this year, I'd decided that my big goal would be to "go to many places!" I've been a bit slow at fulfilling this, though (lol)

I come from Yokohama in the Kanagawa prefecture (Kantou), and for as long as I can remember I've never gone far from Kantou. Well, even if my family says "we'd gone to these and those places before, though," if I myself can't remember it, they don't count.

I'd been thinking that the parts of the world I know of is a small one. And what a person doesn't know, he doesn't understand, does he?

So I've decided to start from within our borders, and there's a lot of stuff I wanna see!

Speaking of!

I went to Okinawa. The sea's pretty~

Took a day trip on a bullet train.

It's my first time in Okinawa! I've got some friends who come from Okinawa, but this is the first time I've gone there for myself!

Iyaah, it's hot! (chit-chat) It's twice as hot as Tokyo! (more chit-chat)

I got a rental car over there, and usually, when I was on the south side of the island, that's all the small talk I could do!

And then I chowed down on Okinawa soba like an idiot(^q^)

Going on unknown roads, riding an unfamiliar car, they all gave off this mysterious vibe.

The car passed by lots of places. Sometimes there'd be something about it that reminds me of home. Also, the place names! I didn't read any of em! (lol)

I'm from Kanagawa, and now I have the privilege of working in Tokyo, but this - this is also a place where people live, this is also how they spend their everyday lives. I wonder if there's anyone here who came from the same hometown as me, who ended up working in Okinawa.

Different people live different lives, and not one of them is interchangeable with another. Also, I think the Okinawans we got to meet were really easy to talk to.

That's right!

Together with Yashiro Taku-kun who (FINALLY) got his driver's license, and Uchida Yuuma-kun who happened to be free at the time (including last month this is the 2nd time I've mentioned him), we went for a drive along the sea~

It's the first time I've done something like go to the sea with my friends.

Of course, we couldn't go for a dip in the ocean, though. Even though Yuuma bought a swimsuit.

At any rate, I just said "let's hang out!" and we got together immediately, went for a drive and got there. This kind of initiative is something the me from the not-so-distant past would've never thought about (lol)

I have good friends.

Something I'm thankful for is that this year, the jobs I've gotten outside Tokyo have increased.

Every time, I get to eat the delicious food from those places. It may seem to be a veeery simple thing, but I think and i've noticed that stuff like the smells of those places, are as easy to remember as one's earliest childhood memory.

Thinking “I wonder if my understanding has gotten broader” and stuff, and re-learning stuff all over, is the meaning behind a good trip.

I wonder where should I go next-?

Everyone, think recommendations up for me-!

Well then, until next month! See ya~!

Nakajima Yoshiki

●This Month's Recipe● Simple! Arrabbiata

Won't you have spicy food to match a hot summer? Arrabbiata is "anger" in Italian. The reason for that seems to be 'cuz the spiciness causes your face to look angry. That's what I saw in Wikipedia.

Add capsicum to taste. Simmer the garlic together with the olive oil, and when their aroma is strong enough, add canned tomatoes.

And that's it! The variations are endless! This time I added the umami and sweetness of vegetables, and onions too.

By the way, this arrabbiata in particular is something I fed Yamashita Daiki-kun and Fukamachi Toshinari-kun when they dropped by my house, so it's a creation of mine I have confidence in. By all means, please try it out! 　 (For one serving)　

100g pasta

one clove of garlic

one piece of capsicum pepper (to taste)

1/2 onions (finely chopped)

150g canned tomato

olive oil

salt

sugar

※If you add a bit of sugar to the tomato sauce, it'll taste better and bring out the sourness of the tomatoes!

yoshiki’s journal tag

You can see the first halves of these monthly diaries under these search results! The second halves are all only available to site subscribers, hence why I end up downsizing the pics from those parts >_> (s/o to @sarapyon for helping me get these!)

Like I said in the first part - I always have to keep reminding myself that Yoshiki writes more casually than Souma, who I usually translate for. If this means I completely eschew exact translation in some parts, so be it - I wonder if his "voice" got through to you?

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY PEOPLE WENT TO OKINAWA. I’m assuming he went there on his own, but the fun thing with Japanese is that he doesn’t have to specify if he was with other people, so I’m winging this...

junon taku on the beach is a bad idea

what kind of swimsuit did yuuma bring tho, i wonder

An earlier episode of Fuburaji shows that Kobapyon and Nakkyan hang out a lot, Kobapyon jokingly saying Nakkyan sticks to him ‘cuz he got no other friends. (Or at least...I hope..he was joking...) (Seriously tho, in his feature with Shohei, Nakkyan also says he’d wanna hang out with Shohei more. Pls just give him friends)

Please do not redistribute this anywhere else without permission and credit!

Thanks for reading!

[firstginger]

Subquiz Proposal: Crawlers, or some name to that effect? Potential results could include land snails, land slugs, centipedes, millipedes, leeches, earthworms, ragworms, velvet worms, marine flatworms, land planarians, sea snails, nudibranchs, sea cucumbers, sea hares, starfish, brittle stars, urchins, chitons, bivalves, and cephalopods.

okay anon these are some of my absolute FAVORITE animals, i think we were cut from the same cloth. sea cucumbers have been in my top 5 favorite animals since middle school LOL and i'm obsessed with giant millipedes. my only hesitation is that some people might be less enthusiastic about having those daemon forms and i'd also have to see how viable they are in terms of behavior analyses! i might do some separate write-ups on here for unconventional forms if people are interested! this is super niche but i love like mermaid and daemon AUs where everyone has an aquatic daemon..... i would love my little sea cucumber daemon so much

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #11: Eutrophication

It’s time once again to talk about how Continental Divides uses (and lightly abuses) real-world concepts. In Chapter 11: The Water Bearer, the grimer and muk that are attracted to the Route 110 oil spill mimic the real-world problem of eutrophication. 

“Everyone downstream is getting fucked by this no matter what we do,” grumbled one of the nearby girls.

Natalie cringed at the mental image of grimer washing up on the piers where outdoor markets were held, at the shipyard. She couldn’t imagine the damage they could do to the fisheries. “Clean up the oil and they starve, right?”

She made her throw, but the grimer squelched out of the way, sloshing ashore. It wrapped around Natalie’s leg and managed to pull her partway into the stinking mud before the other girl caught it. 

“Yeah, too bad even the dead ones are toxic as fuck,” she panted. Together, they turned their gazes to Natalie’s pants leg, which was caked with purple sludge. “Let’s, uh, hose that off.”

I’m bending the real science a little to suit the pokemon setting and to crank up the drama, so I want to take some time to explain a little better how it works in real life.

An algal bloom in Lake Erie caused by eutrophication

It looks pretty seen from above, but these harmful algal blooms are another side-effect of water pollution. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) names “runoff from agriculture, dissolved chemicals introduced into water supplies via rainfall or irrigation, and effluent from sewage treatment plants” as sources of pollution that cause algal blooms. To algae, these are all sources of tasty nutrients. When the water is overloaded with nutrients, algal growth runs unchecked and chokes out other aquatic life.

Algae covers the surface of the water as it grows, blocking other plants from sunlight and killing them. When the algae dies off, it creates another problem. The bacteria that decompose dead algae use up oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. The lack of oxygen creates dead zones where fish and wildlife can’t survive. The carbon dioxide lowers the pH of seawater, contributing to ocean acidification. From NOAA again: “Acidification slows the growth of fish and shellfish and can prevent shell formation in bivalve mollusks. This leads to a reduced catch for commercial and recreational fisheries, meaning smaller harvests and more expensive seafood.” Some algae are even actively toxic in addition to being oxygen-sucking, carbon dioxide-producing factories.

I’m not a scientist, so don’t take my word for it, but I haven’t found any research to support the idea that oil spills themselves cause eutrophication. They’re full of chemicals that sit on the water, but not necessarily the kinds that algae like to eat--they mostly poison and suffocate wildlife instead. : ) There are bacteria that eat crude oil, but my impression is that the dispersion of oil spills over time (either by natural forces or with the aid of manmade dispersants) keeps those from growing in high enough concentrations to create dead zones.

So, my oil-eating grimer don’t behave exactly like algal blooms in ecosystems that become oversaturated with nutrients ... but I hope you can see where the idea came from!

Actionable steps to help:

This article suggests some ways you can help reduce urban runoff (and the kind of pollution that cause eutrophic algal blooms) with your purchasing power ... And that’s nice and all, but I’m not a fan of activism that tries to put the burden on individual action. These big, global issues don’t quite work like that. This article from NOAA talks about ongoing initiatives to study harmful algal blooms and legislative proposals to help mitigate nutrient runoff to prevent algal bloom events. Call your city and state representatives and ask them to take action to support these NOAA initiatives or take steps of their own to reduce urban runoff.

Here’s some Chapter 11 music (with links to Spotify):

- Oil Spill by Mob Rich

- Is That Your Life by Tricky

- Blue by A Perfect Circle

- Quecreek Flood and Before the Eyes of Storytelling Girls by Anais Mitchell