From yesterday, CNN TV repeatedly reported that cold waves attacked the south middle of United States, especially Arkansas where people suffered from the storm the most due to power outage and stop of water supply. Mr. Isao Sagara, a friend of mine, has a mountain lodge in Arkansas. From April through May 1998, I stayed at his cottage for three weeks. During my stay, because of the rise of water level caused by hard rains, we could not cross a river where usually we run across on four wheel drive vehicle easily. We were isolated from the world for a few days together with hordes of cows. A big tornado run through our place and a few of houses lost roofs because of hard winds. Many big trees in nearby woods were swept down . But people were cooperating each other to survive against natural threats.
The news bothered me so much because I met a few people who were nice and kind to me during my stay. This afternoon, I called Mr. Sagara who is now staying at his home in suburban Tokyo. He saw the same TV news as I did. He remained rather calm at the news and said while he was staying there, he experienced weeks long power outages. Almost all neighbors owned privately power generators at their homes. So Mr. Sagara might be right. I am really impressed by those American who try to enjoy free life style in wide woods with the full understanding of natural threats.
Another purpose of my call to Mr. Sagara is to inform him that Ms. Hikaru Nishida, a popular Japanese singer, visited Branson, Minnesota and will make a report on NHK BS Digital TV on January 7, 2001 from 19:20. When Mr. and Mrs. Sagara brought me to this town in 1998, I was more than surprised to find a big entertainment town located there. There are more than thirty theaters, each of them has a capacity of one thousand to three thousands seats. And the place is surrounded by big but not luxurious hotels. Some of theaters have three performances a day, with a few theaters of four performances a day. Most of customers are aged people. They are coming to this town by big buses from all over the states. Las Vegas has been very popular in Japan but I had never heard of Branson. It is quite a mystery to me. If you see this broadcast, you would be quite sure to be surprised.