News from Japan - February

GEJET
REVITALIZING JAPAN--Building a disaster-resistant nation / Discussions on relocating capital functions heat up again

Foreign bloggers take in disaster zone

Right after and one year later, tsunami area

Japan

1.3 mil. will have nowhere to go in major Tokyo quake

“Herbivore Men” Causing Japan’s Population to Shrink

Invisibility cloak to reduce earthquake effects  and Seismic Waveguide of Metamaterials

5% rubble cleaned

Tokyo earthquake might be shindou 7

Netherlands

Dutch mission for reconstruction tsunami area Japan

Translation: Minister Verhagen, head of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation spoke with Japanese ministers Kano and Edano about creating sustainable horticulture in the Tohoku area. Japanese companies generate a yearly turnover rate of 12 billion euro and create 34.000 jobs in the Netherlands.

Survival Japan - Snow

This side of the mountains, we get maybe two days precipitation every month (typhoon season hasn't started yet), including snow. Most of Western Japan still looks like this though:

http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/94650.php
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/94504.php
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/94490.php
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/94465.php

It wasn't all bad though, there was also some fun. The current snow depth of the JMA shows skiing is possible at many locations all over the country.

Take care if you venture out to the Northwest, as earthquakes can trigger snow avalanches... The temperature distribution also shows Okinawa is the place to be with a nice 24 degrees Celsius, as opposed to Hokkaido, where you will want to be during the humidified summer, with current temperatures below -5.

9000 km West, Europe has seen 300 snow related deaths up till now. Ten days ago, the coldest temperature in 27 years was measured in the Netherlands: -22.8 degrees Celsius. To raise awareness, a graph was published indicating the relationship between temperature and wind speed, and the resulting experienced temperature:



Elsewhere in Europe, candidate member of NATO, Montenegro, has asked the NATO for help given the snow. A train with 50 passengers had gotten stuck, but the people were rescued after 3 days.

Survival Japan - Sunshine

What does sunshine have to do with survival? Possibly everything. Major earthquake striking at dark cause more problems for rescue work than in daylight. The lack of twilight in summer really threw me off last summer. It seemed like it was dark 15 minutes after sunset. Don't expect a long evening sipping beer on a terrace in July chatting while the sun goes down; it's over at 19:00. Sure, there is more daylight now in winter in Tokyo, but it's too cold to be thoroughly enjoyed like in the Netherlands:

As you can see in the graphs of the linked website, the differences between Amsterdam and Tokyo don't appear to be that big. You can clearly see the moment the Netherlands switches to daylight saving time, and the effect it has on daily sunshine hours. You could of course get up at 4 am in summer to catch those extra rays. The worst time for an earthquake here during summer is between 19:00 pm and 04:00 am, depending solely on darkness. Considering traffic flows however, less people would be affected during night time as they are still at home, rather than travelling on raised highways or through deep subways. Still, not all homes are earthquake proof, and many older people sleep on the more easily collapsing ground floor of their house. Naturally, the best time for an earthquake is never, but that's just not the kind of world we live in.

Field Trip to Tokyo Disaster Prevention Park

It seems almost pointless to travel to impressive water/disaster management locations by myself, since I learned we were to visit the Tokai disaster prevention park on Odaiba as part of our classes. It was a welcome diversion from the two week course in Tokyo, even if it did mean additional travel to the daily four hours. The best part of it was how we have to travel using subways, to classes that teach us in minute detail how unsafe the subways are...

In any case, together with the BRI students, we took the subway and magnet train to Odaiba, where a new Gundam exhibition will be opened soon. We got a lecture from the director of the complex in the main command room, and got to see places not normally open to the public at all. Our big group was divided into two smaller ones, and mine got to go on the formerly heartbreaking earthquake simulation tour with Nintendo DS. Even with this news, having seen the simulation before made it slightly less terrifying. Of course I had to score a 100% this time, but the real question is, what will happen during a real disaster?

Room with furniture attached to the wall:

Room with furniture not attached to the wall:

The second location our group went to was inside the operations room. Our professor pointed out what was on the name tag of the desk we were sitting at. I could read 'Honbuchou', but what does it mean? President! Main person in charge...! The good news was that the phone was definitely working, a dial tone sounded... In case of a major disaster, the military also gets its own room next door to this room, but it is furnished more sober as they bring their own equipment. Finally we went down under the building and got to see the special anti-shaking architecture allowing the center to function despite earthquakes. It was a rare treat to be able to go to these places.

Meeting up with the much faster other group upstairs, we found some presents on our desks. As the stocked foods of the center were running close to expiration date, they were giving them away while new food was being stocked. The initial happiness of having some preparatory goods faded slightly after that announcement. Having eaten the items by now, all students I have spoken to agree the taste of the food is another reason not to want to have an earthquake. It was rather dry and flavorless, and 200 calories is not that much for a meal. We are now completing our earthquake survival kit with more edible foods, and we are planning to have a restock party at the first expiration date.