March 2011 Tohoku Earthquake

[gmat]

Sorry that I haven't posted anything nor given a quick shout that everything is OK. Kinuko and I are fine and the worst that happened to me was that all of the junk in my room tumbled down while I was away at my student's house. My computer went Tango Uniform so I'm forced to use my wife's Japanese Window computer. That's largely why I've been off-line. Thank you Inobu and Vai for your E-mails.

I was with a young student at her home when the shaking started. I told her to get under the table while I sat next to the table. Her mother stood next a cabinet that held the dishes to hold it up if it started to fall over. She told her son to cover his head with a cushion but he later joined his younger sister under the table. The shaking was rather violent for Tokyo and was rather prolonged. It was over a minute or two. The mother said later that this was the worst that she had ever experienced and I felt the same. Nothing fell down in her house and everyone was all right. I could hear the neighbors come out and discuss the earthquake so everyone else nearby was all right. After a minute, I took the two kids out to play in the street as I knew that there would be aftershocks. But after about a half hour we came back in, just in time for the next aftershock. There were one or two more after that before I left. I was pretty disturbed as I left a bit early. I'll make up the time tomorrow. I tried to call my wife but couldn't get through. I had visions of what might have happened. Perhaps my building was burning or more likely that my junk had fallen down and my wife would be trying to straighten things out and doing a slow burn and refusing to answer the phone. As most of youy know by now, all of the subways in Tokyo were stopped and most of Tokyo were left to find their own way home.

More to come.

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

When I got to Uguisudani Station, next to Ueno on the Yamanote Line, the station doors were shuttered. It was the first time that I had ever seen that. There was a sign in Japanese that said that all of the trains had been stopped. I took some photos that night but as my computer is down I can't easily post them. Sorry. The side door was open and a staff member was talking to someone. When I asked him when the trains would run, he said that he couldn't say, but seemed to indicate tomorrow. I started walking to Shinjuku where I had parked my bike. I had thought to ride all the way to my student's house, but didn't. Bad as it meant a three hour walk, but actually good in that I experienced and learned something by going on The Great Tokyo Walk that night. The first part was along the back roads that I usually take to my student's house so although there were people walking, it wasn't as many as later on the main roads running out of Tokyo. I noticed that all of the subway enterances had a sign saying that the trains weren't running. Many had a small dustbin with the paper sign taped to it. One station used a stool and another had the sign taped to the side of the entrance. Once or twice a staff member still stood outside to provide assistance, but by the time that I passed most of these stations, the passengers had long since left and other peope already knew the score, so there was no staff there. I took photos of examples of the signs. Next to Korakuen, I dipped into the nearby station and took some photos of the turnstile area. There were lots of people waiting outside and some were still inside with the staff nearby giving advice. Traffic was still moving slowly on the streets.

When I got to the main road near Iidabashi Station, there were much more people walking. I noticed some children sitting and eating a snack and remembered that in Tokyo, it is not unusual for young children to ride the trains alone to school or after school, to cram schools late into the night. I hoped that they would be safe. My student, a music teacher said that her friend had been stuck in a department store in Ikebukuro and that her son had been kept at school that evening and was safe. She later walked home to Hikawadai Station.

More to come.

Best wishes,

Grant

[Hobby Dreamer]

Hi Grant..

 

Glad you are OK...

 

Hope your wife is as well... maybe its just the chaos....

 

Take care

Rick

[gmat]

On the main road running from Iidabashi to Kudanshita, the extent of the disruptiomn was clearer. I saw a man with his children waiting next to him. He was trying to flag a taxi. I thought better to start walking now and if need be, stop every half an hour in a convenience store to warm up. Every phone booth had a line waiting to use it. Earlier there were about twenty or more people lining up, later, I saw about about four to six in front of each phone booth. Some people were talking on their phones, but I still got no response on mine. I heard that texting and twitter were more reliable. The buses were all full and the taxies were full also. By the time that I neared Shinjuku Station, it was faster to walk than to ride the bus. After I passed Kudanshita Station, about two hours into my walk, I noticed that many people were stopping off at the convenience stores and that there was a long line to the register and others were standing outside eating or drinking. By this time the sidewalks were full of people. Earlier, most had been going in the opposite direction, but now they were mainly heading towards Shinjuku and westwards. There was a lemming like feeling and many were kind of rushing ahead and quite a few spilled over into the side of the street in their hurry to get home. I can understand such feelings, but because I often rode to my student's house and had walked for long distances in the city, I had a rough idea of how long it might take. For many, who might have usually ridden the trains, the best route and how long it might take to walk were uncertainties.I saw a number of people stopping to ask ploicemen for help. I also felt the stong desire for the walk to end and so hurried up. The lucky one ones walked with friends and talked with them. I heard one such group parting and a lady saying that it was fun.

 

More to come.

Best wishes,

Grant

[gmat]

Thanks Rick, but three of the walls in my room have bookshelves or model kits stacked to the ceiling and the fourth has a rack with my computer and TV so she is right to be upset. Will post a photo later.

Best wishes,

Grant

[cumber_s]

Hi Grant, good evening,

 

tnak you for the very informative and detailed report from the "situation zone".

I felt very informed (knowing the places myself), hope sincerly , that you and your wife are and STAY safe!

 

Chris

 

P.s.

Have fun cleaning up the appartment , earthquakes in Japan are the perfect opportunity for that

( desperately searching for some positive thing to say .)

[corrention , not to self no reading and posting after 2 am]

[Bernard]

Grant - I'm glad everyone it safe. It was very interesting reading your story.

 

Would you mind if I ask for a new thread to start that members tell of there personal stories dealing with the Earthquake. Your story gave me a real sense of what is happening in Japan. 

[bill937ca]

Good to hear you are well Grant. 

[Ronincat]

Glad to hear you are well, and hope that the mess won't take too long to clear up.

 

How is the situation in Tokyo with regard to the basic necessities?  The media in North America portray the situation as desperate, with empty shelves and people fleeing the city in droves.  Reports I have seen on other websites from Japan indicated that some items sell quickly, but the situation is bearable.

[brill27mcb]

NHK News, on constantly (and very repetitively) on my U.S. cable service with voice translations to English, posts this link to the Japan Red Cross:  www.jrc.or.jp/english/

 

I find the NHK news coverage poor and inaccurate, the press conferences lacking information, and the Japanese people and reporters very accepting of inadequate analysis and explanation. Only 4 helicopter loads of water were dropped on Reactors 3 and 4 and then that work stopped, yet one expert commentator mentioned that they would need to do 100 to possibly 200 such loads to fill the spent rod cooling pool. Clearly radiation exposure of the crews stopped things prematurely, yet it took a day before this was acknowledged in the press conferences. Also, they are trying to restore electric power, but just to Reactor 2 which is the least damaged and least serious, and which still may need its pumps checked and fixed before they can work. I saw a monitoring station output graph shown which indicated a 7.1 meter height of the tsunami wave in the vicinity of the plant -- that's almost 25 feet high!

 

Rich K.

[miyakoji]

I've been watching that same NHK World broadcast.  Yeah, it's bad.

[Guest ___]

Well, according to the new fear-monger medie outlet king, MSNBC and close in second CNN, are both reporting as of 1845 EST, that a meltdown is inevitable and that any radiation will blow out to sea then south in to Tokyo bay directly. MSNBC is reporting a cargo plane from Tokyo arrived in Dallas and shown up positive for radiation and are evacuating the area around the airport. Strange, they make it sound like it is a virus or something. FOX best get thier best writers on this, as they have been caught slipping on the matter.

[Guest ___]

Perhaps someone has contacts in Japan who could recommend a reputable agency on the ground there now that could use some support? Not necessarily for a jnsforum initiative but I'll leave to pow wowing to the admins. I just liked Rick' idea of something for the displaced kids.  

 

I can log directly into (as I have been for a week) to Kyodo News, but in order to access and report, I have to log to what agency it is going to.

[brill27mcb]

Yes, the Japanese seem to be under-reporting, while the rest of the world over-dramatizes. In North America at least, we do not have TV journalism anymore, just "news-themed entertainment." So here on the East Coast they fail to figure out that a largest-recorded earthquake in Japan and a 25-foot Tsunami started all of this, and excitedly report on "Could this happen here??"

 

The best NHK coverage I happened to catch was a few days ago. They spent a full half-hour one morning reading off the service levels of many, many rail lines with accompanying stock video footage of trains coming and going.

 

Rich K. (about 80 miles downwind of Three Mile Island and even closer to Limerick nuclear power plant)

[miyakoji]

FOX best get thier best writers on this, as they have been caught slipping on the matter.

:laugh:

[Guest ___]

I do not think Japan is under reporting, but rather taking its time to confirm facts first and report once they know where as in America we speculate then report as fact with hope that the speculation pans out or else it creates additional workload on the producers to make the speculation fit actual known fact.

[westfalen]

Grant, good to hear you are ok and interesting to read first hand reports from someone on the ground in Tokyo.

[bikkuri bahn]

Please remember, NHK is a government and user-fee funded non-commercial broadcaster, and as such, tend to be a more sober and at times opaque news service.  They don't have to worry about the number of eyeballs watching their programs to satisfy commercial sponsors.  There are of course the commercial broadcasters (TBS, NTV, Fuji, TV Tokyo, Asahi) which vary in their reporting styles- you have a wide choice to choose from here in Japan.

[bikkuri bahn]

Another thing (and Grant can provide the best info on this- glad to hear you're OK...), I've seen reports of "deserted streets" in Tokyo due to worries of radiation in Western media headlines, but Japanese TV newcasts yesterday reported, yes, there were fewer people out in the streets (est. 60% less in Ginza, 50% less in Ameyayokocho), but by no means "deserted" like some post-apocolyptic movie scene.  And that may partly be due to some radiation fears, but more likely by many people taking days off from work and retail businesses temporarily shutting down due to disruptions in the supply chain.  You'd think the western news outlets will start reporting zombies in the streets by now

[Ronincat]

You'd think the western news outlets will start reporting zombies in the streets by now

 

This just in - Fox is reporting zombies in Shibuya....

 

no, wait - that's the last Resident Evil movie...

 

I would like to say that the Canadian news (which is usually less sensationalist) has been pretty good, but it's been crap!  I realize that the attention span of the average citizen is measured in milliseconds these days, but the lack of factual reporting has been terrible.  I'm surprised they're not running clips of old Godzilla movies as footage for the stories.  The sad part is, the nuclear plant story has overshadowed everything else - I would like to hear how relief efforts are going.  I can only hope that some of the aid that has been sent or is on its way will reach those people very soon.

 

As an aside, HLJ is donating a portion of their sales over the next 2 weeks for earthquake relief.  I bought some stuff (other hobby related) that I wanted but don't need. 

[bill937ca]

Another thing (and Grant can provide the best info on this- glad to hear you're OK...), I've seen reports of "deserted streets" in Tokyo due to worries of radiation in Western media headlines, but Japanese TV newcasts yesterday reported, yes, there were fewer people out in the streets (est. 60% less in Ginza, 50% less in Ameyayokocho), but by no means "deserted" like some post-apocolyptic movie scene.  And that may partly be due to some radiation fears, but more likely by many people taking days off from work and retail businesses temporarily shutting down due to disruptions in the supply chain.  You'd think the western news outlets will start reporting zombies in the streets by now

 

A video look at the situation.

 

[scott]

NHK News, on constantly (and very repetitively)

 

Yeah--it'd better if they just put up weather maps or something rather than endlessly cycling through the same story.

 

The odd thing is that, while many of their news readers have really clear English, the translations of news conferences etc. are very halting and slow and seem to leave a lot out.

 

Of course, my Japanese is nonexistent, so I shouldn't complain.

[westfalen]

The Australian national broadcaster ABC has some reporters on the ground in the earthquake zone wandering around as best they can and giving regular reports on the human side of the disaster and the relief efforts. Like NHK they don't have to worry about sensationalizing things for ratings.

[cumber_s]

The german media is worse, I have the feeling that many jouralistst are glad that finally something big happend.

All the experts seem as their only qualification is having thrown stones against nuclear waste transports.(one could not tell the difference between alpha, beta and gamma rays)

The private media chanels are hyping s lot , some interviews are so baldly -> wrong translated.

Can only be explained by having translater not speaking japanese at all...

 

 

Well no wonder , because many! people confuse Japan with China. Really that happened to me.

Eg. the Bank teller when I exchanged my euros for my last stay there.

Quote:

Me " I want xxxeu in Japanese Yen"

Her, " ahh nice so you are going to the world exhibition in China?"

[scott]

All the experts seem as their only qualification is having thrown stones against nuclear waste transports.(one could not tell the difference between alpha, beta and gamma rays)

 

While I agree that some of the reporting has been really poor, I would respectfully point out that many opponents of nuclear power understand the physics of it, and are more prone to discourse than to rock-throwing.