Japan News (4/7)
Apr. 7th, 2011 05:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarker4/6
There's some talk about the times it is taking to repair things. Apparently having one road which was badly broken repaired and handling traffic again in six days got some notice in the foreign press.
There are still other roads that haven't been worked on yet, but they talked with a construction manager who said they do have considerable experience in rapidly repairing roads due to earthquakes and tsunami. They also showed one bridge that was replaced completely in eight hours. Basically, a large crane laid two enormous girders across the gap, and then a work crew rapidly filled in on top of them. Watching the video of that, it seems to me that in some ways the extent of the destruction is helpful -- the crane drove down the side of the gap and parked where it was very convenient, because everything in that area was gone. If they were trying to do that with buildings all around, or even just farmers' fields, they'd have to be much more careful bringing in the construction equipment and materials.
They showed an exhibition hall in Osaka that has been converted to row after row of small eight-mat -- roughly 8 x 10 -- rooms. They got showers, rows of microwave ovens and hot water pots. Basically they've set up an emergency shelter and are offering to take in people, although Osaka is quite a distance from the disaster area.
The host was almost apologetic about this, but apparently right now Japan is very high in the ranking of countries getting relief from foreign countries. I think Sudan was first, the Japan is now number two. They talked about Thailand, Indonesia, India, even Djiboute -- it's a little country in Africa on the east coast. Apparently there are like 600 Japanese living there, who have been helping with schools and so forth -- and now they're returning the favor. In fact, in many of these countries, apparently they feel that they have been helped by Japanese companies and consultants, so now they are helping Japan. The government says there are between 134 and 139 countries currently giving some kind of help to Japan. On a map, it's just about worldwide. They showed some Chinese volunteers working in the disaster area, in the snow. They also showed a group in Kenya who have written and performed a song that is up on the web somewhere to collect money for Japan. There was also a big poster from the international school in Mongolia, covered with hearts with messages.
A streetside poll I think in Tokyo said that of 100 people, 92 said they wanted to volunteer to help. They also showed a popular singer who right now is packing boxes, putting toothbrushes and toothpaste into plastic bags, and doing other work as a volunteer.
There's a report from Sendai Airport. They have been cleaning up there, and they now have over 500 cars pushed into a makeshift parking lot -- basically an open field near the airport. These are cars that were there when the tsunami came through. Some of them are mashed, or bent, others are just flooded, and there might be some that actually work. However, even though they are inviting owners to come out and find their cars, finding it and doing something with it is going to be difficult. They're basically bumper-to-bumper, just shoved into the field. One young woman is shown climbing on hoods and walking around the field. She spends over an hour, but doesn't find her car.
From there they went into a nearby recycling center. They showed cars being torn to pieces by a... large mechanical claw on a crane arm? I think they said they have 6000 cars waiting to be dealt with. The manager of the recycling center said that out of 150, 70 are pure scrap at this point. He seemed to think this was a significant number, although I'm not really sure what the normal ratio is.
Sendai is currently estimating that just cleaning up will take about three years.
21:48 magnitude 4. Then at 22:55, another little one.
4/7
They were showing on a map the towns that have significant destruction -- the piles of debris, tsunami flooded, etc. It was noticeable to me that it was a string of beads along the coast.
They had a video of a visit with one small town. The fish market here is apparently well-known. The clock on the wall of the fish market is stopped at 3:32, when the tsunami went through. They show the belt conveyors that are used to handle the fish -- which have all been thrown around and destroyed by the tsunami. The dock is actually just about even with the water right now. Apparently the area has settled about 70 cm, which is enough to make the dock difficult to use. Still, they are digging out. On 3/20, there was a meeting of over 200 local residents -- fishermen -- to talk about the upcoming katsuo (skipjack tuna, Bonito) season. Apparently this really starts in June, but they need to start getting ready now. They all agreed that they are going to do their best. The camera crew goes out with one of the men from the fish market. He's trying to find tanks -- enormous blue boxes, looks like maybe 4 feet tall, 8 feet square? These are used to take in the fish, but the tsunami has picked them up and scattered them all over town. They find them stuffed into doorways, caught in the second-floor window of a building, and so on. At one point, he finds one upside down in a pile of debris and is excited until he finds one side where something has punched a hole in it. He tells the reporter that it can't be repaired, it's just trash. I think he had ended up locating just 14 of these boxes. Given the size of the fish market -- it's a huge warehouse -- I suspect that's not really very many. The TV panel that's watching ponders the possibility of other fish markets across Japan being able to send old tanks, extra tanks? They also showed the icemaker -- there's a warehouse full of blocks of ice. Even though the power has been off, there's been enough ice there that it is still relatively full of ice. The workers are starting to pull out the blocks so that they can look at the machinery. The manager of this facility says that they've got to be ready to make ice to meet the season. He says they've got to have water and power. So they've got their work cut out for them over the next couple of months, rebuilding the port and facilities enough to handle the season. This is Miyagi Prefecture, Kessanuma.
There's a little bit of talk about the dead and missing numbers. Right now they're reporting dead and missing at 27,000. The confirmed dead number is 12,596 today. One of the pieces that I hadn't realized is that the evacuation zone around Fukushima -- the reactors -- hasn't really gotten the same kind of search and so forth that other areas have. So they were showing that there are now teams in white suits with cranes and everything going through some of that area. Apparently there's about 3900 missing who may be located in that area.
There's some happy news at the temporary housing that's going up in Iwate Prefecture, Ishinomaki. They have about 36 units up already, but the last time they showed them, there were no washing machines, refrigerators, and other stuff. They've now gotten some of those in place -- apparently enough for the initial units. They said that each unit would have a new washer, refrigerator, television set, rice cooker, and hot water pot. There were six things on their diagram, so I've missed one. Microwave oven? Or just a regular gas range? Probably something to cook on, anyway.
Miyagi Prefecture, Osakishi (maybe?) -- They've got a little open-air market running here. One booth has fresh seaweed. Not sure what all was available, but there were a number of people out shopping. There's an old man who says he's lost his house and his car, but he's shopping. He says he is glad to see the market.
And apparently in this town, they've got a factory for some kind of manju (cookies/cakes) which is up and running again. They show the machinery running and the factory workers in their white suits making and packaging their product. I thought for a moment they were running boiled eggs on the conveyor belts, but they showed they are some kind of sweets. They talked with the manager, who said there's no use in sitting around. We need to get up and go. So he's got his factory running again.
There's also a report from Ishinomaki. There is an NGO -- some kind of organization -- that took an empty field and put up a large white dome. It's apparently an air pressure dome. Right now, inside there isn't anything. Just blue plastic floor. The organization says it is available for anyone to use, they just wanted to help provide shelter. I'm not sure... it apparently went up quickly and easily, but keeping the blowers running to keep it up in the air? I'm not sure if they've thought through the logistics of this for long-term use. Still, for a quick shelter it certainly seems to have gone up easily.
There are some kids starting elementary school in the disaster area. They show them in their black uniforms, smiling and eager to watch everything. The teachers do warn them at this school that the toilets and fountains aren't working. There are portable toilets set up outside, along with bags of water in a frame. Still, the kids seem excited to be starting school.
They also showed a brief clip from one of the towns in northern Japan but on the western coast, which did not get hit with the tsunami. They are preparing for cherry blossom festival, putting up lanterns and everything. However, this year the traditional lanterns have an extra message written across them -- Ganbare, Nippon (Fight on, Japan).
Incidentally, our local cherry blossoms are coming out. Everyone is trying to guess when the peak will be, and setting up hanami (flower viewing) groups. Here's a Japanese phrase to learn, "Hana yori dango" which really means sweets before flowers (dango being a popular sweet, hana being flowers, and which do you prefer, flowers or sweets?). It's frequently mentioned at this season, as the crowds sometimes seem more intent on eating and drinking than looking at the flowers. But of course, the cherry blossoms don't really notice...
There's some talk about the times it is taking to repair things. Apparently having one road which was badly broken repaired and handling traffic again in six days got some notice in the foreign press.
There are still other roads that haven't been worked on yet, but they talked with a construction manager who said they do have considerable experience in rapidly repairing roads due to earthquakes and tsunami. They also showed one bridge that was replaced completely in eight hours. Basically, a large crane laid two enormous girders across the gap, and then a work crew rapidly filled in on top of them. Watching the video of that, it seems to me that in some ways the extent of the destruction is helpful -- the crane drove down the side of the gap and parked where it was very convenient, because everything in that area was gone. If they were trying to do that with buildings all around, or even just farmers' fields, they'd have to be much more careful bringing in the construction equipment and materials.
They showed an exhibition hall in Osaka that has been converted to row after row of small eight-mat -- roughly 8 x 10 -- rooms. They got showers, rows of microwave ovens and hot water pots. Basically they've set up an emergency shelter and are offering to take in people, although Osaka is quite a distance from the disaster area.
The host was almost apologetic about this, but apparently right now Japan is very high in the ranking of countries getting relief from foreign countries. I think Sudan was first, the Japan is now number two. They talked about Thailand, Indonesia, India, even Djiboute -- it's a little country in Africa on the east coast. Apparently there are like 600 Japanese living there, who have been helping with schools and so forth -- and now they're returning the favor. In fact, in many of these countries, apparently they feel that they have been helped by Japanese companies and consultants, so now they are helping Japan. The government says there are between 134 and 139 countries currently giving some kind of help to Japan. On a map, it's just about worldwide. They showed some Chinese volunteers working in the disaster area, in the snow. They also showed a group in Kenya who have written and performed a song that is up on the web somewhere to collect money for Japan. There was also a big poster from the international school in Mongolia, covered with hearts with messages.
A streetside poll I think in Tokyo said that of 100 people, 92 said they wanted to volunteer to help. They also showed a popular singer who right now is packing boxes, putting toothbrushes and toothpaste into plastic bags, and doing other work as a volunteer.
There's a report from Sendai Airport. They have been cleaning up there, and they now have over 500 cars pushed into a makeshift parking lot -- basically an open field near the airport. These are cars that were there when the tsunami came through. Some of them are mashed, or bent, others are just flooded, and there might be some that actually work. However, even though they are inviting owners to come out and find their cars, finding it and doing something with it is going to be difficult. They're basically bumper-to-bumper, just shoved into the field. One young woman is shown climbing on hoods and walking around the field. She spends over an hour, but doesn't find her car.
From there they went into a nearby recycling center. They showed cars being torn to pieces by a... large mechanical claw on a crane arm? I think they said they have 6000 cars waiting to be dealt with. The manager of the recycling center said that out of 150, 70 are pure scrap at this point. He seemed to think this was a significant number, although I'm not really sure what the normal ratio is.
Sendai is currently estimating that just cleaning up will take about three years.
21:48 magnitude 4. Then at 22:55, another little one.
4/7
They were showing on a map the towns that have significant destruction -- the piles of debris, tsunami flooded, etc. It was noticeable to me that it was a string of beads along the coast.
They had a video of a visit with one small town. The fish market here is apparently well-known. The clock on the wall of the fish market is stopped at 3:32, when the tsunami went through. They show the belt conveyors that are used to handle the fish -- which have all been thrown around and destroyed by the tsunami. The dock is actually just about even with the water right now. Apparently the area has settled about 70 cm, which is enough to make the dock difficult to use. Still, they are digging out. On 3/20, there was a meeting of over 200 local residents -- fishermen -- to talk about the upcoming katsuo (skipjack tuna, Bonito) season. Apparently this really starts in June, but they need to start getting ready now. They all agreed that they are going to do their best. The camera crew goes out with one of the men from the fish market. He's trying to find tanks -- enormous blue boxes, looks like maybe 4 feet tall, 8 feet square? These are used to take in the fish, but the tsunami has picked them up and scattered them all over town. They find them stuffed into doorways, caught in the second-floor window of a building, and so on. At one point, he finds one upside down in a pile of debris and is excited until he finds one side where something has punched a hole in it. He tells the reporter that it can't be repaired, it's just trash. I think he had ended up locating just 14 of these boxes. Given the size of the fish market -- it's a huge warehouse -- I suspect that's not really very many. The TV panel that's watching ponders the possibility of other fish markets across Japan being able to send old tanks, extra tanks? They also showed the icemaker -- there's a warehouse full of blocks of ice. Even though the power has been off, there's been enough ice there that it is still relatively full of ice. The workers are starting to pull out the blocks so that they can look at the machinery. The manager of this facility says that they've got to be ready to make ice to meet the season. He says they've got to have water and power. So they've got their work cut out for them over the next couple of months, rebuilding the port and facilities enough to handle the season. This is Miyagi Prefecture, Kessanuma.
There's a little bit of talk about the dead and missing numbers. Right now they're reporting dead and missing at 27,000. The confirmed dead number is 12,596 today. One of the pieces that I hadn't realized is that the evacuation zone around Fukushima -- the reactors -- hasn't really gotten the same kind of search and so forth that other areas have. So they were showing that there are now teams in white suits with cranes and everything going through some of that area. Apparently there's about 3900 missing who may be located in that area.
There's some happy news at the temporary housing that's going up in Iwate Prefecture, Ishinomaki. They have about 36 units up already, but the last time they showed them, there were no washing machines, refrigerators, and other stuff. They've now gotten some of those in place -- apparently enough for the initial units. They said that each unit would have a new washer, refrigerator, television set, rice cooker, and hot water pot. There were six things on their diagram, so I've missed one. Microwave oven? Or just a regular gas range? Probably something to cook on, anyway.
Miyagi Prefecture, Osakishi (maybe?) -- They've got a little open-air market running here. One booth has fresh seaweed. Not sure what all was available, but there were a number of people out shopping. There's an old man who says he's lost his house and his car, but he's shopping. He says he is glad to see the market.
And apparently in this town, they've got a factory for some kind of manju (cookies/cakes) which is up and running again. They show the machinery running and the factory workers in their white suits making and packaging their product. I thought for a moment they were running boiled eggs on the conveyor belts, but they showed they are some kind of sweets. They talked with the manager, who said there's no use in sitting around. We need to get up and go. So he's got his factory running again.
There's also a report from Ishinomaki. There is an NGO -- some kind of organization -- that took an empty field and put up a large white dome. It's apparently an air pressure dome. Right now, inside there isn't anything. Just blue plastic floor. The organization says it is available for anyone to use, they just wanted to help provide shelter. I'm not sure... it apparently went up quickly and easily, but keeping the blowers running to keep it up in the air? I'm not sure if they've thought through the logistics of this for long-term use. Still, for a quick shelter it certainly seems to have gone up easily.
There are some kids starting elementary school in the disaster area. They show them in their black uniforms, smiling and eager to watch everything. The teachers do warn them at this school that the toilets and fountains aren't working. There are portable toilets set up outside, along with bags of water in a frame. Still, the kids seem excited to be starting school.
They also showed a brief clip from one of the towns in northern Japan but on the western coast, which did not get hit with the tsunami. They are preparing for cherry blossom festival, putting up lanterns and everything. However, this year the traditional lanterns have an extra message written across them -- Ganbare, Nippon (Fight on, Japan).
Incidentally, our local cherry blossoms are coming out. Everyone is trying to guess when the peak will be, and setting up hanami (flower viewing) groups. Here's a Japanese phrase to learn, "Hana yori dango" which really means sweets before flowers (dango being a popular sweet, hana being flowers, and which do you prefer, flowers or sweets?). It's frequently mentioned at this season, as the crowds sometimes seem more intent on eating and drinking than looking at the flowers. But of course, the cherry blossoms don't really notice...
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-07 11:56 am (UTC)Beyond that you really wouldn't know that Tohoku was suffering. Very few people have any relatives or friends in the area and those that do - such as my in-laws - don't seem to have ones that are particularly badly affected. So life goes on pretty much unchanged, though it looks like people are reconsidering sea walls and the like to see if they really are OK against a big tsunami - and I expect that will lead to much concrete when they decide that most of them aren't.
[The cherry is a bit late this year and they should have held the hanami party this weekend but everything was organized for last weekend so they did it anyway - a quite astounding amount of booze was on display and then drunk swiftly]