One year later…

Today is 2012 March 11.  One year since the Great Sendai Earthquake.

Of course, ceremonies to commemorate the tragedy and remember the victims will be held around Japan today.

I found a video on YouTube made in November 2011, eight months after the earthquake and tsunami.
It shows scenes during the tragedy that give you an idea of how frightening it must have been.
And the video also mentions Taylor Anderson, who was an American English teacher at an elementary school in the Miyagi area. She helped save a number of school children from the tsunami but she herself, unfortunately, died in the disaster.
Some of her former students can be seen talking about her.

The video also mentions the aid workers who came to Japan from around the world and it shows how grateful the people in the Tohoku area are to them.

It’s a very emotional and touching video. I recommend watching it.
Watch it and tell me your reaction / feeling in the comment section of this post.

Here’s the video:

The U.S. military are Japan’s “friends”

Since the 2011 March 11 earthquake that struck 東北地方 (the Tohoku Region of Japan), the overseas media have reported extensively on Japanese manners and the excellent rescue and repair work conducted by the Japanese…especially those willing to risk their lives.

But with a disaster of this scale it goes without saying that Japan needs help. And people from all over the world have been extremely kind and generous. Immediately after the tsunami destroyed the lives of so many in the Sendai area, rescue teams and donations came to help from many countries.

I saw a news report on TV here in Japan that focused on the U.S. military’s relief assistance in Sendai and Fukushima.

The U.S. military has a number of bases in various parts of Japan and the Japanese people understand the sacrifices that those in the military make and most of the Japanese people appreciate the protection that the U.S. military gives to Japan by having bases here.
But it’s a bit of a perennial problem in Japan. The U.S. bases take up valuable land in this small country, there have been a number of crimes, sometimes violent ones, committed by American servicemen stationed here, and some of the bases are for the Air Force and have noisy jets flying overheard all day everyday which greatly disturbs the people who live in the vicinity.

But since America has sent over 18,000 American service-people from the bases around Japan to help with the rescue and rebuilding of the Sendai area and also helping to cool down the nuclear plant in Fukushima, the people of Japan have seen the U.S. military at their best.
And they’re quite good!

The U.S. military has named the work they’re doing 「友だち作戦」 (“Operation: Tomodachi”).
「友だち」 (“Tomodachi“) is Japanese for “friends“.

They have a patch on their sleeve of the Japanese flag with the Japanese character 「友」 which says “friend” in Japanese. And 「がんばろう日本」 which means “We can do it, Japan!“.

The TV news program I saw showed the U.S. Marines giving bottled water, food and blankets to the people left with nothing since the tsunami. But it also showed them giving American candy and toys to the children who lost everything they own. Toys and chocolate may seem unimportant…unless you saw the big smiles of those children. It was very heartwarming and thoughtful of the Marines to remember to bring something for those kids.

But the most impressive things I saw the U.S. Marines do in that report was when they quickly restored electricity to a town that was without power since the earthquake two weeks ago. And also, the Sendai Airport was such a mess and covered with so much debris since the tsunami that the Japanese authorities believed it would take too long to clear the runways for the airport to be of any use to bring much needed relief to the city…but the Marines got busy clearing the mess as soon as they arrived in Sendai and later the same day, the runways were cleared enough to be used!

Even the people who would like the U.S. military to not be stationed in Japan are extremely impressed and grateful for their help!
Thank you U.S. military. You really are a 「友だち」 (tomodachi)!

Did you know that catfish cause earthquakes?

About nine months ago I wrote a post about a Japanese folklore character called a “Kappa” which is meant to scare children from playing to close to bodies of water where they may drown.

Signs in Japan warning children to stay away from a river or lake almost always have a picture of a Kappa.

But there is another folklore character that is found in warning signs in Japan today. The 鯰 (catfish).

Long ago in Japan it was said that earthquakes were caused by a giant sleeping catfish who lived under the ground when it woke up and began it thrash around.

 

A 浮世絵 (woodblock print) of a god stopping the catfish from causing an earthquake.

So, in Japan today, even though no one actually believes that earthquakes are caused by catfish, signs for earthquake evacuation shelters, earthquake evacuation routes and earthquake safety usually have a picture of a catfish.

 

A roadsign in Japan for an earthquake emergency road.

 

It says: "It's an earthquake! We support you and your families safety with earthquake evacuation"

Even though no one believes the folklore legend about the giant catfish underground causing earthquakes, many people do believe that catfish act peculiar just before an earthquake strikes…and this is where the folklore story may have originated from.

The biggest earthquake in Japan’s history

Today at about 2:45PM I was outside and I noticed the telephone wires overheard begin to swing wildly. It was a nice sunny day and not windy at all, so I was wondering why the wires would suddenly be moving like that.

And then as soon as it dawned on me that it was probably due to an 地震 (earthquake)…I felt the ground shake. I’ve been in a number of earthquakes here in Japan but this was the strongest I’ve felt the ground move. It gave me a queasy feeling.
It lasted a few minutes…which is quite enough time for an earthquake to do a lot of damage…and it got stronger. The buildings in front of me began to sway.

For the next few hours there were many aftershocks. Some of them quite strong.
It’s now 7:00PM and the most recent aftershock was about thirty minutes ago.
Maybe it’s finally over. I hope so! It was quite scary.

Actually though, we were lucky. A lot of things fell over in our house…but no serious damage—and most importantly, none of us were hurt.

Unfortunately, many people weren’t so lucky. At least nineteen people have been confirmed dead.
This earthquake, which has already been named—「２０１１年東北地方太平洋沖地震」 (“2011 Tohoku-Region Pacific Earthquake”), registered a 7 on Japan’s 震度 (Shindo) earthquake scale at the epicenter in Sendai, Japan!
“7” is the highest rating on that scale!
In Tokyo, it was rated as “5” in parts of the city and “6” in others.
On the western “Richter” earthquake scale, it was rated at “8.9“.

 

Tsunami warning map of Japan

A 津波 (“Tsunami” tidal wave) caused by the earthquake hit Sendai and swept up cars and boats and caused casualties and damage.

Boats upturned by the Tsunami. (photo ©Yahoo News)

In the Tokyo area, the earthquake caused a couple large fires.

A building in Odaiba, Tokyo caught fire in the earthquake (photo ©Yahoo News)

An oil refinery in Chiba, Japan near Tokyo caught ablaze in the earthquake (photo ©Yahoo News)

The 「２０１１年東北地方太平洋沖地震」 (“2011 Tohoku-Region Pacific Earthquake”) is officially the biggest earthquake on record in Japan’s history. And it’s in the top ten of the world’s biggest.
The said on the TV news that today’s earthquake was 180 times more powerful at it’s epicenter in Sendai, Japan than the 「関東大震災」 (Great Kanto Earthquake) that flattened Tokyo in 1923!

Earthquake

An earthquake (地震) just struck Japan.
Thankfully no 津波 (tsunami), injuries or property damage have been reported as of yet. But it was a pretty big earthquake…it registered as 6.1 on the Richter Scale or as a 5- on the 震度 (Shindo Scale) at the epicenter.

America and most other western countries use the “Richter Scale” to measure the intensity of earthquakes.
The Richter Scale simply measures the strength of the earthquake at it’s epicenter…it’s most intense point.
This scale technically has no upper limit but I believe the strongest earthquake measured on the Richter Scale was at 9.5.

Japan doesn’t use the Richter Scale. The 震度 (Shindo Scale) is used to measure the strength of earthquakes here.
This scale was invented centuries ago (unlike the Richter Scale, which was invented about 75 years ago), and it originally had only four levels.
Later it was increased to eight levels (0-7), and about fifteen years ago it was changed again to it’s current ten levels.
The ten intensity levels on the Shindo Scale are “0” (which is an earthquake too slight to be noticed by humans), “1“, “2“, “3“, “4“, “5弱” (“5-“), “5強” (“5+”), “6弱” (“6-“), “6強” (“6+”), and “7“.

Another difference between the Richter Scale and the Shindo Scale is that unlike the Richter Scale (which simply assigns an earthquake an intensity based on it’s strength at the epicenter), the Shindo Scale assigns an earthquake different intensity ratings for everywhere that it affected.

For example, the earthquake that just struck Japan a couple hours ago was rated as “6.1” on the Richter Scale (as I mentioned above)…but on the Japanese Shindo Scale it was rated as “5弱” (“5-“) in the 東北地方 (“Tohoku Region” of Japan) which was closest to it’s epicenter.
“5-” level is strong enough to cause furniture to fall and even crack walls and damage pipes.
But in the Tokyo area (where I live), it was a level “3” which is strong enough to shake houses but doesn’t usually cause anything to fall over.
Nothing fell in our house…but it was shaking and it’s quite an unsettling feeling!

I hate earthquakes.

Today's earthquake was a level 3 in Tokyo and 5- in Tohoku on the Shindo Scale.

Have you ever experienced an earthquake?

Earthquake

Yesterday was the fifteenth anniversary of the 阪神淡路大震災 (Kobe Earthquake).
It was a level 7 earthquake that flatten the Kobe area of Japan and killed over 6,000 people.

Click here to read the post that I wrote about the fourteenth anniversary of this quake last year.

And one year earlier, in 1994, an earthquake hit southern California in America.
Both the California earthquake and the Kobe earthquake happened on January 17th…only a year apart.

Of course everyone knows about the recent earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday.
Hopefully that country can recover from the damage soon.

I hate earthquakes but they’re a fact of life in this part of the world.
Growing up in Florida I never experienced an earthquake until I came to Japan.

The fifteenth anniversary of the Kobe, Japan earthquake and the sixteenth anniversary of the California one…as well as last week’s quake in Haiti made me remember the major earthquakes that happened around the world in the twenty years since I came to Japan.

Do you remember:
△ 1990 June – a level 7 earthquake killed about 50,000 people in Iran,

△ 1991 October – a level 6.8 earthquake killed about 2,000 people in India,

△ 1992 December – a level 7.8 earthquake killed about 2,500 people in Indonesia,

△ 1993 September – a level 6 earthquake killed about 9,700 people in India,

△ 1994 January 17 – a level 6.8 earthquake killed about 60 people in California, USA,

△ 1995 January 17 – a level 7 earthquake killed about 6,000 people in Kobe, Japan,

△ 1996 February – a level 6 earthquake killed about 300 people in China,

△ 1997 May – a level 7 earthquake killed about 1,500 people in Iran,

△ 1998 May – a level 6.6 earthquake killed about 4,000 people in Afghanistan,

△ 1999 August – a level 7.6 earthquake killed about 17,000 people in Turkey,

△ 2000 June – a level 7.9 earthquake killed about 100 people in Indonesia,

△ 2001 January – a level 7.7 earthquake killed about 20,000 people in India,

△ 2002 March – a level 6 earthquake killed about 1,000 people in Afghanistan,

△ 2003 September 25 – a level 8.3 earthquake killed zero people in Hokkaido, Japan,

△ 2003 December 26 – a level 6.6 earthquake killed about 31,000 people in Iran,

△ 2004 December 26 – a level 9 earthquake killed about 228,000 people in Sumatra,

△ 2005 March 28- a level 8.6 earthquake killed about 1,300 people in Sumatra,

△ 2005 October – a level 7.6 earthquake killed about 80,000 people in Pakistan,

△ 2006 May – a level 6 earthquake killed about 5,700 people in Indonesia,

△ 2007 August – a level 8 earthquake killed about 500 people in Peru,

△ 2008 May – a level 7.9 earthquake killed about 87,500 people in China,

△ 2009 September – a level 7.5 earthquake killed about 1,100 people in Indonesia,

△ 2010 January 12 – a level 7 earthquake in Haiti (death toll currently unknown).

Have you ever experienced an 地震 (earthquake)?

Disaster

Every summer we go to a beach resort and stay a few days.
This year we planned to go there from Sunday, August 9 until yesterday (Tuesday, August 11) because all five of us had those days off from work or school clubs.

We checked the weather forecast for those days last week and it said that it would rain a little bit on August 9 and then it’d be nice the rest of the time.
But that’s not how it turned out…

When we arrived at the beach on Sunday, it was a bit cloudy but still nice weather and very hot. So the kids went swimming a bit. If they had known that that’d be their only chance to swim, they would’ve stayed in the water longer.

After they finished swimming, they took a shower and changed their clothes and we went for a walk around.
My second daughter caught a カブト虫 (rhino beetle).

Then it began to rain.

We went back to the room and ate dinner. And we turned on the TV and I checked the weather forecast.
A typhoon was hitting the east coast of Japan! 😦

The forecast said that the typhoon would be gone and the weather would clear up on the afternoon of August 11. The day we we going back home!

And then, while we were eating dinner, an 地震 (earthquake) struck!
The area we were in registered a “level 4 earthquake” on the Japanese shindo earthquake scale. (The Japanese scale goes from 1-7).
It was an unwelcome fright! But luckily it wasn’t strong enough to knock anything down where we were.

The weather forecast was correct. The typhoon stayed the whole time we were there. It ruined our beach trip.
The wind and rain was very strong the entire time we were there. Both the beach and the nearby waterslide pool park were closed.

And then yesterday morning at about 5:30AM, another big 地震 (earthquake) struck! This one had the epicenter in 静岡県 (Shizuoka Prefecture), and registered a “level 6” (out of “7”) there!
Where we were it registered as a “level 4” again. Once again, not big enough to do damage where we were…but big enough to wake us up!
I hate earthquakes!

But we still had fun together. Indoors.
We played games, watched TV, talked, and enjoyed time together.

We planned to take the 6:30PM train home yesterday (August 11).
At about 5:00PM, I noticed that the typhoon seemed to have passed and the weather was clearing up.
Just my luck! The weather was miserable the whole time we were there…and then clears up when were getting ready to leave!

Since we had time, and the storm passed, we took a walk around again.
There were many surfers taking advantage of the big waves brought by the typhoon.

Even though we didn’t get to swim as we planned, we still had a good time.
And as I said, we go to this beach every summer. This was the first time that the weather wasn’t beautiful while we were there.
Hopefully it’ll be nice weather again next year!

湯島天神

Yesterday we went to 湯島天神 (Yushima-Tenjin Shrine) in 上野 (Ueno, Tokyo).

The 梅の花 (Plum blossoms) were beginning to bloom. (They had posters up advertising their annual 梅の祭 (Plum Festival) that they will hold beginning next week.)

It’s a beautiful shrine…especially when the plum blossoms are in bloom.

At the shrine, my wife and I each bought a cup of 甘酒 (a hot, sweet fermented rice drink. (lit. sweet sake)). It’s often sold at Japanese shrines in the winter.
It was good.

Here are a few photos I took yesterday:

Booth selling "Daruma".

千羽鶴 ("1000 Paper Cranes") for luck.

Plum blossom

From the shrine, we went to a nearby department store (I have a wife and three teenage daughters. Of course, they love to shop!).

The floor selling make-up and women’s clothes also had a display of Valentine’s chocolates (I mentioned in a previous post that women give hand-made chocolate to men on Valentine’s Day in Japan. Click here to read it.)

「ハートチョコ」 (♥-shaped chocolate) and 「ハートせんべい」 (♥-shaped rice crackers)

「ハートせんべい」 ( ♥-shaped rice crackers)

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By the way, those visitors to my site who are in Japan…did you feel that 地震 (earthquake) at about 6:30AM yesterday?

阪神淡路大震災

Fourteen years ago today, on Tuesday, January 17, 1995 at 午前５時４６分 (5:46AM JST), the 阪神淡路大震災 (Kobe Earthquake) struck the Western Japan city of 兵庫県神戸市 (Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan).

It registered as a 震度７ (Level 7 on the Japanese Shindo scale*). I hope I never experience a major earthquake like that! (The small earthquakes are bad enough).

(* Japan uses the 震度 (Shindo earthquake scale) (震度７ (Level 7) is the highest) rather than the Richter Scale).

津波

Two strong 地震 (earthquakes) struck Indonesia today. At least three people are dead.
地震 (earthquakes) are terrible. The strike suddenly with no warning. With most other natural disasters, people are given warning and a chance to evacuate.

In Japan, there is an expression that says the four scariest things are: 地震 (earthquakes), 雷 (Lightning / Thunder), 火事 (fire), and 親父 (father).

There’s a centuries old folklore in Japan that a giant ナマズ (catfish) caused earthquakes. And now, some scientists in Japan say that ナマズ (catfish) can predict earthquakes (scientists around the world say that about many different types of animals).

Because of this, many times in Japan signs for 地震 (earthquake) evacuation routes will have a picture of a ナマズ (catfish).

Anyways, because of the 地震 (earthquake) in Indonesia, the Japanese 気象庁 (Meteorological Agency) has issued a 津波注意報 (Tsunami Advisory) for many parts of Japan (especially on the Pacific coast side (where Tokyo is).

(By the way, did you know that 津波 (tsunami) is a Japanese word? It translates directly to “harbor wave“…but the English equivalent is “tidal wave“.)

Click here to visit the Japanese 気象庁 (Meteorological Agency) website.