2010 in review

Yesterday was 冬至 (Winter Solstice). In Japan, many people eat pumpkin and take a bath with Yuzu fruit to prevent catching a cold.

Click here to read a post I wrote with more detail about this Japanese tradition.

Today is a holiday in Japan. It’s 天皇誕生日 (the Emperor of Japan’s birthday). He’s 77 years old now.
This is one of the two days of the year that the public are invited into the Emperor’s Palace grounds to see him and listen to his speech.

Click here to read my FAQ about it.

Anyways, every year the Mitsukoshi Department Store in 銀座 (Ginza, Tokyo) has an exhibit of press photos of the biggest news stories of the year.

We often go to see it. And we went to this year’s exhibit today.

It was quite good, as usual. There were nearly 300 photos that showed many big events of this year…from the World Cup and the Olympics to the miners rescue in Chile.

2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada

Of course, there was photos of the closing of the Kabuki Theater in Tokyo.
Click here to read my post about this famous theater’s closing (with photo that I took).

The closing of the famous Kabuki Theater in Ginza, Tokyo.

If you’re in Tokyo you should check out this exhibit. It’s free of charge and runs until Sunday (2010 December 26).

All photos in this post are from the Mitsukoshi 2010 Press Photo Exhibit website.

Tsunami

Yesterday a very strong 地震 (earthquake) hit the South American country of Chile.

Damage in Chile from 2010 Feb 27 earthquake

This earthquake caused a strong 津浪 (tsunami), tidal wave, in the Pacific Ocean…and it’s currently headed straight for the Pacific coast of Japan (which includes Tokyo)!

On this map, the areas in red are in danger of 3m waves, in orange is in danger of 2m, and the yellow areas have a warning of 0.5m waves.  Tokyo is in part of the orange area.

This tsunami is forecast to hit Japan at about 2:30PM today. People near the east coastal areas of Japan have been advised to evacuate. We live far enough inland that we should be fine.

The last tsunami warning Japan had was after the Indonesian earthquakes last winter. (Click here to read the post I wrote about it.)
No tsunami hit Japan that time.
The last tsunami to hit Japan was in the summer of 1993. Over 200 people died in the northern island of Hokkaido.
Hopefully no one will even be injured in this one!

—By the way, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, the 2010 Tokyo Marathon is being held today…and a friend of mine is running in it.
Hopefully everyone will be OK. It was raining very hard this morning in Tokyo, so I didn’t go out to watch the marathon…I’m watching it on TV.