Archive for April, 2011

Bright Flashing Lights During Earthquake

Some weird flashes of light can be seen in the distance in this recording from N-H-K’s live feed of Sendai city during yesterday’s magnitude 7.4 earthquake:

It’s “probably due to a transformer substation in Sendai shorting out.” Either that, or space aliens firing an earthquake beam at the planet earth.

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Driving Through The Fukushima Exclusion Zone

A drive through the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone, via Videonews.com (now with an English description):

Fukushima, Japan – The Japanese government has issued the evacuation order on March 12 for the residents living within the 20 kilometer radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

Since then, residents have left their homes, and the “no man land” has been out of touch with the rest of the world.

A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report.

He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits.

Watch the video report.

[hat tip to cesario]

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Soil Liquefaction Occurs Inland – Damage in Abiko

In a recent post, I introduced some information about the use of sand compaction piling at Tokyo Disneyland, and how it protected the theme park from soil liquefaction that damaged neighboring areas in Urayasu city.

Here’s a report from FTV about another area of Chiba prefecture that suffered considerable soil liquefaction. Surprisingly, the damage was not to a coastal area. It took place in Abiko, a city 30 kilometers inland from Urayasu:

The liquefaction in Abiko has rendered over 100 homes uninhabitable, compared to just 8 in Urayasu. The liquefaction of the ground caused buildings to tilt or sink into the soil.

Abiko’s damage was mostly confined to one neighborhood. Aerial photographs from 62 years ago show that the area was once a pond/marsh. About 50 years ago, the area was filled in with soil and houses were built there.

The local government had produced a liquefaction danger map, but the neighborhood was not identified as a risk area. It seems that local bureaucrats were totally unaware that the area was reclaimed land.

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French Chefs Prepare Gourmet Food For Earthquake Survivors

Here’s some great news about French chefs who cooked meals for people at an evacuation shelter in Fukushima prefecture’s Koriyama city (videos from Reuters and FTV):

The Reuters video includes an interview with Lionel Becca, owner and head chef of Tokyo’s 2-star Troisgros Japon Restaurant:

“It’s not really about having stars or not. It’s just about being chefs and French. And we’re just French chefs living in Japan and in a way this is also our country. We decided not to leave and we stayed. And each is trying to help however they can.”

Seven top chefs have been brought in to prepare different food. The FTV interviewed Christophe Paucod, the head chef and owner of Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais (in the Kagurazaka area of Tokyo). Paucod says he is truly happy to see smiles on the faces of the earthquake survivors.

The people living in the shelter are delighted and grateful to be receiving delicious food prepared by some of Japan’s top French chefs.

The event was organized by several French organizations in Japan: UFE Japon, the AFJ, and the ACPFJ.

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The Search For Fukushima’s Missing Persons

A FTV cameraman films police as they search for missing persons in an area of Minamisoma city (inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant exclusion zone):

A team of about 300 police officers in protective gear searched for the missing in part of the city of Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, while measuring radiation levels.

The Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military have not conducted search and recovery missions for bodies in the 10- to 20-km zone, which residents were instructed to evacuate due to high radiation levels.

Fukushima and Tokyo police launched the search Thursday as the radiation levels have stabilized, the police said.

At one point in the video, the narrator looks at the post-tsunami wasteland and wonders if people will ever again live in the area.

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South Korean Schools Close Due to “Radioactive Rain” Paranoia

The presence of insignificantly tiny amounts of radiation in some rain water over part of South Korea has apparently triggered a nationwide outbreak of irrational panic, with children wearing masks and schools be closed:

School boards across the country, Japan’s closest neighbor, advised principals to use their discretion in scrapping outdoor activities to address concerns among parents, an education official said.

“We’ve sent out an official communication today that schools should try to refrain from outdoor activities,” the official said, adding the school board did not want to alarm parents unduly with the current level of radiation reported.

Some schools in the Gyeonggi province outlying the capital Seoul chose to shut for the day, Yonhap news agency reported.

The biggest school for expatriate children in the capital, the Seoul Foreign School, said all outdoor activities had been canceled, but it would remain open as the U.S. and British embassies had not issued warnings.

The Korea Herald reports that the South Korean government has even considered creating an artificial rainstorm to “block the inflow of radioactive materials” from Japan.

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