Archive for April, 2011

“Hero” Dog Not Allowed in Evacuation Shelter

A few days ago, I posted about a shih tzu that saved her human master from the deadly March 11th tsunami. Here’s an update on their situation, which aired yesterday evening on ATV:

The beginning of the report shows 83-year-old Tami Akanuma walking through the remnants of Miyako city with her dog, Babu. On the day of the earthquake, Babu forced Akanuma to change their usual walking route, a decision that lead the both of them to high ground that was beyond the reach of the tsunami. Akanuma believes that Babu saved her life.

When first interviewed about the story, Akanuma and Babu were staying together at an evacuation shelter. However, a few days ago, they were relocated to a different shelter, only to find that dogs were not allowed because some evacuees might have allergies.

Babu is now staying at a friend’s house. It is the first time that Babu and Akanuma have been separated for so long. She worries that Babu will be lonely without her, and it’s obvious that she also misses Babu.

Akanuma’s son and daughter-in-law are now searching for a new place to live. With luck, Akanuma and Babu will soon be living together again.

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Fukushima Farmers to Consumers: “Please Buy Our Products!”

Farmers from Fukushima brought their products down to Tokyo over the weekend and held a market in Yurakucho. They were making a public appeal about the safety of their agricultural products and calling on consumers to support the economic recovery of the region:

“It is not justifiable that products from Fukushima, which haven’t been banned from the market, are being affected” by the crisis, said JA Touzai Shirakawa’s Masaichi Mimura, executive director of the agricultural cooperative in southern Fukushima.

In an attempt to prove the safety of their products, Mimura used a Geiger counter in front of the crowd and tested the buckets of rice, strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes that were being sold.

“See? The counter shows no irregularities. Everything is safe,” Mimura said.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan on March 21 placed an indefinite ban on sales of spinach and “kakina” from Fukushima and neighboring prefectures after samples were found to be abnormally radioactive. Milk produced in the region is also prohibited from being sold for human consumption.

Judging from the video, it looks like a lot of people tried the samples and bought some of the products.

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The Search For Safe Water in Tokyo

Although radiation levels in Tokyo tap water have dropped considerably since the brief period in March when levels exceeded government safety standards for infants, many people in the Kanto region are still worried about drinking tap water.

As this TBS news video shows, bottled water remains scarce at some supermarkets, so some people have been travelling great distances to obtain drinking water:

People are shown lining up to fill bottles with water from a natural spring at the Anasawaten Shrine in Inagi, in the western part of Tokyo. The water from the spring is officially certified by authorities as safe to drink.

However, some people are travelling even farther to get “safer” water. Tokyoites have been travelling 160 kilometers west to fill water bottles at a highway rest area in Yamanashi prefecture. The group they filmed included people from Shibuya and Edogawa areas of Tokyo. One woman said she was getting the water for her pregnant daughter, who has been unable to obtain bottled water in Tokyo.

Because of uncertainties about the availability of electricity, bottled water factories have been operating at reduced rates of production. At the end of the clip, we are shown footage of a shipment of bottled water sent to Japan from Coca Cola’s South Korean factories. It seems that Japanese supermarkets may soon start selling a considerable amount of Korean bottled water.

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Adidas Commercial: Athletes’ Messages to Japan

In the past couple days, I’ve noticed that two Adidas commercials are getting a lot of airtime on Japanese TV. Both commercials contain messages of post-earthquake encouragement from famous athletes:

Here is are the names of the athletes that appear in the commercials.

Rugby players: Richie McCaw and Ma’a Nonu.

Soccer players: Shinji Kagawa, Kaká, Xavi, and David Villa.

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Video: How Sodium Silicate (Water Glass) Stopped Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Leak

Over the weekend, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant struggled to plug of a crack that was causing highly radioactive water to leak into the Pacific Ocean. After a few failures, they finally succeeded by injecting large amounts of sodium silicate (“water glass”/”liquid glass”) into the leaking storage pit.

Japanese TV news programs have explained the situation with small demonstrations of sodium silicate leak-plugging power. The following clip combines two such demonstrations, from ATV and TBS:

As you can see, when enough sodium silicate is injected into water, it solidifies very quickly and stops leaking.

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Hungry Farm Animals in Abandoned Town Near Fukushima Nuclear Plant

These YouTube videos show the current situation in Minamisoma, a partially-abandoned city that lies within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant:

Before the tsunami and nuclear accident, the area had many farms. With most of the humans gone, farm animals are now wandering the streets in search of food.

[hat tip to @Nictos]

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