One year on

What is there to say at this point? The Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 was probably the worst natural disaster the millions of us that decided to live on this (seismically unfortunate) island will experience in our lives.

There were several hundred thousand in prefectures of northeast Japan that had their lives changed forever. The primary victims lived in towns destroyed by tsunami, lived in close distance to the NPP or had homes destroyed or had friends or relatives that were swept away. Then there were the secondary victims, those that were out of power and basic services in the still cold end of winter months, had homes that were damaged or destroyed or businesses that went bankrupt due to inability to work or any other number of reasons. There were the residents of Urayasu that lost water and gas services for weeks after the quake. There were farmers in Tochigi, Ibaraki, Fukushima and more that could not sell their products. Finally, there were the rest of us. The majority of us on this island didn't succumb to any disaster. We all saw it on TV just like people all around the world.

Brix were shat

Those of us anywhere in the Tokyo area or west of it were VERY lucky. Other than the pain of seeing thousands of northwestern friends' and families' lives turned to living hell and the indirect effect from the meltdown, we got off virtually scot-free. Although there was a chance that the nuclear situation could have gotten even more out of control, it didn't, and our lives were not directly affected like the 330,000+ people in Tohoku forced to evacuate.

Personally I was safe in my office in Ginza for the main quake and the many shaky weeks that followed. There was a week or two when the whole world was freaking out about the nuclear situation. Many of us here southwest of the disaster zone were glued to our computer monitors madly taking in every iota of information we could about microsieverts, becquerels per liter, debating whether to stay or go. Everyone took it in, processed it, and made their own judgement about how dangerous it was. Some left for good. Some left temporarily. Some stayed. The amount of information and misinformation flying around the web those first weeks was incredible. How could anyone expected to be conclusive about what to do? It was first time for virtually all of us to experience a nuclear crisis first-hand.

Courtesy of jurvetson

Courtesy of fleep.com

Remember this gem? Turns out it was bullshit.

I ought to give a shout out to the voices of reason in the virtual onslaught of online "experts" that emerged after the crisis. They are the ones that put in hours to translate, report, blog and get out the word about what was actually going down. Some invaluable sources after the meltdown: @martyn_williams @timeouttokyo @hikosaemon @hirokotabuchi @W7VOA @1rick (notice they are all twitterers. Mainstream media was worthless when the shit hit the fan)

Well, that's pretty much how I feel about it, looking back. There are a million side stories (example) that have been discussed and wrangled over in the meantime. Many people choose to focus their anger on the people they see to be "responsible" for the disaster. There is no doubt that some (ahem, TEPCO board of directors, ahem, NISA and METI cough cough) could have acted with the needs of the country instead of the needs of shareholders in mind pre-3/11. Some people surely should be punished and an example set. That said, it may make you feel better, but pointing fingers doesn't end up helping the situation. There needs to be reconciliation. Forward-thinking people need to focus their talents to solve the deep problems that this country now faces (energy stability, food safety, bringing back tourists, how to pay for reconstruction, aging/dying countryside, etc.).

There is still a lot of work to do. I choose to believe that there are people that are resolute about fixing this mess. If there weren't, there would not have been people like Daiichi plant manager Masao Yoshida and the workers that stayed behind risking their asses when NOTHING was certain and local politicians like Shimada mayor Katsuro Sakurai (who was one of the few to accept debris from Tohoku for processing) putting their personal convictions ahead of their fickle, ignorant constituents. Fist bump to them and let's hope that they are not the minority.

PS. Watch this Frontline doc to see the razor's edge that the country was balanced on at the beginning of the nuclear mess.

PS2. 311 SUCKS!

The Great Post-3/11 Ego Handjob

Nearly a year ago, a disastrous series of earthquakes, a massive tsunami and a nuclear meltdown ravaged the Tohoku area of Japan, killing nearly 20000 people and injuring over 6000 others, as well as engendering massive economic losses – estimated to be US$235 billion – making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in world history.

Having experienced the disaster first-hand and its nihilism-inducing aftermath, I know that a handful of foreigners living in Fukushima at the time, including myself, had it hard. Not from the lack of food, electricity, running water or internet – but rather from having to put up with the constant, juvenile, and just fucking scandalous efforts by a handful of shithead expats to co-opt the pain and loss of others for their own self-aggrandizement online and off.

“He couldn’t possibly be talking about me,” you tell yourself, ignoring all the bullshit facebook albums you posted highlighting that one fucking day you went out to scavenge clean up the strewn belongings of a gutted home near the coast – likely fueled only by a dubious cocktail of guilt and the desire to embellish your online profile. Some didn’t even bring work gloves or appropriate clothes, but they sure as shit brought their cameras. Assholes.

I remember this one girl showing up when we went down to a disaster area to help shovel a shit ton of sand out of an acquaintance’s property. Aside from the intelligent human beings dressed in coveralls, there was a dyed-blonde IN SANDALS who came hours late, with a flaccid beer gut immodestly creeping out a club halter top, asking if we needed any help – but in a obviating way, secretly hoping no doubt that we would tell her that we had shit covered so she could go home and prepare for another night of gorging tequila flavoured cocks in one of Ageha’s men’s rooms. At least she wasn’t like one teacher, who left the country for nearly 6 months, only to return as though nothing happened. I wonder how many months of pay she received for her hiatus.

This gratuitous self-promotion could be seen miles away, too. Nearly 100km away, some puerile d-bag dressed head to toe in played-out designer fashions visited a nearby school (being used as an evacuation area), presumably with the intention to land a photo in the local newspaper and look like some pseudo-local hero. Big fucking deal. The very next day, scans of the article are on facebook for all to admire, with these gemlike quotes: “I stayed for the kids,” and “Although you can’t see the heart, you can see its consideration for others,” in Japanese. That last one copied almost directly from a shitty AC commercial they were playing non-stop on TV. BARF!

The foreign media was way worse, publishing any and all information they could get their hands on, like flies on a pile of shit. I know of at least one dickhead expat that got ostracized pretty badly after being “misquoted” in the Australian news, saying that conditions were so dire that had his friend not driven him to the airport, he would have knocked the guy out and stolen his car. Needless to say, his “friend” wasn’t too happy about that. Fuck the media, asking just about any Joe Nobody with a computer and 10 fingers to report on the conditions in Fukushima as though a bunch of early-20s who jumped ship the very next day after the disaster would know anything about the conditions at ground zero or the state of the Daiichi plant.

While some of us were busting our asses every single day carrying all kinds of shit to the dump site by truck, shoveling mountains of sand, heaving mold-covered tatamis, helping out local business owners/friends, etc. wah wah wah, we had to come home to this kind of whack-as-fuck digital identity management from a bunch of asshat pussies miles away, all showered and eager to spend some of that ill-gained social capital. Forget about the disaster, that kind of shit is way harder to stomach.

There were thousands of amazing volunteers all over Tohoku - they didn’t get any special media coverage, they didn’t whore themselves on mixi or whatever digital identity micromanagement circle jerk site out there. They weren’t really heroes either, to be honest. They were just real dudes, hard as fuck and just looking to help without expecting any special thanks or attention or showers of gratitude and adulation. They didn’t do it to boost their egos, or to chisel another accolade on their digital selves. They didn’t do it just to tell their friends and family, "Yeah, I was down there last week helping out the tsunami victims." Bullshit. How easy it is to get lost in one's own self-delusions!

*flush*

Helping the Displaced People in Tohoku

What people in Tokyo can do:
Volunteer or donate at Second Harvest.

Donate unused items such as feminine products, baby products such as diapers and lotion, items for the elderly such as adult diapers and wet sheets, as well as water, paper cups and more to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Donate blood through the Red Cross Society

What you can do in Japan outside Tokyo:
Make a furikomi (振込み) donation to Doraemon Charity Fund.
Donate canned food, instant rice, cup ramen, batteries, diapers, wet tissues etc. to the Shizuoka government.

What you can do both in and outside of Japan:
Donate to Red Feather Community Chest Movement, a member of United Way Worldwide, which goes toward supporting victims and volunteer groups which are responding to the disaster.

There are also many Japanese NPOs that are accepting donations and volunteers:

Peace Winds Japan	JEN
Association for Aid and Relief, Japan	The Association of Medical Doctors of Asia
KNK Japan	JOICFP
Japan Platform	Civic Force

Even more info here courtesy of @1rick

Living in the Twilight Zone pt.I

The past several days have felt like living in a Rod Serling narrated otherworld. To recap my personal experience since 2:46 p.m. on Friday March 11, 2011 would require writing a short novel. I will spare you that, but want to leave a comprehensive record of what I experienced this week.

Friday, March 11th

It was a normal Friday afternoon. Slightly busier than normal at the office, I took the unusual step of writing a list of all the things to do that day before I left that day. It was six items long. I had only crossed off one translation job that I had finished in the early afternoon by the time two came along. A brainstorming session about how to encourage foreign tourists to come to Tokyo was scheduled from two o'clock. The meeting--about eight or nine strong--included several

Japanese co-workers and the one other American guy. There were some zany ideas being thrown around by the locals, including promotion of "power spots" (?) and chambara classes. There was some eye-rolling taking place among myself and guess who amidst the wild conjecture by the Japanese team about where Europeans would love to spend their lovely imaginary future trips to Tokyo. All in all, a typical, patience-grating waste of time.

At some point I notice the room wobbling slightly. I quietly observed,「揺れてる・・・」(it's shaking), at which point the brainstorming died away and all eight of us sat there in relative silence waiting for the shaking to calm down. (We had just had a relatively long, but mild earthquake about a week before that lasted about a minute. I thought was a little out of the ordinary for the type of swaying--it was very slow and rocked like a boat rocking on 2-D waves. Like being in a raft in TRON. )

The odd thing about this latest quake was it just kept going and going, albeit slowly. Then, at the point when most earthquakes start to die down, it very gradually began to grow stronger and stronger and started really feeling like a boat in a storm. At some point, when the table started moving around, the girl next to me began to lose it, asking around if we should actually protect ourselves (this is VERY uncommon in Japan, where most people don't bat an eyelash at a semi-powerful earthquake, yet constantly moan about the temperature being 1 degree below their comfort zone). I think we were all getting concerned by this point. Normally people here would never consider actually running outside (we were on the sixth floor so the amount of time required to get out would likely mean the quake would be over before you get out).

I remember hearing some crashing sounds in the background. This was our final signal to bolt. I couldn't tell if they were buildings collapsing outside or ...? (I later found out it was the bookshelves and PC monitors falling over in the next room.) People started heading toward the door and we scuttled towards the never used emergency fire escape stairwell.

From what I remember it was still shaking by the time we got all the way downstairs and outside. It really felt like it was not going to stop.

Some videos that show the power of the quake:

The entire company (200+) was safely evacuated to the nearby park to stand around freezing and sharing spotty information that was coming through twitter and TV (one-seg). About two hours later after everyone was accounted for (and a few more large aftershocks), we were instructed to head back to the office in an orderly fashion. People on the 9th floor first, followed by the 8th floor and so on.

The evacuation in the park:

We got back to the office to clean up the fallen bookshelves and computers. One bookshelf that had been crammed with magazines was a huge mess and someone turned to me to say, "見なかったことにしよう" (Let's pretend we didn't see that). I nod and move to my workspace. After a lull of what must have been 30 seconds, another uncomfortably large aftershock kicks in and that's when we realize it's time to haul ass out of there for good. No more work will be getting done even if the aftershocks were to stop.

Once back out on the street, there is some awkward mulling about to figure out who is walking in which direction, as the general consensus is that work is done. One guy starts getting vocal, questioning why we can't stay and work. It is too early to go back, he pontificates--"I haven't even been able to get through to the client yet!" Either dazed or annoyed, (in my case) no one argues, and at this point, several groups that thought they could get a taxi together went off to try and do so. I found some people walking towards Ueno and started back toward my house.

It's about an hour long walk that turns to a trudge, with growing numbers of people marching in one direction or another. As we get closer to Tokyo station and Nihombashi the human herd becomes thick.

The only damaged building I saw on the way home:

The view of my room when I finally got home:

Although it seemed bad at the time, based on all the tweets and facebook posts I was reading on the way home, I imagined that the damage here in Tokyo was nothing compared to what it must be in Miyagi prefecture...

(to be continued)