News digest April 24, 2011

The school year has begun with a bang, hence my silence for several days. Spring weather has come and gone and returned again - having clothes for all seasons has been essential. Today was a t-shirt day though, and very fine by me. And it will get warmer, hence the business and school discussions and media hype about the inevitable blackouts/electricity reduction mandates in the coming months when the electricity consumption calendar sees a surge, looking remarkably similar to this George Bush disapproval ratings graph mapping his years in office (sorry George, but yours was the only graph I could find in short order).

Universities, including mine, are discussing the possibility of ending the first semester and exams in early July (ours normally end July 31). Some have already decided to do just that. In related news, Tokyo University has developed a big brother device that measures electricity use in every room on its campus and sends warnings via Twitter to those who exceed acceptable levels. The computer program also has the power (no pun intended) to automatically adjust the temperature in rooms according to their new rules. How cool is that.

The Japan Times reported yesterday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government on Friday instructed parts of Fukushima Prefecture outside the 20-km no-go zone around the crippled No. 1 nuclear plant to evacuate by the end of May, saying that cumulative radiation levels may pose a health risk to residents.

The announcement came a day after the government declared the area a legally binding no-go zone, where unauthorized entry is subject to fines of up to ¥100,000 or possible detention for up to 30 days under a special nuclear emergency law.

Residents are furious about this because they have no idea if/when they will be able to return home. In the meantime, they are forced to stay in evacuation shelters or find their own alternatives. Many people are thus instantly unemployed or out of school. 


Despite this new trauma, spring has come to Fukushima. A famous area with 1,000-year-old cherry trees was in the news today.

Cherry blossoms dancing in the wind

Another Lu'au in Tohoku

  What a wonderful event and a nice reminder of the heartwarming movie, Hula Girls (2006). Read on and sway those hips!

They pulled on their grass skirts to help save their mining town once before, now Japan's "hula girls" plan to save it again, this time from becoming a nuclear ghost town.                             

 A spa resort on the cusp of the troubled Fukushima nuclear plant exclusion zone might be a difficult sell to tourists but a group of sexy Hawaiian style dancers plan to do just that. "People now associate Fukushima with people exposed to radiation," said dancer Ayumi Sudo. "I want to get rid of that image.                                   

  "We have felt like dancing naked to show that we are not contaminated."

Sudo and her hula girls twirled their naked waists outside a Tokyo train station this week to promote safe farm produce from their Pacific Coast hometown of Iwaki, in Fukushima prefecture. The seaside getaway is located just 50 kilometres south of the Fukushima plant, which has leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea since it was hit by a powerful quake and giant tsunami on March 11.

Iwaki was made famous in the 1960s when the declining coal town was revived by an elaborate Hawaii themed spa resort thanks to its hot springs, a story immortalised in the 2006 movie "Hula Girls". The tourist attraction, now called the "Spa Resort Hawaiians", was largely left unscathed by last month's giant seismic disaster but has been closed since.

"Our facilities got cracks, and windows were shattered. But the major reason why the spa is still closed is rumours surrounding Fukushima," said resort marketing official Takashi Wakamatsu. The only guests have been disaster evacuees who were offered free bathing in its soothing hot pools.

 Sudo is one of a stream of Iwaki dancers who have kept the spa running since it was established in 1966 to revive the mining town amid the country's shift from local coal to foreign oil as its main energy source. There was an abundance of hot spring water from the mining grounds and the Hawaii theme struck a chord and the spa soon became a top tourist haven, attracting an annual 1.5 million visitors in recent years, mostly from Tokyo, 200 kilometres (125 miles) away.

As portrayed in the movie based on the real life story, the town was put on the map by a nationwide tour of Iwaki hula girls, which sparked public interest in what seemed like an outlandish, palm-studded theme park 45 years ago. In the film, which won the 2007 Japan Academy prize, the daughters of hardened coal miners initially drew frowns and indignation from their fellow townspeople when they put on hula dresses and bared their skin. "We are in the similar situation again," said Sudo, who runs a hula dance school under her stage name of Linolani. "So we and younger dancers should all gather together to help bring life back to the town."

"I would like to see tourists come back and help revive Iwaki as it was before -- with delicious fish, vegetables and fruits as well as a beautiful ocean view."

Article extracted from Sydney Morning Herald April 15, 2011

Heating up over cold beverages

This week, the news has been frontlined by reports of companies seeking ways to cut electricity to cope with the summer electricity demands as a result of the shortages caused by the nuclear reactor disaster in Fukushima. Yesterday, the Democratic party of Japan put forward a bill to require vending machine companies to turn off their machines from 10:00am-9:00pm every day in July through September, the period in which electricity demands are expected to surge. The vendors and the soft drink makers are not very happy about that, especially since the latter reaps one third of their sales through vending machines. However, this effort would cut electricity consumption significantly, since according to last year's data, there are 5.2 million vending machines in Japan, and two of them consume the same amount electricity annually as an average household (1533kw per machine to be exact).
   Other companies are making efforts by themselves: NEC, Sony and others will extend their summer vacation periods from 2 days to one week or more to cut power consumption. Sony will adopt its own version of daylight savings time in its offices to reduce the burden on peak usage periods.
   Individuals and stores are being encouraged to use LED lights as they are supposed to consume less electricity. In a small bid to reduce at my workplace, I keep the lights and air con/heat off during my classes.
   Today was a warm day and normally the air conditioning would be blasting in the train. Not today - which is a very good thing (and gets a big cheer from me!), so I hope the trend continues.
   On the other end of the power spectrum, part of Fukushima was able to turn on the lights for the first time in 35 days. Yet, all the while, the reactors lurk in the background, still out of control. The disaster rating now equals or surpasses Chernobyl.
However, the world over here keep chugging along with the expectation that things will somehow be calm and safe someday.

Find a penny pick, it up and...

...turn it in to your local police box.

Tens of millions in 'lost' cash found is the headline. Read the article here.

And in the same spirit, the sense of duty prevails as people voluntarily cut back on electricity. The result: no blackouts (of the planned variety) for the past week and none planned for this week. Train and subway companies, stores, businesses, and factories are all doing their bit too in order to keep the lights on.

Soshigaya Koen April 10. 2011

Soshigaya Koen April 10. 2011, a set on Flickr.

Photos from this morning's walk in the park.

A setback

Last night at 11:32pm,  there was a very strong aftershock registering an intensity of 6+ (magnitude 7.4) on land and 7.1/9.0 in the sea just off Fukushima, the fallout of which is significant. Three people are dead and 141 are injured. Power is still out in hundreds of thousands of homes tonight, and similar numbers are without water. Many roads are closed, thus further hampering efforts. Gas stations too. Hospitals are under further strain as caregivers are reaching their limits.
   Factories and other facilities (a garbage processing plant in Sendai for one) were just recovered and ready to resume work, but this earthquake has taken them back to zero again. How frustrating for them and how frightening for everyone. Nearly one month after the first disaster, people were starting to have a feeling of recovery. That feeling was erased last night.
   The jolt was plenty strong at intensity 3 here too - enough to delay any plans for sleep. The house is fine and we are unhurt, but frankly, I am getting tired of these quakes. They do not get any easier - the reverse, in fact.

Despite that, a glowing sliver of moon was shining from above.

Cherry blossoms!

They are here, in a big way, and a glorious sight to behold indeed. In fact, from morning to afternoon on this 18-degree day they popped open wider and wider. I was so enjoying looking at the clouds of pink and white around me that I have no photos of my own to share. However, here are a few of someone else's taken yesterday in Tokyo and today in Kyoto.

Spring is here and a beautiful start to the new school year.

Tokyo April 5

Shinjuku Gyoen

Chidorigafuchi 

Kyoto today

a nice story and...

Today was a spring day in Tokyo. Cherry blossoms are bursting out in bloom and are about 50% or more in blossom. Not too many o-hanami parties planned this year though.
A nice story on tonight's news: Unicef Japan had a drive to collect picture books for children in evacuation centres. They are delivering 80,000 books donated from all over the country and each book has a bookmark with a handwritten message of hope (scripted by the donors, mostly children). Unicef will set up 1,000 libraries at shelters or other available locations.
All of the Japan major league baseball teams playing today held charity events for the quake victims and I see that the same thing is going on in N. America. In addition, the American League has donated something like $500,000. Great.

On the flipside, another earthquake this afternoon - strong enough, at intensity 5+ in Ibaraki and 3 here. More nuclear reactor trouble to report too. See below.

See video on NHK's site

Text for video:

Radioactive water leaking from No.2 reactor crack

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has found that radioactive water is leaking into the ocean from a 20-centimeter crack in a facility wall of the No.2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The power company said on Saturday that the level of radiation has been measured at over 1,000 millisieverts per hour.

It said water is leaking from the crack in the wall of a 2-meter deep pit that contains power cables near the water intake of the reactor. Water between 10 centimeters and 20 centimeters deep was found in the pit.

TEPCO is preparing to pour concrete into the cracked pit to stop the leak of radioactive water.

The radiation detected in water in the basement of the turbine building at the No.2 reactor was about 100,000 times that found in the water of an operating reactor.

The company said it will look into how radioactive water is linked to the water in the pit and how it leaked into the ocean.

Saturday, April 02, 2011 15:46 +0900 (JST)

More news from NHK:

High-level radioactive iodine detected offshore

Radioactive iodine twice the country’s legal standard has been detected in seawater at a location 40 kilometers south of the disabled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

The Japanese Science Ministry on Saturday released the results of a survey based on samples taken 3 days ago. The sample was collected at a spot 10 kilometers off Iwaki City and 40 kilometers from the disabled plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture.

The detected level of iodine-131 was 79.4 becquerels per liter, twice the legal standard for water discharged from nuclear plants.

This is the first time that a radioactive reading that exceeds the legal limit has been detected off the shore of Fukushima Prefecture.
It’s believed that the radioactive substances were carried offshore from the plant by a north-south current.

On Saturday, a crack was found in the compound of the nuclear plant through which radioactive water has been leaking into the ocean.

The Nuclear Safety and Industrial Agency says radioactive iodine will be diluted in seawater and does not pose a threat to human health. But it said it will continue to closely monitor the condition.

Saturday, April 02, 2011 17:49 +0900 (JST)

Radioactive water leak confirmed

Tokyo Electric Power Company says it has identified for the first time a place where high-level radioactive water is leaking into the ocean from the No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The power company said on Saturday that water has been seeping from a crack in the wall of a 2-meter deep pit that contains power cables near the reactor’s water intake.

Water measuring between 10 and 20 centimeters deep was found in the pit. The radiation level has been measured at over 1,000 millisieverts per hour.

The company says it is preparing to pour concrete into the cracked pit to stop the radioactive water leak.

A senior Nuclear Safety Agency official says the crack could be one of the sources of radioactivity found in the seawater near the water outlet.

He says the agency has ordered TEPCO to test samples of seawater at more locations near the plant and analyze them for different radioactive materials.

In the past week, the radiation detected in water in the basement of the turbine building at the No. 2 reactor was about 100,000 times higher than the normal level.

High-levels of radiation were also found in puddles in a utility tunnel outside the turbine building.

Saturday, April 02, 2011 17:33 +0900 (JST)

A new beginning

Today marks the three-week anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake. In these three weeks so much has happened and still much remains uncertain. However, with the start of the new fiscal and academic years here in Japan, today seems fitting to turn the page and really move on. The country has begun its recovery activities with temporary housing under construction and people being disbursed. This article from today's Japan Times, which describes the current state of a town in Miyagi prefecture says it all.
Elsewhere, as much as possible, school is starting as usual. Kids who literally lost their schools are being re-routed to other schools and gifts of uniforms and school bags have been pouring in for them from around the country. Though it is just a dint in things, progress is being made!

April's calendar photo and phrase: "It looks like being a good day!"

Here too, we are moving ahead. School starts for both of us this week so there is lots to do get ready. Nothing like a little pressure to get things in gear. The warm, spring-like weather this week has certainly been motivational to get moving too. Onward ho!

Here are three images from a collection appearing at random on google.co.jp's top page today: illustrations by elementary and junior high school students archived from 2009 for a project called Doodle 4 Google 2009 "The Japan I love." Please enjoy this creative celebration of things that these artists hold dear about their country.

Tea bushes in Gunma bearing the next cuppa

An alphabet soup version of udon

Celebrations of the four seasons: 

the new year, 

spring o-hanami, summer fireworks, and 

autumn moon viewing