Japan’s architecture is a strange and esoteric mix, ranging from buildings hundreds of years old to the most modern edifaces of concrete and steel. While the range is interesting it is aesthetically lacking and helps make Japan one of the ugliest countries in the world.
An earthquake warning system is under development by Japan’s telecom giant NTT, which will give a short warning prior to an earthquake via its hikari fibre (fibre optics) network.
If this works, it will be an amazing achievement that will surely save lives. I wish this had been in place when Fukuoka had its first major quake in March of 2005.
The bad news is that this system is tied to NTT’s hikari fibre internet service, which is not available throughout Japan–we were unable to get the service in our old apartment in Onojyo–so this service will be quite limited.
It’s surprising that the government isn’t developing a similar system using a less limiting delivery method. Every city, town, and village in Japan that I’ve ever been to was equipped with loudspeakers to warn of fires, typhoons, and other emergencies. I can understand why NTT is not interested in using the existing loudspeakers as their delivery system, but why isn’t the government doing so?
Now that the technology exists which can provide warnings of earthquakes–at least in theory–shouldn’t that service be provided to every person in Japan regardless of where they live or how much their income?
For more of the details on how the system will work check out Pink Tentacle.
Here is a short commercial dramatizing NTT’s earthquake warning service on YouTube.
[posted with ecto]
Technorati Tags: Japan, NTT, Earthquakes, Technology
I found the following article at newkerala.com discussing the increasing animosity between Japan and Australia after Australia's 3:1 win.
Tensions mount between Japan, Australia teamsOehringen (Germany): All is not well between Group F sides Japan and Australia, with the Australians upset by Japanese jibes accusing them of playing dirty.
"I am very angry when people suggest these things," Australian coach Guus Hiddink said Sunday, referring to comments made by a member of the Japanese football authorities.
"We have a good team. They like to fight, but every team must fight in my opinion," he said.
Australian striker Mark Viduka added: "We as Australians, and our team in particular, play fair every time we go out. We are very competitive people. We like to win and we will never pull out of a tackle. But that doesn't mean we go out to hurt people."
The comments from the Japanese come after Australia caused an uproar in the Dutch camp by injuring three Holland players in a pre-World Cup friendly with late tackles.
Well, I have news for Australian coach Guus Hiddink and striker Mark Viduka. If your team was fighting, they sure as hell weren't doing it fairly. Australia committed twice as many fouls as Japan according to FIFAs match report–22 compared to 11–and those are just the ones that the referee managed to call.
I do, however, agree that Nakamura Shunsuke's goal was questionable, just as was the referee's ability to make good calls. For instance, Australia's final goal should not have counted because an Australian player was offside just before the goal was scored.
This game was a complete joke. The Australians were obviously outclassed by the Japanese players, whose technique outshone the Australians throughout the game. The Australians won due to their larger sizes, the many many fouls they committed, and to an absolutely abysmal job by the referee. Obviously Japan made mistakes that helped the Australians steal this unmerited victory, but this was in no way a fair match.
Let's not forget that the Australians injured three Holland players in a pre-World Cup friendly with late tackles. This was supposed to be a friendship match and yet the Australians put Holland players on the bench before the Cup even started. Maybe they were hedging their bets by eliminating possible future competition while they had the chance, or maybe they just forgot that they were playing football/soccer and thought they were playing rugby. Either way the Australian team are big, tough thugs and nothing more!
Yesterday I had to go to the Consulate in Fukuoka City to have a consular officer witness the signing of various documents. An uneventful trip, however, was made more interesting by something I saw while walking through Tenjin. I walked past a homeless man, who had camped out near a subway entrance. Nothing unusual in that. What caught my eye was the white cable running out of his jacket and up to the earbuds in his ears. Sure enough, I spotted a homeless guy who owns an iPod, and it wasn’t a cheap shuffle either. It was a 4 gig white nano. I know because I asked him. I think when the homeless are buying iPods that it is a good sign that Apple is completely dominating the market for mp3 players.
I woke up last night around 3:30 in the morning and had to go to the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom I heard footsteps outside in one of the innumerable parking lots near our apartment. I glanced out the window and saw someone wandering around in one of the two parking lots in front of our apartment. Something seemed odd about his behavior, so I opened the window more for a better view. After a while a car pulled alongside the parking lot and stopped. That’s when the first punk broke into the first car, many more would follow.
I had somehow known that this was going to happen, but was faced with a dilemma. What to do? I didn’t want to call the police and try and explain what was happening because I knew it would be difficult to communicate clearly with them in Japanese. Neither did I want to wake Nobuko and have her call since she had to get up early and go to work the next day. What’s a civic-minded resident to do? Should I have broken out the katana, or perhaps a good old-fashioned American baseball bat and brandished it wildly, screaming as I charged the scum?
Maybe I should have merely stepped out onto the landing and bellowed dorobo, which means robber, at the top of my lungs. Sure it would have been immensely satisfying to see those punks lose control of their bladders as I advanced upon them waving a katana, but where was the justice in that.
I came up with a much better solution. I grabbed my camera and headed out the front door. Unfortunately I was unable to get any shots of them because they bolted as soon as they saw me. This did, however, give me the perfect chance to leisurely stroll over to their car and snap a few photos of the car and license plate.
Today while Ken and I were taking a walk I noticed a woman and her small son standing near a car in the parking lot. The woman looked upset so I walked over and asked if her car was okay. She was surprised by my question and asked me why I had asked it. I explained everything that had happened the night before, and she told me that she was waiting for the police, whom she had called. She asked if I would mind waiting, and I told her of course not.
The police got there and the woman and I talked with them separately. The cops, and the woman too come to think of it, were really surprised and happy that I had taken a photo of the criminals’ car. I then went back to the apartment and printed off the photos and took them back to the police. I even took the opportunity to complain to the police about the punks that abound in this neighborhood late at night, and chided them for not patrolling more. They agreed with me and thanked me for my help. I really hope they catch those worthless pair of scumbags.
Here’s one of the photos I took, which with my testimony should help to put these punks behind bars where they belong.
Well, it turns out that it didn’t take three months to get Ken’s U.S. passport as per the Consulate’s instructions. His U.S. passport arrived in about three weeks. I hope we can get Nobuko’s visa with similar speed, and then we’ll be ready to say sayonara Japan!
Technorati Tags: International-Families, Japan
I am writing this post from a business hotel in Kagoshima City. This is funny because yesterday a friend of mine wanted to know if I wanted to see a band that night. I declined because I was feeling a bit under the weather and he responded that I was always ill -even though that is not the case - and said that I should do something spontaneous, that it would be good for me. I’ll admit that I am not the most spontaneous of people, but I see nothing wrong with that even if my friend does. Nobuko, however, expressed her interest to go on a trip before she goes back to work next, and I believe it or not, said let’s go to Kagoshima since I’ve never been there before. How’s that for spontaneous Jon?
We arrived in Kagoshima City Tuesday night and crashed at a relatively cheap business hotel near the station. Today we spent three to for hours at Sakarajima, we decided it was time to leave when both Nobuko’s eyes and mine started to sting and water, and our throats hurt. All from the volcanic gases coming from Sakurajima, and today was a good day! We’ve found another hotel to stay at tonight and tomorrow are planning on seeing a garden and going to a kamikaze museum in Chira. More on our trip later and photographs of Sakurajima.
We’ve been busy since NCB went under. I’ve been by Hello Work, the Japanese version of the Unemployment Office, and have started the process to receive unemployment benefits. Nobuko took Ken to get his Japanese passport. Man, they are unbelievably fast. We can pick it up on Thursday, less than a week after we applied for it. We went by the U.S. Consulate on Monday to apply for his U.S. passport, social security card, and Consular Record of Birth which will serve as his birth certificate in the U.S. When I scheduled the appointment the woman I spoke with told me it would only take about half an hour. We were there for almost three hours. Since they were moving like molasses on a cold January day I decided to have some pages added to my passport as it was almost full. Ken’s passport should arrive within three months. All we have left to do now is finish Nobuko’s visa application. Oh yeah, I need to find a new job.
Technorati Tags: International Families, Japan
We had another aftershock a couple of days ago. It was the first one since Ken was born. Nobuko noticed it first and almost instantly rolled over so she was above Ken in case anything fell. I jumped up and steadied my monitor which was close to Ken and a shelf on the wall. This one was only a 3 point something and didn’t scare me as much as the big one we had last spring, even though Ken was not in the safest place. I guess I’m finally getting used to the earth not always remaining motionless.
As you can see from the two images below a big typhoon is headed right for us. I think this is the biggest one I’ve seen while living in Japan. I’ll post again when it hits.
