「Fukushima」タグアーカイブ

Saving Electricity

Due to the nuclear power plant problem caused by the March 11th earthquake, the government is requesting everyone to not use electricity as much as you can.  In order to help preserve the electricity many people have been restricting their usage of air conditioners, including myself.

To help people succeed with not using the air conditioners, stores are offering a variety of products to help us cool down.  One popular item is a kind-of towel that you wrap around your neck and either you can put ice packs inside or another one if you get it wet it stays cool for up to 7 hours!  Many of my students are using these and I think they are good for a bit.  However, I do see some down side to them.  The ones which you get wet don’t really stay that cool for a long time and the ones with ice packs soon turn into water and actually turn warm under the sun!  Oh no!

Another product that I found is a kind-of spray that contains something like menthol or something to that effect.  So when you spray it directly onto your scalp, it really cools it down.  And it has this amazing popping sensation so it feels like pop rocks on your head!  I love it!

Unfortunately with all these products I still usually turn the air conditioner on right when I get home (I bike home and am so hot!!!).  I usually end up letting the room get cooler and then turn it off and then turn it back on when it gets hot and so-on and so-on.  I wonder if this is helping or maybe even making it worse?

How do you act in a crisis?

After the Tohoku Earthquake, many foreign media outlets spoke of the impressive order and civility of the Japanese people.  And of course, in the middle of such destructive chaos, the reality that there was no looting or other crimes is a great and impressive feat.

However, if you take a closer look, in Tokyo (far from the disaster areas) people were lining up at the grocery stores, scrambling for the last bottle of water or cup of noodles.  Irrespective of the stricken area and only thinking of oneself, this only made anxiety spread across Tokyo and beyond.

Uncertainty will do that to people.  If they would have thought clearly, they would have realized that buying many bottles of milk was useless.  However, in a situation where one can not see clearly, running out and buying up all that you can feels safe.

Until the Fukushima nuclear power plant is stable, the prospect of the disaster area’s reconstruction will definitely not improve.  Despite a situation like this, many people in Tokyo, who were unharmed or received no damage to their personal belongings, are slowly but surely started to move forward and think optimistically.   Furthermore, the government is repeatedly saying “This is safe and that is safe” however, many people up north are far from obtaining that sort of piece of mind and ridding themselves from uncertainty.  So the next time we go shopping, let’s think of them and buy wisely.

Earthquake Aftermath

As I sat at my computer pondering the idea of starting back up with my blog entries I thought to myself, “Where do you find the words to continue on after what has happened in Northern Japan?” Everything that I came up with seems so trivial compared to the fact that hundreds of thousands of people lost everything and over ten thousand people lost their lives.  But in the wake of this horrible tragedy I have been witness to an amazing amount of community benevolence.  From the people in Japan courageously trying to grasp on to any kind of normalcy in their everyday lives to the funding raising events around the world, I now know that they can and will overcome this.

After a three week hiatus in Colorado, I look forward to heading back to Tokyo.  Sure, I am a little weary of the Fukushima plant ordeal but my life is there.  I can’t wait to see my friends, students and neighborhood.  We will continue onward stronger albeit cautious into our new future.

For further information on the earthquake and all it’s subsequent tribulations as well as organizations that you can donate to, click the link below for more information.

http://www.thetokyopost.com/tag/earthquake/