Which way to take!?
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A lot of time has passed since I experienced
this devastating earth quake, tsunami and nuclear disaster here in Japan. Lots of
people asked me about the situation and my every day life and how we feel here
in Japan
after all this happened. First of all as you know I'm not living in Tokyo or further up in
the disaster struck areas. Here in Nagoya
everything seems normal. From the very beginning people acted almost as nothing
ever happened. But it still felt like things have changed. I feel that people’s
minds have changed. More and more elaborate preparations in case of another
quake have been made. Not only in my everyday life also in my work life.
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Here a quick review how the situation was
right after the quake here in my social environment.
People didn’t go out that much, they stopped
to consume and started to buy essential things. After the nuclear crises and
the fact that the water in Tokyo
has been contaminated existential things became more important. Suddenly we
couldn’t buy water anymore. The shelves in the supermarkets where empty. Beer,
sake, tea and wine no problem but normal water was just not available. Friends
of mine started to buy mineral water for there families up in Tokyo and further north. After two weeks I
finally found a supermarket that had lots of water again … I grabbed 4 bottles,
so I wouldn’t have to come back the next day. After I queue for a while the cashier
tried to explain me in Japanese that I can not buy the bottles … I didn’t
understand no one told me that the supermarkets introduced a 2 bottle per
person rule, so everyone could buy water and people where not able to stash it.
Several of my friends have left the
country. They took the chance
to start somewhere else new or go back home … I meet people who left Tokyo and the northern areas for good to start further
south in Kyushu something new, but some of my friends also moved from Nagoya to Tokyo
to live up there. Everyone has there own reasons and ideas about the situation
here. I actually like that … even though it’s difficult to form your own
opinion. So I started to do my own research. I read/ read about six different
online news agencies from around the globe, including Japanese news, per day to
get a grip on what’s happening and how the situation evolves. You might not
believe but this is hard work and you have to watch out that it doesn’t
demoralize you and takes of you the love for your life in Japan.
I believe we are very safe here in Nagoya and still I somehow developed a sensitive feeling
towards quakes since the big earth quakes hit Japan. We had several aftershocks.
Some were very small and almost not recognizable but I somehow felt some of
them very strongly. My friends in Tokyo
felt them much stronger. But still, I felt like a goldfish in a tank while kids
are knocking against the glass. It is such an indescribably strange feeling …
The shaking of my building sometimes
wakes me up. Some weeks ago for example we had an earthquake with an estimated
magnitude of 6.5 jolted Fukushima Prefecture, north-eastern Japan. Far away, but I woke up feeling
the ‘mini shake’ that reached Nagoya.
It's interesting how easy we are adapting
to new things. Since the earthquake and the nuclear we are saving energy! I think
it's such a good thing, because when you start doing it you realize which
things are important in life and which aren’t. For example the train I took
today in the morning was dark no light but the air con was working. At first
you think it's a bit strange to sit in this ‘dark’ train but then you realize
that it's perfectly fine.
It looks very
bright but it actually wasn't.
The Toyota Group started to save energy.
The result of this step is that my weekends shifted from Saturday and Sunday to
Thursday and Friday.
- Why did they decide to do this!? –
According to statistics on Thursday and
Friday are the days when the car industry consumes the most electricity during
the manufacturing process. Our office temperature was raised as well, in order
to lower the air-condition power consumption. It’s interesting cause since then
I don’t have to wear a scarf in the office anymore and the air feels much
healthier than the summer before.
It’s still very hot here now and it was
even hotter in August. I have to say that the humidity and the heat here in Japan can be
incredibly exhausting; some days where a bit unpleasant to sweat in front of
your screen.
I believe that this crisis could be a new
beginning for Japan.
But it could be also a boost for the world’s renewable energy systems to
develop new standards and efficient technologies for the future.
For example this here is an interesting
example:
Ok this was the little overview.
Greetings from ...
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p.s.
all pictures are phone pictures in this post.