6 months

September 11 was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and the six month anniversary of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami. TV broadcasts in Japan alternated between the two. There is still previously unseen video of both.

Sendai Airport hit by tsunami

There are so many of these videos and all are shocking.
Footage released by the Japan Coast Guard on April 28 shows a massive tsunami striking Sendai Airport following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, as an officer communicates with a helicopter overhead.

Used cars

The news just reported that 500,000 automobiles were lost or ruined in the tsunami. Evidently this is a busy time of the year for used cars, so because there are fewer cars on the market, prices are up.

Radiation levels

Here is a site that visually shows the level of radiation around the Tokyo area. http://microsievert.net/

Lights on

Tokyo Electric Power Company has announced that there will be no scheduled rolling blackouts until further notice, at least in the spring months when energy use (i.e. heating and cooling) is comparatively low. That is a relief to people living and working in the suburbs of Tokyo. (Most of central Tokyo is exempt from the blackouts due to the necessity to keep businesses going). Color-coded Groups 1 to 5 are plotted on this map. We are one of the red dots. :) http://teidenjapan.appspot.com/

We are now in one of the few periods of the year when neither the heater nor air conditioner is necessary. April and May are fairly mild, with temperatures ranging from 65 to 75 (low and high). But when we get to June, the rainy season comes around, and the rising heat is accompanied by high humidity. July is worse; August is the worst; September is like July. Energy output now is lower than normal, and the question is whether they will get things back on line by the time air conditioning is needed. Summer 2010 was the hottest on record, and there were tens of deaths, especially among the elderly. Even if the summer this year is not as hot, even if the temperatures are only in the high 80s or low 90s, the humidity is bound to be in the 80s and up. If we don't have air conditioning available, things could be very dire.

Earthquake Measures

Yesterday (4.12) I had the occasion to spend the day at home; between 8:00am and 6:00pm, there were three earthquakes that could be sensed. Later, looking on the Japan Yahoo page, I saw the following data:
8:08am M6.3, Highest shindo 5- (Chiba offshore)
2:07pm M6.3, Highest shindo 6- (Fukushima coast)
4:14pm M4.4, Highest shindo 4 (Nagano inland)

(Just FYI, between 8:08 and 4:14, there was a total of about 25 aftershocks. Most of them, of course, could not be felt.)

For the record, these followed the big one yesterday, April 11:
5:16pm M7.1, Highest shindo 6- (Fukushima coastline).

Two measuring systems, magnitude and shindo, are used to indicate earthquake strength in Japan. Magnitude "measures the seismic energy released by an earthquake" (Wikipedia). Magnitude is represented by a single value (number) taken at the epicenter of the earthquake. The East Japan earthquake on March 11 was Magnitude 9.0, but of course that force of energy was not felt everywhere the earthquake could be sensed.

Japan's original earthquake measurement system is called "shindo" 震度. Shindo measures "seismic intensity, lit. 'degree of shaking'" (Wikipedia). The shindo scale "describes the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth's surface. As a result, the measure of the earthquake varies from place to place, and a given quake may be described as 'shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Yokohama, shindo 2 in Shizuoka'" (Wikipedia). There are over 600 meters in Japan, resulting in reports of intensity according to particular area. The shindo scale runs from 1 to the highest value of 7. March 11 was Shindo 7.

The shindo scale is as familiar to Japanese people as magnitude is to Americans. (It can be confusing: two people talking about an earthquake could be referring to different measures of "5," for example. It is almost like a foreign language.)

4.11

If the tremor today, April 11, had been "the" earthquake, it would have been strong enough to write home about. However, the evening shake was just another aftershock. The one-month anniversary brought us two aftershocks that could be felt even our area - the one at 6:30 am was 5.2 magnitude and the one at 5:30 pm was 7.1 magnitude. This one felt similar to the March 11 quake, but it not as strong. We are getting earthquake-weary.