Japan 2: natural disasters

Last weekend was supposed to be a long weekend with some traveling. Unfortunately, typhoon came from the southern part, hit Okinawa and some part of Kyushu, and was predicted to come to Tokyo as well. One thing we have to learn from Japan is their awareness in natural disasters --those that attacks Japan often, by having good prediction and warning system. The TV broadcasted the typhoon warning, and this Japan Meteorology Agency's website kept us updated.

Here was the forecast for Saturday. The prediction caused us to cancel our planned trip to Kamakura and Enoshima, in southern part of Yokohama, as we concerned that going to seaside was not a wise thing to do in such a weather. I remember being in the middle of typhoon when it attacked Tokyo in October 2004. I was on the way to a friend's house --still not pretty sure where it was located. Pretty scary as I knew I was however in danger :D


The prediction is not always true, especially when it interpolates the typhoon movements for many hours later. The typhoon was predicted to hit Tokyo on the following Monday, but during the day the weather was clear. The typhoon eventually turned to the sea of Japan instead of moving up to Kanto area. I regret that I didn't check the latest update :-(


However, it seems that my visit to Japan is welcomed by natural disasters --reminding me that it was disaster survival training that I had in the first few weeks of my exchange year in 2004. On Monday, which was the last day of the long weekend, earthquake attacked Niigata prefecture (160 miles away northwest from Tokyo). Pretty hard, as the shake was said to be also felt in Tokyo, which I luckily didn't feel anything.

Some after shock still occurred, again also felt in Tokyo, but I somehow felt safe that my husband has a survival bag hanging on the wall since a while ago. I don't expect to have to use it, though. In addition, there is always an evacuation area in every part of the city to where people could run to, should an earthquake occur. Earthquake is something obvious in Japan, so it seems that the government has managed a system for the survival.

Natural disasters are something we cannot avoid, however, those are something that we'd better put our efforts to cope with. That's what I learned from Japan.