Japanese road reopens one week after vast sinkhole appeared

Yokohama History Museum

Yokohama History Museum
Tsuzuki-Ku, Yokohama City

The museum has relics from pre-historical Jomon, Yayoi and Sekijidai leading up to current times. Adjacent to the museum and opened as the external grounds is an actual Yayoi archaeological dig along with the building rebuilt on the same spots where ancient ones from 2000 years ago once stood. The Yayoi period (弥生時代, Yayoi jidai) is the Iron Age era of early Japan.

Christopher Nolan - Interstellar (2014)

Interstellar is a 2014 science fiction film directed by Christopher Nolan. The film features a crew of astronauts who travel through a wormhole in search of a new home for humanity. Not just science fiction, also based on real science facts.

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PRI Science Friday - Into the Wormhole: The Science of 'Interstellar'
NOV. 21, 2014

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (Tatemonoen)

The Edo Tokyo Open-air Museum (Taemonoen)

The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum Koganei Park, Tokyo, Japan, is a museum of historic Japanese buildings. The park includes many buildings from ordinary middle class Japanese to the homes of wealthy powerful families which are all open for personal viewing.

The museum enables visitors to enter and explore a wide variety of buildings of different styles, periods, and purposes, from upper-class homes to pre-war shops, public baths (sentō), and Western-style buildings of the Meiji period, which would normally be inaccessible to tourists or other casual visitors, or no longer found in Tokyo.

Ghibli Studio animator Hayao Miyazaki used buildings at the site as inspiration for his film Spirited Away which won Best Animated Feature Film at the 75th Academy Awards in 2002. A photo Miyazaki is next to the trolly car within the entrance of the museum.

Yakitori, 焼き鳥: Iseya, いせや、Tokyo Metro, 東京都、Musashino, 武蔵野、Kichijoji, 吉祥寺

Tokyo Metropolitan Library

The Metropolitan Central Library is located in the Minami-Azabu section of Minato. The library was founded in 1973 at the current location of the central branch. 

The library is free and open to the public, although not all collections are available to all people at all times. The library also has arrangements with over 300 smaller local public libraries allowing interlibrary lending privileges. Although not as deep as the collection of the National Diet Library, The Tokyo Metropolitan Library houses a large collection of books, periodicals, and audio-visual materials.

The Central Branch holds 240,000 volumes, including a large collection of rare materials, showcasing over 40,000 documents pertaining to the history of Tokyo (Edo), some of which date back over 400 years. Books are divided by subject - Reference, Social Science, Humanities, Natural Science. Of note is the opening of a "regional history research center".

The Hibiya Branch holds 130,000 volumes, including 4,000 foreign volumes. It also maintains holdings of over 1,000 different magazine periodicals and nearly 200 different newspapers.

Central Branch: 5-7-13 Minami-Azabu Minato, 106-8575. It is located in the Arisugawa-no-miya Memorial Park. Accessible by foot from Hiroo Station on the Subway Hibiya Line, Azabu-Juban Station on the Subway Namboku Line, and the Azabu-Juban Station on the Toei Subway Oedo Line.

JAXA Tsukuba Space Center, Tsukuba, Japan

The Tsukuba Space Center (TKSC) is the operations facility for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) located in Tsukuba Science City in Ibaraki Prefecture.

The facility opened in 1972 and serves as the primary location for Japan's space operations and research programs. Japanese astronauts involved in the International Space Station are trained in part here in addition to the training they receive at the Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas.

JAXA, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, is Japan's national aerospace agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and the launch of satellites into orbit, and is involved in many more advanced missions, such as asteroid exploration and possible manned exploration of the Moon.

The Tanegashima Space Center (TNSC) was established in 1969, when the original National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) was formed.

The TNSC is the largest rocket-launch complex in Japan (9,700,000 square meters) and is located in the south of Kagoshima Prefecture, along the southeast coast of Tanegashima. It is known as the most beautiful rocket-launch complex in the world, located on Tanegashima island located 115 km south of Kyushu. The activities that take place at TNSC and include assembly, testing, launching and tracking of satellites, as well as rocket engine firing tests. It is Japan's largest space development center.

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Funny Pluto graffiti next to the Tsukuba Japan Planetarium @neiltyson twitter.com/BillWils0n/sta…

— Bill Wilson (@BillWils0n) March 20, 2013

My Neighbors the Yamadas

My Neighbors the Yamadas is a an extremely funny feature-length animated film directed by Isao Takahata released by Studio Ghibli July 17, 1999. This is the first Studio Ghibli film that was digitally produced without using cells. The movie captures Japanese daily life in a painted watercolor style accomplished by drawing three times the normal number of frames. The film plays like a series of comedy or sitcom episodes, many ending with a haiku poem. Released in the United States by Disney, I recommend watching the subtitled version, which captures the true spirit of the dialog in Japanese much better than the English dubbing and Hollywood character acting. 

Tokyo Mizube Line Water Bus Transportation

The Tokyo Mizube Line is water-bus transportation service, which navigates around the Sumida and the Arakawa rivers, Odaiba area and Kasai Rinkai Park. Other than general transportation service, they have many kinds of special cruising to enjoy Japanese events such as cherry blossom viewing in Spring and fireworks in Summer.

Himiko Interior

The Water Bus “Himiko” Produced by Leiji Matsumoto,one of the best renowned Japanese cartoonists.   “Himiko” is a completely unique water bus with its streamline shaped body with large windows. Himiko is named after Queen Himiko who was the first recognized independent lady in Japanese history.

Himiko Routes

Himiko runs from Asakusa to Odaiba Seaside Park, to Toyosu and then back to Asakusa. During the daytime the futuristic ship runs through old Edo and modern Tokyo while enjoying 360-degree panoramic view. At night the floor panels are lit up and emphasize the ship’s sophisticated design.

Hotaluna Cruise

Himiko has a promenade deck to enjoy the scenery outside the ship. At night the Hotaluna Cruise lights up the back of the window glass on the rear ship emitting a pale light emitted during evening and night, so that it lights up like a firefly. The name Hotaluna is a combination of  Hotaru  the Japanese word for 'firefly', and Luna the latin goddess of the moon. Reiji Matsumoto designed and named Hotaluna to represent a firefly shining mysteriously at night under the moon while travelling across the Sumida River".

Edo Tokyo Museum

The Edo-Tokyo Museum (江戸東京博物館) is a museum of the history of Tokyo, established in 1993. The main features of the permanent exhibitions are the life-size replica of the Nihonbashi which was the bridge leading into Edo; the Nakamuraza theatre; scale models of town; and buildings from the Edo, Meiji and Shōwa periods.

The original "Golden Mask" of the Tower of the Sun" 
By Taro Okamoto

The Edo-Tokyo Museum was designed by Kiyonori Kikutake. The distinctive elevated shape of the museum building is modelled after an old storehouse in the kurazukuri style.

Ukiyo-e "woodblock print" painting process

Walking through the Museum is like travelling from the Edo of past centuries into the modern Tokyo of today.

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Edo (江戸, literally "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), is the former name of Tokyo. It was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868. During this period it grew to become one of the largest cities in the world and home to an urban culture centered on the notion of a "floating world". 

Nihonbashi in Edo, Ukiyo-e by Hiroshige

The city was laid out as a castle town around Edo Castle. The Sumida River (then called the Great River, 大川), ran along the eastern edge of the city. The Edo Bridge (江戸橋) marked the center of the city's commercial center. The northeastern corner of the city is guarded from evil by a number of temples (including Sensō-ji and Kan'ei-ji).

Edo Castle Wall

Edo Castle (江戸城), also known as Chiyoda Castle (千代田城), is a flatland castle that was built in 1457 by Ōta Dōkan. It is located in Chiyoda in Tokyo, then known as Edo. It was the residence of the shogun and location of the shogunate, and also functioned as the military capital during the Edo period of Japanese history.

Aerial view of the Imperial Ground 

When the shogun departed and the Meiji Restoration it became the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Some moats, walls and ramparts of the castle survive to this day. However, the grounds were more extensive during the Edo period, with Tokyo Station and the Marunouchi section of the city lying within the outermost moat. It also encompassed Kitanomaru Park, the Nippon Budokan Hall and other landmarks of the surrounding area.

Japan Rail Network - Greater Tokyo

Combined Tokyo Metro Rail Lines - Japan Rail plus Subway

The Tokyo Metro region is a megalopolis of over 30 Million people. Rail is the primary mode of transportation, which has the most extensive subway network in the world and an equally extensive network of surface lines.

JR East Railway Lines in Greater Tokyo

JR East operates Tokyo's largest railway network, including the Yamanote Line loop that circles the center of downtown Tokyo. The stations on the Yamanote Line are some of the most expensive in Tokyo due to the convenience it offers and all the commercial development that takes place around its stations.

Yamanote Line Route (Green)

It is estimated some 20 million people use rail as their primary means of transport (not trips) in the metropolitan area daily. In comparison, the entire country of Germany, with the highest per-capita railway use in Europe, has 10 million daily train riders.

Busiest stations

Passengers carried in Greater Tokyo stations daily (as of 2007):

1. Shinjuku Station 3.64 million
2. Ikebukuro Station 2.71 million
3. Shibuya Station 2.18 million
4. Yokohama Station 2.09 million
5. Tokyo Station 1.12 million
6. Shinagawa Station 0.91 million
7. Takadanobaba Stn 0.90 million
8. Shimbashi Station 0.85 million

Tokyo Subway System (Metro and Toei subway lines combined)

Two organizations operate the subway network: the private Tokyo Metro and the governmental Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation.

There are 882 interconnected rail stations in the Tokyo Metropolis, 282 of which are Subway stations, with several hundred more in each of the 3 surrounding suburban prefectures. There are 30 operators running 121 passenger rail lines (102 serving Tokyo and 19 more serving Greater Tokyo but not Tokyo's city center itself), excluding about 12 cable cars.

Despite this vastness, the network is still being expanded, albeit with more service upgrades and fewer new lines. Each of the region's rail companies makes their own maps, with key transfer points highlighted. Trains are often extremely crowded at peak travel times, with people being pushed into trains by so-called oshiya ("pushers").

Most lines in Tokyo are privately owned and operated, though the Toei Subway is run directly by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Metro is owned indirectly by the Tokyo and national governments. Rail and subway lines are highly integrated and dense; commuter trains from the suburbs continue directly into the subway network on many lines, often emerging on the other side of the city to serve another company's surface commuter line. Shinjuku Station is the busiest train station in the world by passenger throughput.

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Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown

Retrospective film almost a year after a tsunami crippled Japan's Fukushima power plant. How a small group of engineers, soldiers and firemen risked their own lives to prevent a complete nuclear meltdown.

Film “a gripping account of a series of potentially catastrophic developments in how the government, plant workers and citizens responded. Describing in detail the days after the earthquake and tsunami from rumors about evacuating Tokyo to a dangerous mission to vent one of the reactors and offers insight into what the workers were thinking during those uncertain hours.

One Year Later, 'Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown' (interview)
NPR Fresh Air
February 28, 2012

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Frontline: Inside Japan's Nuclear Meltdown (film)
February 28, 2012

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Japan Weighed Evacuating Tokyo in Nuclear Crisis
New York Times
February 27, 2012

Frontline: The Atomic Artists

Frontline: The Atomic Artists
July 26, 2011

How one group of artists is challenging Japan's unusually strong faith in nuclear power

FRONTLINE journeys with Marco Werman of PRI's The World as he meets Chim-Pom, a provocative group of young artists making headlines as they use art to challenge the status quo in Japan.

"Japanese youth had generally been very apolitical and apathetic" before the March 2011 disaster, says The Atomic Artists producer Emily Taguchi. But things have changed dramatically since then. We talked with Taguchi about this shift, and how one group, the art collective Chim-Pom, is challenging the status quo with their controversial installations.

Watch the full episode. See more FRONTLINE.

NOVA: Japan's Killer Quake

NOVA: Japan's Killer Quake


An eyewitness account and investigation of the epic earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis.
Aired March 30, 2011 on PBS

In its worst crisis since World War II, Japan faces disaster on an epic scale: a death toll likely in the tens of thousands, massive destruction of homes and businesses, shortages of water and power, and the specter of nuclear meltdown. With exclusive footage, NOVA captures the unfolding human drama and offers a clear-headed investigation of what triggered the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear crisis. Can science and technology ever prevent devastation in the face of overwhelmingly powerful forces of nature?

Watch below 53:07 (only available online in the U.S., I had to access it via a U.S. proxy server to view it)

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

The 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunam was caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March, 2011. The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 30 m (98 ft) that struck Japan minutes after the quake, in some cases traveling up to 10 km (6 mi) inland, with smaller waves reaching many other countries after several hours.

Aftershocks

The nearest major city to the quake was Sendai, Honshu, Japan, 130 km (81 mi) away. The quake occurred 373 km (232 mi) from Tokyo. The main earthquake was preceded by a number of large foreshocks, and multiple aftershocks were reported afterwards. The first major foreshock was a 7.2 MW event on 9 March, approximately 40 km (25 mi) from the location of the 11 March quake, with another three on the same day in excess of 6.0 MW. Following the quake, a 7.0 MW aftershock was reported at 15:06 JST, followed by a 7.4 at 15:15 JST and a 7.2 at 15:26 JST. Over six hundred aftershocks of magnitude 4.5 or greater have occurred since the initial quake.

Date/Time Magnitude

Warning Shock

3/9 11:45 M7.2

Major Quake

3/11 14:46 M9.0

Major Aftershocks

3/11 15:06 M7.4

3/11 15:15 M7.4

3/11 15:26 M7.5

3/11 16:29 M6.6

3/11 17:41 M5.8

3/11 20:37 M6.4

3/12 3:59 M6.7

3/12 4:32 M5.8

3/12 5:42 M5.3

3/12 22:15 M6.0

3/12 23:35 M4.4

3/13 8:25 M6.2

3/14 10:02 M6.2

3/15 22:31 M6.4

3/16 12:52 M6.0

3/19 18:56 M6.1

3/23 12:07 M6.0

3/23 7:36 M5.8

3/23 18:55 M4.7

3/24 8:56 M4.9

3/24 21:17 M6.1

3/28 7:24 M6.5

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Tsunami


The actual height predicted varied, the greatest being for Miyagi at 10 m (33 ft) high. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 470 square kilometers in Japan. The earthquake took place at 14:46 JST around 67 km (42 mi) from the nearest point on Japan's coastline, and initial estimates indicated the tsunami would have taken 10 to 30 minutes to reach the areas first affected, and then areas further north and south based on the geography of the coastline. Just over an hour after the earthquake at 15:55 JST, a tsunami was observed flooding Sendai Airport, which is located near the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, with waves sweeping away cars and planes and flooding various buildings as they traveled inland. The impact of the tsunami in and around Sendai Airport was filmed by an NHK News helicopter, showing a number of vehicles on local roads trying to escape the approaching wave and being engulfed by it. A 4-meter (13 ft)-high tsunami hit Iwate Prefecture. Wakabayashi Ward in Sendai was also particularly hard hit.

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Nuclear Crisis

The Fukushima I nuclear accidents  are a series of ongoing equipment failures and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the earthquake and tsunami. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Reactors 4, 5 and 6 had been shut down prior to the earthquake for planned maintenance. The remaining reactors were shut down automatically after the earthquake, but the subsequent 14 metres (46 ft) tsunami flooded the plant, knocking out emergency generators needed to run pumps which cool and control the reactors. The flooding and earthquake damage prevented assistance being brought from elsewhere.

Reactor Explosion

Evidence arose of partial core meltdown in reactors 1, 2, and 3; hydrogen explosions destroyed the upper cladding of the buildings housing reactors 1, 3, and 4; an explosion damaged the containment inside reactor 2; and multiple fires broke out at reactor 4. In addition, spent fuel rods stored in spent fuel pools of units 1–4 began to overheat as water levels in the pools dropped. Fears of radiation leaks led to a 20 kilometres (12 mi) radius evacuation around the plant. Workers at the plant suffered radiation exposure and were temporarily evacuated at various times. On 18 March, Japanese officials designated the magnitude of the danger at reactors 1, 2 and 3 at level 5 on the 7 point International Nuclear Event Scale (INES). Power was restored to parts of the plant from 20 March, but machinery damaged by floods, fires and explosions remained inoperable.

Exclusion Zone

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Aftermath


The latest confirmed toll to date are over 10,000 deaths with 16,361 people missing across eighteen prefectures. These numbers are expected to increase, with casualties estimated to reach tens of thousands.
Prefectural officials and the Kyodo News Agency, quoting local officials, said that 9,500 people from Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture—about a half of the town's population—were unaccounted for. NHK has reported that the death toll in Iwate Prefecture alone may reach 10,000. Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children have been uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. On 14 March, Kyodo News Agency reported that some 2,000 bodies were found on two shores in Miyagi Prefecture. It was reported that four passenger trains containing an unknown number of passengers disappeared in a coastal area during the tsunami.

The earthquake caused a large number of displaced people. The number of the evacuees has once passed 300,000. Some earthquake survivors died in the shelters or in the process of evacuation. Many shelters struggle to feed evacuees and are not medically sufficiently equipped. Fuel shortages hampered relief actions. In the first week after the earthquake, supplies of food, water, and medicine had been held up because of a fuel shortage and the weather condition. There is a need for temporary housing, as the Japanese government are trying to remove evacuees from large shelters, where there have been reports of poor sanitary conditions. As of late March, 8,800 temporary units were planned in Iwate, 10,000 in Miyagi, and 19,000 in Fukushima.

The nuclear crisis and recover continues unabated. The Japanese people remain otherwise calm and stoic about the ongoing situation, the disaster across of the Northeastern region of Tohoku, and the overall future of Japan.

Miniature City 2 - Tokyo

miniature city 2 - featuring vividblaze - from mockmoon on Vimeo.

Tokyo Metro: Please do it at home

Tokyo Metro Public Service Ad Posters

Inogashira Park; Kichijoji, Tokyo

The whole area to the west of the pond in Inogahshira Park is called "Goten-yama" (palace hill). In this area, the ruins of Japan's Stone Age of 10,000 years ago, together with stone spears from the Non-Earthen period, have been found. The remains of pit dwellings from the mid-Jomon (4,000 years ago) to the latter Jomon period ("Jomon" means "rope-marking patterns") and ruins of paved stone dwellings have also been found. These findings, together with discoveries of various stoneware and Jomon earthenware, prove that people began to gather in the area to form a village in the Jomon period.



Benzaiten (a shrine dedicated to one of the Seven Gods of Fortune), which stands in the middle of the pond, is believed to have been built by Minamoto-no-Yoritomo (the found of the Kamakura Shogunate) to symbolize his intention to defeat the Heike clan. However, others believe that the shrine is a legacy from a much older era than Yoritomo.



"Inogashira-Ike" (Inogashira pond) is thought to have been named by the third general of the Edo Shogunate, Iemitsu. Traditionally, the name converys the meanings of "the source of water" and "the well that produces the world's best water." Thick water-retaining woods used to cover the banks around the pond, creating picturesque scenery. With time, the species of trees and the character of the wodds have changed, and the suburban image of the park is gradually beginning to face. However, it remains a most popular place to relax for the people of Tokyo.



The park is divied into four areas: Inogashira-Ike and the surrounding area; palace hill with its natural beauty of various species of small trees as well as cultural facilities; the western area with sporting facilities; and the second park to the southeast of the western area.

Rinky Dink Studios "Warp" annex: Bar Cheeky

Bar CHEEKY of Kichijoji, is the annex of Rinky Dink Studio's Warp.
The best musicians gather there, and are always be there at the brink of dawn.

Time spent there is to experience musical and artistic genius.

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