Category Archives: Japan Earthquake

Radioactive Food Is Good for Children According to Kawasaki Mayor

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If your kids go to school in Kawasaki City, you might want to consider home schooling. When high levels of radioactive cesium were found in the city’s school lunches, Mayor Takao Abe said it was there for educational purposes.

Since April 2012, Kawasaki, Japan’s 8th largest city, has been feeding its kids frozen oranges from Kanagawa that show a cesium level of 9.1 Bq/Kg. From September, it’s giving them canned apples from Aomori with 1.6 Bq/Kg.

At a press conference on September 4th, Abe said it’s important for kids to understand Continue reading →

Tornadoes in Japan

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I saw the news this morning and it looked just like something from my hometown – an evil looking sky with a swirling tornado in it, bearing down on the countryside. Smashed sheds, upside-down farm equipment, twisted trees and electrical poles lying horizontally on the ground. It looked like springtime in Missouri.

It turns out that on Sunday afternoon, twisters ripped through Ibaraki Prefecture and Tochigi Prefecture. One hit the town of Tsukuba where a friend of mine used to live. One 14-year-old was killed and about 40 people were injured, with lots of houses destroyed and other damage. Continue reading →

The Japan Earthquake Aftermath – Me And Donald Keene Are With Japan

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When the news started reporting that there was a nuclear accident at the Fukushima plant, I started getting calls from teachers I knew.  I used to be a recruiter and manager at an English school and these were teachers who worked there.  They all had basically two questions – “What is going on?” and “Should we get out of here!?”japan

Both of those were tough to answer.  The best I could do was to say that things looked really bad and if you’re worried, you should go home.  Then, they usually asked me the third question – “What are you going to do?”
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Where Will The Next Big Japan Earthquake Strike?

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We’re still getting some shakes here and there in Japan in the wake of the March 11th Japan-EarthquakeTohoku earthquake.  It’s been predicted that they’ll continue for the next year or so.  There are lots of predictions about where the next big quake will be, and much to my chagrin, my home of Chiba prefecture is one of them.

This is a map from the Quake Prediction site, where they use thermal temperature changes, tectonic plate heat, micro earthquakes and a number of other methods to make predictions.

If you look at the Chiba peninsula, it’s marked as a risk area for a 5 to 5.5 magnitude earthquake.  Places marked for bigger earthquakes are Hokkaido, Kyushu and Fukui Prefecture.  The area around Fukui has a number of nuclear reactors and also Lake Biwa, the source of drinking water for most of Kansai region.  That’s a little scary to say the least.

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