Quick Earthquake/Tsunami Lesson

I probably should have posted this a lot sooner, but of course I think that everything I learned in Japan is instantly known by everyone in the world.  I didn't know many of these things when I came here so I just thought I'd share.

In Japan, every building is built to withstand at least a 6.0 quake.  In America, you usually only hear of the Richter Scale, which tells the magnitude of the earthquake at the epicenter.  The epicenter is usually out in the ocean and the power quickly dissipates.  The March 11th 2011 earthquake was a 9.0 and Noheji was about 150 miles away from the epicenter and we only felt a 4.  The biggest was felt by Sendai at around a 7.0 and not a single building collapsed.  Of course there were several cracks in buildings, cooking pots get knocked off stoves and lamps fall over and cause fires and what not, but the actually shaking from the earthquake did not cause any building damage.

After earthquakes that center in the ocean, all that moving earth can sometimes create a massive displacement of water, a tsunami.  Earthquakes are generally nothing to be worried about in Japan, it is the tsunami that follows the earthquake that is what you should worry about.  That being said, if the epicenter was closer to land and some cities feel magnitudes around 8.0, that's a good time to be worried about the earthquake.

So here's what your should do when you hear about an earthquake in Japan and are worried.

Check out the magnitude,

1) If it's 6 or less, it's very scary, but everythings ok. and likely no big tsunami will come.
2) If it's in the 7+ range, check to see where the epicenter is, if it's near cities and they actually feel a 7+, then you can expect damage from the earthquake itself, but theres no risk of tsunami.  If the epicenter is in the ocean then you don't need to worry too much about the shaking, but you do need to worry about tsunamis.

As for me, I'm very lucky to be placed in an area that is on the ocean, but not on the east coast.  The east and southern coasts of Japan are quite dangerous but the north and west sides are relatively safe.  About the only time you'd need to worry about me would be if there's a 7.0+ earthquake with an epicenter in northern Japan, or if I'm playing hockey or baseball in Hachinohe (on the east coast of Aomori)..

I did not know this before March 11th, and when Wilbur and Beth were visiting, and we felt the magnitude 4 shaking, it was scary enough, but we didn't think much of it.  Maybe Wilbur knew that earthquakes cause tsunamis, but I didn't, and I couldn't understand the warnings blasted through the cities loudspeakers so we just went back the the apartment.

If I had been placed in Sendai, this lack of information might have killed us.  If we were in Sendai and just went back to our apartment afterwords, that would not have been a good idea.

So any of you who might ever be vacationing near an ocean sometime in your life and feel a major earthquake, head for high ground.

Questions?

My cousin asked me a few questions on Facebook so I thought I'd start a post here.  If you have any questions about Japan, me, Starcraft, Pokemon, Democrats, JET, wedding plans, bento boxes, Ichiro, baseball, coming to visit, teaching or whatever, feel free to ask me anything either on Facebook or in the comments here and I'll answer them.

What is the night life like?


Well, that's a really difficult question to answer.  I guess it's about the same as the US.  It is what you make of it.  My idea of a great time is going out to eat at a nice restaurant or have an and then walking around town to one of the 5 dessert shops in Noheji and getting some absolutely crazy dessert that I'd never be able to find in the States.


I guess the typical US night life of going out to a bar with friends is probably a lot more popular in big cities.  In my small town of Noheji, there are plenty of snack bars (place where old men go).  Japan's got kind of a darker side to it that I probably shouldn't go in too much to, but lets suffice it to say that women really don't go out much.  Rural Japan is pretty conservative.


What age are your students? 

 In Japan they go to elementary school for 6 years, junior high for 3 and high school for 3.  I teach first year high schoolers, or the equivalent of 10th graders for the most part (8 times per week)  Then once or twice a week I'll teach 11th or 12th graders.  So the 10th graders are 15ish, 11th graders 16ish and 12th graders 17ish.

Do they already speak English, and if not, how do you begin to teach them? 

Yea they're good.  Starting this year, every student in Japan needs to take an English class.  Most elementary and middle schools were already teaching English, so by the time they get to me, they're pretty good at sputtering out things.  I'm at a low level high school though, so my students aren't the best.  If you go to an academic high school, those students will speak better English than my 9th graders did last year in the US.


Also, what is the time difference from here to there? 

 Since daylight savings time ended, I am 15 hours ahead of Central Standard time.

Where do you stay?

One great thing about being a teacher in Japan is that the government subsidizes my rent.  I thought Japan only had 1 room apartments that were a thousand bucks a month.  I have a huge apartment (relatively speaking) in Noheji at a great location (like a 5 minute walk to the train station, a 5 minute walk to the ocean, and a 5 minute bike ride to school.) And it costs me about 300 bucks a month.

How you ended up in Japan and what your life is like there.


Well theres a long story and a short story, I'll start with the short story and if you want me to elaborate on the super long JET application process, I will, but it was quite a bit of work and lots of waiting.  To make a long story short, I applied for an awesome program called JET (they hook you up with an apartment, cheap rent, good pay, no taxes, give you lots of support, etc) and was lucky enough to get selected.  


My life here is, I guess, pretty normal.  When I thought of Japan I always pictured super crowded cities and high tech and what not, but thats not my experience at all.  JET places its people in rural areas to teach English, so I'm in a small town of about 12,000 people.  It's so amazing, I can't go more than 10 minutes in a store in Noheji (my town) without running into someone who is like "Tomasu-sensei!! Konnichiwa!!　Picture ok?"  All my students are super nice and energetic and awesome.  Other than that though, my days usually go something like this:


1)Wake up around 6ish, eat/workout/shower/waste time on the internet
2)Get to school around 730ish, teachers meeting at 8.  Teach a class or two.
3)School ends at about 330 (or I should say, cleaning begins at 3:20, there are no janitors in Japan, the kids clean the school for 10 minutes at the end of each day.
4) More often than not, I go to badminton or basketball club until about 6:30
5) Get home cook dinner, either play starcraft, talk to heather, study japanese.
6) Repeat

Everything you need to get from Narita to Noheji

 I created a nice little sheet you can print off and bring with you to Japan.  If you meet a person that doesn't understand English, just bring out this piece of paper and point to whatever you need.

English	Japanese
Where is JR East Travel Service Center?	JR East Travel Service Center は　どこ　ですか？
Walk to the travel center.
1 Flexible 4 day JR East Pass please.	１、Flexible 4 Day JR East Pass
Where can I buy a train ticket?	どこでチケットを購入できますか？
When you get to the ticket window:
I want to go to Noheji	野辺地まで行きたい
You’ll be given a few tickets, if you show them to people, they’ll point you in the right direction.
What time does the train depart?	何時に列車が出発しますか?
What time does the train arrive?	何時に列車が到着するのですか？
What track number?	何ばんせんですか？
Where is the bathroom?	トレイはどこですか？
I’m hungry	お腹が空いている
Where is a restaurant?	レストランはどこですか？