Natural Disaster Safety

I'm writing this new entry to assure everyone of my safety living in Japan.  I hope that by now, everyone knows I am safe, but I already had several people show concern in reaction to my location, so I'm going to educate those who may be worried.  I received a lot of these details from my Prefectural Advisor in his presentation on the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011.  I want to cover the 3 main topics of concern in light of the Great East Japan Earthquake and for future safety: tsunamis, radiation, and earthquakes.

Tsunamis

I live in Miyagi prefecture.  Miyagi prefecture is on Japan's eastern coast, and was the prefecture that got his hardest by the tsunami resulting from the March 11th earthquake as its epicenter was due east of us.  Miyagi prefecture's capital is Sendai, and I live in Tome, about an hour's train ride north.  Sendai is a wide city whose borders reach from far inland all the way to the ocean.  Fun fact, my Japanese professor's family's house was on the beach in Sendai.  Another not-so-fun fact, their house was completely wiped off the beach when the tsunami hit in March 2011.  The before and after pictures she showed me were unreal: the before showed a complete civilization on the shore, but the after made the beach look like a deserted island.  The only building left standing was my teacher's elementary school, a 3 story building where people evacuated during the tsunami.  People evacuated to the second floor, but then the water kept rising.  Even the second story wasn't safe.

This seems to be the image people have of Japan when they think of tsunamis.  I want to assure everyone that I do not have beachfront property, and am in no danger of this happening to the house I live in.  In fact, I have this house because the families who lost their houses last year moved here and filled up all the vacant apartments.  True story.  Another JET in Tome said the apartments were empty besides her, then after the tsunami, people filled up her complex.

My teacher's family was all safe and they evacuated in time after the Great East Japan Earthquake.  There was about a half hour's notice until the wave reached the shore, and Japan has a wonderful system in place to warn people before an earthquake happens, including specific chimes that go off on all phones and a chime for all televisions that are on.  So if I happen to be close to the ocean when an earthquake happens, I trust in Japan's warning system to give me sufficient evacuation time.

Radiation

Following the March 11th disaster, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear reactors suffered from an INES Level 7 Nuclear Accident.  I received concerns that I had not considered radiation in my decision to request Miyagi prefecture as my new home when applying for JET.  If you are wondering the same, I have good news.

First and foremost, I am over 116 miles away from the plant.  Fukushima prefecture borders Miyagi to the south, but the plant is quite a long distance from me.  Second, please understand that foreign media coverage on the event was entirely exaggerated, and was immediately compared to Chernobyl.  Although this was no minor incident, it in no way resembled Chernobyl.  Also realize that the media is looking to scare its audience, and this was an easy subject for them to run with as radiation is not something humans can tangibly perceive.  But just because we cannot immediately see it or touch it doesn't mean we have to live in fear of it.  CIRs involved in the JET Programme took a good look into legitimate scientific articles written by nuclear scientists, and no one found any reason for panic.  Radiation was emitted, of course, but the people in that city were evacuated (due to the tsunami anyways) and there is currently a perimeter around the plant that cannot be entered.  Any food grown in that area has been banned from sale, and all food sold in stores is thoroughly tested by the government.  I was also surprised to learn that the allowance of radiation in foods sold in Japan is much lower than what is accepted in America.  That's right, I'm safer than you are!

If this is not enough to convince you, I can send along the sources found by my PA, and after that, it's up to you to decide for yourself.

Earthquakes

This is by far the biggest concern to my well-being of these three main issues.  I grew up in a place where earthquakes didn't happen, or if they did, it was faint and was never a concern but more of a novelty: "Oh, did you feel that earthquake?  Wasn't that neat!"  Well, now I have to legitimately consider the danger of large earthquakes, as demonstrated by a recent Miyagi earthquake that happened at 4 am, and registered around 4-5 on Japan's Shindo scale.  

Japan uses a slightly different scale for earthquakes than America: instead of measuring the earthquake at its epicenter, Japan rates the amount of shaking around the earthquake.  The shindo scale is used to measure this, and ranges from 0 to 7.  0 is hardly noticed, 3 is what I was used to in Southern California, 5 is when things start moving, and 7 is what happened on March 11th, 2011.  Ranks 5 and 6 are divided between lower and upper, 5 upper being when warnings on phones start going off.  This is the point at which you need to seek cover under a desk so nothing falls on you.

Perhaps one of the greatest reliefs to those of us who are new JETs this year is that each of our respective structures, unless they are under one year old, all survived the Great East Japan Earthquake.  My house lived through that day, and the only evidence I can find of it is one significant crack in the ceiling of the skinny part of the hallway outside my kitchen.  Other than that, the entire building appears to be in excellent structural condition, and all the surrounding houses in the neighborhood look the same from the outside.  

Every 30 years or so, Miyagi has experienced a significant earthquake whose epicenter is in the Miyagi Offshore Area.  Believe it or not, March 11th was not that earthquake (it was on a fault line much further out), so we're now overdue for our next "Miyagi Earthquake."  It may or may not happen, and it's not necessarily going to be the next big disaster (for our prefecture's sake, I hope not), but it's something to keep in mind as a reminder that the danger is real and can happen anytime.  Being prepared is the key to surviving earthquakes.  My prefectural advisor has given us a lot of great information about earthquake preparedness.  After the 4-5 earthquake of 4 am, and knowing that a Miyagi Offshore earthquake could be pending, I'm excited to get my earthquake survival kit of food, water, first-aid kit, etc. put together as soon as possible.  I've also just forwarded along my information to my advisor in the event he needs to contact me to confirm my safety following a significant earthquake.

I hope that readers have found this information relieving and encouraging.  I want people to know Japan and specifically Miyagi is a safe place to live and visit because the more we promote that knowledge by combating the rampant fear that spread via the media, the sooner Miyagi will be able to make a full restoration from the Great East Japan Earthquake.