To me, Nara is a place that is deer dear to my heart. When I was five, my family moved from Osaka to a rural town in Nara prefecture, and I lived there until my second year of university. Nara is such a beautiful place filled with lots of memories from childhood to the springtime of my life. My parents still live there and so do many of my friends. To say the least, it is a very special place to me.

On August 8, 2013 on the LINE social network, I received a few messages from my younger brother and sister talking about an earthquake in Nara. Yet, I didn’t really care or get worried when I got them because the messages didn’t seem all that serious. Look at their conversations below:

Bro: 奈良県で地震ですか？ Was there an earthquake in Nara?
Sis: 震度一もないらしいよ It seems that it was even less than M1
Bro: おっ Huh？

However, when I went online afterward to learn more about the quake, I found that it was originally reported that a 7.8 earthquake hit in Nara, but turned out to be a false alarm. Thank God, it could have been a scary big earthquake and I wouldn’t have wanted that (of course!). I’m very glad that it was just a big mistake.

Despite being a false alarm, everyone’s mobile phones went off with emergency alerts, some trains and school elevators were stopped and even Yahoo Japan temporarily went off. My Facebook wall was filled with comments about the incident as well. Some people were thankful that it was just a mistake and that it reminded themselves to be ready for a real earthquake in the future. Others just complained about the false alert.

One of the latter was my friend from high school who was hungover when it happened. He was woken up by the alert and tried to save some water in the bathtub before an actual earthquake happened (remember, he was half asleep and hungover). Of course, he turned the tap in the wrong direction and just got drenched in cold shower water. At that point, he was finally awake enough for the earthquake, but it never happened and that made him particularly upset.

The Power Of The Nara Daibutsu

Meanwhile, one absurd conspiracy began rapidly spreading across the Internet: the Nara Daibutsu (the giant Buddha statue in Nara) was responsible for stopping the earthquake! I’m not sure who started saying this but I do have to say it does sound pretty silly. Before looking at some Nara-Daibutsu-believers’ words, let me tell you about the Nara Daibutsu first.

Nara Daibutsu

The Nara Daibutsu is one of three major Buddha statues in Japan and is located in Todai-ji Temple in Nara. It’s officially called Rushana Buddha, and was constructed in 752. Todai-ji temple has been designated a World Heritage Site as well as a national treasure.

I keep saying that it’s a “giant” Buddha statue, but do you want to know how giant it really is?

Height: 49.1 ft
Face: 17.5 ft
Eyes: 3.3 ft each
Ears: 8.3 ft
Weight: 500 tonnes

To put things in perspective, that’s twice the height of the giant in Jack The Giant Killer. Also, if you’re keeping track that’s 6.5 Yao Mings and ~8 Nic Cages. You certainly have to look up to see it.

The Nara Daibutsu is also known for its big lucky nostril. They say that if you go through the Nara Daibutsu’s nostril it will bring you good luck. There is actually an old support pillar with a hole cut exactly the same size as Buddha’s nostril inside Todaiji next to the giant Buddha statue. If you can get through this then you can get through Buddha’s nostril, at least in theory.

How lucky!

The Words Of The Believers

Regardless of whether or not the Nara Daibutsu actually stopped the earthquake, the believers’ words sound so serious that it becomes a bit silly/funny to me, so I have to share them with you all. Here’s some quotes from Twitter:

Earth quake? Yeah, I suppressed it down.

[hr]

An earthquake early warning went out
↓
M7.8 earthquake happened in Nara
↓
Giant Buddha noticed the earthquake
↓
It secretly shot a shock wave to kill the earthquake
↓
Nara people ‘There wasn’t any shake’
↓
Other prefectures people ‘Was it misinformation?’
↓
The proof: the clouds were strange [shaped like Buddha]

[hr]

Nara Daibutsu: “The earthquake happened, but I punched on the ground to offset it

[hr]

An earthquake in Wakayama and noise in the ocean near Mie prefecture → Nara Daibutsu noticed this → Nara Buddha saved…right?

[hr]

I’ve heard that even a Nostradamus book said that only Japan could avoid disaster because of the power of Nara’s Giant Buddha.

[hr]

Giant Buddha: ‘I stopped it after 9 seconds’

[hr]

Nara Giant Buddha SUGEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!(GREAAAAAAAT)!!!!!

[hr]

Giant Buddha Platinum the world

[hr]

Giant Buddha: “An earthquake is coming, right? It’s kind of a wave, right? So if you make a wave towards the opposite direction…like this ‘Ha!’…wait…something was wrong…like this ‘Haaa!!”, yeah, it seems right. Then…yeah…you got it, right?”

Nara people: “That’s amazing and we didn’t know you speak that casually.”

[hr]

Giant Buddha: ‘I stopped the earthquake’
People: ‘Wow, are you God?’
Giant Buddha: ‘No way. I’m just Buddha.’

[hr]

There are more and more quotes, but unfortunately I can’t introduce everything. According to many of them, it seems that the Nara Daibutsu stopped the earthquake by punching into the Earth to make a wave towards the very opposite direction of the earthquake and canceled it out. I’m personally happy to see that so many people are commenting on the power of Nara Daibutsu, which is the symbol of Nara where I grew up! And guess what? I succeeded in interviewing an actual monk in Nara about this Giant Daibutsu rumor!

An Interview With A Nara Monk

This is Yugaku Ikawa (井川裕覚) of Daihisen Tatsunoji Temple (悲山 立野寺) in Yagyu, Nara. He belongs to a Japanese group of Shingon Buddhism called Koyasan Shingon-shu (高野山真言宗). He started off by explaining what Buddhism is like, what kind of religion Shingon-shu is, and then talked about the Nara Daibutsu hypothesis. I translated the interview into English for you to understand.

About Buddhism And Shingon Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion to make yourself Buddha itself by coming in touch with Buddha. Buddha is not in sutra, statues or temples but inside of ourselves.

Shingon Buddhism (真言宗/Shingon-shu) is one of the few surviving Esoteric Buddhism lineages, which is called Mikkyō (密教) in Japanese. Mikkyō literally means “secret ways” and was originally started in India, spread to China and then was brought to Japan by a Buddhist monk named Kōbō-Daishi (弘法大師) around 1200 years ago. By the time it came all the way to Japan, it adopted various Buddhist and other religions gods’ thoughts and became a more complex and multifaceted system. Mikkyō Monks regard gaining “this-worldly benefits” (現世利益/Genseriyaku) as the most important thing. There are so many practices to do this, including ajikan (阿字観), which is a core meditative practice. Mikkyō Monks try to experience Buddha in themselves throughout those practices and by sympathizing various Buddhas.

About The Nara Daibutsu Hypothesis And Earthquake

This time, the epicenter was reported in Nara which is not typically associated with heavy seismic activity or big disasters, so that added to the puzzlement and also caused the great [Nara Daibutsu] sensation. The Nara Daibutsu (Rushana Buddha) is not only a universe by itself but also of earthly environment, nature and all of our origins. In that kind of meaning, it could be said all the earthly activities including earthquakes are the Daibutsu’s activities as well. I would say that it’s a wonderful result of human beings’ wisdom to prove and elucidate many things scientifically. However, I would also say that it’s very important not to be into only one extreme speculation that “science is the truth” but to realize that we are allowed to live within an earth and universe such as Daibutsu and be thankful for it.

Although I say such serious things, I just find something congenial in Buddha while imagining that it is actually fighting against a plate or an earthquake like an anime character (laughs).

Finally, Japan is said to be an earthquake country, and big ones such as the Great Hanshin earthquake and the Great East Japan earthquake have occurred since I was born. I extend my sincere condolences to all the victims and wish everyone who is still suffering from the earthquake places to relax and settle down. I believe that not only recovering lifelines such as facilities and buildings but also recovering peoples hearts is very important. I wish peaceful minds for as many people as possible. I believe that the true relationships among people makes their zest for living.

[/end interview]

Since there are not any scientific evidences that the Nara Daibutsu defeated the earthquake, the reliability of the hypothesis is questioned. However, why don’t we put scientific and critical opinion aside like the monk said and close our eyes to meditate? Then, repeat the famous false Buddha quote in your mind:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

Anything could be the truth depending on your own mind, it doesn’t matter whether it’s proven or not. So now, tell me your thoughts on the Nara Daibutsu hypotheses!

Yes, Japan is Sinking

But only a little bit. Mostly, no, it’s not. There is a lot of seismic activity going on in Japan. It’s the most seismically active country in the world, but that should come as no surprise to anyone given the terrible earthquake tragedies that have happened in Japan over the years. Japan sits atop an intersection of several tectonic plates and the shape of the country has been gradually transformed by these plate movements.

But while Japan’s shape is changing, it is, on the whole, not sinking. Some parts of Japan (the mountains mostly) are actually getting higher as the plates collide. However, earthquakes such as the Tohoku one in 2011 do cause some parts of Japan to sink. A 250 mile stretch of land along the Tohoku coastline dropped by about 2 feet as a result of the quake. On the other hand, other parts of Japan got wider and the seabed off the coast of Tohoku raised by about 10 feet.

This picture is from Yonaguni, not actually a sunken continent.

As mentioned above, continents have sunk before. Take Zealandia, Mauritia, and the Kerguelen Plateau. While they did find themselves submerged a long, long time ago (think 23 million years), it still makes you pause to think what might happen to Japan eventually if everything goes right. Or wrong, depending how you look at it.

I actually didn’t know that these “sunken continents” existed until not too long ago, but I find the idea of them fascinating. I guess it makes sense once you think about it though. Once continents break up into microcontinents it’s only a matter of time before some of them start going under. But like I said, Japan is not one of these places. Not yet, anyway.

Propagated Sinking Myths

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjTw9qaiE5w']

Despite the evidence, there are still a decent amount of Japanese people who believe that their country is indeed sinking. In 1973, Sakyo Komatsu wrote the best-selling earthquake novel Japan Sinks. The novel led to a film that same year, a television show in 1975, and a film remake and a sequel to the novel in 2006. A parody movie by the title Everything Other than Japan Sinks was released in 2006 as well. This movie sounds hilarious and I kind of want to see it.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCbPbV_W0hg']

In the movie Japan Sinks (the real one, not the parody), Japan sinks in just a few days. Realistically, this would never happen, but if it did, it would release a tremendous tsunami upon most all the coastal cities of the world. So even if you’re not living in Japan, you really wouldn’t want it to sink. Not that you would anyway though, that’s just mean.

Should Japan be Worried?

Japan’s going to be fine. At one point in time, all the continents were joined as one and Japan used to be attached to the main Asian continent. Since then, Japan has slowly drifted further and further east. While this trend is likely to continue, it is no means for concern. Japan is moving east, not down.

And Japan is no stranger to man-made land, so while earthquakes will do their best to tear Japan down in an attempt to sink it into the ocean, Japan will always be ready to turn around and rebuild and recover. In Tokyo alone, hundreds of square kilometers have been added over the past 60 years. Since pieces and parts of Japan sink so slowly, this gives the Japanese people plenty of time to fill everything back in.

So tell me, what do you think about the whole Japan is going to sink idea? Are any of the ideas posited here flawed? Have any theories of your own? Let us know in the comments!

I vividly remember watching the disaster unfold over a live video stream, hardly able to believe what I was seeing. It felt like I was watching footage from a disaster movie.

A lot has changed in the year since the devastation in Japan, but it’s sometimes hard to follow what’s really going on in the country. It seems like nobody can agree on what exactly is the situation in Japan.

On this one year anniversary of the 3/11 disaster, I’d like to try to collect my thoughts about the tragedy, recap what’s happened, and the direction the country is taking.

The Aftermath

When all was said and done,  close to 20,000 people died or went missing from the Tohoku region. Foreigners fled the country; some out of fear, some out of orders from their governments.

Tourism dropped as people became afraid of the dangers in the country, and the economy slumped as the businesses of the Tohoku region were all but wiped out.

And there’s no sugar-coating it: the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is still a dangerous place, even to this day. The nuclear reactors still aren’t fully under control, and a big area around Fukushima isn’t accessible to the public.

In all honesty, the aftermath of 3/11 was pretty bleak; it’s undeniable that the death and destruction of the 3/11 disaster was horrific. But a year later, the lessons learned from the devastation have helped the Japanese prepare for the future.

Lessons Learned

The meltdown at Fukushima has gotten people around the world thinking about nuclear power in a different way. Whether or not that means moving away from nuclear power is still unseen; but if nothing else, people have become much more conscious about where their electricity comes from.

Governments and scientists around the country have no doubt put in plenty of thought about what they can do to prevent a disaster like this from ever happening again.

Already, new walls are being raised and trees are being planted to protect towns from future tsunami. Towns are being reconstructed to place people out of harm’s way.

But probably the most important lesson learned during all of this is the importance of community. People came together like never before during the disaster, not only in local Japanese communities, but around the world.

In fact, contrary to popular belief, things are actually looking up for Japan in a lot of ways.

I’ve Got To Admit It’s Getting Better

Looking at before/after pictures of the disaster (like on The Big Picture), it’s really amazing the progress that’s been made in a year. Towns that were an unrecognizable mess after the earthquake and tsunami are now tidied up.

At the time of the tsunami, it was hard to imagine that a clean up was even possible. But now, many towns are clean and ready for reconstruction.

Before and after pictures courtesy of The Big Picture

The Japanese economy has started to pick up recently too. The Nikkei stock index bottomed out near the end of last year, but has since made a strong rebound and is on its way back up. (And you could argue that the Nikkei’s poor performance lately was because of the European debt crisis, not the 3/11 disaster.)

Tourism has been steadily improving too. People have flocked back to Japan for lunar new year and cherry blossom celebrations, seeing past the destruction to the Japan they once knew and loved.

Looking Ahead

There’s no question that what happened on 3/11 disaster was a watershed event in Japanese history. Its devastation was unprecedented and there’s still a long way to go; but, with any luck, was a level of destruction that won’t be seen again for a very long time.

But it was also a moment when Japan came together and showed its strength. It’s not everyday that we see the kind of humanity, selflessness, and unity that the Japanese showed in the days after 3/11. It just goes to show that underneath the highly-polished veneer of Japanese politeness and civility, there lies a goodwill that rivals any other in the world.

The enjoyability of the following CMs may vary depending on your level of Japanese, but basically it depicts the two actors as the reincarnations of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. At the end of their journey they arrive in Tohoku and meet the one-eyed dragon and ancient warlord of Tohoku, Date Masamune.

Kimura Takuya keeps referring to Beat Takeshi as Saru (meaning monkey) because as legend has it, Oda Nobunaga gave that nickname to Toyotomi Hideyoshi because of his facial resemblance to a monkey. This recognition directly contributes to the popular image of him being monkey-like, both in appearance and behavior.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VKOgzMWCDE']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OMEvOfcRHQ']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzJbuXHH7FM']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f1jjQMAjo4']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kLr2o_XB84']

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee4402tTz1M']

Could you follow along okay? If you have any questions about what’s going on feel free to inquire in the comments below. Toyota hopes these commercials will help promote the recovery of the region as well as promote their vehicles which in turn helps Japan as a whole.

For those interested, you can read more about Toyota’s endeavors in Tohoku here.

And Now A Message From Arashi

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTT1O2VtrSY']

Even though this video is from last year, I still find it appropriate for today’s post. And for those of you unfamiliar with Arashi, they are a very popular music group in Japan and the members frequently appear on variety shows and TV dramas.

And from all of us at Tofugu, thank you so much for keeping Japan in your hearts this past year and helping them to rebuild for a better tomorrow.

Saturday Timewaster is a weekly post that features Japanese videos, music, images, or games that will certainly waste your time (some weeks more than others). We hope you enjoy!

[Header Image]

There hasn’t been a lot of good news coming out of Japan lately (though I’d say a big part of that is news agencies trying to shock audiences as much as possible so they can make more $$$). At this point, sure, the nuclear reactors are kind of a problem (though time will only tell), but the real issue is the hundreds of thousands of people that are displaced, homeless, cold, cut off, or without food (i.e. people are going to start starving soon). While you probably can’t do much to help with the nuclear reactor thing, you can do something to help the people… After all, it’s the people who need the most help anyways. If something like this happened to you, you’d surely want to be helped as well.

Ways You Can Help

There are tons of ways you can help that do involve your hard earned cash. I’m sure they’re pretty good. I’ve donated myself. The more I read, though, the more it seems as though relief organizations are “over funded” (i.e., they have more money than they know what to do with, and the money you’re donating isn’t doing anything… and eventually will probably make it to some other country, which is good too, I suppose).

I think donating money to help is good – and I think that donating money will have more affect in the next week or so (when we can finally see who and what needs the most financial support), but right now it just doesn’t seem like funding disaster relief will help very much right now.

That being said, if you’d like to donate anyways, that’s great. Just be sure you don’t earmark your donations (so that they can be used in other places of need as well). Japan is printing off loads of money… money isn’t the issue. Red Cross and other big relief organizations will surely help and play a role in repairing Japan, but if you tell them you only want your money spent on Japan, it’ll probably end up being inefficiently used (like I said, there’s plenty of money already).

NihongoUp, JapanTimes, and so many other list off many more ways to donate. The most important thing is that you make sure your donated funds aren’t earmarked. I’d recommend Doctor’s Without Borders (as does that above article), but anything you donate will probably eventually help someone, and that’s good.

In the meantime, though, there are other ways you can help.

Buy TextFugu (And Donate 110% Of Your Payment)

If you were going to donate some money anyways, here’s an offer for you.

Before you go all crazy saying “omgwtfbbq he’s trying to make money off a disaster” – please keep reading.

Over the next 5ish days or so (we’ll see how long I can afford this), 110% of every dollar spent on TextFugu will be donated to disaster relief in Japan (more on who the donations go to in a minute).

Here’s my thinking on this: At first, I was going to donate part of the revenues, but then I realized that would just make it seem like I wanted your money, hoping more people would sign up to make up for the difference. So then I thought… okay, how about 100% of the revenues? I probably can’t afford to do this for a really long time, but even if sign ups stay the same, then at least I’m donating a good chunk of money to Japan. If sign-ups go up, then I’d be able to donate a bigger chunk of money to Japan. Then I realized that even though technically this is money I’m donating, it feels like you’re donating and I’m doing nothing, so I want to throw some of my own personal dollars (or more of them) into the mix. So I thought, why not donate 110% of revenues instead?

So, before you get in a tizzy, know that I’m donating extra money for every sign-up on TextFugu.

So here’s the deal. As long as you see a big green message on the homepage / pricing page of TextFugu saying I’m doing this, I’ll still be doing this. In about a week, I’ll probably take it down (and let you know how it went, of course). If you don’t see this big green message on the homepage, 110% of your payment probably isn’t going to disaster relief. So, if you’re interested in TextFugu (or want to give it to a friend, or something) you should do it now. Otherwise, go donate money directly, because that’s cool too.

I don’t know who / where the donation will go to yet. I’m thinking I’ll spend the next week researching smaller organizations that will have big impact. I want to donate to someone who will deliver the most help for the dollar, if you catch my drift. I don’t think that organization will be Red Cross or something like that… It might end up being that, and if it does, of course the donation won’t be earmarked only for Japan, but I’m hoping I can find an organization that has a lot of impact.

Other Japan/Japanese related companies trying to help the relief effort include NihongoUp (50% of revenue), Flutterscape (matching donations up to $3,000), CrunchyRoll (matching donations up to $5,000), jlist (5% of orders up to $10,000) and… (let me know if there’s others in the comments below, please!).

Give Blood

If you’re in Japan, now’s probably a good time to give blood. It doesn’t cost you anything, and there’s going to be a ton of people who need it. If you click on the map above, you can find places around Tokyo to give blood, though I imagine there are many other local areas all around Japan that will be accepting your vampire food. Rules for giving blood in Japan are pretty strict, though, so make sure you take a look at this before donating.

Giving blood definitely saves lives, and will probably be one of the nicest things you can do right now (and you should keep doing it, because giving blood is awesome, and you get cookies).

Volunteer

I’m not sure what’s needed at the moment, but if you’re in Japan, and want to help, you can try to join one of the volunteer efforts that are starting to come underway. It’s divided into areas, so you’ll have to call each government individually to see (non-Japanese language support is probably limited).

Sendai (Miyagi) – 022-262-7294

Iwate – 019-637-9711

Fukushima – 024-523-1254

There’s more information on volunteering on Hikosaemon’s blog.

Send Socks & Support Letters

It’s friggin’ cold in the Sendai area (where the earthquake hit). Disasters like this are also psychologically damaging. Socks and letters will help both of these things.

Jason Kelly is fairly close to the “disaster area” though far enough away to still get mail. If you send him socks, he’ll make sure people get them. If you send “support letters” with the socks, people will get them too.

It also looks like “HopeLetters” is doing an electronic version of the support letter. Check out HopeLetters to send something to relief workers or students.

Nothing like a little letter to make someone feel a little bit better. It’s those human touches that make lives improve.

Don’t Panic

The worst thing you can do in a situation like this is panic. I almost feel like foreign media is panicking more than the people actually affected by the earthquake (actually, I’m pretty sure this is the case). While the situation is terrible, and lots of people are suffering, it doesn’t help to make up stories (though this one was kind of funny), spread rumors, and act off of unreliable information. It’s pretty safe to assume that whatever any not-from-Japan media news source (Tofugu included, by the way) probably doesn’t actually know what they are talking about when it comes to nuclear reactors and earthquakes and things like that. CNN, Fox, whatever… they often don’t know what they’re talking about, and love to blow things out of proportion. Don’t let them scare you, and don’t let them scare others. Sure, the areas affected by the quake suck in a lot of ways, but Big News Media is going crazy, as they always do. Whatever they can do to get viewers and make as much money as possible (*ahem* remember Charlie Sheen?).

So, don’t panic, and just do what you can to help. Accurate information will get to you eventually—it’s not worth spreading rumors, making things worse.

That being said, Tofugu won’t really cover too much about the quake. If I do, it’ll either be focused on helping or be some sort of positive quake-related news story. If you want to see everything else, you don’t have to look far.

Stay Positive

Okay, I don’t know if this actually helps, but I think it does. Stay positive, everyone! Things will get better (especially if everyone chips in to help), and Japan will end up a stronger country because of it (and so will its friends an allies, who are helping out).

So, be happy, even in difficult times. Happiness, kindness, and sharing will be the thing that makes this situation better, so you might as well start now.

Over the next week, I imagine we’ll see how things play out, and then figure out the most effective way to help real people in real need. When that happens, I hope you give and help as much as you possibly can!

Any other ways to help folks out without donating money? Let me know, and I’ll add the good ones into the article. Thanks!

P.S. Donating money is good. It helps people. You should do it anyways.

The Quake Itself

The quake has a couple of names right now. I’ve seen both “The 2011 Sendai Earthquake” (because it hit off the coast of the big city of Sendai) as well as the 東北地方太平洋沖地震 (Tōhoku Chihō Taiheiyō-oki Jishin), because the earthquake was in the Tohoku region of Japan. The earthquake was off the coast of the City of Sendai.

The quake itself was huge, recording at 8.9 on the Richter Scale. In case you didn’t know, the way the Richter Scale works is as follows: “With each whole number (i.e. “1″) increase in the Richter Scale, there is an increase of 31.6 times the amount of energy released. That means a 7.0 earthquake releases 31.6 times the energy of a 6.0 earthquake. To put things in perspective, the math would look something like this (I’m making up my own energy unit, called “energies”).

1.0 Earthquake = 1 “Energies”

2.0 Earthquake = 31.6 “Energies”

3.0 Earthquake = 998.56 “Energies”

4.0 Earthquake = 31,554.5 “Energies”

5.0 Earthquake = 997,112 “Energies”

6.0 Earthquake = 31,508,739 “Energies”

…and so on

Each point up on the Richter scale means a lot more energy released. Even a 0.2 increase on the Richter Scale doubles the amount of energy released. An 8.9 Magnitude Earthqake is gigantic, and you should never hope you have to experience something like that.

Things were broken and towers swayed – Although it took place in Northish-East area of Japan, folks in Tokyo, Hokkaido, and even China felt the quake.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhJzdtzl6KY']

Buildings in Tokyo, 2011 Sendai Quake

Although Japan is, at least by most standards, pretty prepared for an earthquake, it seems like the things the earthquake caused were even more destructive.

Tsunamis (Tidal Waves)

Natori, Japan – Tsunami hitting after the 2011 Sendai Earthquake

There’s probably a reason why even in English we call tsunamis “tsunamis.” These are big waves that, of course, have huge destructive abilities. Because the quake was so close to the coast, there wasn’t much time to evacuate for the tsunami soon to follow. Picking up debrees, cars, houses, flaming houses, mud, and more, the ocean swept across some parts of Japan, taking out towns, buildings, and pretty much everything in its path.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CH_XkpSCE']

This, it always seems, is the scariest thing about earthquakes. It isn’t the shaking, and it isn’t the buildings… it’s the subsequent tsunamis triggered.

Water is the worst :( Combine that with broken buildings, and you have yourself a lot of problems.

Fires And Nuclear Reactors

Natural Gas Facility burning after the earthquake

Japan has never seemed to have great luck with fires + earthquakes in the past. Everything is just so… wooden. More than 80 fires were reported, some bigger than others, though a fire is never something something you want to have to deal with…

Fires in Yamada Town

Although there were/are fires all around Japan after the earthquake, one of the scariest things (to me) is one of the nuclear reactors in Fukushima.

They’ve been using temporary cooling measures to keep things from being a problem (plus the US Air Force will be helping with that now), but it just shows some of the additional dangers earthquakes can have. Currently, they’re planning on releasing some of the pressure, which could cause a very small radiation leak (supposedly not a danger, but it’s a good thing people were evacuated from this area anyways). More updates on this later, I’m sure (or, check out one of the live feeds below).

Update: Things haven’t been looking good at the nuclear facilities, with fires, explosions, and radiation. Right now, people seem to be safe, though, and that’s the main thing.

Live Feeds & News

Instead of reading this (I’m not providing a live news feed, maybe just a few big updates over the next few days), you should check out one of the many live feeds / live video streams going on out there.

Gakuranman.com has great live coverage, as well as a ton of emergency information and more links to live feeds. He’s also been Tweeting about it a lot too.

The National Post has live coverage, as well as many more high quality images on the Earthquake and Tsunamis

NewScientist.com has been putting out sharp updates including sciency updates on the fault line.

NHK has a stream on UStream which I imagine will be covering the earthquake for a while (Japanese).

TBS Japan also has a stream on UStream.

Twitter is also a great source on news. Tags and Search Terms like #tsunami, #earthquake, #tohoku, #miyagi, #sendai, #prayforjapan (maybe not so much news, but for well wishers), and (apparently) Tokyo Disneyland (c’mon people…) are pretty popular right now and should get you lots of up to the second news (including a lot of 1st person stuff).

Google (thanks Ken in the comments!) has one of the best resources out there, both in English and Japanese. It has all kinds of very useful things on it.

Almost Any News source is also covering this right now. I know a lot of news feeds only play in certain areas of the world (dumb region blocking), so hit up your country’s news station on line, and there’s a decent chance you’ll find some kind of live stream.

There are more Live Feeds and News sites out there (like, hundreds, maybe thousands), so if there’s one you think is particularly good, put it in the comments so folks can stay informed.

Putting It All In Perspective

This was a big earthquake. It was the biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan. In the world, it is the 7th largest earthquake ever recorded, where the largest was a 9.5 earthquake in Valdivia, Chile, in 1960.

That being said, Japan is a country that’s fairly well prepared for Earthquakes. They get 20% of the worlds earthquakes over 6.0. Every life lost is a terrible thing, but hopefully it also spurs on on technology advancement to keep people safer for the next big quake (and not just people in Japan, but people all over the world, too).

It’s disasters like these that remind us we should help other people. Sure, Japan is a technologically-advanced first world country, but a lot of people need help. If you want to do your part, you can donate to the Red Cross online or by texting REDCROSS to 90999 (and this will donate a tiny $10 to help people in need), donate to Americares, or check out one of these many other ways you can help.