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.

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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

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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!

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Thankfully we have a guest post from our friend Ken Cannon, who runs the site Japanese Through Anime. He’s here to teach us about the most difficult dialect in Japanese. Are you up for the challenge?

What’s a dialect?

A dialect is a version of a language that can have different accents, grammar, or sometimes even vocabulary. Japan has dozens of dialects! Some varying only a wee bit, and some others varying a lot. But most of the time, a dialect isn’t so different that native speakers can’t understand.

The 3 most notable Japanese dialects are:

1) Standard Japanese: Spoken in Tokyo, on TV, in anime, etc.. This is basically the official language of Japan, the one you all know and love. It’s also called Hyojungo.

2) Kansai Dialect: Spoken in the Western part of Japan, around Osaka. This type of Japanese is often associated with the weird combination of comedians and yakuza.

3) Tohoku Dialect: Usually associated with farmers and country folk. Cool, right?

What’s Tohoku-ben?

Tohoku-ben is a Japanese dialect that’s interesting because it’s known as the hardest dialect to understand. In fact, Tohoku-ben is so different from standard Japanese that even native Japanese speakers often can’t understand it and need subtitles whenever people speaking this dialect appear on TV or in movies.

Here’s an example of pronunciation in Tohoku-ben:

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAUHzjgI6Dg']

Tohoku-ben is spoken in the Tohoku region of Japan, which extends from slightly east of Tokyo all the way up to Hokkaido. And to get you really motivated, there isn’t just one Tohoku-ben, but about a dozen different versions of it spoken throughout the region.

Today we are going to be focusing on Tsugaru-ben in particular, which is spoken in Aomori, the northern most part of Tohoku. Tsugaru-ben is arguably the furthest sounding dialect from standard Japanese.

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The Stereotype

One of the reasons Tohoku-ben is so hard for most people to grasp is that unlike Kansai-ben, most Tohoku-ben speakers hide their accents when speaking to anyone outside of Tohoku. Therefore it’s hard to get any practice with native Tohoku-ben speakers.

A big reason Tohoku-ben speakers are so shy is the negative nickname “zuu zuu ben” I mentioned in the video. Tohoku-ben is sometimes called “zuu zuu ben” because speakers avoid opening their mouths too much when speaking and in effect causes their speech to sound very slurred and lazy, kind of like they were saying “zuu zuu muu nuuu buu” instead of words.

This nickname brings a big, negative stereotype to Tohoku speakers with other Japanese. Tohoku speakers are seen as  lazy country bumpkins. Most speakers of this dialect don’t like to be seen speaking it outside of their hometowns, especially the younger crowds.

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This vending machine in Japan has a Tohoku-ben setting!

And this isn’t even mentioning the fact that Japan is currently trying to blotch out most dialects and create a single standard Japanese language by forcing all printed material and media to be in Hyojungo. This kind of goes hand in hand with Japan’s need for conformity or, if you don’t want to be a jerk about it, unity. But all the same, it is quite a shame.

Tsugaru-Ben Vocab

Now getting into some vocab I promised you in the video, we’ll start with my favorite Tsugaru-ben vocab:

1)  まいね – (maine) – bad

Maine is the Tohoku version of the standard Japanese dame or ikenai, which mean “bad.”

Let’s try an example sentence!

Tsugaru: Geimusho sa iganeba maine jya
Standard Japanese: Geimusho ni ikenakucha ikenai
English: I gotta go to prison/ If I don’t go prison it’ll be bad

You’ll notice in this sentence that sa is used in place of the standard ni.

Next, the two most common Tsugaru ben words.

2) わ + な – (wa and na) – (I and you)

These mean “I” and “you” respectively, and come from shortened versions of the standard watashi and anata.

Tsugaru: Wa shinobi da be
Standard Japanese: Watashi wa shinobi darou
English: I’m probably a ninja

Tsugaru: Na shinobi jya nee be
Standard Japanese:  Anata wa shinobi jya nai deshou
English: You’re probably not a ninja

3) んだ + んだが – (nda and nda ga) – (That’s right and really?)

If you didn’t know, sou desu and sou desu ka – or “that’s” right” and “really?” – are used all the time in Japanese. So as you can guess, the same goes for their Tsugaru-ben counterparts: nda and nda ga.

Tsugaru: Nda wa megoi jya
Standard Japanese: Sou da watashi wa kawaii yo
English: That’s right, I’m cute!

Tsugaru: Nda ga? Koichi-san, jikko ga?
Standard Japanese: Sou desu ka? Koichi-san wa ojiisan ka?
English: Really? Koichi is a grandpa?

And for our last bit of vocab for the day:

4) だはんで + はんで – (da hande) – (therefore)

Dahande is the Tohoku-ben equivalent of the standard dakara, or “therefore” in English. This word goes in between two clauses that you want to cite as being the cause of another.

Tsugaru: Wa sekushi da hande, Hashi-san wa no godo ni agogareru jya
Standard Japanese: Watashi wa sekushi dakara, Hashi-san wa watashi no koto ni akogareru yo!
English: I’m sexy, therefore Hashi yearns for me.

And if you want to hear more Tsugaru-ben, there’s a movie that was recently produced in Japan all in Tsugaru-ben, which is very rare for the reasons stated above. It’s called Bare Essence of Life Ultra-Miracle Love Story, and for the amount of self-inflicted brain damage it includes, it might make it on some people’s list of strange Japanese movies.

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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.

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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.

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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.