Instant Ramen

  • Going to Japan? Beware of earthquakes!

    1
    2009年01月08日Japan Read comments Leave a comment

    Japan Hanshin earthquake 1995Photo: 松岡明芳

    Coming from a country where earthquakes are very common (Costa Rica — in fact we just had a 6.2 Richter Scale earthquake earlier), I wasn’t sure why guides were gathering everyone on my Japan Study Tour 2007 to talk about earthquakes.

    Earthquakes are extremely common in certain places of the world, Japan being one of them, and can be devastating. If you’re not from a country where earthquakes are common, beware that being on the 30th floor of a building can feel a little weird. In fact, I remember the guys from Russia and Africa complaining about “buildings moving too much” and a feeling of dizziness!

    Japan has been struck by some nasty earthquakes, now on top of that cities like Tokyo are filled with skyscrapers, which makes earthquake disaster preventions even more important. Remember a Japanese earthquake from the 90’s?

    The Great Hanshin Earthquake

    Also known as the Kobe earthquake, occurred in 1995 and  has been the worst earthquake in Japan since 1923. At the time I was ten, but I still can’t get this picture off my head:

    Kobe earthquake Elevated ExpresswayCollapsed Kobe Elevated Expressway

    The Great Hanshin Earthquake was a 7.3 JMA magnitude earthquake that lasted for about 20 seconds. Almost 6,500 people lost their lives and, economically speaking, it costed Japan 2.5% of its Gross Domestic Product at the time, or 10 trillion yen ($200 billion US dollars).

    The above pictured structure was believed to be relatively safe against earthquakes, however, its design was based on building codes used in 1960, and not the newer 1983 ones. In any case, I’m still shocked at the above picture and it was the first thing I thought of after the earth shook for 20 seconds today. My condolences to the victims all earthquakes, including the ones from today :(

    In any case, if you’re not used to earthquakes and you’re travelling to Japan, beware of earthquakes and giant robots! What’s your take on earthquakes?

    New around here?
    You may want to keep up with more of our stuff via RSS / email or Hao's networks

Comments for this article (1)

Leave a Reply

Hai There~

Welcome to Instant Ramen, an all Japan and Asia blog

Tasty~

Google Friend Connect

Instant-Ramen.net (RSS Feed) (About the Author) 2009