Huge Earthquake Hits Japan

[tsukinobyouin]

Another list of J-celebrities confirmed to be okay - it includes a few more that aren't on the other list.



http://www.jpopasia.com/news/your-idols ... :5421.html



A friend told me Ayu has been tweeting in multiple languages, urging people to help each other and especially for Japanese people to help foreigners who are away from home and don't have much earthquake experience - plus giving out shelter info. It's always nice to see celebrities using their status to help others.



Maybe when the dust settles a little and relief efforts start being organized, we can put together some sort of donations together as a bbs?

[Anderei]

Someone made a list of all UFA people who were safe:

Konno Asami

- Ishikawa Rika

- Yoshizawa Hitomi

- Kusumi Koharu

- Kago Ai

- Ohtani Masae

- Fujimoto Miki (is in LA)

- Arihara Kanna

- Umeda Erika

- Satoda Mai

- Murata Megumi

- Nakazawa Yuko

- Natsumi Abe

- Azusa Kobayashi (1st Gen. Country Musume)

- Mami Suenaga (Sheki-Dol)

- Tsuji Nozomi + Family

- Sonim (EE Jump; is in New York)

- Makoto Ogawa

- Atsuko Inaba

- Arisa Noto

- S/mileage

- Erina Mano

- °C-ute

- Berryz Koubou

- Morning Musume

- Tsunku

- Nice Girl Project Members + Staff

- Eri Kamei + her sister

- Rika Ishii (from Shuffle group Odoru 11)

- Maki Goto

- Ayumi Shibata

- H!P Eggs + Egg graduates

- Yuki Maeda

- Mika Mutou (former Ongaku Gatas member)

- Manami Iwashima (SI*NA)







Miki and Aya are still in L.A, but no news on Yaguchi so a lot of people are worried about her, as well as Kaori and Kei.

[tsukinobyouin]

Momoiro Clover members confirmed to be safe.



So has Maru the internet sensation cat. I thought that was sort of a nice light hearted thing to read amidst the tragedy.

[Pflaume]

Thank you to Gypchan and TnB for texting me. I worked myself into a complete tizzy at work. All of you working to keep me in the loop helped. Mage is going to think I am creepier than ever for how worried I was, ha.



This is just all so horrifying. I can't handle these videos. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... ryalot.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':cryalot:' />



Have we heard from everyone from the BBS? I wish I knew a list of who is in Japan off-hand.



Edit: This is petty, but why is there some strange rumor flying around that Satoshi Tajiri passed away in the earthquake, when there seems to be no actual news sources to back it up? What person decided it was time to go, "lololol let's say the dude from Pokemon died."

[Haru]

If the news came from 2ch, it's to be expected.



I'm so glad to hear Em is okay, and ditto for Rob (who I didn't know lived in Japan). There's someone else who's on vacation there, but I can't remember who. TnB?

Either way, I'm just glad to hear everyone is okay. Try to stay alive, please.

[kira]

It's good to know people are okay <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... joyful.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':joyful:' /> EmEl and rob.



Isn't alita87 in Japan? I distinctly remember reading in the 9th gen thread that he/she was going to that 9th gen fanclub event...



At Twitter people are saying Satoshi Tajiri is alive.

[Noa]

I've only seen bits and pieces of the news all day, but it's so sad :/ Unfortunately I still have a few friends who are unaccounted for, so I'm sitting here praying they're okay.

[Haru]

That's right, Alita is in that area as well. I forgot about her. (Sorry Alita!)

[EmEl]

Thanks for the well-wishes, everyone. I just got power back. There are actually still a few little shakes every now and then. Everything is fine here though.

[Haru]

Good to hear. This whole time I've been worrying about you. If I didn't hear from you within a few more days I was going to start sending messages.

[neshcom]

Great to hear you're safe!



YouTube has a channel dedicated to footage from the quake including flooding and fire footage. Beware, the footage could be rather shocking.

[Madara]

[quote name='kira' timestamp='1299907458' post='95217']

It's good to know people are okay <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... joyful.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':joyful:' /> EmEl and rob.



Isn't alita87 in Japan? I distinctly remember reading in the 9th gen thread that he/she was going to that 9th gen fanclub event...



At Twitter people are saying Satoshi Tajiri is alive.

[/quote]



Alita's a she and I do hope she gets in touch with us to let us know she's okay.

[Gerald]

[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1299892795' post='95203']

Maybe when the dust settles a little and relief efforts start being organized, we can put together some sort of donations together as a bbs?

[/quote]

I'd be up for that.



They were saying on UK TV that many Japanese don't carry home insurance, if true I guess many of the homeless could be in real trouble.



It is just impossible to take in the sheer scale of the destruction, it's going to take a long time to heal the wounds <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... #>/sad.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':sad:' />.

[Ap2000]

Probably the worst of this all:

Seismologists do NOT count this earthquake to be the geological follow up to the 1923, meaning that earthquake which usually happens ever 60~70 years is STILL outstanding.

[alita87]

Things in Tokyo have returned to mostly normal. The shaking was pretty bad but nothing destroyed here, just ended up picking up toys in the preschool room as my 2 four year old's didn't even seem to notice the earthquake.



Trains weren't running until around 10:30 last night though so I didn't get home til late. I got an email from Em-El earlier today. Phone email and net has been working fine but calling is still hit or miss with how busy the signals are. Feel lucky to be in the metro area and not further up north.



Edit: And yes, I'm alive ^^ Unfortunately still had to go back into work today after being stuck at my station for hours. Tried to get a taxi but was impossible to find an open one no matter which road I looked on.

[Pflaume]

So glad you're safe, Alita.



[quote name='TnB' timestamp='1299892795' post='95203']

Maybe when the dust settles a little and relief efforts start being organized, we can put together some sort of donations together as a bbs?

[/quote]



Yes, please.

[tsukinobyouin]

Until we can put something together at mm-bbs, here's some other ways you can help:



http://thedailywhat.tumblr.com/post/378 ... -president



Please also check out Help Japan. These are fandom auctions (for all fandoms), so you can auction off your creative services for charity. You can offer up anything you can do - fan/original fiction, art (fan or original), graphics (icons, site layouts, etc), audio (fan or original music), food, crafts, etc. People bid on your services and their money goes to charity for Japan relief. I know there are a ton of creative members here, so this might be a good way for people who can't afford to donate directly to help.

[Shoujo Q]

According to news, 9,500 people are missing from the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture. The figure is more than half of the population of 17,000 in the town on the Pacific coast.

(This seems like the worst news of all so far people wise. D:)



And also the the walls of a concrete building surrounding the reactor container at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant collapsed in an explosion, but the reactor and its containment system were not damaged and they plan to pump sea water in to try and cool it down. (They should have done that to begin with if you ask me but I don't know how such things work.) I really hope this starts to clam down but it may take a few days.





I'm glad everyone is all right!

[Madara]

I'm glad that Alita, Em-El and Rob are safe.



And my friend Naoko, who e-mailed me back that she's safe.



No word back from my friend Ryo, but she hasn't e-mailed any of her friends since she went back to Japan in 2009, so I doubt I'll hear from her either way, but she lives on the other side of Japan anyway, far from the epicenter.



I'm nervous about the no-word-from-Mari-Kaori-Kei situation. If anyone hears any update about them, please let us know.



Thanks.



On a side note, I'm just curious, but what are Miki and Aya doing in L.A.?

[Shoujo Q]

[quote name='Madara' timestamp='1299940129' post='95233']

I'm glad that Alita, Em-El and Rob are safe.



And my friend Naoko, who e-mailed me back that she's safe.



No word back from my friend Ryo, but she hasn't e-mailed any of her friends since she went back to Japan in 2009, so I doubt I'll hear from her either way, but she lives on the other side of Japan anyway, far from the epicenter.



I'm nervous about the no-word-from-Mari-Kaori-Kei situation. If anyone hears any update about them, please let us know.



Thanks.



On a side note, I'm just curious, but what are Miki and Aya doing in L.A.?

[/quote]



Mari, Kaori and Kei have all blogged that they are alright. Mari had to walk back from Odaiba but she found a Taxi half way back. Kei is fine but I guess some of her mother's family is unaccounted for. And Kaori just recently blogged that she's fine. But I haven't seen a translation of what she's said. Thanks to H!O for all that, it was hard trying to find it all though. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... nfused.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> H!O and natural disasters are a bad combo.





Oh and Aya, can someone confirm that they were together? Because she doesn't mention her in her "I'm Safe" blog post. And I have no idea what she was doing in L.A.

[kira]

Aya and Miki were apparently at Disneyland in LA... or so the people at H!O say. I think someone mentioned that Miki had posted things about them being together over this week. Aya's tweeted recently though, so she should be okay.



Good to know people from the bbs are safe (sorry Alita, I didn't want to guess your gender and get it wrong), but 9500 people missing is scary. Hopefully the nuclear plant situation gets better.

[emily]

could anyone please translate? it seems that they're saying that only the outside of the reactor was damaged, not the core, and the containment building is working fine. Hope that's the case.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg4uogOEUrU

[aine]

[quote name='emily' timestamp='1299958612' post='95240']

could anyone please translate? it seems that they're saying that only the outside of the reactor was damaged, not the core, and the containment building is working fine. Hope that's the case.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg4uogOEUrU

[/quote]

Can't translate from the clip, but that's what the Western media reported, that it was just a hydrogen tanks explosion and the reactor itself was not damaged. Overall the plant situation seems to be getting better.

[Ap2000]

Every second we don't hear about the meltdown of the NPP it's more likely that the situation is actually under control.

It's also still probable that there's going to be only a local meltdown, with the meltdown bein confined into the area where the nuclear reaction takes places. This has been done before during a similar occasion.



NASA has released some before/after the Tsunami satellite pictures:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... p?id=49630



EDIT:

It seems the shocks have gone as far inland as Gifu, as I've just seen on CNN that there have been landslides in Shirakawa.

[emily]

But the thing is, it sounds like the light-water coolant was split into hydrogen and oxygen, and the hydrogen exploded. If the moderator hasn't been removed from the reactor, it will continue to heat up, and without coolant to take that heat away and turn it into energy, it will melt through that containment unit.



This is a terrible archaic design for a nuclear reactor... (CANDU reactors cannot fail this way - the heavy-water coolant is also the moderator; lose it and the reaction stops.)



Apparently they've been trying to cool it with seawater and boric acid...

[Ap2000]

[quote name='emily' timestamp='1299962838' post='95246']



This is a terrible archaic design for a nuclear reactor... (CANDU reactors cannot fail this way - the heavy-water coolant is also the moderator; lose it and the reaction stops.)

[/quote]



Yeah, I've read the design is similar to those used during the Soviet Union time. But as it seems many still working NPPs have that design.



I also just saw civil war in Libya broke out. =/

[luciole]

I'm glad that everyone here is okay.





I've been really worried about the folks in Japan, but everyone I know there has finally gotten back to me.

I really hope that everyone who is missing will be found soon.

[Ap2000]

Here's an NHK World (English) stream:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv



680 confirmed dead, but it's more likely that 1800 are dead. It's probably going to rise a lot more.



Tsunami alert is downgraded by the Japanese meteorogical agency.



Fukushima 1 is still being cooled at a risk Level of 4 out of 7. (with 7 being the Tschernobyl accident)e

Fukushima 3's cooling system also had problems. No news on Fukushima 2.



EDIT:

A 7.2 aftershock just occured again. Apparently there were over 200 aftershocks so far.



2.EDIT:

The earthquake was so strong that it shifted the earth's axis and Japan for 8 feet into the direction of the USA.

[alita87]

Well, this morning we had almost constant aftershocks (very very mild ones that are usually the size of the actual quake) but since then have had nothing that I can tell. Trains are back to running as normal in the metro area, so now the main problem in Tokyo is the panic instinct that many Japanese seem to have. And, I make this generalization because I have seen it before when it came to that one fortune teller who said the world would almost end on a certain day and every major typhoon warning we have seen. Although it can be a good thing, many people seem to believe everything they see talked about on tv.



Because of this panic instinct, stores look like the apocalypse is hitting. People are hoarding rice and other foods as if Tokyo will actually experience a food shortage, which isn't going to happen. The boyfriend and I went out to the supermarket with the best deals just as a general need food shopping trip and were lucky to get out of there alive. I am hoping this type of behavior will calm down in a couple of days and people will actually focus on helping those who need it instead of worrying about a practically non-existent threat in the Tokyo area.

[Ap2000]

The main quake has now been upgraded to a 9.0.