Lenovo Yamato Lab in Yokohama

Any news? I hope they're safe and pray for everyone in Japan.

 

I think Yokohama is south of Tokyo and shouldn't be effected as much, though I'm sure they're helping out.

 

Yokohama should be fine. I think some businesses in Tokyo, which is closer to the chaos happening are somewhat up and running again, or at least there is enough work going on in Tokyo that all 23 wards will not have scheduled blackouts to conserve electricity like in the rest of the Kanto region of Japan.

My cousin in Saitama still says communication isn't that reliable still from anecdotal evidence.

That said, it would be really nice of you to donate money to help in the rescue efforts.

 

The south of Japan is mostly unaffected by the chaos, they may have enforced blackouts to conserve power for vital industries due to the shortage of power. But tokyo and Yokohama should get additional power from their baseload gas and oil fired power stations. But lot of people have put themselves on voluntary power conservation in order to decrease energy demand.

I was going to visit north of Japan this year, but it looks like that plan is delayed for a substantial time.

 

Likely some beautiful laps got tossed around. Hope nothing's broken.

 

Yokohama is in mid-southeast of Japan, although that area is more prone to earthquake than northern parts (particularly Miyagi perfecture which the Tsunami and Earthquake hit), but it didn't get massive earthquake like the north part.

They might experienced an earthquake, but it's a typical one which hits them every year, a weak one must I say.

 

Given the superior building code for most Japanese high rise buildings, earthquake is no longer the biggest threat. Many of the Japanese buildings in the tsunami hit area was still standing when the earthquake struck. I think Japanese government need to give serious reconsideration on building planning when it comes to coastal towns and cities facing the pacific ocean (but maybe hard to do since there is not many places else where they can build their town/cities).

 

I am in Yokohama now.
We were hit by level 6 earthquake.
It was not a strong one even though all the books and cups on the desks collapsed (one of big file folder landed on my x201, but the laptop was on the dock with the lid closed).
What was the most striking (even to Japanese co-workers) was the duration and repetition of this earthquake.

 

didn't the main earthquake last for 5 minutes or something? There are were also many level 5 and 6 aftershocks. My cousins just got back from Tokyo, and she said it was pretty chaotic there.

 

Yes, it was a very long one.
Typical earthquake lasts 5-10 seconds, but this one was like a roller coaster ride lasting several minutes.
After that, many small ones came along for several hours.
Even today, we had several small ones.

The life here in the central Japan looks normal except two major inconveniences.
one is a lack of gasoline at the gas stations.
Most gas stations are closed.
If you are lucky to find one that just got gasoline supply, then you have to be in line for 5-6 hours to get some (you can get only 20 litters).
The other is no food in the grocery stores.
Really no food at all.
No cereal, no bread, no milk, no veggies, no apples, no cookies. None.
Everyone is eating stocked cans and rice now.
Restaurants are making foods with what they have in stock which typically ends up in a very unique menu.

What is the most amazing thing about all these is that everyone is very calm.
Very calm.
They just come to work and do their work.
Just unbelievable.

 

Its called being japanese I suppose ?
Amazing how no shops were looted, if it happened somewhere else, no shop would be safe!

 

They were brewing a cup of green tea while listening to radio which was talking about nuclear plant explosion.

 

That's an example of how awesome and cool the Japanese people are.

 

Its easy to be such, when everything has been set up to speed up recovery or to avoid major damage in such scenarious, if it happened in Russia, people would be fleeing in panick while authorities would tell 10% of the truth and 90% of lies regarding situation. Just the way it was in Chernobyl in 1986.
Japanese have all their gadgets to spend some quality time too

 

I guess given that Japan is a highly connected (in terms of mobile technology), educated and developed countries with a population whom are closely knit, such incident responses are somewhat expected. Especially given the fact that earthquake and tsunami (which is derived from Japanese) are frequent occurrences. While, the low crime rate also reinforces the fact that Japanese work to a single ethos and embrace Confucian/Shinto philosophy as a way of life, rather than paying lip service to such thing.

However, such tragedies do remind us all to appreciate life and things that we usually take for granted. This is also a prudent reminder for transnational organisation why locating their operations over several countries are all important.

The most worrying thing about Japanese disaster now, is the fact that the people whom are affected by the tsunami have a low insurance rate, less than 20%. I am not sure how these people will cope and rebuild their life, when many people there are over 50 years old. Another reminder to buy house and contents insurance.

 

Thats strange, given that they have earth quakes on regular basis, including the devastating ones, that so little people have chosen to insure their properties.
Perhaps not worth the hassle for average level headed japanese citizen. Its just, you know, earthquake, nothing special...

 

I am not sure why that is the case, since Kobe Earthquake that caused 100 billion USD worth of damages received only 3 billion USD worth of insurance payout. I think it is more of an Asian thing, since very few people seem to buy insurance and many people view insurance salesman as crooks or dishonest people.

Also, many Asian believe in fate, they believe that whatever disasters that happens to them are fated in their life and you can't avoid it. So to many people buying insurance is just a waste of money, and if things happen then they just deal with it. After tragedy like this happens, the temples are usually full with people praying and those Buddhist statue sellers get great businesses.

I think the Japanese government must push the Japanese people to take up insurance in the future, even making it compulsory if they have to.

 

evilid: Thanks for the updates. Problems with the nuclear plants up north are worrisome!

Right.

 

I saw on TV that earthquake insurance is -very- expensive, with at most 50% coverage. So, for many, it would be better to put insurance premiums into savings and make sure you have as much $$/yen as possible in the bank.

 

The reason why insurance policy would be expensive might be because Japan frequently have earthquake. After what happen, I would imagine the insurance premium would shoot up even more, but it would normalize over time.

 

i think global insurance premium will increase.