Earthquake has hit Japan

[ZOM]

Glad to hear rancor is ok too.

[GaijinPunch]

That's crazy, but they're pretty broke, I guess.

I could have made 200 GBP today if I had a drivers license. Why the hell did I never get one... other than the fact I hate driving?

[JAPJAC]

My English mate lives across the road. His Mrs is heavily pregnant and already has a 5 year old girl. Obviously knowing this I went to check on them after I had tidied up. Their lobby was pitch black, intercom and lifts dead. I climbed over the fence and up their emergency ladder thing into their building then used their normal stairs to reach their apartment. They had no lecky and were pretty cold with the Father stuck in Tokyo town without any communication.

I took them around mine, made hot cuppa teas with biscuits, played with the Daughter whilst the Mother was able to use my internet to contact with whom she needed. A few hours later the Father was able to come around (as I thoughtfully left a note on his telly telling him where his Family was) and collect his Family back as the lecky at theirs had just come back on (I noticed soon because I kept on going to check their building from the rear balcony).

It wasn't much but it was just a little bit of 'blitz mentality' and this is what people do naturally to help each other in real life in a crisis.

Help thy neighbours always. Not in a Reg Grundy way.

Japanese companies look after their employees especially in earthquakes:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL10/875 ... 654503.jpg

I thought that was really mint.

Cheers.

[Elixir]

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/11/ts ... tml?hpt=T1

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42033145/ns ... itol_hill/

America going strong.

[chempop]

OMG, heard about this on the radio on my way to second job tonight. Glad to see our jpn members checking in and letting us know they are okay, my thoughts are certainly with the people who are being effected.

[gct]

That's very kind of you, JAPJAC. I noticed that in some of the footage I saw as well, many people outdoors with hard hats. We don't have anything like that here! Maybe some fruit leathers and granola bars in a sandwich box that you know get snacked on when there isn't any emergency...

[GaijinPunch]

JAPJAC: I'm pretty sure all lifts in the country are shut. Mine at home and work were. My gym is closed until at least Monday.

Still no word from Magic Knight. They showed his city (specifically) on the news. It seemed to be in one piece in the aftermath, but they showed photos of it last night and it looked like a California brush fire. It also got the brunt of the tsunami. Only 120 odd deaths reported from the entire prefecture of Miyagi, but of course, that doesn't really mean shit yet. Hopefully soon we can hear from him, and have a twisted laugh about some of his rare PCBs have most definitely left the Earth.

[Demetori]

My long-time friend Miho, in Tokyo got stuck in the elevator after he smoke break and was in there for the full period of the initial Earthquake and had to climb out the emergency hatch and climb up 34 flights of stairs to get back to her office complex.

As you said earlier, she's one of the people to help out everyone as best she can. Went down to the store and brought back food and beer for everyone.

I believe she is still in the office with her employees due to the massive transportation issues.



Some of the food she bought~

[GaijinPunch]

There's a quit-smoking joke in there somewhere.

[austere]

This is such a disaster, the tsunami was traveling at 500km/hr in the ocean... the people on the coast didn't have a chance at all.

There's still some serious tectonic activity going on, but it's probably just aftershocks. The earthquake's Richter magnitude has been adjusted upwards from 8.9 to 9.0 and it's quite unlikely we'll see a larger one follow it.



(latest here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 140_40.php)

Anyway, not like anyone needs to tell you but keep yourself/family/friends safe until the plates have settled down a bit.

[GaijinPunch]

There was another like 2 minutes ago. They're getting old, to say the least.

[jybroner]

OMG!
That was scary!
I'm thankful that Kagawa-ken was far from the disaster.

[xpandr_tek]

There was another like 2 minutes ago. They're getting old, to say the least.

GP, it's good to hear (read) that you are doing OK.
Don't know if I can help you in anyway, but let me know if there is anything you need from me, I'll certainly do my best.

[Shogun]

Sounds like the nuclear power plant that was giving them troubles is starting to get critical.

[dcharlie]

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

apparently a large earthquake (verticle) struck and sent the roof caving in

goverment announcement now - update at 6 with radiation figures.

[BPzeBanshee]

Damn those Japan YouTube videos rack up a lot of comments quickly don't they. Set it to Update Automatically and have a look at the kind that get posted.

[GaijinPunch]

Nobody bought anything from Magical Knight recently? No phone number? I just google mapped his address. Definitely not a good place. He's a JET so hopefully he was at work.

[ryu]

have you guys had more recent contact to magicknight? apparently he hasn't been signed on here for more than 3 years.

i really have no idea what's up with that power plant. i hope they can get it back under control soon.

[moozooh]

Here's some info on the power plant:
http://theenergycollective.com/nathante ... -functions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_ ... ake_events

The situation doesn't look good but it's too early to say how bad it actually is. There won't be a second Chernobyl, but some of the adjacent areas, as well as the plant site itself, may need to be abandoned for a while. :\

[GaijinPunch]

have you guys had more recent contact to magicknight? apparently he hasn't been signed on here for more than 3 years.
.

He quit posting here (as per a post on my forums) but is active there (gamengai) and Arcade Otaku. I've also bought some of his gear from Yahoo as a proxy as recently as January, so yeah... he's probably still living there.

[ryu]

ouch. let's hope he's one of the thousands that safely left the area.

[Wonderbanana]

Glad to hear rancor is ok too.

X 2. Is that everyone from here except Magic Knight accounted for?

Just been watching some more coverage on the news here; the devastation in some areas is quite staggering.

[Skykid]

Crap, went to sleep expecting to wake up and find MK had posted. It's been a while now.

[rancor]

I'm assuming he made it home by taxi or something.

I assume the food and clean water crisis come next? (*gulp*)

I walked 18k last night (11.5 miles) to get to a bus station that was working. For those that know the area I walked from Chiba station to Nishi-Funabashi station. The Sobu and Keise train lines were completely shut down, but I heard people talking that the Tokyo Metro line was working. The distance might actually have been further, as I couldnt always follow the tracks directly and had to weave in and out of neighborhoods. Luckily I had met a college kid who had just come back from 6 months in Cambodia and he had some fancy GPS unit.. That thing saved us. Once we got to Nishi-Funabashi station the Tokyo Metro line was working and I could get to Ueno station where I again hoofed it another 8k (5 miles).
I saw some incredible things when the quake first hit. Those factory fires that you may have seen in Chiba - I was there. The concussion blasts from the explosions would take your breath away.
When the quake hit, I was just getting off the bus and into a parking lot where the cars were quite literally dancing. About 30 feet to my left I saw a temple completely crumble and fall. As the quake hit a flock of elementary students were passing around me, and we were all standing directly beneath high voltage power lines. That scared me the most, because they were swinging wildly - quite literally like jump ropes. I made the kids (about 8 or 9 of them) follow me to the center of the parking lot where no buildings or powerlines were. In retrospect, this may not have been the best idea as the parked cars were being moved effortlessly by the quake and I'm not so sure things would have turned out OK had it been elementary student vs. Honda civic. Not only that, but no powerlines were downed. Anyhow, the student all got down on the ground as the quake was going and it quite literally went on for what I would say was 2 minutes or more.. I stood the entire time, but it was like being on a boat - or drunk. It took a lot of effort to be on both feet. I'm just so glad I wasn't inside a building, or even worse in a skyscraper in Tokyo. The buildings around us were swaying wildly, and then it stopped! A few moments later there was a strong smell of gas. I thought for sure some underground lines had ruptured and we would soon be in flames.. It was nauseating. Soon after another smaller quake hit and I could see fires not so far away with odd colored smoke (not a good sign since that means it was probably a chemical fire) There was orange smoke, pink, yellow and black. Then the explosions hit.. Anyhow, that was the action-packed part for me. The remainder of the day (and night) was just an ordeal... walking and walking and more walking.

I met some guy named Greg from Grand Rapids, Michigan along the way and we kept each other laughing with dark humor.. "You know that there was someone whose first day in Tokyo was today.. And they went to the top of Tokyo tower.." hahaha.. we laughed about that one for a while.

[Subterranean Sun]

I thought they were kidding when they told me it's a 8.9. Newspaper said that some peoples in my town has sensed the quake. And I fucking live in China Mainland. What the fuck.

This is the biggest earthquake that ever happened in Japan, right? I could imagine this is a rather tough time... I wish peoples there good luck.

Seems like most buildings are still standing even after a disaster as horrendous as this. Yet another evidence that Chinese buildings are built of chickenshits. Argh.

[ZOM]

This guy is doing a good job(hilariously stupid comments aside) on keeping non-Japanese speakers updated about the nuclear levels and aftermath.
http://www.ustwrap.info/multi/tbstv::yo ... s::nhk-gtv
It's the middle live-stream from the three.

[JAPJAC]

Said Mother just had her baby 3 weeks early. Either the result of my dodgy cups of tea or all this shitty stress every minute of the day living here in Japan as a result of yesterday. Sadly it's clearly the latter.

Regardless, Mother and Child are doing well.

Cheers.

[VxD]

Second night in a row taking turns with my wife to sleep... They have this alert system on the NHK where they warn you as soon as an aftershock is recorded. Gives you time to run under a table. Perhaps I am too paranoid, but I don't want to take any risk.

[greg]

Damn those Japan YouTube videos rack up a lot of comments quickly don't they. Set it to Update Automatically and have a look at the kind that get posted.

Fuck 4chan and YouTube trolls. They're the types who would say that Japan deserves this. I can't stand these Youtube trolls bringing up shit about whales and dolphins at a time like this. Makes me sick.

GP, where did Magic Knight live? Does he live on the east coast that was hit hard?

[ryu]

Fuck Facebook and YouTube idiots.

fix'd

most of these people are pretty serious about BBBUT PERRRL HARBAH i believe