Pre Japan update

[rachel_riecheru]

I am sitting on my bed laughing in hysterics at myself, do you want to know why?

Because in my plight to choose a window seat with a seat thats unreserved next to me i chose the following seat. "58k"... once i noticed this i couldn't help but laugh, i then looked at all the other flights, and all the "58" rows had window seats with a seat available next to it. So i scooped them all up.

Crap i am a mental fangirl, but surely thats a good way to start a trip to the land of Yaoi, (among other things.) right?

Today i went for an hour long walk and my ankle only hurt for 8 times (for around a second) during the walk so its much much better, ^_^

I've almost finished packing, par a few extra clothing most of it is completed.

I am very excited!!! I can't wait to sit in the 58 seats XD!!!

Comments

[randomdiversion.livejournal.com]

I live on top of a fault-line here in California (as in, the builders had to put a set-back for the fault in a neighbor's yard). So I get little earthquakes all the time.

Little earthquakes are safely ignored. Japan builds for them, so you really only have to worry about objects on shelves and things falling on you, not about the buildings themselves being damaged.

Larger earthquakes differ from small ones mostly in their duration. If an earthquake lasts more than about 10 seconds, you can consider either going under a piece of heavy furniture to avoid falling objects, or possibly walking calmly outside. However...

If you do walk outside, be aware there is a danger of window-glass or non-structural decorative elements on the outsides of buildings falling down on you.

If you are driving and an earthquake is strong enough to discern, calmly pull to the side of the road someplace that is neither on top of nor beneath an overpass.

The Japanese all know what to do, so follow their lead.

[rachel-reicheru.livejournal.com]

Yeah that was pretty much what i was going to do (follow lead that is.)

[randomdiversion.livejournal.com]

Ok.

things I'd like to add while I think of them--stacked parking structures seem to be unusually vulnerable to pancaking, probably because they don't have the stabilization of walls between the vertical supports. If you are in one when a quake hits, then without panicking exit immediately or at least get to an area with a waffle-style ceiling so if the level above falls, there's a crawl space to be in. You don't want to be between two flat slabs of concrete, so don't hang around wondering if the quake is bad or not.

In LA there used to be a lot of 1950's era apartment complexes built on top of a parking level--in various quakes most of these have pancaked down onto the cars.

Anyway, Japan has serious quakes even more frequently than California, so most structures that *can* fall have already fallen and been replaced with structures that won't.

Notably the old temples and such? *Very* earthquake tolerant. Modern engineers are still learning things about earthquake-resistant design from them.

In California most areas don't suffer more than broken mayo jars unless the intensity gets over Richter 6.5. Japan is probably the same. Due to aftershocks from the Sendai quake, I imagine residents of Tokyo probably don't blink at anything less than a 6, because they've been having so many aftershocks. (This was my experience after the 7.2 Loma Prieta quake.)

Another indicator of earthquake severity is whether the power goes out. If it does, then the quake is probably significant (though it may be distant and not shake too hard where you are) and that's an indicator to seek shelter from falling objects because the quake may last more than a few seconds.