News Coverage of the Tohoku Quake & Aftermath

Nana and I don't know Japanese (yet!), so we've been getting most of our news from the same sources you are. That said, it's been interesting hopping from site to site the last couple days--it really gives a vivid picture of the different reporting styles that are driven by different business models.

First, all the major news outlets, when accessed from a Japanese IP, have earthquake news prominently displayed "above the fold." This is no surprise: it's a disaster of incredible magnitude, and we're only just now starting to realize how devastating the quake and tsunami were.

Where the news reports differ is in tone. (I'm going to try to do this off-the-cuff now; I'll attempt to link to cached versions of these pages later.)

The reports from the American outlets are by far the most dire: driven by advertising revenue, they're designed to maximize click-throughs. The MSNBC and Fox News stores are packed with loaded language and imagery: MSNBC, for instance, sports a huge photo of a survivor surrounded by wreckage, while the Fox News story, marked "URGENT," uses the verb "flee" to describe what has elsewhere been depicted as an orderly evacuation of the areas around the Fukushima nuclear plants. Even CNN, who's supposed to be the boring old spinster of American infotainment, is kicking around terms like "meltdown," "nuclear," and "explosion," words apparently calculated to conjure images of a mushroom cloud (which is physically impossible with the materials found in these reactors).

Contrast this with the publicly-funded BBC, which accurately describes the "second reactor blast" as a only a possibility, not a certainty. BBC stories have also been generally good about pointing out that the first explosion, as would also be true of any others to follow, was actually caused by vented hydrogen gas, and didn't damage the containment structure or the reactor itself. Furthermore, other than BoingBoing, the BBC seems to be one of the only major English-language news outlets explicitly admitting that there's almost no chance of a major nuclear catastrophe at Fukushima. Coincidence? Or does the BBC's independence from advertising revenue allow it to forego the hysteria?

(The British ad-supported Daily Mail, on the other hand, is running a ghoulish above-the-fold feature on one of the north-eastern towns that was completely destroyed.)

Finally, the Japanese media outlets--or their English-language branches, at least--seem to be trying their best to keep calm. For example, the teaser for NHK World's top story specifically mentions that there are fears of a hydrogen explosion (not a nuclear explosion) and that the health effects of such an explosion should be negligible.

Anyway--all of this seems kind of insignificant given the scale of the disaster . . . but still an interesting little media study. Could also explain why we barely realized it was necessary to let folks know we were safe here in Fukuoka: sure, it's Old-Testament bad up north, but the American media makes it look like the whole country has been knocked back to the stone age.

Tohoku Earthquake - Translated Live Feed

Via BoingBoing, here's a live feed of translated news on Friday's Japan quake. This guy usually translates Japanese cultural programs for his English-speaking audience, but for obvious reasons, he's sticking to news this weekend.

I've embedded the feed below. No way to tell how long he'll be online.



This service is offered by Yokosonews.com. I've been watching for a couple minutes now--not great quality, but occasionally he gives a glimpse of the more sedate style of news broadcasting more common here in Japan.

He also repeatedly notes that western Japan has been untouched by the catastrophe.

Thanks for the comments

To everyone,

We are so glad that our post ended up providing so much comfort to so many people. We're glad so many of your loved ones are safe, but so sorry that that's not the case for a lot of people today. Thank you for keeping all of us in Japan in your thoughts.

For those of you seeking more information, I suggest the New York Times map at http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/newsgraphics/2011/0311-japan-earthquake-map/index.html.

Wendy who posted asking for information on our previous post - as your friend is from Saga-ken on Kyushu, the family was probably fine as long as they were at home. We will think of them.

Nana

Earthquake/Tsunami - Not Fukuoka

For family and friends out there - the tsunami and earthquake you may have seen in the news hit Honshu, Japan's main island, on the Pacific coast. We are on the Sea of Japan coast (the "left side," not the "right side," of the map, if you will) on the island of Kyushu, so this is not a quake that affected us directly. Of course this is kind of self-centered to say since obviously many, many people are being affected right now, but we didn't want anybody to worry. And we're very glad that in spite of being sleepy and in pajamas last night we opened the door to our landlord, who turned out to need to make a correction on the earthquake insurance paperwork!

Day Out in Fukuoka: Ohori Park

Last week was absolutely beautiful: a brief flash of spring before the cold weather returned this past week. After I spent most of Friday outside skiing in Saga-ken, Nana and I spent the better part of Saturday hanging out in Ohori Park, Fukuoka's largest green space.

Ohori Park is built around a big man-made pond, which was itself created from the remains of part of Fukuoka Castle's moat system. The area used to be an inlet before the land was reclaimed. These days, there's a 2-km, plus a series of artificial islands connected by little bridges.

The park is also an extremely popular spot for dog-walkers, which was a sight for our poor, puppy-deprived eyes. And of course, in Japan, wherever you find dogs, you find amusing signs about picking up dog poop.

 Anyway . . . there isn't a whole lot to do at Ohori Park. It was just a nice excuse to get outside.

 And, incidentally, get my first sunburn of 2011!

"Ahh . . . what a day!"

We did see a few cool, Japan-y things, though. First, there was a guy tossing bread to a bunch of seahawks and gulls that were circling overhead.

 Here's a video:

Reminded me of our bird-watching cruise in Shetland.

No idea what species those brown birds were, but we have a bunch of them around here.

Second, it turns out dogs weren't the only members of the menagerie on display at Ohori Park. This guy was apparently walking his rabbit . . .

 . . . and the people sitting across from us at Starbucks had brought their birds out for the day.

Colds, Japanese-style

Due to a sore throat, I went native the last two days, donning the infamous surgical-style face mask people in Asia are famous for wearing at the drop of a hat. Have a cold? Mask. Someone else has a cold? Mask. Bird flu? Mask. Morning commute? Mask. Don't want to participate in school? Mask. (I'm looking at you, middle schoolers...)

Epidemiologically speaking, I am given to understand although the mask can help with spread by trapping coughs, sneezes, and regular old germy breath, it won't prevent you from catching most stuff, since your eye membranes are still exposed, but feel free to correct me, medicine-y people. What I found over the last two days is that it does something really awesome for a sore throat: traps warm/moist air around your face. It's like walking around with your own humidifier. Of course, the breakout around my nose is going to be epic. It really sucks to be teaching high schoolers and realize they all have better skin than me.

In addition to the mask, I've done the Mystery Gargle from my coworker Aki (I swear she just dripped minty-flavored blue ink into a glass) and stolen the hot water heater from the school kitchen so I can have a pot of decaf tea on my desk at all times.

The ultimate reason for all of this? Faculty karaoke is on Friday, and I. WILL. BE. READY. Come rain, come snow, come zits, come ink, come forty trips to the bathroom a day. Because let's face it, people, The Final Countdown ain't gonna count itself.

Wish me luck!

Goodness gracious, great balls of... EVIL

Justin and my love for ACROS continues, as we followed up on the saki-ori and Agano pottery exhibits with a trip to the Yanagawa Sagemon embroidered ball exhibition. I don't really know what the story with these is, and Google has not availed me of further information. Basically, they're springtime decorations. Why? I don't know, except that they're cute.




No, your eyes do not deceive you. That price tag reads 315,000 yen. That's $3,150 in dollars. Handmade cute does not come cheap.

In addition to the traditional ball shape, you also have lots of funny animals, such as the bathtowel-head octopus:


the Sistine Chapel ceiling shrimp:

and the uncomfortable husband who hates pretending to look at things while I take pictures but whose mother is always disappointed when he disappears from the blog:

Also a chicken.

(That one's for my brother-in-law Ryan.)

Since we didn't stand an embroidered ball's chance in... a place inhospitable to embroidery? - of purchasing the top-notch goods for ourselves, we thought it would be a good idea to take on the DIY Sagemon rabbit display. For a mere five bucks we could take home a bunny of our very own. How cute - how kawaii, as they love to say here.

Cut out the parts:

Sew a little pouch for the body:

Sort out body fabric in preferred color order.

Get overruled by Japanese attendants and glue fabric on in their preferred order to appease them:

Apply gold trim:
Add face:
Fail spectacularly at adding ears, necessitating rescue by aforementioned attendants:

(Full disclosure: actually, I needed intervention on basically every step listed here except the cutting out. I sure can cut. If I remembered my preschool teacher's name, I'd send her a thank-you note.)

As far as I could tell, the pink shading on the ears was just blush. Maybe it was special sagemon dye with a special sagemon applicator, but really, I think it was just blush.

Add a cotton tail:
And recoil in horror at the realization of what you have wrought upon the world. I mean, look at this rabbit. Is he not the incarnation of pure evil?

I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL.

We call him Mr. Bun, because when we suggested that name to him, he let us live. Mr. Bun exists at the tragic intersection of unadulterated rage and abject powerlessness. He hates everyone and wishes to destroy everything, yet he is crippled by the realization that he is a styrofoam rabbit without limbs or a mouth. He can neither execute his own vile schemes nor recruit minions to carry out his will. Mostly, he just sits on the pantry shelf next to the peanut butter, exuding impotent loathing and hoping perhaps to fall on somebody and cause them to burn themselves on the microwave. It's not nuclear armageddon, but at this point Mr. Bun has to take what he can get.