In case of earthquake..

After the 11th March earthquake, the emergency goods (防災グッズ - pronounced 'bosai gootz' ) started to disappear fast from all over the Japan.

It was a natural reaction by everybody experiencing never before aftershocks. I also did some shopping and here are some tips to stay prepared.

Things you will need to keep ready in the emergency bag (In the order of priority):

1. Helmets. For kids, you will get a 'safety cushion' to wear on the top of head which looks kind of extended version of inverted pyramid.
2. Food & water: This you will get in lot of variety. Be careful about the expiry dates.
3. A whistle: To attract attention if you are trapped somewhere.
4. Thin sheets to protect you from wind and chill.
5. Shoes which can protect you from broken glasses and rubble.
6. Rope.
7. Lighter/Match sticks/Candles.
8. Plastic bags.
9. Baby food. If you have a breastfeeding baby, this should go top of the list.
10. Any medication which you must have daily.

This is the top of the list. I have found that many kits these days come with innovative new items like small radio sets, hygiene kits, basic medicines etc. It all depends on where you live and how much time you expect for help to arrive in case of emergency. Do the assessment of your own community, consult with your local emergency response teams if necessary and choose the best suitable kit for you.

Stay safe.

Mayday 4 Person Deluxe Emergency Backpack Kit
Survivor Emergency Kit-4 Person, Emergency Zone brand, Disaster Survival Kit, 72 Hour Kit

Shaken..

March 11th 2011.. 2:45 PM

I was in a conference at a hotel near Shinagawa, Tokyo and overhead chandelier started to shake. Slightly at first...First thoughts were 'ah another quake..should stop within few seconds..just wait it out'..Speaker stopped talking. Ready to resume once shaking stops..But after just 3-4 seconds the movement just went on increasing and soon it was shaking as if we were sitting in a freight train..Shaking sounds of chandelier, walls, glass windows together is permanently burned into my memory now.

'This is big'..'Calm down..calm down'..were the voices around..My first reaction was to get away from the chandelier and move closer to walls..taking out my mobile to call my wife sitting..Our being a high rise mansion I was deeply concerned..Before I could call I had a missed call from her and then every cell line went dead..not getting through at all..This is bad..Still shaking..Is this 'the big one' expected around Tokyo region? All kinds of doubts and fears were popping in our minds.

Someone opened the blinds facing Tokyo bay, and immediately we could see the huge fire near Odaiba. High rise mansions around Tokyo were still standing. That was somewhat assuring. Tokyo fire departments helicopters were immediately airborne.

After a couple of huge aftershocks within 10 min of the main shock, hotel staff decided to evacuate. Phones were still down. Meanwhile,  someone turned on a TV on their mobile. It was working. Center was in Tohoku. North Japan. So this was not the one expected around Tokyo. But one thing was clear. Wherever this quake was centered, sizable damages and casualties were certain. But nothing had prepared me to what really was coming.

I decided to walk home immediately. Now thinking back, this decision was well timed.

During my 3 hours walk back home, what I saw proved the real character of Japanese society.

People walking back home. You can see the counterweight of one of the high rise has come to rest in odd position after violent shaking.

No panic - at least not that you can see, no pushing around, everybody walking in line and even waiting for pedestrian signals, office staff circling around a building to navigate people around broken glass and apologizing for 'the inconvenience' caused.

Hard to see in this picture but many window glasses are broken

I reached near our mansion expecting a hike to our twenty something floor. Fortunately elevator had started. My wife was preparing to leave to stay with our friend, on much lower floor to avoid elevator outages. I was more than elated to see my family. But after I looked outside of my house I saw this.

Fire at the Chiba oil refinery (See wikipedia)

Immediately I turned my attention to TV and soon realized that this all is far from over. But I never realized that it would be the most turbulent one month of our lives.

Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein

I should probably save this comment for the end but can't help about this one. 

This book was one of those books which makes you go through sleepless nights because you just can't stop reading.

Each chapter in this book is account of thrilling experience by Jake in his reporting years. The most intriguing part is that at the end of the book, you get the feeling that there is more on which the author has not written anything yet. Although the chapters are in chronological order except for the first one, you feel the sudden huge time gap between some chapters and can't help but think "what happened there?", "where are those details?", "is it something he cannot write?"

Also the fact that all of the contents are author's real experiences makes you wonder about how Yakuza has become part of Japanese society. Yakuza is unwanted by most of the citizens yes, yet it has penetrated so deep into the society that it is has become extremely difficult to eliminate completely and the law itself is not on the side of cops.

For the foreigners who live in Japan, Yakuza mostly exists in rare news and sometimes in background politics. You think that they just can't touch your daily lives. But Jake's stories make you realize about lives of ordinary Japanese citizens; that the shadows of threats by loan sharks (aka Yakuza), land lords, night club owners are all around you.

Even if you don't know anything about Japan, Jake's capturing style and fascinating details will give you a new outlook towards Japanese society.

A very good..err..exceptionally good read on Japan's crime world.

Galaxy S with Android - Part 1

NTT Docomo started offering Samsung Galaxy S with Android 2.3 from this October in Japan. I recently got mine as a company phone. Here are some of the features to make a decision on this phone.

Design: 3.5 out of 5
First impression you get is that of bigger screen. You may feel little awkward if your previous phone is smaller, but soon will get used to it.

Galaxy S - Front

Galaxy S - Back

Galaxy S - Side

Speed: 4.5 out of 5
I was quite satisfied with the speed. Mails, application, response of the touch screen is quite smooth.

Battery: 1 out of 5
It was the real disappointment. Many times, the phone would run out of battery and shut off. Charging time is too high but discharge is quite fast too. There are few tips and tricks to extend your battery up time but why does a end user of a smartphone has to think about his own power usage plan? I hope Samsung comes up with something smart on this.

Common features: 3.5 out of 5

• Outlook : For outlook mails, there is nothing much to offer than usual.
• Keyboard : Compared to other smart phones, keyboard switching (especially between multilingual) is time consuming and you need to tap many keys before you can find the exact sign or special characters you want to type. It took me a while to figure out how can I enter an exclamation into password field.
• Camera : It scores good in my opinion.5 megapixels and fast even for higher resolution with sufficient features.
• Wireless : Scores good where the connection is strong. But when I compared this with my iPhone 3G S, I observed that it takes lot of time to connect where signal is weaker.
• Default audio and video players: Are primitive at best. No further comments. You better get third party applications.

Touch Screen input: 4 out of 5
It's very fast that I must admit. Sometimes way to fast. Especially while writing mails, it will sense the touch even if your finger is still few mm away from the screen.
All in all, for all the default functions offered there is nothing eye-catching.

File Management : --
Its completely your responsibility how you manage your photos, songs, movies, documents etc. There is no baseline. That is why I won't rate this. Which in my opinion get's out of hand soon if you don't have some discipline to start with.

Call usability : 4 out of 5
It adds a new record to the call log unnecessary each time you call; even if call the same person again and again. If you own an iPhone, you will know what I mean. Frequent caller list feature is a good utility.

So overall, for basic functions I would rate this phone not more than 3.5 out of 5

Look forward to my next post on same subject (more on usability).

Try at least once: The grisly recipe

Again, I did not go asking for it. It was just there, on the menu and someone thought that we must try it. It was served right in front of me and suddenly I realized that there are heads and legs and its a LOCUST!! Gulp!!

I waited for my boss to have one and say “delicious”. My colleague in front of me won’t even look at the dish. I decided to go for it. Held one in my chopsticks. Looked for any insectile expressions and just put it inside my mouth. The outer part was kind of sweet and once I chewed on it felt like I am having a deep fried dried fish without much taste. This is not that bad, I thought. After few more bites I wasn’t feeling like I was actually eating an insect. Rest of the dinner went on discussing and persuading about eating イナゴの佃煮.

Name:   Inago no Tsukudani （イナゴの佃煮）. “Locust boiled in soy sauce”

Place:    Izakaya under the Chuo-line tracks at Kanda-station, Tokyo

And here is the recipe:

I did not bother to look for the recipe at first until I spoke about this dish with one my colleague. She was like “Oh, I used to catch locusts for my parents when I was kid!”. And that's how I got the recipe which goes somewhat like this..

• Catch the locust. Be careful not to break their legs, wings so that “final product” has fine looks. 
• The main ingredient is the sauce which is sold in retro-packs these days. It is called Tsukudani-sauce. Pour the sauce in the pan on medium heat. Make sure the pan has tight lid.
• Now comes the grisly party. Throw your “catch” under the pan, alive! and close the lid. Once the flutter has stopped, you know that it’s safe to check whether its cooked or not.

Serve as it is.

I had it once but don't have confidence to try it again.