March 19, 2011

Why I'm Not Leaving 'Till I Start to Glow Green

The 20-20 hindsight! It does nothing!

My post on not leaving Yokohama during these turbulent times has been published at the JibTV site. Check it out.
Also, I post for them occasionally, so enjoy some backlogs.


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March 15, 2011

More Crisis Vocab

Edit: corrected a couple things in this post and the last. Commenter wanted to remain anonymous, so I'm deleting what they said...

We'll start on a term related to the last in our previous post. Keep in mind I don't know why these words were chosen, and I haven't necessarily heard them, but I am putting them into my own English and context, and confusingly mathematical looking meaning breakdowns. I hope you remember junior high math order. Also, for some practical nuclear words, check out this list.

天譴論 (tenkenron, (heaven+reproach)+theory) the belief that heaven is punishing us for our iniquities. 天譴, tenken, on its own means divine punishment.

水火 (suika, water+fire) flooding and fire. Used in 水火の苦しみ (suika no kurushimi) to mean great hardships. xの苦しみ is a common pattern in times like these; just fill in the x with the bad situation of your liking.

漏洩 (rouei, leak+leak) leakage. Especially recently, of radiation.

待避 (taihi, wait+avoid) wait for danger to pass, or make way for emergency vehicles.
退避 (taihi, escape+avoid) run away or take shelter from danger. Note this is a homophone for the previous item.

被災漁船 (hisaigyousen, (incur+calamity)+(fishing+boat)) a boat in the the wrong place at the wrong time that falls victim to a disaster. Like those ships that got swept inland by the Tsunami.

殺処分 (satsushoubun, kill+(dispose+portion)) killing off animals to avoid zoonoses (disease that humans can catch from animals). I think this one comes about because a lot of people can't donate blood if they lived in mad cow disease-laden countries. Unless I missed yet another bird flu story recently.

私利私欲 (shirishiyoku, (self+profit)+(self+avarice)) selfish desires. 私欲, shiyoku, and 私利, shiri,can mean self-interest on their own too.

Which brings us back to the governor of Tokyo, who said that we are suffering a form of tenken for our shiyoku. He apologized, but someone may well satsushoubun him from his political party if he's not careful with what he says. He'd better taihi until this scandal blows over.


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Vocab from the 2011 Quake and Fukushima Crisis

I'm just going to provide some short translations of interesting words I found on the Practical Japanese blog, which has many helpful topical entries each day. Sub it if you know how to read Japanese. Here we go!

安否 (anpi, safe+no): safety, well-being. Think safe or not.

耐震性 (taishinsei, (x-proof+quake)+nature): Earthquake-proofness.

憂慮 (yuuro, anxious+fear): anxiety or concern. The sentence 憂慮すべき状況 would be "disturbing circumstances," or more literally "things are in a state you should fear."

空焚き (karadaki, empty+cook): heating an empty vessel that would usually have water, or that has lost it. Seen in 空焚き状態, the reactors being hot last night without an incoming water supply to cool them.

不透明感 (futoumei, opaque+ kan, feeling): Unclear feeling. Being unsure what to do next. Indecisiveness.

点検漏れ (tenkenmore, (spot+examine)+omission): Something that was overlooked during a check. A blind-spot in the prevention plans. Like a tsunami taking out your generators after an earthquake.

多選 (tasen, many+election): Being elected many times. I think this one refers to the crazy governor of Tokyo.

Well, my lunch-break is over, so more later!

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March 14, 2011

Me in Yokohama, a Few Days After the Quake *wobble*


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March 12, 2011

Tweeting the Great 2011 Japan Earthquake

I am fine so far. If you want to see events as they happen, I have been tweeting constantly since yesterday.
My twitter.
ALSO a large collection of Japan earthquake tweeters is here: http://twitter.com/#!/redjoe/japan-quake-3

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Karaoke | J Commercials | Let's Yoji! | Kanji