The Earthquake, the Nuclear Crisis

I'm not quite sure what to think anymore. After the nuclear plants started to break, then one exploded, everyone got incredibly scared that there would be a nuclear explosion that would destroy Japan and spread to other countries. Some students are running away and other left the country already, but I can't really afford that sort of thing. Witt is saying that the choice to come home is up to each student, and the American embassy hasn't released an official report saying we should escape. What about everything I have left here? What if the scare isn't that great? Where are the real experts? I can't understand this sort of thing, let alone in JAPANESE!!!

Phew.

This is an article/thread that sort of cheered me up, but I don't know if it is completely trustworthy. I guess, at this point, I'm just trying to look at all possibilities.

This thread is intended to move the various discussions about nuclear power, the safety of Japan's nuclear reactors, and related issues out of the general thread about the disaster in Japan. Nuclear talk has overwhelmed the discussion in that thread, along with people coming in asking for information about whether it's going to be another Chernobyl.
But first, a FAQ (updated at 8:15AM GMT, March 14th):

What in the hell is going on here?
In the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, two nuclear power stations on the east coast of Japan have been experiencing problems. They are theFukushima Daiichi ("daiichi" means "number one") and Fukushima Daini ("number two") sites, operated by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (or TEPCO). Site one has six reactors, and site two has four. The problematic reactors are #1, #2, and #3 at site one, which are the oldest of the ten and were due to be decommissioned this year.
In short, the earthquake combined with the tsunami have impaired the cooling systems at these reactors, which has made it difficult for TEPCO to shut them down completely. Reactor #1 is now considered safe after crew flooded the reactor with sea water. Reactor #3 was starting this process as this was originally written (6:00PM CST/11:00PM GST on March 13th). Site crew began preparing to add sea water to reactor #2 around 7:30AM GMT on March 14th, if a cooling procedure does not work.
The four reactors at site two did not have their systems impaired and have shut down normally.
Can this cause a nuclear explosion?
No. It is physically impossible for a nuclear power station to explode like a nuclear weapon.
Nuclear bombs work by causing a supercritical fission reaction in a very small space in an unbelievably small amount of time. They do this by using precisely-designed explosive charges to combine two subcritical masses of nuclear material so quickly that they bypass the critical stage and go directly to supercritical, and with enough force that the resulting supercritical mass cannot melt or blow itself apart before all of the material is fissioned.
Current nuclear power plants are designed around subcritical masses of radioactive material, which are manipulated into achieving sustained fission through the use of neutron moderators. The heat from this fission is used to convert water to steam, which drives electric generator turbines. (This is a drastic simplification.) They are not capable of achieving supercritical levels; the nuclear fuel would melt before this could occur, and a supercritical reaction is required for an explosion to occur.
Making a nuclear bomb is very difficult, and it is completely impossible for a nuclear reactor to accidentally become a bomb. Secondary systems, like cooling or turbines, can explode due to pressure and stress problems, but these are not nuclear explosions.
Is this a meltdown?
Technically, yes, but not in the way that most people think.
The term "meltdown" is not used within the nuclear industry, because it is insufficiently specific. The popular image of a meltdown is when a nuclear reactor's fuel core goes out of control and melts its way out of the containment facility. This has not happened and is unlikely to happen.
What has happened in reactor #1 and #3 is a "partial fuel melt". This means that the fuel core has suffered damage from heat but is still largely intact. No fuel has escaped containment. Core #2 may have experienced heat damage as well, but the details are not known yet. It is confirmed that reactor #2's containment has not been breached.
How did this happen? Aren't there safety systems?
When the earthquakes in Japan occurred on March 11th, all ten reactor cores "scrammed", which means that their control rods were inserted automatically. This shut down the active fission process, and the cores have remained shut down since then.
The problem is that even a scrammed reactor core generates "decay heat", which requires cooling. When the tsunami arrived shortly after the earthquake, it damaged the external power generators that the sites used to power their cooling systems. This meant that while the cores were shut down, they were still boiling off the water used as coolant.
This caused two further problems. First, the steam caused pressure to build up within the containment vessel. Second, once the water level subsided, parts of the fuel rods were exposed to air, causing the heat to build up more quickly, leading to core damage from the heat.
What are they doing about it?
From the very beginning, TEPCO has had the option to flood the reactor chambers with sea water, which would end the problems immediately. Unfortunately, this also destroys the reactors permanently. Doing so would not only cost TEPCO (and Japanese taxpayers) billions of dollars, but it would make that reactor unavailable for generating electricity during a nationwide disaster. The sea water method is a "last resort" in this sense, but it has always been an option.
To avoid this, TEPCO first took steps to bring the cooling systems back online and to reduce the pressure on the inside of the containment vessel. This involved bringing in external portable generators, repairing damaged systems, and venting steam and gases from inside the containment vessel. These methods worked for reactor #2 at site one, prior to complications; reactors four through six were shut down before for inspection before the earthquake hit.
In the end, TEPCO decided to avoid further risk and flooded reactor #1 with sea water. It is now considered safely under control. Reactor #3 is currently undergoing this process, and reactor #2 may undergo it if a venting procedure fails.
The four reactors at site two did not have their external power damaged by the tsunami, and are therefore operating normally, albeit in a post-scram shutdown state. They have not required any venting, and reactor #3 is already in full cold shutdown.
Is a "China Syndrome" meltdown possible?
No, any fuel melt situation at Fukushima will be limited, because the fuel is physically incapable of having a runaway fission reaction. This is due to their light water reactor design.
In a light water reactor, water is used as both a coolant for the fuel core and as a "neutron moderator". What a neutron moderator does is very technical (you can watch a lecture which includes this information here), but in short, when the neutron moderator is removed, the fission reaction will stop.
An LWR design limits the damage caused by a meltdown, because if all of the coolant is boiled away, the fission reaction will not keep going, because the coolant is also the moderator. The core will then only generate decay heat, which while dangerous and strong enough to melt the core, is not nearly as dangerous as an active fission reaction.
The containment vessel at Fukushima should be strong enough to resist breaching even during a decay heat meltdown. The amount of energy that could be produced by decay heat is easily calculated, and it is possible to design a container that will resist it. If it is not, and the core melts its way through the bottom of the vessel, it will end up in a large concrete barrier below the reactor. It is nearly impossible that a fuel melt caused by decay heat would penetrate this barrier. A containment vessel failure like this would result in a massive cleanup job but no leakage of nuclear material into the outside environment.
This is all moot, however, as flooding the reactor with sea water will prevent a fuel melt from progressing. TEPCO has already done this to reactor #1, and is in the process of doing it to #3. If any of the other reactors begin misbehaving, the sea water option will be available for those as well.
What was this about an explosion?
One of the byproducts of reactors like the ones at Fukushima is hydrogen. Normally this gas is vented and burned slowly. Due to the nature of the accident, the vented hydrogen gas was not properly burned as it was released. This led to a build up of hydrogen gas inside the reactor #1 building, but outside the containment vessel.
This gas ignited, causing the top of the largely cosmetic external shell to be blown off. This shell was made of sheet metal on a steel frame and did not require a great deal of force to be destroyed. The reactor itself was not damaged in this explosion, and there were only four minor injuries. This was a conventional chemical reaction and not a nuclear explosion.
You see what happened in this photo. Note that other than losing the sheet metal covering on the top, the reactor building is intact. No containment breach has occurred.

At about 2:30AM GMT on March 14th, a similar explosion occurred at the reactor #3 building. This explosion was not unexpected, as TEPCO had warned that one might occur. The damage is still being assessed but it has been announced that the containment vessel was not breached and that the sea water process is continuing.
Around 7:30AM GMT on March 14th, it was announced that the explosion at reactor #2 has damaged the already limping cooling systems of reactor #2. It may also receive the sea water treatment if they are unable to use a venting procedure to restart the cooling systems.
Is there radiation leakage?
The radiation levels outside the plant are higher than usual due to the release of radioactive steam. These levels will go down and return to their normal levels, as no fuel has escaped containment.
Here is a chart showing the effects of various radiation poisoning levels. For perspective, note that this chart starts at 1 Gy, equivalent to 1 Sv; the radiation outside the problematic Fukushima reactors is being measured in micro-Svs per hour. The highest reported levels outside the Fukushima reactors has been around 1000 to 1500 micro-Svs per hour. This means that one would have to stay in this area for four to six weeks, 24 hours a day, without protection in order to experience the lowest level of radiation poisoning, which while unpleasant is not normally fatal. And this level will not stay where it is.
Also note the chart of normal radiation exposure levels from things like medical x-rays and airline flights.
There have also been very minor releases of radioactive reactor byproducts like iodine and cesium along with the steam. This material is less radioactive than the typical output of coal power plants. It is significant mainly as an indicator of the state of the reactor core.
I read that there's a plume of radioactive material heading across the Pacific.
In its current state, the steam blowing east from Japan across the pacific is less dangerous than living in Denver for a year. If it makes it across the ocean, it will be almost undetectable by the time it arrives, and completely harmless as the dangerous elements in the steam will have decayed by then.
What's this about fuel rods being exposed to the air?
When the coolant levels inside the reactor get low enough, the tops of the fuel rods will be exposed to the air inside the containment vessel. They have not been exposed to the external atmosphere and the containment vessels are all intact.
Can this end up like Chernobyl?
No, it cannot. for several reasons.

• Chernobyl used graphite as a neutron moderator and water as a coolant. For complicated reasons, this meant that as the coolant heated up and converted to steam, the fission reaction intensified, converting even more water to steam, leading to a feedback effect. The Fukushima reactors use water as both the coolant and the neutron moderator, which means that as the water heats up and converts to steam, the reaction slows down instead. (The effect of the conversion of water coolant to steam on the performance of a nuclear reactor is known as the "void coefficient", and can be either positive or negative.)

• Chernobyl was designed so that as the nuclear fuel heated up, the fission reaction intensified, heating the core even further, causing another feedback effect. In the Fukushima reactors, the fission reaction slows down as the fuel heats up. (The effect of heating of the nuclear fuel on the performance of a nuclear reactor is known as the "temperature coefficient", and can also be positive or negative.)

• Chernobyl's graphite moderator was flammable, and when the reactor exploded, the radioactive graphite burned and ended up in the atmosphere. The Fukushima reactors use water as a neutron moderator, which is obviously not flammable.

Note that while Chernobyl used light water as a coolant (as distinct from heavy water), it was not a "light water reactor". The term LWR refers strictly to reactors that use light water for both cooling and neutron moderation.
The news said this was the worst nuclear power accident since Chernobyl, though.
It's the only nuclear power plant accident of its type since Chernobyl. It's easy to be the worst in a sample size of one.
Is this like Three Mile Island?
There are similarities. The final effect on the world is likely to be similar: no deaths, minimal external contamination, and a tremendous PR disaster for the nuclear industry due to bad reporting by the media.
How can I keep up with developments?
The western media has been very bad about reporting this event, due to a combination of sensationalist reporting, ignorance, and the use of inexact or unexplained terminology.
One of the safe sources of information is the TEPCO site, which has been posting press releases on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this site is often unresponsive due to the immense traffic it is receiving.
The important thing to remember is that most of the "experts" appearing on the news are engaging in speculation. Very few of them are restricting themselves to what they can be sure about, and those that are have often been misrepresented.
Where can I find more information about these issues?
Reading:

• Timeline and data sheets for the incident by the Nuclear Energy Institute

• The International Atomic Energy Agency
 is providing regular announcements

• Wikipedia on light water reactors and nuclear weapon design

• The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) Systems manual - the Fukushima reactors are BWRs, a subset of LWRs

• More about BWRs

• Tokyo Electric Power Company
 site with press releases - currently hard to reach due to traffic

Video:

• "Physics for Future Presidents" lecture ten, on nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors

• Footage of the hydrogen explosion at reactor #1

Photos:

• before
 and after satellite photos of Fukushima site one

The Earthquake, "Where were you?"

Since the earthquake, everyone I've reunited with has asked, "So, where were you?" We want to find out how close people were, if they realized what was happening when they felt it, and how soon they were able to find a way back home. It really reminds me of 9/11, where everyone recounts where they were when they first heard the news or when the towers were first hit. As I said in the last post, a few of my friends were back home in their respective countries. Here are some of the more interesting stories my friends had to tell me.

Jerry was in his room when it happened, but wasn't sure what to think because he couldn't compare the feeling of this earthquake to any other one. Should he leave? Was this a normal intensity? He left his room, but the only other boy in his area was named Ryan and he didn't know what to think of the quake either. They saw the walls of glass and metal beams on their floor shaking, but no one had told them what to do in this sort of emergency. They just stood in the hallway, away from the glass, until the largest amount of shaking was done. Then Jerry returned to his room and went online to find out he had just experienced Japan's worst recorded quake.

Kaze was closer to me than anyone else from our group. He was shopping in Kichijoji when the ground started to shake. Actually, he was playing with a toy Godzilla when the first shakes started to happen. Living in Taiwan, he was used to earthquakes and thought that the Japanese were overreacting when he first saw girls curl up into balls in the streets and people dive towards the pavement. After going back to the original store to buy the toy Godzilla doll, he was able to return home and find out more of what happened by bike.

Meghan was meeting with a veterinary student to whom she's been teaching English. He had just gotten back to Japan from America and was excited to tell her of his studies there. As they were speaking in Starbucks, they felt the shock. At first, Meghan thought it was fun, but started to to wonder why everyone was so worried and surprised. She was prepared to sit and wait it out, but her student rushed her outside and waited with her until all the shocks were done and she could get home.

Matthew (not Gan-san, but a boy from Australia) was swimming in the ICU pool for some extra exercise this spring break when the earthquake reached the campus. The entire pool turned into a mini tsunami as the water splashed against the windows, emptied out the larger pool, and flooding the changing rooms. The swimmers clutched at the metal  ladders on the side of the pool as they were tossed around like buoys. Even though he lived in a distant city, luck would have it that he had ridden his bike to school that day and that he knew the road home well. He was able to return home easily, but his host mother had to walk 3 hours home since the trains had stopped running by that point.

Another boy in my dorm was 5 kilometers from the nuclear reactor and was able to take pictures of the initial heat explosion and smoke cloud on his iphone. He was visiting his grandparents at the time, and they refuse to leave the area, but sent him back to Tokyo yesterday.

Meghan, as I had mentioned before, was trapped with a friend at the Tokyo Disney theme parks and was not able to return until Saturday morning.

Yuta was driving near Yokohama and was not really bothered by the earthquake because of the shock absorption in his tires. Luckily, he made it home to find his family and home completely fine. The Zelkova kids were able to contact him through facebook the day of the earthquake.

Yu-chan, a senior in the Wadaiko club, was finally able to contact her father a few nights ago. He was working in the Sendai area during the earthquake, but is finally doing well now.

This is a fascinating group of Tweets from Japan during the first day. We all experienced the earthquake from different perspectives, and it wasn't until we came together to see how each person was able to deal with it. Since Friday, more and more students are evacuating the area for Kansai or leaving the country. We don't know where to go or what to believe now, but those of us who are staying are trying to find out as much as we can and help each other stay prepared. If there is anything that the world can do now, it would be to pray for us in the next few days and to donate to various relief efforts. More information to come later. Take care - we'll do the same here.

The Earthquake, Roll Call

Ever since I was a kid, roll call has been one of my favorite parts of group work. The litany of call-response was very reassuringly to me. Whenever my friends and I go out, we always have a roll call or sound off of some kind to keep track of the group. Because everyone was scattered in the midst of daily activity, one of the first things that happened after the tremors stopped was to take roll call.

Just of few of the 40-some Wadaiko members
we needed to call roll for everyday

This was easy enough for my Wadaiko kids, who I was with at the time. After the first evacuation, we were able to call roll and establish that everyone was there. But getting a hold of someone outside of the area was more of a problem: the phone lines had been jostled, everyone was contacting each other at the same time, signals were down or lost, and there was too much going on at one time. I couldn't even call the girl standing right next to me. We went into a tizzy trying to contact everyone we could think of, find out how they were, where they were, and how they'd get home. After the major quakes, I started emailing my family, Gina in Thailand, friends studying abroad here in Japan, and and people who have been taking care of me here, like Mr. Spengler and my Wittenberg sempai. They all sent, but none of them arrived on time. My phone, too, wasn't receiving any of the emails sent then; it wasn't until 4-5 hours later that I began to receive messages from my friends.

As it turns out, my close friends and classmates are doing well and are safe now, but some had a more difficult time than others. Of course, the Wadaiko OYRangers (Alice, Jorren, Sarah, and I) were all together with my roommate, Miki, and the rest of the team when it happened. Thankfully, my best friend Gina was enjoying some amazing summer weather in Thailand wasn't in harms way in the slightest. My Zelkova Familia, however, were all across the board: Lia was in New York, Sho was in Virginia, Rei was in New Zealand, Ellie was in Hong Kong, Meghan was at the Starbucks near Musashi-sakai here in town, Yuta was driving near Yokohama, Matt H. was in the pool, etc. In the end, we were all accounted for and made it home that night, except for Mika, Jorren's sister, and Meghan's dad. It turns out Mika and her childhood friend had gone to Disney Sea (that place I was so excited about with the Soul Run kids) and they got stuck there once all the trains stopped running. She, her friend, the entire Disney Sea and Land staff, crew, and customers, were stuck there the rest of the day and into the next morning. They slept in a movie theater as the Disney staff scrambled to find bread and rice for people to eat (the local cafes, stores, and vending machines were all empty). Jorren's sister was visiting him from the Netherlands and arrived in Japan on the morning of the earthquake. She doesn't know Japanese or anyone else here, let alone have a phone, so he was terribly worried about her. Meghan's dad had come to visit her, too, but his company forced him to board the next flight to China when they found out there had been such a major earthquake, so they did not get to see each other before he left.

The girls organized the sofas into a nest with room for
2 girls per couch. Even at night, they left the TV on
in case a new development was announced.

Since then, we've been holding up together in groups, and the girls on my floor have been sleeping together in the lobby for the past few days and many of the foreign students have made camp in the first floor lobby. The Wadaiko team has been super paranoid about us always traveling with a partner, especially between cities. Meanwhile, some people have started to leave the country. My friend Elliott is the kid who usually has all the information, so I steal a peak at his blog every now and then for good links and up-to-date reports. He is currently on his way to/has arrived in Australia where he will be for the next two weeks. The rest of us are going to sit it out here. I'm keeping track of where everyone is, in the meantime. We are still on break for the rest of this month, so I don't have to worry about classes, homework, or tests. I'll do my best to get more information out there.

Keep us in your prayers.

The Earthquake on Friday

I know that I'm behind the times on my blog, and I will fix that, trust me, but this is breaking news!

As most of you now know, Japan was hit by a massive earthquake/tsunami mix on Friday. Truly, truly frightening! I can't really give all the facts, but those are swimming all over the news and internet now. At first they were calling it an 8.8 M earthquake, but said that Tokyo was only hit with a 5.5 M quake, but it seems these first numbers were inorrect. All I knew at the time was it was a big enough earthquake to make the Japanese scared, so that is saying something! After the first major shake, and many aftershocks, we all began rushing around for answers, damage, friends, and a safe place. I'll try to use these next few entries to share what it was like for me.

For the English version of the first Japanese report, click here
Read more about the earthquakes results here
View photos from the time of the quake here
See more photos here

Plum Blossoms

 A while ago, I was surprised to see a bunch of white fluffy things stuck to two of the trees in main field here. It wasn't snow or cotton, but it was still so cold out. I asked around and found out that these are the campus' plum blossoms which are notorious for blooming in late winter. They are so cute and they all cover the trees! They are such great flowers, I wish I could keep some. I couldn't get over the contrast between these soft little buds and the stark branches all around them. Hopefully some of these came out well, but I'm going to try and snag more photos later on.

The next exciting flower blooming time will be in April when all the cherry trees start up. ICU's main road is lined with cherry blossom trees, so I won't even have to travel very far to see some. Rumor has it, though, that everyone and their brother swarms our campus in the spring time to look at the flowers, so I might have to fight off an army of hanami (flower viewing) enthusiasts to get some good pictures when the time comes.

Robot Tour!!!

Having only two weeks off for Christmas vacation isn't quite what I'm used to, but I made sure to make that time count this year! With the help of one of my best friends, Gina (we would have brought you with us if we could have, Anna Sophia), I got to backpack across Japan in the "Long-awaited, Cross-country, Pan-Japan, Caffeine-infused, Giant Robot Tour of 冬休み2010". Special featured performances by random bus friends, McDonald's lady, Miki's family, helpful direction givers, Nagoya Hoststay family, and the Japanese train system.

"Was it epic?" you may ponder. "What about Giant Robots is ever un-epic?" I would respond.

The exciting saga is airing on my blog as of March! Stay tuned for more!

A Rumbling

Saturday February 5th, 2010, 10:56 am - ICU campus in Mitaka, Japan

So, there I was, watching a Super Junior music video, doing my Japanese homework, and eating a Snickers my dad sent me, when I started to feel like someone was shacking the couch! Who would be so rude? My friends have all left the dorm for the day, the cleaning ladies don't come near me, and I hadn't seen anyone come into the lobby, so who was shacking the couch?!

Answer: No one.

At first I thought that I was imagining it all: I was dehydrated, tired, something. But then I noticed that the boy in the other room was looking around a little, too. And the lamp was rocking back and forth, too. Why is everything moving around?!

Answer: An earthquake.

I sat and waited through the rest of the tremor, deciding that it was too quiet and calm of a shake to warrant my finely honed Middle School Earthquake Safety skills. Afterwards, I opened up a new tab in Google Chrome (which I love and highly recommend) and found out that I had just experienced a JMA Seismic Intensity 2 earthquake. Here are some other figures I found posted almost immediately after the incident occurred.

Occurred at (JST)	Latitude (degree)	Longitude (degree)	Depth	Magnitude	Region Name
10:56 JST 05 Feb 2011	34.8N	140.7E	70km	5.2	Chiba-ken Nanto-oki

I would be one of the blue dotes on this map.

You know what this means, don't you? This is my second, conscious earthquake in Japan! Horray! I must admit, it wasn't quite the tush massage the last one was, but rather a sea sick sort of feeling. From where I was sitting, the couch was moving, but the world was still, so it was boat-ish, I feel. Still weird, still fun, just thought that you would like to know.

Mochitsuki, the Basics

Okay, believe it or not, I actually keep a list of things that I want to write about in my blogs. It is just a matter of finally getting around to them....well, you know.

Today, there is a little thing I'd like to talk about called, mochitsuki (literally, "mochi making"). Mochitsuki is a tradition activity that has become more of less of a standard beginning of the year company ritual. Organizations set up the traditional equipment and provide the ingredients so that members, friends, and family of the group can come, pound giant mallets, and eat chewy, delicious paste to welcome in the new year. One such mochistuki was held by the construction workers at ICU. They invited everyone in to help them celebrate, and while I was interested in how the rice was actually made into mochi, I came mostly for the free lunch!

Hold on, what? Mochi? Oh, well that's uh.... I mean, it....hmm...right then. We'll call in a professional for this one: Wikipedia.

Mochi is traditionally made in a ceremony called mochitsuki. Traditionally, mochi was made from whole, polished, glutinous rice, in a labor-intensive process. While also eaten year-round, mochi is a traditional food for the Japanese New Year and is commonly sold and eaten during that time. Mochi is also a prominent snack in Hawaii, South Korea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and Thailand.

Further fun fact: The Japanese believe that there is a rabbit (not a man) on the moon and he pounds mochi with a large mallet.

Now that business is done with, let's move on. After the usual Saturday morning Wadaiko practice, I scampered over the the construction grounds just in time for the community's taiko performance. They were playing a piece that I knew which was very refreshing and, to my surprise, many other Wadaiko kids showed up to watch, too. They were on their way to see the latest Harry Potter movie, but had decided to stop off for mochi-on-a-stick instead of pay hundreds of yen for a bucket of Japanese popcorn. As an audience-powered people, the Japanese encourage unison cheering, something which I am also for, but I don't know the words. I tried faking it, but I ended up just saying the of an Arabic rice dish or other nonsensical phrases that sounded close enough. The rest of the mochitsuki was rather uneventful, in truth, but the experience was well worth the wait in line for the soup! I may or may not have had 4ths of the soup, by the way. Don't believe everything you hear.

People were constantly pounding mochi which was then used in every way imaginable by the cooks. Folks of all sizes gave mochi making a go, even little kids. I, apparently, did better than expected, but my friend Kaze wowwed more people than I did. Feeling pretty good about myself, I stood tall and proud until this spindly, little Japanese guy waltzed up, grabbed the largest mallet available and began pounding mochi with the timed precision of a Rolex watch! This man pounded on time, every time, with such force, I couldn't believe it!

Overall, a very enjoyable experience. We should do that again sometime. Next year? Sounds good. Although, this Saturday I'm rather excited for a Udon Noodle Making Party at Musashi-Koganei!! Soup! Soup for everyone!!!

Saitama Soccer Game

Remember back when I mentioned settai? If not, you can scroll back in time to find the blog, but if you do recall this little Japanese vocabulary, let’s pick up where we left off.

Well, waaa~~yyy back, my Wadaiko group was set on a string of settai. One was run by our president ("Nani Sore Something Something" Shunyo, the boy looking at this red phone and standing next to me in that ever-so-flattering photo). He absolutely loves soccer, and practically lived on the soccer field in high school, so he opened up a goup outing to see his hometown, pro-team play. A chance to see a Japanese soccer game AND hang out with the Wadaiko members?! I’m in all the way!! And so were the OYRangers, but the other kids….were busy. But even if it was just the foreign students who promised to come, Shunyo went all out; he brought all of his official jerseys and t-shirts for us to wear on top of all our jackets and sweaters, taught us soccer terms, gave us the team’s stats, showed us chants and cheers, and escorted us from start to finish. Thus were the OYRangers made into Urawa Red Diamonds fans. Or, as they say in Japanese, “We are Redzu!” Engrish makes me smile.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. A few things happened before we even made it to the stadium. First of all, we were running a little late. We had to dash straight from practice, so everyone was pretty tuckered, but had to stay somewhat awake on the series of buses and trains. As we were waiting at one of the many stations that took us to Saitama, Shunyo made a call, and then walked down a narrow hallway, stopping in front of a tall, thin boy with a high school uniform.

“What is he doing?” the Yellow Ranger asked. “Maybe the boy is asking him something” the Red Ranger speculated. “Nah,” the Green Ranger piped up, “He wouldn’t have gone all the way down to hallway to get asked a question.” The Red Ranger gave another guess “Maybe they know each other. We’re near Shunyo’s hometown, you know.” After a moment or two, I noticed something a little strange.“Um…hey, guys…does that kid have a white envelope with him? Yeah, it kind of looks like …Shunyo just snatched it away!! Now he’s pushing that kid around! What’s going on!? He’s, he’s hustling that kid!”

After the brief wave of panic, we were able to find out what was really going on. In actuality, that “kid” was one of Shunyo’s kid brothers and was just dropping off our tickets to his big bro (so rough housing is totally normal).

A. Ny. Way. We finally get to the field and this thing is super! I'm so glad that Shunyo used to pretty much live at this field when he was younger, because just navigating the parking lot was an adventure. It tuns out that although we bought tickets, we couldn't find a place to sit, so instead we all stood in the isle, which wasn't that weird as it turns out. From our lofty spot we could see everyone from the opposing team's fans to the players, the die-hard flag wavers, and the ocean of Reds fans.

The stadium was made especially for the FIFA World Cup 2002 Korea/Japan and can hold 63,700, making it Japan's biggest specialized football ground. But more than come to see the game, the fans who fill these stands feel like they are actually a part of the victory. There are dozens of songs, chants, and dances that everyone seems to know. If you don't, you learn them right quick, to be sure. I was worried about using my camera to record them because I figured, "As soon as I turn it on, they'll stop." Not true: one song was repeated for a timed 20 minute interval! The fans feel that if they have just as much energy as the players, it will all be channeled to victory, somehow. We just faked like we knew the words and sang along with the rest of them for the fun of it.

Bad news? Reds lost. Good news? I got to scream at the top of my lungs in Japanese with my friends!!

After the game, there was a huge closing ceremony because it was the last home game of the season/pre-season/actually I'm not sure why they had it. Sorry. I'm sure that you fine folks at home are probably bored to tears with this, so I'll end on some fun videos. Also, if you were looking in my photo gallery and were wondering what the final image that the crowd made was, watch the last video!

For more Reds Fan fun, check out their English website!

http://www.urawa-reds.co.jp/index_en.html

Rack-'o-What?

This past December, I had the honor, privilege, and stress of performing in something called the 落語会 (Rakugokai). Rakugo is a traditional…well, let’s Wiki it, shall we?

“Literally "fallen words", Rakugo is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (落語家 rakugoka) sits on the stage. Using only a paper fan (扇子, "sensu") and a small cloth (手拭, "tenugui") as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters, the difference between the characters depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head.”

Now back to our story: My school hosted 3 famous Rakugo masters to perform for FREE for the student body and Mitaka locals. And it was for FREE, which means you didn’t have to pay to see it. Because it was FREE! I love FREE!!! But a month and a half before the show, the Middlebury University Office of Something-or-Another called out to the international students: anyone interested in working with the comedy masters and able to perform a short skit in the Rakugo show is encouraged to join. The students who volunteered for the performance would be part of the小話集, or short story segment, of the show, so we wouldn’t have to learn a lengthy tale like the pros. Well, being the cultural nerd that I am, I couldn’t just pass this up. So I signed my name on the dotted line and then completely forgot about the entire event. Typical me. Luckily, the director of the Office of Something-or-Another was not as absent-minded as I (probably why she is the director) and emailed us two weeks before the performance, “Do you all have your scripts memorized? Practice starts on Monday at noon.” Oh, great…

It turns out the first day was more to get a taste of what we were to be doing than of actually practicing, so I was off the hook for the time being. I told the master what my story was and he immediately acted it out in four different versions, each time changing the characters’ ages and speaking patterns. He. Was. So. Funny! No wonder why he’s famous! He took my stupid little punny-joke and made me laugh out loud four times in a row!!! All he did was look this-way and that-way, wave his hand around a bit and do lots of super-inflection on the words, but in that stage-performance sort of way were if it isn’t overdone, then it just looks flat.

And what was the silly snippet I was to perform? In English, it goes a little something like this:

Woman 1: Did you hear? I got something wonderfully useful!

Woman 2: Oh, really? What is it?

Woman 1: It cooks, cleans, washes laundry, and goes shopping for you.

Woman 2: What?! I’m so jealous! Say, where do you buy something like that?

Woman 1: Buy? Why, you don’t have to buy it!

Woman 2: Eh…what do you mean?

Woman 1: Because that wonderfully useful thing is my husband. ;) (Hahahaha, no really, that’s the whole joke, and I had to smirk at the end – that was part of the skit)

Flash forward two weeks, and I’ve worked with the masters for quite a bit, have my skit memorized and everything is good. But on the day of the show, they still didn’t know what I’d be wearing. One master said that since most Rakugo professionals were men, I should wear a man’s kimono. “Besides,” he argued, “it looks very tough and cool when a woman wears a man’s kimono.” “True, true,” replied the younger master, “but shouldn’t she wear a lovely, woman’s kimono instead? She is the only female performer and it would be good to offset the men’s outfits, I think.” The last second decision was made for me to wear a woman’s kimono, so they had another famous person (who I was never told) lend me her kimono to wear. Putting this thing on was such an event, let me tell you, because only the older master knew how to tie the belt! The director of the Office of Something-or-Another was kind enough to help me dress in the undergarments, but when it came to the main layers, we had to call in the professional to wrap, tighten, tie, and adjust all the layers of belt that are apparently needed. Always trust the Japanese to overcomplicate things. And this poor man not only helped dress me (which was equivalent to 10 minutes of solid cardio exercise), but he had to help dress all the boys, too. By the time he came out of the dressing room, he was out of breath, stumbling around, and dog-tired.

Right before the performance, the international students were interviewed for the school news, which is the only reason why I have these pictures from the event. Later, I bumped (figuratively) into a Wadaiko member who was working as part of the stage crew. She took a picture of me and sent a message out to the rest of Wadaiko club to try and get them to support me. A few of them did come on such short notice, but I had been too embarrassed to mention it to them before so most of them asked me to perform it again for the club at a later date. The show itself was really fun! I was the first to go, but I got a great response from the audience (mostly female members, I’m guessing). The other boys gave it their best, too, and it felt great to finally perform what we’d been working on all this time. After that, I got to watch the rest of the show. In between the Rakugoka was a comedian who is known for cutting paper. Trust me, it is funnier than it sounds.

All in all, it was great fun and I'm glad that I signed up for the chance to do this. That's part of studying abroad, right? Doing things that you don't have a chance to do otherwise. I don't plan on going pro in Rakugo, but it was nice to get a few laughs.