10 THINGS TO LEARN FROM JAPAN

1. THE CALM

Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY

Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY

The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE

People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER

No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE

Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS

Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING

The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA

They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE

When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly

TONY BUZAN - Embracing Change

TONY BUZAN - Embracing Change...This is a book that my hubby bought for me...since I'm always bored and stress about being alone at home. Hubby bought this book for me last year October, but since then I just finish 3 chapters. It was an interesting book...but I was just so lazy nowadays.

Yesterday, hubby gave me this task...to review what I read into my blog...so that I will stop being lazy and I can share it with other people too. So I will try to read this book and review it here.

In this latest bestseller, Tony Buzan draws on his highly effective Mind Mapping and mental development techniques to help you understand and master change. Whatever your current circumstances, Tony enables you to develop your confidence in the face of change, and enhance your ability to transform your future.

This book is about:

~Understand change and how you are affected by it.

~Discover how flexible you can be in response to change

~Use Buzan's Tools for Transformation to turn change into opportunity

Change is a feature of our lives. Everything around us even inside us is constantly changing, whether we like it or not.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant…

This post I copy and paste 100% from my hubby's blog - mahathirrafie.blogspot.com because I have no idea about all this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As we all know after the earthquake occurred giant scale of tsunami wiped all cities near the sea. As I mentioned before it was the worst tragedy I ever saw. It happened in just 6 minutes then it ended. However another disaster happened when Fukushima Daiichi (means No 1) Nuclear Plant that was hit by tsunami had major damages. At that time, eleven nuclear reactors at the four nearest power plants automatically shut down upon sensing ground accelerations, stopping the nuclear fission of uranium in their cores. Nuclear fuel requires continued cooling even after a plant is shut down, though, because residual fission products continue to decay and produce a huge amount of heat.

The Japanese plants use continually-pumped water, which absorbs a great deal of heat, to cool their nuclear reactors. The earthquake knocked out the electricity at the Fukushima Daiichi plant run by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Emergency diesel generators were used to pump water to cool Reactor Units 1, 2 and 3, which had been operating at the time of the quake, but an hour later, the back-up generators were knocked out by tsunami flooding.

Insufficient power means that water could not be pumped through the nuclear cores quickly enough. As the water inside the reactors heated up too high and started boiling, the water level dropped inside the cores, and the pressure rised from the steam. TEPCO declared a state of emergency. Japanese authorities ordered the evacuation of residents within a 20-kilometer radius of Fukushima Daiichi, and told people within a 20 to 30-kilometre radius to remain indoors. There had been release of radiation from the nuclear power plant.

Reactor Units 5, 6 thought to be in a cold and safe shutdown and the cooling water temperature was found to be dropping. Japanese Government and TEPCO still struggle to solve Unit 1,2,3,4 cooling problems.

Over the following days there was evidence of partial nuclear meltdowns in reactors 1, 2 and 3; hydrogen explosions destroyed the upper cladding of the building housing reactors 1 and 3; an explosion damaged reactor 2's containment; and severe fires broke out at reactor 4. The Japanese authorities rated the events at reactors 1, 2 and 3 as a level 5 (Accident With Wider Consequences) on the International Nuclear Event Scale, while the events at reactor 4 were placed at level 3 (Serious incident).

The problem that scares me is about Nuclear Radiation leakage. I personally think the accidents are different from Chernobyl nuclear plant because the type of reactor used is very different. The Chernobyl plant used graphite as a neutron moderator to produce nuclear fission of the fuel rods. The reactor had no core containment vessel. After the explosion, the graphite, which is made of carbon, burned along with the fuel rods in an exposed state. The possibility is low that a large fire will break out at the Fukushima plant.

On the other hand, the six reactors at the Fukushima plant have a much higher combined power output, and the volume of radioactive materials contained in the reactors are several times greater than at Chernobyl. The outputs of the reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 plant range from 460,000 kilowatts at the No. 1 reactor to 784,000 kilowatts for the No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 reactors. The combined power output is about three times than 1 million-kilowatt output at Chernobyl. There is a high possibility of large amounts of toxic radioactive materials in the fuel rods, but the levels depend on how long the fuel rods have been used.

[For Detail Information]

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_I_Nuclear_Power_Plant

2. Timeline of Events at Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Reactors By Natalie Wolchover, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer]

What Happen …

It was a very beautiful Friday (11 March 2011) afternoon when my hubby just left home after lunch. I stand near the window for a while to enjoy the view outside my house after hubby left. It was about 1pm then...as usual after that I cleared the dishes and kitchen before I can sit down and watch my drama on TV. It was about 2-40 p.m when suddenly I felt as if my sofa I sat on was moving a bit, shaking but very slowly. I thought to myself, yeah this must be the earthquake la...I have experience a very small earthquakes few times since I came to Japan.. you will just feel like you having migraine.

Out of a sudden, my house was shaking, the tv and the coffee table too... everything on my cabinet fall down. I was in terrible panic and shocked... internet line and phone line automatically stopped. I took my hp and quickly ran out of my house quickly Without switching off my tv and laptop and without putting on my shoes and sweater. I saw the cars parked outside my house were also shaking. I started crying when I tried to call my hubby and I couldn't reached him, I prayed hard...Please help me Allah! I was really scared the whole building was shaking as if it was going to collapse anytime. I dont know what to do, I just tried to call my hubby again and again. It was freezing outside. Then when the shaking started to slow down I went into my house...almost everything fall down...my kitchen was in a mess too. Within few minutes the earthquake hit again. I ran out again...almost 4 times I've been running in and out then I saw my hubby's car entering our parking area. I feel so relieved. As my hubby entered our house I ran towards him and hugged him tight and cried out loud. My hubby was speechless he just hold me tight in his arms and I can see tears in his eyes. I dont know what would happen if my hubby didnt come back at that point of time. I love my hubby so much...he will always be there for me whenever I needed him. Thanks hubby...

For my hubby this is not his first experience, he had experienced Niigata Chuetsu earlier as I mentioned in my earlier post. He had learned a lot about earthquake when he experienced the Niigata Chuetsu earthquake, therefore even though it was a scary moment but he still can control himself to stay calm.

Yonezawa city is located in the center between the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan. Earthquake is rare phenomenon here, therefore most of people here are not well prepared. Most of the people were panic, as I can see near my area, all of them ran out of their house.The most scary thing when big earthquake like this occurred is all live line such as electric powers, water, phone lines will be out of order.

After a big earthquake like this, there will be a series of aftershock, therefore hubby decided that we should not stay in the house for a while. He took his car and we went to the petrol station to refill petrol for our car, then we went to buy some instant foods in case of emergency. At that moment no one were rushing to buy things yet because most of the people still don’t know what to do. Then we went to hubby's company to report and he took his notebook pc home.

At that evening when I watched TV, I was really shocked with the scale of the tsunami. The real panic happened the next day when everybody started filling petrol and buying everything in the shop. In a day all petrol, foods, daily supplies are gone! Therefore I will have to cook with whatever we have left at home.

Earthquake and tsunami destroyed most of logistic network in TOHOKU. Most of supplies are stopped and it started to turn to negative spiral when all oil and petrol are not enough for transportations. All petrol stations are closed they only have petrol for emergency usage such as ambulance, police patrol car and etc. During weekend we just stayed at home gathering information. Now at these moment supplies started to come but still have a lot of limitations. We waited for almost 2 hours or more 6:50am~9:00am just to fill about 20 litres of petrol which is less than ½ tank. Foods also very limited. The main reason is most of people are hoarding so there is not enough oil and supplies for affected area. It is getting better now, I was really sad and ironic without been noticed the people in safer place slowdown the supplies for needed ones. Nobody doing it purposely but it is how the economy works. We are all connected in economic world. Another reason why supplies is slow is due to the earthquake, oil factories and logistic companies have to check their facilities first to ensure the safety. I hope by next week most of logistic problems can be solved because most of disaster area needed supplies as soon as possible.

Hubby started working on 14^th March as usual. I was still scared because the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plan still in critical situation. However my hubby as Top Manager, he have to show his commitment towards the company, two of their factories had been destroyed by tsunami and another one in Sendai city had major damage because of earthquake. I really understand my hubby's situation and let him go to work.

The Fukushima Nuclear Power Station situation not showing any good results, I believe Japanese Government and Tokyo Power Corp with solve this problem. Yonezawa city is just 97km from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant The radiation level is rising up however it is still in a safe zone. I hope they can solve this problem before it became worst. I am also worried about how radiation will affect the soil, water and air for future.

Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami (東北地方太平洋沖地震)

14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on Friday 11 March 2011 is one moment that I will never forget in my whole life. 9.0-magnitude mega thrust earthquake occurred in "Tōhoku region Pacific Ocean offshore. The epicenter was 130 kilometers (81 mi) off the east coast of the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku near Sendai, with the hypocenter at a depth of 32 km (19.9 mi). The earthquake triggered extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 10 meters that destroy almost all cities near ocean offshore.

I live in Yamagata Prefecture, Yonezawa City. My area also have been hit by more than 5 almost 6.0 magnitude earthquake. According to my hubby, It was not his first experience, he had experienced a 7.0-magnitude earthquake when Niigata Chuetsu earthquake occurred on 23 October 2004. During that time he slept in his car for 5 days and it take months to recover from all the damages. He was really scared but focus to survive. It was after 7 years, he was shocked with giant earthquake again. The earthquake this time was more than 5.0 magnitude, the scale of this earthquake are far bigger than I or anyone could imagine. It was the biggest disaster I ever can imagine. The duration of the earthquake is only 6 minutes but during this 6 minutes, it was the scariest moment in Japan. In these 6 minutes almost 8,450 people were killed, including missing people is about 21,000 people and the numbers increasing from time to time. 19,000 buildings have been destroyed by the tsunami. I was very near to the area at that moment, the most sad moment in Japan, seeing most of the cities were destroyed by the tsunami.

Now almost 340,000 people living in evacuation shelters. Some of them still searching for their families and relatives. Can you imagine how they feel searching for their families in the worst environment, no one wanted to go to visit the mortuary because they still cannot accept losing their loving family members. I cannot stand watching people suffering for their lost, it makes my tears drop again and again. My sincere condolences to everyone who are affected with earthquake and tsunami. I pray to God for the safety and well-being of the people in Japan.

We in Japan now working hard to fix the situation to be back to normal. However the situation does not allow premature conclusions because Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant still in critical situation.

I call upon people who wanted to support and help the victims of this disaster, please donate because they need a lot of support and also prayers. My area Yonezawa city is situated near Fukushima and Sendai. I also send some money and foods for some people. If anyone of you wanted to help the victims of this disaster in Japan you can donate from google site http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html or other organizations which are collecting donation for the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Please be very careful about nominal donation scam for earthquake victims.