NOT A DYNO GRAPH: The latest from Japan

March 15, 2011 9:28 pm Published by

This is a reading from a website that shows the readings of a Tokyo-based Geiger-counter. Unlike the rest of the internet though, I’m not going to pretend to be a nuclear scientist or claim to have an uncle who worked on the Manhattan Project or talk about iodine isotopes or cesium or microsieverts. All I know is that the little squiggly line has gone back to where it’s supposed to be, and my skin isn’t falling off just yet.

While there haven’t been any electricity cuts where I live on the outskirts of Tokyo, there’s still no petrol deliveries, which means no doing the thing I like most; driving around and making loud noises. A risk of earthquakes means I’m not about to lie under the car while it’s up on jacks either, so I’ll probably try and get some of the little jobs on the Toyota I’ve been meaning to do out of the way, and it’s been fun doing some maintainence on the house’s mountain bike. Pretty much every track event has been cancelled too. On the upside though, there’s absolutely no shortage of beer!

As for upcoming major events:

• The D1 Grand Prix event Odaiba to be held on the 26-27th of March has been postponed to an undetermined date in June.(website)

The next is the one most people have been messaging me about.

• Ebisu Circuit’s Spring Drift Matsuri is still going ahead as planned.

I have spoken to Team Orange’s Naoto Suenaga, and while there has been some major damage to pit areas caused by the earthquake (Kumakubo’s blog, Powervehicles’ Facebook photos), the circuits are still in good condition, and will be fully repaired by that time. “Tell everyone that we’re going to have lots of fun.” he said.

For those who’ve been asking about charity donations, the main one at work here is the Japan Red Cross Society. Otherwise known as the Sekijuuji (赤十字) or “Red Ten”, they have a direct link to their donation account on their website, so all you need to do is use the international SWIFT code to send money directly to the place it’s needed if you don’t want to go through your local Red Cross.

For guys in the UK, Banzai Magazine are running a charity meet at the 8 Ball Diner on the 7th of May. Details at the Banzai website.

You may have heard of the Pray For Japan charity stickers made by some nice dudes.

Yuta Akaishi is also doing some Heartbreaker stickers.

Also, if you’re running some sort of charity event or similar to donate to the tsunami relief, please let me know, and I’ll list it up here.

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This post was written by Alexi

18 Comments

  • Brook says:

    Thanks heaps for the ebisu updates, At least theres some sort of relief in knowing it’s still alive

  • banpei says:

    Don’t worry. It may look like a huge increase on the graph, but actually the 20cpm is already the background noise of the Tokyo surroundings. The human body can take more than 50 times the increase you see here. And no, I’m not a nuclear scientist but I do can read graphs and gauges. 😛
    Actually I was thinking about you when I heard the news yesterday… I was wondering how your driving habit would fit together with the fuel shortages around Tokyo. Let’s hope they lift the rationing soon!

  • parise says:

    I wish good luck to all who reside in Japan and the gods to protect them

  • banpei says:

    BTW: I donated through Paypal to Casey Dhnaram’s Japan Earthquake Donation imitative yesterday:
    http://shirtstuckedin.com/?page_id=2406
    He promises a part of the money will be given to the Red Cross Foundation (and Ebisu)

  • $EX¥ HAMMER says:

    You have no idea the wave of relief that washed over me when I read this post. Even in the face of all the loss and the damage and the hard times ahead, there are some things that people will NEVER give up, no matter what. This determination is going to help everyone pull through!

  • Andrew says:

    Hi Alexi,

    We’re holding a Banzai charity meet to raise funds for the relief effort – all the details are at http://www.banzaimagazine.com but the basic info is 7 May 2011, at the 8 Ball Diner in Essex, UK. Sign up to attend at http://www.banzaimagazine.com.

    Cheers,
    Andrew

  • 6330 says:

    Good to hear you’re still ok!

  • WolfRPS13 says:

    Thanks for the charity info Alexi.
    The reading looks like a graph of my attention span to most stuff? 😉
    Now that we’re clear on your safety, does anyone have any thoughts on a 2003 Stagea RS 4?
    Looking at one as a possible buy, but would like the opinion of some JDM subject matter experts, as I have been out of the game for a long time. To be clear, it’s the VQ-25DET we’re talking about, sadly not the RB series.

  • WolfRPS13 says:

    Oh… I see, I should have used the correct terminology eh?
    “Turbo Fridge” is it?

  • TecD says:

    This lil bit of radiation is going to turn everyone into SUPERMAN!!!! (:
    GO JAPAN! Your in my prayers always.

  • om1kron says:

    Thanks for this post, I hope Japan has a speedy recovery from this.

  • DarkShadowFox says:

    Nori please be safe, all of us here at the less than amature game development website: Takashigamingexpress.wordpress.com wish you luck ^,.,^

  • Jesse says:

    Take care over there man! I have a lot of friends and family all over Japan and everyone seems to be taking it in stride.

  • Jeremy says:

    good update. Im not worried about the earthquakes and tsunami risk anymore, atleast you can run from them. I actually had my drift debut at a practice day at Honjo on Sunday and while a few people skipped it, the track was fine and the only real drama was finding a petrol station which was A, open and B, had fuel. made it home, but not without a heap of worry

  • Elstars-Club says:

    Very nice to see other people making donations.. Here’s our contribution:

    http://elstars-club.nl/?p=1860
    (site is in dutch)

    We sell stickers about the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, and ofcourse all of the money will go to the Red Cross.
    If you want to order, please email info@elstars-club.nl with the amount of stickers you want and your name and adress.

    we pray for Japan!

  • neuri says:

    The Motorsport community of Japan is getting together to help after the tsunami

    http://www.js-style.com/savejapan/index.html

  • Jeremy says:

    Can you give a link to the page with that graph?