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Bored in Japan? Visit a Japanese Disaster Center!

Recently my net buddy 4 life wrote about our little trip to a Japanese Disaster Center.

Nick wrote about our little experience a few days ago on his blog and so here I am returning the favor. Nick wrote: “We were given a personal tour of the facility and they even filmed us trembling like little girls on the simulator” This is certainly a true statement but while on the simulator I believe that Nick actually peed his pants. Anyways here’s a little video documenting our experience. It’s broken up in to three parts demonstrating what it’s like to experience a significant earthquake in various places.

The last experience of being out in the street did not feel as strong as being in the apartment it was more terrifying as you could see buildings crumbling and and telephone poles falling. I think that’s the point where Nick wet himself. Thank God I was there to console him!

After Nick cleaned himself up we headed to another area of the center where I tried my hand at escaping a building just after an earthquake via virtual reality. As you are about to see it turned out to be a quite a difficult experience. Sure I had assistance from the lady telling me how to get out but she was speaking Japanese! For your viewing enjoyment I’ve included subtitles in the video below. They are not 100% accurate but it’s the best I can do! I have to say that the last bit is my favorite part but I can assure you that my performance does not do my ego any good.

Needless to say we had a great time at the disaster center! We were very lucky that that place was hard to find cause no one else there. One other thing that surprised me is that it didn’t even cost us 1 yen to experience the simulator or virtual reality! To be honest, before I wrote this post I was actually thinking of including it in my How To Save Money In Japan series. Special thanks goes to Nick, for without him this post would not have been possible!

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Posted in Crazy Japan, Mike's Travels, Mike's Videos.

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14 Responses

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  1. Thomas (nihonhacks.com) says

    Videos no longer available?

  2. Chris says

    Haha! That’s another thing to add to my trip list!

    It looks like the women nearly broke your neck to try and get you out of the exit lol!

    I love those moments of panic when playing a first-person game. “Get out the door, get out the door!!!”

    • Mike says

      Yeah for a second there I thought she was going to break my neck out of frustration! Couldn’t really blame her though, I was useless!

  3. Jordan says

    Haha. That looked like a lot of fun. I don’t think I’d be worried about getting my shoes either. Haha.

    • Mike says

      Yeah one of the items I was supposed to have retrieved was a pillow. What do I need a pillow for? So that I can rest my head easier when I’m sleeping on the street?

  4. ジェイソン (Jason) says

    Hmm … I hope you talk about the cardboard houses in a future post. Those things look pretty useful :)

  5. Nick Ramsay says

    That was so funny when she grabbed you by the head and started twisting it around… if I did wet myself, that would have been the moment! :-P

    • Mike says

      And could anyone blame you? I know I couldn’t!

  6. Heather says

    Sooo…if we have a big giant earthquake at work, you’ll grab the pillow and the fire extinguisher, right? And I’ll grab everything else?

    • Mike says

      No… I think I’ll just run out, and this time I promise I won’t get stuck in the entrance! ;)

  7. Masako says

    haha, this is interesting. Btw, you slightly look japanese guy.

  8. Michael says

    Yeah some times some people say I look half-Asian, but I’m not.

Continuing the Discussion

  1. New Earthquake Emergency Shelters « LongCountdown.com linked to this post on July 14, 2008

    [...] The earthquake simulator, which went up to the maximum Shindo 7, was quite an experience. Japan’s Shindo is a measurement of intensity at a given location, whereas the Richter scale used in the West measures magnitude of an earthquake at its epicenter. Mike will be posting the videos on his own blog soon, along with his lame attempts to escape a burning house rocked by an earthquake in a virtual reality game. Update: Here’s Mike’s post. [...]



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