What comes after Tokyo Sky tree; Space Elevator

With waiting for a grand opening of Tokyo Sky Tree on May 22, the ticket reservation to go up to observatory has started from March 22. For the reservation for a initial period from May 22 until July 10, it is going to be a drawing to buy actual tickets. During this period, no day ticket is available, so you need to reserve the tickets in advance.

Since the Tokyo Sky Tree is going to be one of the tallest structure in the world (634m, tallest as a broadcasting tower, second tallest after Burj Khalifa (828m) in Dubai.), the tower can be seen from various points in Tokyo.

Since we don't see visible and easy to understand No.1 in Japan for a long time, this news sounds  very exciting for many Japanese people.

The towns around this tower already have gotten many sightseers from various area in Japan.  Because of this high profile monument, the nearest rail station recently changed its name from long-historically name, narihira bashi to Tokyo Sky Tree station.

It took three and half years to complete the construction. The construction was made by one of the largest general contractors in Japan, Obyashi Corp.

Now, Obayashi Corp announced this February its vision to develop Space Elevator by 2050.  This idea is to drape the two cables, made of  carbon nanotube, from space satellite and fix them to a land station on the earth.

Once this space elevator is constructed, it will help minimize the cost to launch space ship and materialize  to carry numerous number of people and materials to space, and of course, from space to the earth.

Still, the challenge is to find such carbon nanotube that is long and light enough, (in addition cheap enough) to build out such long cables. But after the announcement of its vision, Obayashi spokesman said that they've got many offers from various technology companies and academics to help this incredibly hard project move forward.

Obayashi is well known for its challenge spirit to tackle with technically hard project, I hope this project also comes true someday near future.

Planned Black-out

Fukushima nuclear plant also exploded, and several workers are injured.
This explosion is because of the Hydrogen accumulated in the building. Authorities emphasized that the explosion blow away outside wall but core facilities are safe.

But it is obvious that we are lacking the electric power supply against demands.
Tokyo Denryoku (Substantially dominant power company for eastern Japan) divided Kanto Area into five segments, and announced the time frame which may occur black-out.

Segment1: 6:20 am-　10:00am and/or 16:50pm -20:30pm
Segment2: 9:20 am - 13:00pm and/or 18:20pm - 22:00pm
Segment3: 12:20pm - 16:00pm
Segment4: 13:50pm - 17:30pm
Segment5: 15:20pm -19:00pm

Fortunately, as of now, electric power keeps coming. But it is anticipated the demand for electricity is high around 7:00pm, so planned black-out might be executed sometime tonight.
(Railways may be also affected.)

So, some of office workers in metro area have already started leaving their offices before black-outs come.

We are still in serious situation.

Here is explosions of Fuskushima nuclear plant 1,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMEV-_X5b_8

Exactly the same eplosion happened for Plant#3.

In this case, the engineers are doing very good to regain controlls.

Planned Blackout will be coming from tomorrow Sunday for Kanto are residential

Yesterday's earthquake gave huge impact even for the Kanto are residential.
First off, every railway had to stopped its operation since they needed to check out the safety of the physical rail. So, more than several hundred-thousands of people were forced to stay in their office area.

I, personally, walked back to my home with 6 hours strait walk. Luckily I was out of my office when earthquake hit, and was about to have a meeting at Shinjulu-area. Shinjuku was 25km away from my home, while my office is more than 30km away.
(I didn't have any experience to walk such long way. Given that marathon runners run 42Km, I thought it was relatively easy to walk 25km. But that idea was totally wrong!! it took 6 hours to finish 25km walk. It was cold last night, and I didn't know the way to home, so Google Map was useful, but the mobile device went out of juice at the most complicated area. So, I lost the way. It guided a short-cuts, but I had to go back to the main street which I Iknew for a drive.)

First, most foods went out from stores, next batteries for mobile phones, while voice communications were stopped by network carrier. Internet from mobile phone was barely-available,

Many people who have a physical confident went back to their home by walk. So, many pubic facility opened its facility for the rest of such walkers. (It was quite helpful.)
Media reported that many bicycles were sold out instantly from bicycle stores.
I, personally stopped by the bicycle along the way my home, but the least cheapest one costs 15,000 yen, so I didn't buy it. It was bad idea, too. I should have bought it given the long way home to go back.

Aftermath still continues. Since Nuclear power stations in Fukushima was damaged heavily and stopped operations, the capacity to generate for Kanto area has been decreased significantly.
Authorities has just announced that they are planning to stop supplying electricy to area. Residentials, offices will have planned blackout from tomorrow, which is expected to continue about two to three hours per area.

Still, many small earthquakes continues. We really needs to be careful.

Just came back from NY

Just came back from NY. I landed at Narita airport. The way I come back to my hometown is use bus, which departs from exactly the exit door nearest from the arrival gateway.

When I go to Narita airport. I will not use bus because I can't expect arrival time in case traffic jam happens. Bus transportation from Tokyo area to Narita use highway, which run through the cities where Tokyo Disney land located. So, more often than not, heavy traffic jam happens, especially when you go through there day time.

But, time is not be a matter when you go back to home. So, bus tranportation is convenient and confortable because it will bring you to the relatively large railway station near from your home directly, that way we don't need to be bothered by cumbersome frequent transfer one railway line to another, that you may need until you get to your destination.

Try bus transportation when you go into Tokyo cities area.