Friday, March 11, 2011

What A Tribute To Japanese Engineering, Construction And Honesty

... that an 8.9 earthquake didn't just flatten the place. They not only designed and built incredibly sturdy structures, they didn't pay off the building inspectors, either.

The tsunami video below gives an idea of the scale of the thing. Big cars bob around in the water like corks.


Say a prayer for these people. It's a good bet that things will get worse before they get better.

5 comments:

Foxfier said...

Who else was yelling at the guy in the black hoodie, and watching the poor tug?

K T Cat said...

I was watching the boat, waiting for the top of it to be sheared off by the bridge.

Kelly the little black dog said...

Wow. the cars just look like toys. Did you notice the guy on the bridge. you better hope its very sturdy!

Foxfier said...

The Toyota pickups come by their "toy" appearance honestly, but you're right-- the cars REALLY look like toys, not "are designed smaller and in an unusual style compared to American cars" type look like toys.

The van looking vehicles are about the size of one of those "cube" cars, but lower in profile; most of the cars that look normal are about the size of the early '80s Honda accord hatch backs-- I'm short and could look over most of the cars.

If I'm seeing it right, the "ledge" thing the water is going over is the ten foot high mesh fence around a parking area for the marina/harbor.
From that white blocky building and the couple we can see across the road, I'm guessing there was a waterway under there-- probably a glorified creek, but deep for water runoff in the rainy season, lots of rocky pools and big wild koi fish.

The buildings folding like they're made of tinfoil would be storage, hopefully-- they could be big open shops, like those used to work on ships.

The funky sound on the distance shot would be the tsunami warning siren.

Mostly Nothing said...

One must remember, that the Japanese have learned to build things well, with a lot more strength than here in the US.

After all it has to with stand Godzilla, Mothra, and all the other monsters. :-)

In all seriousness, I will keep them in my prayers.