Meltdowns and Waves – Archive

Walking into the earthquake simulator in Tokyo was like walking into a Godzilla movie. The portal to our alternate reality, disguised as an elevator, rocked like a van that one shouldn’t knock on, the scenes of destruction that greeted us upon our arrival immediately call to mind the destruction of a war zone, and simulated screams are heard from a distance. But before we entered this very Call of Duty-esque landscape, we found ourselves at the entrance to the Tokyo Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park. There is a strange feeling to entering a neighborhood that was clearly built in its entirety in the last ten years. The ubiquitous concrete is pristine, the sun glows on every surface, and standing before this massive complex, only a handful of people are seen.

In the first few days of our time in Japan we have found it rare to meet people capable of effectively communicating in English, though most will be so kind as to attempt a few words. So when our tour guide, beaming enthusiastically, began chattering in Japanese seemingly as fast as her lips could carry her voice, we simply smiled politely and quietly waited for our translator to communicate the stream of consciousness that she exalted towards us. “It’ll be fifteen minutes until the next tour” Alex said. I guess some of it got lost in translation.
We puttered around the gift shop until the tour started, browsing emergency flashlights, footwear, and a selection of portable toilets until the hour drew near. Though we could not understand a word of our guides excited instruction, this seemed to only be a small degree of separation, thanks of course to our translator, but also to our guides communicative gestures and her confident kindness in leading us through the maze.
None of us knew what to expect inside, but we were all shocked. We saw the store windows cracked and shattered of shops littered with scattered and broken furniture. We saw bicycles mangled and trapped by fallen rubble. We gazed at broken telephone poles and crumbling buildings. We walked the ruins of a civilization that could be called great only yesterday.
Having survived the quake and navigated the apocalyptic landscape we found that the remainder of the tour was not typical of that museum experience we are all so familiar with. We watched a preview of a Michael Bay’s new Godzilla film (at least I assume that’s what the poignant action clip was of the city of Tokyo shrouded in mayhem),as well as a few short videos of earthquake simulators which demonstrated in spectacular fashion the vital necessity of retrofitting buildings and securing the furniture within them. We pictured ourselves in an evacuation center, living in cardboard cubicles and sitting in furniture made of plastic bottles.
We climbed to the roof and gazed out unto the sparkling industrial complex all around us. The disaster that these people were preparing for was unfathomable to us, but to them it was as inevitable as the tide coming in each day. Another tour was coming up behind us, a gaggle of schoolchildren in sailor suits, serving as a gentle reminder that it was time for us to leave.