Important info from US Embassy to People Stranded in Japan

The American Chamber of Commerce sent this message from the US Embassy in Japan. Please forward.

March 12, 2011  14:20

This warden message is being issued by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo to advise U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Japan of ways to let family and friends know your status.  This information is also being posted on the Embassy website to help family members to get the status of the person they are looking for.

For information regarding tsunami warnings issued by the Japan Meteorological Agency, please see the JMA website: http://www.jma.go.jp/en or http://www.jma.go.jp/en/tsunami/

We understand that there are limited flights departing from Narita and Haneda airports in the Tokyo area. If you trying to fly out from Japan, please contact your airline to see if it is scheduled to depart.

For those who are in Japan and wish to inform of us of your condition, please send an e-mail to <JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov>  and provide the following information:

• Full Name
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth
• As much information as possible regarding your physical location (address, hotel name, etc.) and contact information (home phone, cell phone, email address, etc.) within Japan.
• Please also in your e-mail please state that we may your release information to people who may contact us regarding your welfare.

We encourage you to try to contact your family and friends.  Possible ways to inform your family of your situation:

1. While we understand that there have been disruptions in communications in Japan, including the interruption of internet and mobile telephone service, we encourage you to continue your efforts to be in contact with your loved one(s) using SMS texting and other social media (e.g., FaceBook, My Space, Twitter, etc) that your loved one(s) may use.

Other possible ways to inform your family of your situation:

2.  Google

Google has created the site, "Google Person Finder".

http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com/?lang=en

If you are in Japan, you can post messages about your whereabouts.  A person looking for you can type in your name to find out if you are safe.  Similarly, your family or friends may have posted a message that they are looking for you.

3.  Cell Phone Messages

If you have a cell phone in Japan, you can post messages via your cell phone provider.  Family and friends who know your cell phone company can check the cell phone company's website below and type in your phone number to see any message you have left.  The available areas are Aomori, Miyagi, Yamagata and Fukushima prefectures.

For Docomo users:

http://dengon.docomo.ne.jp/top.cgi

For KDDI (Ezweb) users:

http://dengon.ezweb.ne.jp/

For Softbank users:

http://dengon.softbank.ne.jp/

For Wilcom users:

http://dengon.willcom-inc.com/dengon/Top.do

For Emobile users:

http://dengon.emnet.ne.jp/

Another way to find out:

http://dengon.emnet.ne.jp/

Please continue to monitor the Embassy's website, http://japan.usembassy.gov/, for updated information.

For telephone inquiries, please call 202-501-4444 or 1-888-407-4747.

US Embassy Tokyo

 

Japan Bus Tours - Example of Project Expectations?

A friend mentioned that she understands better "why Japanese are like they are", after having been on a weekend bus tour to Mt. Fuji. I've been on Japanese bus tours before, but it never really dawned on me that they could be a window on the soul of the Japanese, but I suppose they are, in a way. I've always been against them, but occasionally bow to pressure from the higher authorities at my house, like my wife and daughters, and go on a bus tour.

On projects I've groused with other PMs that people here expect everything to be presented on a silver platter. And by people, I mostly mean Japanese people, who are the users in 99% of the cases where I'm managing projects. It has been difficult to explain why I would not write out every step for every action by users, and I think the bus tour is at fault! Consider the careful service you get on a bus tour:

• Everything laid out in great detail with to-the-minute scheduling of every stop on the tour. Now we're using the bathroom, now we're buying souvenirs.
• A tour guide with a little flag to lead you around the site, in case you can't read the detailed map you've been given. This is a famous sight, is it not?
• Continual announcements about what's next and what just happened, as well as the rules you'll need to follow. Just in case you did not get it from the detailed itinerary.
• Big signs saying how many minutes you have at the particular stop, again, in case you did not understand the repeated announcements.

Westerners certainly have a different approach to things of course, and generally take a more independent, less supervised approach. So one could either feel a bus tour in Japan is either incredibly well put together, or incredibly overbearing. A taxi driver I mentioned this to said that Japanese expect this type of treatment, because their mothers tell them what to do at every turn.

Maybe the PM title stands more for "Project Mother", in Japan. I suppose I should just get used to it, after such a long stay here.

Japan WiFi Access for 380 Yen per Month

Yodobashi Camera has a nice wifi access plan called Wireless Gate, with 6000+ access points across Japan for 380 yen per month according to the pamphlet I have. Wireless Gate looks like a good plan, and here's how you can sign up (but in Japanese, so get some help from a friend if you're kanji-impaired):

• Visit the Wireless Gate Website
• Email info@wi-gate.net
• Call toll free 0120-779978

In the pamphlet I got at Yodobashi Camera Shinjuku, they advertise it as working with the iPhone too, so if you do not have the all-you-can-eat plan from Softbank, this might be of help.

My Bicycle Routes - Mostly in Japan

I decided to create some Google "My Maps" to show the bike routes I take near my house in Yokohama, Japan. There are some really nice routes along the Sakai and Mekujiri Rivers. See them here: Rick Cogley's Bicycle Routes - Mostly in Japan.

Japan Cycling Route - Totsuka, Mekujiri, Sagami, Ebina and back

This last weekend I researched and tried a new cycling route, which turned out to be about 59 km. The route goes through Totsuka, Shonandai, Up the Mekujiri River on a bike path ("jitenshado" 自転車度), across Zama to the Sagami River, Down the Sagami on some trails, and back across to the Mekujiri River bike path via Ebina. I entered the route on Google Maps so other English-speaking cyclists in Japan can enjoy it.

Riders should note, that the Mekujiri RIver Bike Path has sections where every 100 meters there is a "gate" you have to swerve through ostentatiously to keep speeds down. If you want to just ride straight and fast, the Yamato Fujisawa Jitenshado is better. Also, the Sagami River bike path is not so much bike path but rather more trail, and is still underdeveloped and so would not be appropriate for a road bike. I read online that they are building a proper bike path along the Sagami River, which is due to be complete in 2011. I tried to pick routes where if the route was along a road, at least there was a decent sidewalk available to use, for riders who are still a little nervous about riding on the road directly.

Enjoy!

Apologies: The Japanese Tradition

I've lived in Japan since 1987, and it never ceases to amaze me about the way there's constant apology going on for fairly trivial stuff, but none when it's really needed. Anyway, I'm probably guilty of apologizing too much myself, having been here in Japan so long. This video Apologies: The Japanese Tradition, provenance unknown, is a fairly hysterical look at apology here, and is spot on. Check out the guy's facial expressions - quite humorous in places.