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Water Stock in Mansion

Disaster Preparation and Water

To prepare for disaster, you have to stock water to survive. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a goal to recover water supply and sewerage systems in 30 days. This means, you likely cannot get water in kitchen or bathroom nor flush toilet for a month.  In Hanshin Awaji earthquake’s case in 1995, to restore water systems in all Kobe city area completely, it took 3 months. Realistically it is not possible to stock water to survive 3 months in your living  room. What can we do then?

Amount of Water Required

In general, one person needs 2-3 litters of water a day. You take this much of water from drinks and food daily. 6 x 2-litter bottled water covers 4-6 days for a person. You can find 6×2-litter bottled water in a box in supermarket or online store easily, so get 2 boxes of them for one person of your family to secure water for a week+. Usually the more you buy at once the cheaper a cost per bottle will be. Once you secure room to stock water, buy enough number of bottles.

There are long storage type of water which is good as long as 5 years. You can also find cheaper 2-year storable water. Mix them as well as veggie juice, bottled teas and such that you consume daily as rolling stock. In case of disaster, no matter how much money you have you cannot get enough amount of stuff you want. When you can buy whatever you want, just do it. Especially for those of you live in upper floor of mansion, you won’t be able to bring litters of water until elevators come back available. Make sure you get some extra, hopefully a double.

Note: “Mansion” is a 3-story or higher condominium or apartment building in Japan. “Apartment” is usually a 2-story wooden apartment.

 

For my case as an example, have mix of 5-year and 2-year storable water and Mugicha (caffeine free barley tea) in total 6 dozens of 2-litter drinks for my wife, 5-year daughter and myself living on 7th floor of a mansion.

Don’t Dump Water After Big Earthquake in Mansion

After a big earthquake, do not dump water or flush toilet as sewage pipe of your mansion may be damaged. Have a specialist check all pipes running in your building before everyone is allowed to dump water. For the same reason, dump water in your bathtub every time after use. You cannot use it to flush toilet anyway and many people who experienced earthquakes report bathtub broke the bathroom because the heavyweight water inside bathtub was shaken hard and it broke wall where the bathtub was mounted.

Tip: Get Dishes Done After Every Meal

In addition to the above, I highly recommend to do dishes after every meal. Doing dishes require a lot of water. Do laundry everyday for the same reason. Before getting on a train, airplane, elevator and such, make sure use a bathroom if you feel it or you will be in big trouble after surviving from a big earthquake…

Now you have knowledge how to wisely manage water. Take action whatever you can do now or today to be a Tokyo Saviva!

 

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You must read “Tokyo Bousai (Disaster Preparedness Tokyo)”, a guide book to prepare for earthquake and other disasters.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Disaster Prevention Guide

If you live or work in Tokyo, you might have seen a small package or a book looks like a picture the above. It reads “Tokyo Bousai” where Bousai means “disaster prevention” in Japanese Kanji characters. It is a guide book published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 2015 and has been delivered to officies and houses/apartments for free in a package containing a guide book, a sticker, and a map. This well designed guide book gives you a lot of good information with text, illustration, checklist, and contact information about how you get prepared for a huge earthquake, how to get yourself and family secured when an earthquake hits, and how you survive after the event. The original publication was of course in Japanese, but translated versions are also available in PDF format for free to download.

“Do it now.”

In the original Japanese version, the book has a strong message “Do it now.” Good understanding of disaster lets you to take appropriate action when it is necessary. Without knowing what to do, people can get panicked easily and it influences other people. If you or someone you know are living in Tokyo (or other big city in Japan), or visiting short while for business or sight seeing or Olympic games in 2020 or something, I highly recommend to read this guide book immediately.

Download your PDF copy for free.

You can download English, Chines, and Korean versions of PDF files of “Tokyo Bousai” from the below links of Tokyo Metropolitan Government Disaster Prevention Information website.

English: Disaster Preparedness Tokyo PDF Download

Chinese: 关于制作《东京防灾》 PDF Download

Korean: 방재책자 ‘도쿄방재’ PDF Download

If you can read Japanese, you can download 東京防災 from most of online e-book stores such as Amazon Kindle store, iBook store, and Google Play Books.

List of online e-book stores you can download Japanese version of “東京防災”

Amazon Kindle:

This can be a good gift as well.

Real book in Japanese is still available at 140 JPY including tax in some real stores in Tokyo and other areas as well. If you find it helpful or good as a gift for your friends back in home town, visit one of the stores listed in the below link.

List of real stores where you might be able to get real books (English).

Should you need help finding a place to get your copy, feel free to drop your comment. I’ll suggest stores to visit and/or contact stores to check the availability on a best effort basis. 🙂

Japan is a country of earthquakes.

Everywhere in Japan has a big potential to get impacted by big earthquake at any time. When areas in where you live or work are hit, you have to first protect yourself, your family and then people near you. After the event, you have to survive by helping each other until the time you can escape from the area or things become back safe and steady. This is the basic idea. If you are not familiar with earthquake and/or disaster prevention, read the Tokyo Bousai guide book now as a first step to be a Tokyo Saviva.

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Long Shelf Life Veggie Juice Helps!

Yasai Ichinichi Kore Ippon

You cannot take enough veggies daily, can you?

If you miss lunch time in Tokyo area, what you can find are Ramen, Tonkatsu, fast food, conveni (convenience store) where you cannot get enough vegetable. Also at the time of disaster, fresh vegetables and fruits become most wanted food. So, I purchased a box (30 cans) of “KAGOME Yasai Ichinichi Kore Ippon (カゴメ　野菜一日これ一本)“, vegetable juice named “a can of veggies for a day”, about three years ago, and I am drinking it lately as the best-before date is coming soon. Yes, one of the good thing of this veggie juice is its long life – you can store it as long as 3+ years.

Yasai Ichinichi Kore Ippon

Tastes good!

If you are fan of tomato juice, you’ll love this. This is very thick, little pasty juice with flavors of other vegetables such as carrot, spinach, onion, and so forth. It contains 30 veggies. Unlike other veggie juices in paper pack, you can feel you had veggies! after drinking it for sure. No salt or sugar is added but because of the nature taste of veggies, you can enjoy this juice as a dish of salad adding to your meal. It is amazing that you can store this can of juice for 3+ years!

At a time of disaster, you have very limited water to wash, so you might want to use a straw to drink, rinse with little water or open with a can-opener before you through the can away otherwise remaining juice inside the can will cause smell and small bugs.

Remember, at a time of disaster, you cannot get fresh vegetables no matter how much money you have. Buy a case for emergency. As I wrote the above, this juice works well for daily life as well – if you stop drinking for some reason, cans will still good for 3 years.

So, let’s get “KAGOME Yasai Ichinichi Kore Ippon (カゴメ　野菜一日これ一本)” and be a Tokyo Saviva!

 

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Introduction of “Tokyo Saviva”

Hello everyone.

This blog “Tokyo Saviva” is to introduce ideas to survive in Tokyo and other big cities in Japan.

“Saviva” means “Survivor”.

Ideas introduced will be about daily life, disaster prevention, clean energy, home garden, self-owned business, etc., for you to be a Tokyo Saviva.

 

Entries will be in English and Japanese, so hope this blog will be helpful for you who live in Tokyo or who visit Tokyo.

Thanks!