And soon after 18,000 people died and Fukushima had a nuclear meltdown, caused a vast area to become uninhabitable.

Who are you and where were you at the time?

British Canadian permanent resident of Japan. Was working on the 16th floor of the Mark City building in Shibuya.

ಠ_ಠ

Why didn’t you evacuate the building during that first minute? As a former CA resident I am surprised by the lack of response from you and team members.

Japan and its buildings are no strangers to quakes. They definitely didn't expect it to be this bad but if you live in Japan for any substantial amount of time, you would definitely be used to quakes.

>>Why didn’t you evacuate the building…

Probably because Japanese building engineers take earthquake codes seriously- as the video capably demonstrates.

In the US? Well, if you’re close to an exit get out first. It’s a better place to discover if the contractor followed the rules or lobbied their way around them.

Yes, the dystopian society in CA where there are no regulations and builders get to run wild.

It’s emblematic of how negative Reddit has become when you ask a genuine question about the cultural differences between regions and you are downvoted, and the discussion shifts to nationalism.

I can understand that, living on the fault line in the east bay of CA that was 30 years overdue at that point made us all very fearful of quakes even though we went through them frequently. The difference might have just been the age of construction of the area I lived in and the nature of the inevitable massive quake that was coming (still hasn’t hit, only getting stronger), vs modern building in an urban center with more regular large quakes. Thanks for the input!

If that happened in Europe we all would be dead.

Amazing ingeneering. After Turkish earthquake... it's incredible looking at the street and not seeing smoke and dust everywhere.

Is that still the biggest you've experienced, Greg?

Definitely, but then that was the largest Japan as a whole has experienced for a very long time.

There's been a couple times I've been sucked into a rabbit hole of Japan earthquake/tsunami videos... definitely grim and terrifying stuff

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We’ll I for one think Trudeau is still far and away better than a large swath of American leaders.

Reminding Americans that there's more to The Americas than just the USA is a surefire way to trigger another Jan 6th riot from the Gravy Seals.

Shibuya, shibuya!

It’s not nationalism to say that the Japanese have better building codes than the US does. Spend some time there and you’ll quickly realize that

Frank?

That is terrifying, Greg.

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Over a minute? Why did you not exit the building?

Dude at 1:30 just sipping his coffee. I wish I could be that chill.

They were on the 26th floor and even if he went outside he would have been surrounded by high rises. Best to just sit tight.

Is that a common response? (Op, not you), because as a kid that grew up on the San Andreas Fault, they taught us to get under our desks. But if you get under something in an earthquake, you are burying yourself alive. The best place to be, in an earthquake is outdoors.
My instincts would have been to start heading down stairs.

Edit:down voted for my "instincts " having grown up in earthquake zone.

He was also speaking Japanese to others in the office, so perhaps he knew no one around him spoke English?

Jump to 01:30 @ Tokyo Earthquake 2011-03-11 In Office

^(Channel Name: GregInTokyo, Video Length: [04:29])^, ^Jump ^5 ^secs ^earlier ^for ^context ^@01:25

^^Downvote ^^me ^^to ^^delete ^^malformed ^^comments. ^^Source ^^Code ^^| ^^Suggestions

We had the same advice to get under a desk growing up in Alaska

The main dangers in earthquakes are things falling on you or you falling over. Getting under a desk is good advice to prevent things from falling on you.

Trying to get outside during an earthquake is generally not great advice. The USGS says, "DON'T run downstairs or rush outside while the building is shaking or while there is danger of falling and hurting yourself or being hit by falling glass or debris."

After the 7.1 in Anchorage I looked things up and concluded that the best thing for me to do if an Earthquake happens at night is stay in bed, since there's nothing overhead in my room.

Are you Tokyo Vice?

Oh that was a terrible day. I am still haunted by the images of the water sweeping over everything without a sign of slowing down.

speaking from another earthquake prone nation where we used to do earthquake drills at school ... why are none of these people under their desks?

Folks when an earthquake hits get away from the windows! In the Northridge quake they dug glass out of the wall that was calculated, in order to penetrate that deeply, to be traveling at 60MPH.

/r/CrazyFuckingVideos

I couldn’t stop looking at this guy. Maybe it’s not his first earthquake

Roll call?

Hats off to the men and women responsible to designing and building Tokyo's buildings - very impressive.

"We may not make it out of this" As co-worker calmly sips his drink.

Interesting. Thank you for your replies. I never thought about over head debris, etc. I grew up in Cali. When ever we had earthquakes, I would go stand in the middle of the front yard, (home), or the playground, (school)

I've never been in an earthquake while 26 stories up, so I guess my thought process is a bit skewed.

Thanks for the reply. We all have something to learn.

"Then I shall die as one of them" vibes

There we go

Out in the street is far more dangerous. The main hazard during an earthquake is falling debris. Hiding under a sturdy desk or table is a best. If that's not an option, keep away from anything that can fall and protect your head.