Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo

I finally got my Geiger counter! It arrived in the mail three days ago. I've been running around all over Tokyo with it, wherever I go, looking for hidden, deadly, mutating radiation. 

Ai-yai-yai-yai.... So far, no luck.

I've been all over Setagaya-ku, Shibuya, Harajuku and Chiyoda-ku... (sung to the melody of Frank Sinatra's "Down South of the Border (Down Mexico Way))" Hamamatsu-cho and down Shinagawa way! 

No sign of deadly radiation.

The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.

0.10... No problemo

You can read more techy stuff about radiation measurements here. If you check the link at the top of the page of this blog, you can see what the daily levels of radiation are in Tokyo as read by a private scientific institution.

The level of radiation in Tokyo today, even after this March 11 disaster, is still lower than Rome, Italy or Hong Kong. This reports, from the height of the disaster no less, came from Bloomberg:

Hong Kong, Cornwall Radiation Beats Tokyo Even After Japan Nuclear Crisis

Typical amounts of radiation in Hong Kong exceed those in Tokyo even as workers struggle to contain a crippled nuclear plant in northern Japan, indicating concerns about spreading contamination may be overblown.

The radiation level in central Tokyo reached a high of 0.109 microsieverts per hour in Shinjuku Ward yesterday, data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health show. That compares with 0.14 microsieverts in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Observatory said on its website. A person is exposed to 50 microsieverts from a typical x-ray.

Many countries have naturally occurring radiation levels that exceed Tokyo’s, said Bob Bury, former clinical lead for the U.K.’s Royal College of Radiologists. A 30-fold surge in such contamination in Tokyo prompted thousands of expatriates to leave Japan after the March 11 tsunami knocked out power at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, triggering the crisis. Radiation in Tokyo is barely above levels in London and New York even now, analysts said.

“The situation in Japan looks set to follow the pattern of Chernobyl, where fear of radiation did far more damage than the radiation itself,” Bury said in an e-mail referring to the 1986 accident in the former Soviet Union, the world’s worst nuclear disaster. “Whatever the radiation in Tokyo at the moment, you can be fairly sure it is lower than natural background levels in many parts of the world.”

Here you can see daily radiation levels in Hong Kong that are on par or higher than Tokyo.

I laughed when I read the above because many corporations and foreigners in Japan pulled up their stakes and moved to China after the disaster because of fears of radiation. Just goes to show how poorly people use critical reading skills (or lack thereof) along with analytical thinking abilities (or lack thereof).

It has been well known for decades that many Chinese cities and townships have extremely high background radiation levels compared with most of the world and even the Chinese government has recognized the problem for decades. And still many foreigners left Japan to go to China because of radiation fears? Excellent risk management and risk assessment abilities of the western management of those companies.

I'm sure they will do well in China!

But this post is not about China, it is about radiation in Tokyo. 

Many people say that we cannot believe what the government says about radiation. Even though I link to private scientific institutions, some naysayers still don't believe that. OK. I bought a Geiger counter. I've checked for myself. I've even hoped to find some bizarre glowing green globules of irradiated gook. I've looked everywhere.

Nope can't find them. At least not here in Tokyo.

There are even some pundits and scientists who go on the mass media and say idiotic things like, "There are no safe levels of radiation! Period!"

Well, believe what you want. If what these scientists and other fools say is true, then we all  better stay indoors and hide under our blankets for the rest of our lives. Why? Don't look now, but there's a giant ball of fire in the sky that shoots massive amounts of evil radiation at us EVERY SINGLE DAY...

Trust that if you were so daft as to stand directly out in the blistering sun everyday, with no protection, it most assuredly would be damaging to your health. 

As far as I'm concerned, I've got my Geiger counter and I can't find anything at all to worry about in Tokyo... On the other hand, when I show it to people at work, the cute girls all want to see it and play with it when I show them the device. So it is good for something.

I feel like I wasted a bunch of money on an expensive device as I cannot find any deadly radiation.... I'm married so it's too late, but I can see a good use for a Geiger counter in Tokyo... 

Having a Geiger counter in Tokyo, from my research, shows no radiation levels in Tokyo to be concerned about, but results show that having one sure seems like a great way to pick up on girls!

Self Defense Mechanisms and Why Life in America Has Gone to Hell

I want to write something that I think will be received by most Americans like my article on Lew Rockwell (LRC) entitled, "America is Bankrupt." According to Lew, that was the #2 most read article on LRC in 2005. It was roundly criticized by many Americans and even got me death threats.

Now, over 6 years years later it doesn't raise an eyebrow. I predicted the future. In fact, things are even worse than I could have imagined.

JUNIOR MURVIN - POLICE AND THIEVES

Today's article is another one ABOUT how bad life in the USA has become for the average person.

I went to America a few months ago to see my deathly ill father. I didn't want to go to America. I have really come to dislike going to that place.

Why do I dislike going to America? Well, there's something very wrong about that country. From the moment you land at the airport - I always land at Los Angeles International (LAX) - there's a tension in the air. I can't put my finger on it exactly but it seems like a racial tension. It certainly got worse after the Los Angeles riots of the early 1990's after the LA police beat up Rodney King.

Most Americans realize that America is an extremely messed up place and they will talk about it and openly complain about it amongst themselves but they will take umbrage with you if you, as an outsider, bring it up. 

People may know that their kid is an idiot but they don't like it if you say so.... 

America is one royally screwed up place. Though most Americans recognize that fact, many are in serious denial or think that it is "still the best in the world." Americans are so used to being treated like third-class citizens that they fail to comprehend what has happened to them and their country. Americans are so jaded that they think it is normal to be yelled at by police or at the airport and treated like cattle. They think that this kind of behavior is normal.

Well, it is not. It's bizarre and uniquely American.

Why don't Americans recognize how bad that country has become? I suppose it's kind of like the frog in the slowly boiling water: The sh*t has been hitting the fan so slowly that Americans cannot see what kind of a crappy third-world country that place has become.

The biggest reason I dislike that place are the police and the airport. You know, when you go to any other civilized country in the world (That excludes all War mongering NATO nations, I reckon), and leave, they don't ask you to strip down naked and take off your shoes like the USA does. They don't ask that you go through an X-ray machine like the USA does.

The last time I went to a foreign country, besides the USA, I went to Hong Kong. Weird, those Chinese. Those people are polite and they are actually pleased that you come to visit. They are polite and kind to you. They treat you with respect. What's their problem? I have the same problems whenever I visited any other country in Eastern Asia or Oceania: The border and customs officials were polite and seemed happy to have me and my wife and children visit.

Odd balls, aren't they? I mean, who wouldn't think a guy who looks like a white  American with his Japanese wife and 6-year-old son and two teenage daughters with their Gucci bags aren't terrorists with bombs strapped to themselves under their clothing ready to suicide themselves for the freedom of designerbagistan? 

The USA? The immigration agent looks at my USA passport, his lips curl at the corners and he often barks in a foul attitude,

"What is your purpose in visiting the USA?"

"Uh, duh! Hello. I have an US passport! I am an American." I think, "I have a US passport. Is this Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union? Do you have the right to ask me where I am going and why I am here?" (of course I don't not verbalize what I am thinking).

And that brings me to an interesting thing I heard from an American woman the other day. We were talking about this very same subject. She said that she recently went back to New York and was surprised because people were "nicer" than she remembered them being. She had been living in Japan since the year 2000.

I asked her to explain what she meant by "people being 'nicer'."

She said that wherever she went, to stores or shops, it seemed that people were friendlier and more polite than she remembered. She said that when she was at a coffee shop, whenever customers walked in, they would always say a very polite "good morning" to the clerks and staff.

She's right. American people do this. I've noticed it too. It is much more pronounced than it used to be before 9/11. In fact, I have pondered about this and why it happens as I love to watch people and, in my amateur views on humanity and social behavior, reason why people act the way they do.

When I was in the USA a few months ago, I saw this very same behavior by people in many places I went. It has been becoming more and more pronounced as the US police state grows and crime grows along with it. 

I didn't usually notice these overly friendly salutations at chain restaurants such as a McDonald's or fried chicken establishments or at large, very crowded restaurants. (I did, though, notice many security cameras at a McDonald's that I stopped at to get a cup of coffee off the 101 freeway heading back to LAX). I noticed this sort of overly friendly greetings and gestures at small restaurants like corner donut shops, liquor stores or out of the way mom & pop coffee shops in the neighborhood.... You know, the kinds of places that didn't have wide security apparatus and cameras like the famous chain restaurants that did or the large restaurants that were heavy with customer traffic, those were the kinds of places whereby customers would walk in (seemingly somewhat nervous) and give out a hearty "Good morning!" 

I noticed this sort of behavior by customers at these small shops. 

"Now, I wondered, "why are people acting so overly friendly? Isn't it strange?" 

I did some very surface research about crime in my home county and found that more than 10% of all felonies were robbery (with 85% being assault)... When it came to property offenses, over 1/3 were theft.

Perhaps my image is wrong, but it seems to me that robberies of these little corner shops and mom and pop restaurants are far more prevalent than robberies of big chain restaurants and establishments that are full of customers. Low traffic and poor security seem to me to make an easier target.

So, how does this abnormally high amount of extremely friendly greeting work as a self-defense mechanism? It dawned on me at a coffee shop in Oxnard, California.

I walked in. The shop clerks looked at me. They were a Vietnamese couple. Nice folks. I quietly said, "Good morning." I made my order. After me, several others came in. They all gave out a very loud "Good morning!" (It seemed too loud, in fact)... Everyone did this as they filed in and out of the shop. I sat down and enjoyed my coffee at one of the two tables available.

One after another, people came in with a very loud, "Good morning to you!" "How are you today?" etc. Nevertheless, there was that tension in the air. The same one I always felt at LAX. If you always lived in Southern California, you'd probably never notice it. But if you lived outside of the USA, this tension is very heavy and like soup in the air; it is a very heavy fog. 

Hmmm? The tension is in the air. The people all greet in a loud, yet mechanical way. "What is the reason?" I thought....  

Then it dawned on me. 

I believe that this excessively friendly greeting and attitude was a method of self-defense. When these people walk into an establishment like the ones described above, they say a hearty (exaggeratedly friendly) "Good morning!" 

The true meaning of this greeting is not, de facto "Good morning!" it actually means, "Don't worry about me. I am a safe person and mean you no harm. I just want to come and go about my business."

The greeting disarms people and allows them not to worry and can give them a chance to relax... Like I said, I believe it is a defense mechanism.

It is just one more reason why the USA has gone to hell in a handbasket. People must now announce their intentions in coded language to others to show that they mean no harm. It used to be the other way around; people expected others to be civil; that was normal and a matter of course.

It used to be that it was normal behavior that everyone was not a criminal and only criminals announced their intentions upon entering and establishment by way of saying something like, "This is a robbery! Put your hands up!" Now, in 2011 USA, normal people must disarm others by announcing that they are not criminals by overtly loud salutations.

Many Americans will scoff at this idea (like they scoffed at my 2005 article). But, deny it as you wish, it is pretty difficult for any human being to shut off their basic human survival mechanism regardless of what country they are living in.

In today's USA it is necessary to let others know that you have no ill-intentions. It used to be obvious and common that people had no ill-intentions towards others... In today's USA? One never knows. 

In today's USA you must broadcast your intentions. It is a bizarre and sad state of affairs.

I can't possibly be the only person who sees this. I think it is even more prominent after a long absence. Opinions?

  

China a No-Show at this Year's JATA World Travel Fair in Tokyo

One thing that definitely had a bad impression on the JATA World Travel Fair 2010 was the last minute cancellation of the displays and booths from China.


The Asahi.com gives us some insight as to why this happened:

BEIJING--City authorities here, reacting to the row with Japan over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain, have called on local travel agencies to refrain from aggressively selling and promoting tours to Japan.

The step appears to be a deliberate measure to express Beijing's displeasure with Tokyo.

Earlier, China shelved Cabinet-level contacts with Japan.

Japanese authorities arrested the Chinese trawler captain after he rammed two Japan Coast Guard vessels in waters off the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

The incident two weeks ago soured bilateral ties because both countries claim sovereignty over the islands, which Chinese call Diaoyutai.

According to several travel agencies, Beijing's municipal tourism authorities summoned representatives of dozens of tourist companies Tuesday night to request they be less assertive in promoting tours to Japan.

The request was made verbally, according to people who attended the meeting.

An official with a leading travel agency in Beijing said Wednesday that tours to Japan up to early October that have been already booked will go ahead as scheduled.

But the agency is not recommending tours after that because Japan-China relations remain so strained.

China usually has a huge display on board for the JATA World Travel Fair so they were sorely missed. But the folks at JATA did a great job working like crazy to fill a huge hole in display area that was left by an absent China. I would imagine that most visitors to the JATA World Travel Fair 2010 would not notice China's absence unless they were alerted to it intentionally.


It struck me as strange, though, that, while China did not attend, there were huge displays and exhibits by Hong Kong and Macau.


Mish of Global Economic Analysis writes:

Tensions between China and Japan reached new heights in an escalating war of nerves between Japan and China. Here is the approximate sequence of events.

Japan kicked things off on September 7, with the arrest of a Chinese boat captain in disputed waters. In an escalating dispute, China blocked exports of rare earth metals to Japan on September 22.

Rare earth minerals are used in manufacturing and weapons production. The US gets most of its rare earth elements from China.

Tensions increased on September 23 when China arrested four Japanese employees of Fujita Corp on suspicion of violating Chinese law regarding the protection of military facilities.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton entered the fray "urging dialogue".

The House Armed Services Committee scheduled a hearing on Oct. 5 to review the American military dependence on Chinese rare earth elements.

Japan releases captain.


Of course it takes two to tango and Japan is not totally innocent in this incident, but this sort of nonsense could really spiral out of control. I really wonder why the Chinese government will sacrifice so much of their own economic good and the welfare of the people for such political and nationalistic principles. Couldn't these things be calmly discussed without such antics?


I remember in March of this year when the Chinese government (well, the Macau government to be exact) suddenly revoked the license of a domestic airlines and stranded 4,000 Japanese in one day. I understand that there might be some sort of problems, but doing things in this manner is akin to taking a hammer out to fix a problem with your car... 


They should have taken care of business and made sure the passengers could have flown and everything was fine on the business side... Stranding passengers just hurts business and a countries image and hurts sales and tourism. Hurting sales and tourism not only hurts the government's income, it hurts to regular person on the street trying to earn a living.


Let's hope that they keep this in mind when continuing to deal with these problems and cooler heads prevail.


--------


Keywords:
China,  JATA,  JATA World Tourism Congress and Travel Fair,  Marketing Japan, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, JATA WTF 2010,  Macau, Hong Kong, Mike Rogers