A year on and two rememberences
Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.
This is the year anniversary of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami up in Sendai. Japan is continuing. We still have an energy crisis because of the major power plant disaster that followed. Many of the homes and buildings are yet to be rebuilt. But Japan continues its resilience in the face of challenge. For us down in Shikoku, life returned to normal relatively quickly. We may be paying a little more for power to compensate for Tokyo's usage, but really nothing too noticeable.
I just watched a video someone posted on Facebook which was a "thank you" message from the people of the Touhoku (Northeast) Region to all the people from around the world who helped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-sWdAQsYg&feature=youtu.be
I have trouble watching videos like this for a number of reasons:
1. I don't want to see those images again. Disasters and tragedies don't need to be relived, just remembered is enough.
2. Though there are many touching stories remembered, I find the delivery of them in a couple of minutes with booming and triumphant music to be in poor taste. This is probably only me who feels this way, but an over zealous soundtrack at high volume cheapens the drama of a true story. Low-key or source material tellings allow a story to speak for itself rather than music telling the viewer how s/he should feel.
3. Yes, this was a video to thank all those around the world who helped, but I felt it was missing the native aspect. People from all over Japan helped too, but their stories felt neglected.
I loved the images of roads and buildings repaired, displaying then and now, look how far we've come so fast.
Now this next video is much longer and of course has its drawbacks (the audio is confusing for the first few minutes. If you don't speak Japanese, all you need to know is it starts out as normal day and then the emergency broadcast system comes on), but what I like about it is how it portrays the chaos of that day, gives us glimpses of scenes that spark our memory then moves on quickly to show us how everyone pitched in and worked together in "Operation Tomodachi" (tomodachi means friendship)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_hrcko7Kaw&feature=related
Yes, music and loudness are used in this one, but the music doesn't start until what I believe was part of a benefit concert for Touhoku. And the loudness is purely audio from the news.
In other news, I have a temporary wall up in my room so that construction workers can take down and rebuild the actual wall so that my apartment building won't fall down. The wall is made of drywall and tape. I'm cold.
This is the year anniversary of the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami up in Sendai. Japan is continuing. We still have an energy crisis because of the major power plant disaster that followed. Many of the homes and buildings are yet to be rebuilt. But Japan continues its resilience in the face of challenge. For us down in Shikoku, life returned to normal relatively quickly. We may be paying a little more for power to compensate for Tokyo's usage, but really nothing too noticeable.
I just watched a video someone posted on Facebook which was a "thank you" message from the people of the Touhoku (Northeast) Region to all the people from around the world who helped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-sWdAQsYg&feature=youtu.be
I have trouble watching videos like this for a number of reasons:
1. I don't want to see those images again. Disasters and tragedies don't need to be relived, just remembered is enough.
2. Though there are many touching stories remembered, I find the delivery of them in a couple of minutes with booming and triumphant music to be in poor taste. This is probably only me who feels this way, but an over zealous soundtrack at high volume cheapens the drama of a true story. Low-key or source material tellings allow a story to speak for itself rather than music telling the viewer how s/he should feel.
3. Yes, this was a video to thank all those around the world who helped, but I felt it was missing the native aspect. People from all over Japan helped too, but their stories felt neglected.
I loved the images of roads and buildings repaired, displaying then and now, look how far we've come so fast.
Now this next video is much longer and of course has its drawbacks (the audio is confusing for the first few minutes. If you don't speak Japanese, all you need to know is it starts out as normal day and then the emergency broadcast system comes on), but what I like about it is how it portrays the chaos of that day, gives us glimpses of scenes that spark our memory then moves on quickly to show us how everyone pitched in and worked together in "Operation Tomodachi" (tomodachi means friendship)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_hrcko7Kaw&feature=related
Yes, music and loudness are used in this one, but the music doesn't start until what I believe was part of a benefit concert for Touhoku. And the loudness is purely audio from the news.
In other news, I have a temporary wall up in my room so that construction workers can take down and rebuild the actual wall so that my apartment building won't fall down. The wall is made of drywall and tape. I'm cold.