Friday, March 11, 2011

Japan Earthquake Info Sources (English/日本語)

Summarizing info on the disaster / how to help people suffering from Japan Earthquake.
Seems that there are relatively less multi-lingual info sources, so hoping that this list helps. If you have friends who need such info sources, please let them know.

Multi-lingual information sites

Google Crisis Response site
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

NYT
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

NHK World News
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

NHK USTREAM Live
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

NHK Radio
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/radio/program/index.html

Reuters live blog
http://live.reuters.com/Event/Japan_earthquake2

Disaster info on Twitter in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Italian and Dutch
http://imperium-donuzium.org/

Japan earthquake how to protect yourself (not latest news, but useful tips)http://nip0.wordpress.com/

Donation sites

Causes
http://www.causes.com/campaigns/154523

Japan Red Cross via Google Crisis Response
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

American Red Cross:
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main
you can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to Japan's emergency relief.

Links to donation sites:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_newsroom/20110311/wl_yblog_newsroom/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-how-to-help

日本の情報サイト

消息情報
http://japan.person-finder.appspot.com

災害情報 (Google)
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

災害情報 (NHK)
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/saigai/jishin/index.html

Save Japan!
http://savejapan.simone-inc.com/

Twitter info
http://blog.twitter.jp/2011/03/blog-post_12.html

NHK USTREAM放送
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gtv

被災地での給水・炊き出し・物資情報共有サイト
http://okguide.okwave.jp/guides/40782

地震発生時災害マニュアル
http://nip0.wordpress.com/about/

日本の寄付サイト

災害救助支援団体リスト
http://www.thinktheearth.net/jp/thinkdaily/emergency/2011/03/post-2.html

PWJ
http://www.peace-winds.org/jp/support/donatenow.html

Yahoo 基金
http://volunteer.yahoo.co.jp/donation/detail/1630001/index.html

Google Crisis Response (日本赤十字)
http://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html

Groupon Japan
http://www.groupon.jp/cid/7995/dtype/main

はてなポイント義援金
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/hatenacontrib/20110312/1299904670

GREE
http://www.gree.co.jp/news/press/2011/0312.html

Saturday, March 5, 2011

City Photos: Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Climbing

March 2011, Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House

Sydney has lots of remarkably beautiful architectures. Two of them are the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. They are next to each other, and you can enjoy magnificent view created by the combination of those. Especially, boarding on cruise ships is a good way to enjoy those from lots of different angles. The photo above is one of those taken from a ship.

And the Harbour Bridge has something very special that no other bridge has. You can climb on the bridge, to the top (where the flags are in the photo above)!
It was by far the best thing I did in Sydney. The great view from 134 meters (440 feet) above is absolutely amazing. Being at this height in open space, the experience is totally different from normal observatories. Especially in the twilight climb that starts from 5:30pm, you can see the gradual change of the color of the sky and the city in daylight, dusk, then night.
It is an experience that you would remember for life.

I couldn't bring my camera to the top of the bridge (it's extremely dangerous if people drop their cameras. There are cars and trains running below), but I took pictures of climbers from the pylon later.

You can see people on the right edge of the bridge

Walking through the structure

The top of the bridge