They’re both called kaiju. Japanese for strange creature, but in English we usually translate it as monster.
Hard to think of this little guy as a monster, but you watch and decide.
Little Kaiju. from a TWiN thing. on Vimeo.
Follow the link above for more info and credits.
If nothing else I really want to go back to Japan now.
See you next time!
When I arrived in Oregon my friend, Erik, told me about a section of dock that was torn away from its moorings in Japan and ended up on the beach in Oregon.
Yes, that’s what I said, a section of DOCK TORE AWAY in JAPAN and FLOATED to OREGON!
Yeah, I was impressed too.
In my head I pictured something wooden, like the kind of dock you see in a movie about a summer camp, horror or otherwise. It seems easy for something like that to get pulled away in a tsunami and dragged out to sea. This dock in my head impressed me just because I imagined that it was a very well put together wooden dock since Japan is almost 8,000 miles away. It took about a year to get across the ocean to end up in Oregon. It was sad and amazing and I was looking forward to seeing it in a weird way.
After a couple of days getting caught up in training and getting used to a new city, a city that will be my home for the month of July, I kinda’ forgot about the dock. Then we went to dinner at a pizza place that over looks the beach. We sat at a booth near the window and Erik pointed out the dock.
It was massive.
This was no wooden structure, this was cement and rebar and steel. This didn’t hold dingies this was for major boats (crab boats it turns out). And even mostly submerged by the incoming tide you could still tell how big it was. I tried to get pictures from the window, but I only had my phone with me and my phone is dying (more on that another day) so I couldn’t get any of the pictures to turn out. We resolved to go another day when the tide was out so we could get a better look.
We finally went down to the beach just the other day and saw the dock. Here are the pictures I took:
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| Even this far away you can see how big it is. |
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| Here are people in various planes showing scale. |
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| When it landed it was covered in 1.5 tons of sea life. |
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| This is from on the dock, looking back from where it came. |
It was humbling to see this. It’s made of all the stuff we use when we want to make something “permanent” and to the power of the ocean it was nothing.
Tonight as I was writing this Erik mentioned that the local government have set up a hotline for people to report tsunami debris. He also told me that if you find a shoe you’re not supposed to look inside, human remains may still be in them. That’s just a horrifying thought. I decided to look up some news on this and there’s actually quite a bit, a giant dock making it 8,000 across the ocean with no one noticing is quite a story. Here is a link to the NPR story. It gives the dimensions of the dock (66′ long, 7′ tall!) and tells you more about where it came from and what this means for the Pacific coast in regard to tsunami debris.
No matter how impressive our human achievements, nature only needs to flex it’s muscles once to humble us.
See you tomorrow.
This is something cool and Japanese:
This is a political pundit demanding action and results:
See you tomorrow!
I am very excited about making this week as productive as last week was. I woke up early to do some personal, and frankly frivolous, things so I have the rest of the day to conduct business. I’ve been working very hard on my time management. I think most people who really know me know that I like to get involved in things. I get very excited about them and then run myself ragged trying to find a way to fit everything in. I’m trying to re-train my brain to see things a bit differently and learn how to say no. I hate saying no. I hate limits. I much prefer the idea that a person can find a way to do it all. I still believe that, but I also have to acknowledge that it is nearly impossible to do it all and do it all well. So I’m pairing down as my current responsibilities begin to finish themselves and only taking on the projects and things that I really want to do as opposed to just anything that sounds like it might be a good idea.
One of the things that I’ve been trying to keep up with, that I did while working out this morning, is maintain my and learn more Japanese. I went to Japan several times with my ex-wife and fell in love with the country. The culture, the public transportation, how clean it all is, and the fact that people just have a whole different outlook. It seems silly, the outlook bit, but there is a different sense of responsibility and work and life. This is not to say that this outlook is better, I mean extremes exist in all cultures. I’m sure we’ve all heard about business men on all night benders, suicides and people who watch Pachinko balls all day, but I have a great deal of respect for the Japanese way of life. One of the things that I have been planning, one of my goals for the last few years, is a big trip. There are several stops planned, but I want to spend a good amount of time in Japan. While I wait I’ve been trying to keep up with my Japanese. In addition to the CD’s that I originally got back in two thousand something, my friend Sam pointed my to a podcast called JapanesePod101. To be honest I don’t actually use the site. The site costs money, as all things of value should, but I just don’t have it to spare right now so I subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes. I love these podcasts! I listen to all the levels that are available and try to push myself to understand what the instructors are talking about. Part of what inspired this blog today was that I listened to one of the all Japanese audio-blogs today and understood what they were saying! Not every word, but a lot of them. Enough to actually follow along. It was really great!
As I take a look at how I spend my time now I’m glad there are a few things that I can do at the same time. Podcasts and exercise are a pretty obvious one – as I’m sure many of you know – but also blogging while rendering and finding money while eating and a great deal more while doing other stuff. I’m looking forward to being more productive.
Oh, and I just got another political cartoon from my friend Scott that I thought I’d share too! I think it’s important to remember, no matter whom the president is, that nothing changes over night except the weather.
