Oldstone Place » Japan

What happened at Fukushima

dmortell — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:14:08 +0000

BraveNewClimate has a reassuring account of what happened at the nuclear power reactors in Fukushima and the potential worst-case scenarios will be nowhere near the scale of the Chernobyl disaster.

The comments provide interesting discussion and add further details.

Some further reassurance by Harvard Kennedy School Associate Professor Matthew Bunn that while the situation is serious, there is no possibility of a runaway chain reaction.

Satellite photos of Fukushima plant

dmortell — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:11:00 +0000

Fukushima nuclear power plant after the explosions in reactor number 1 and number 3. Reactor 1 is at the bottom left, reactor 4 is top right. Smoke is rising from reactor number 3.

Around the World for Free

dmortell — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:18:14 +0000

Check out Jeff Shroeder and his trip around the world for free. Skip to 01:45 to see who he meets at Hachiko in Shibuya. Get live updates of Jeffs travels at the site or on twitter.

Skiing and Spanking

dmortell — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:55:50 +0000

Went to Naeba in Niigata this weekend for some skiing with the guys from work. The weather was miserable on Saturday, but it warmed up a bit on Sunday. The Noobs were getting pretty good at skiing by Sunday, but not before I got some video of Pats faceplant and Endas wipeout

Fortunately we had no Danglers. This man apparently dangled for 7 minutes before being rescued!

Saturday night we went to Lornes’s Snodeck bar for his birthday and a bit of spanking!

Hiroko Mima – Miss Universe Japan 2008

dmortell — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:11:35 +0000

Hiroko Mima has won the 2008 Miss Universe Japan. Hiroko, a university student and athlete from Tokushima in Western Japan, was selected from amongst 9 other beautiful ladies to represent Japan at the Miss Universe competition in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 14 later this year.

Having had the pleasure of meeting Hiroko, and two of the other competitors, Kana Anan and Yoshimi Sato, at the Emerald Ball in March, I can honestly say that the photos do not do them justice. The girls are much more beautiful in real life, and after putting up with 20 drunken Irish young lads at the Westin Hotel, they are great sports too.

End of World Postponed

dmortell — Sun, 25 May 2003 23:07:01 +0000

The Panawave Laboratory cult predicted that the world would end on May 15th. They postponed it until May 22nd when it failed to end on schedule. They’re still travelling around in white vans, wrapping up trees and fences in white cloth while they figure out why the world isn’t cooperating with them.

Star Wars Episode II

dmortell — Sat, 13 Jul 2002 10:42:41 +0000

Episode II started in Japan today. I’ll go see it when the queues to get in are less than 2 hours long.

Danger on Tokyo Roads

dmortell — Mon, 24 Dec 2001 08:42:38 +0000

I passed the Japanese driving test! Thanks to Matt who lent me the text books and sample papers, and Ga-chan who let me use his car on the Samezu test course for a couple of weekends, I passed the infamous Ippatsu Shobu. It only cost about ¥30,000 – not bad compared to the ¥350,000 it would have cost if I’d gone to a driving school.

Abba in Japan

dmortell — Wed, 24 Jan 2001 08:48:49 +0000

For Yukie’s birthday we planned to take her to an Italian restaurant for a nice quiet meal with just a couple of close friends.

Or so she thought….

For months before the actual event, Reiko, Yuka, Junko and Yasuko had planned something completely different. Bugger the small dinner party! Lets invite EVERYONE! To Velfarre, one of the biggest nightclubs in Tokyo.

Despite the snow blizzard outside, nearly everyone made it and we had an excellent time.

The lighting was really bad, and all I had was my video recorder, so sorry for the poor pictures. Thankfully Reno switched the video to night mode so we can just about make out the guests.

One of the highlights of the show was the surprise appearance of ABBA !

They really are pros!

The Para Para team were just brilliant! LOL! I’ve never laughed so much before!

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for, we are proud to present…

The Parapara Movie !!

The Para para show was absolutely fantastic! I stilil burst out laughing every time I watch this video, it’s just sooo good

View the movie (1.85Mb)
The 3 original AVI files total about 400Mb and are very dark. If you want to try improving the quality I can send you them on a CDR.

And coming soon…

The ABBA movie!

I’ll get the ABBA movie uploaded real soon now. The original AVI file is 600Mb. If anyone wants it on CDR let me know. AVIs of the full party are about 2.8Gb.

Thanks again to everyone who came along despite the terrible weather. Thanks to Reiko, Yuka and Junko for organizing such a great party. Thanks to Yasuko for being such a great MC and Neil for doing a great job as DJ. Thanks Reno for taking the video. And thanks to the Para Para team, Itoh, Ishiwata and Hoshino, for putting on such a fantastic performance and giving us all a great laugh.

Windsurfing

dmortell — Sun, 05 Nov 2000 08:53:57 +0000

Went windsurfing with Itoh-san and Pon-chan after a heavy night out with Quadruple.

Even with a Quadruple hangover, I had a great day windsurfing. Itoh “Ku”, Pon and I got the train down to Zushi. Abe-san followed us down a bit later.

We jumped into our wetsuits and hit the beach. The teacher showed us how to turn by tilting the mast forwards and backwards. I got the hang of it pretty quickly but I kept falling off every time I tried the 180° turns

I’ll get it next time!