Setting up a refugee center in Kamogawa

[Chris Harrington]

Hi guys,

I'm setting up a refugee center with the locals down here in the
closed elementary school in Kamogawa. My particular job will be
communications, getting some net access set up etc. An issue will be
to get a generator or something to keep power going during all the
outages.

The city of Kamogawa overall will be opening up ryokan (Japanese style
inns or bed & breakfasts) for people as well as unoccupied apartments
and homes for the long run. We're going to network all that together
(people network that is).

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up because as it all unfolds
there may be opportunities to help out if you are interested or just
want to get out of the big city for a bit.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[lauren shannon]

I would love to organize a Full truck full of stuff and head out to see you. We can use my catering truck esp. since catering has largely died and we are at a loss what to do with ourselves.

Lauren

Sent from my iPad

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[Benjamin Davis]

Hey Chris,

Sounds neat. What kind of stuff you going to need?

BTW, speaking of supplies and trucks, was just at Costco Makuhari yesterday and they're still extremely well stocked.

-Ben

Sent from my iPhone

[Miwaza Jemimah]

Chris,

if there is any need of design work for the center. let me know. i can help.

Miwaza

[Akiba]

Let us know what you need for communications. We have access to a lot of
used WiFi routers in Akihabara. They typically run 2000 yen for the cheapest
and include WiFi dongles. Once we get a better idea of antenna requirements,
I can order more up as well. We also have a bunch of Asus desktop PCs that
can run Linux if you need some.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs

[sonicviz]

That's great!

On Mar 18, 9:22 am, Chris Harrington <chris.harrington...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi guys,
>
> I'm setting up a refugee center with the locals down here in the
> closed elementary school in Kamogawa. My particular job will be
> communications, getting some net access set up etc. An issue will be
> to get a generator or something to keep power going during all the
> outages.
>
> The city of Kamogawa overall will be opening up ryokan (Japanese style
> inns or bed & breakfasts) for people as well as unoccupied apartments
> and homes for the long run. We're going to network all that together
> (people network that is).
>
> Just wanted to give you guys a heads up because as it all unfolds
> there may be opportunities to help out if you are interested or just
> want to get out of the big city for a bit.
>
> Chris Harrington
> ch...@harrington.jp

> chris.harrington...@gmail.com
> chris.harring...@softbank.ne.jphttp://chris.harrington.jp/http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/

[MRE]

Yeah yeah Chris... obviously we are full in on whatever you need.

[Karamoon]

Chris, I can volunteer at the refugee center on a regular basis for a
few days at a time. Let me know when you need me.

- Karamoon
--
Sent from the future.

[Akiba]

Hi Chris.
I just got two more WiFi routers today and flashed them with DD-WRT. You can
basically configure them to do almost anything you want. Anyways that puts
us at 8 WiFi routers and 6 WiFi USB dongles, and high gain antennas. I think
we have about 3-4 of the ASUS desktops in the space too. Let me know what
you need on the wireless side. I'm pretty sure there's no problem if you
need some of the ASUS or Mac G4 laptops, too.

Good luck with the center and hope to see you soon!

[MRE^2]

What is your blackout situation like over there? How often and how
long?

[Chris Harrington]

Hey everybody,

Thank you all for your offers of support! Today we got about 80 people
together to clean up the building, generally scope it out etc. I
managed to get 8 people just from Facebook and Twitter, which was a
bit gratifying.

Lauren: will take you up on that. Ben: We are preparing a list of what
kind of stuff we need.

Miwaza: thanks! I just threw a wordpress site up last night:
http://hinansho.awanowa.jp/ Japanese only at the moment.

Chris: there is/will be net connectivity at the school. They had a
fairly modern PC room when they closed their doors in 2009, and had
separated the network from the city intranet. The Ed. dept. at city
hall said they just needed to flick a switch. LAN equipment still in
place. No wireless, but may not be needed. Depends on who comes to
stay with us. If we get families of fishermen for instance it will
probably be low priority. Still might be nice to have one wireless
router though for staff. PCs however will be very welcome. One thing
people who come here will need to do is figure out where they are
going next if we get earthquake refugees as opposed to radiation
refugees. Whether they are PC literate or not, they will need to learn
to use the net a bit to find their options over the next several
months.

MRE: Blackouts: unfortunately we are group 1 and pretty much get hit
per schedule. Parts of Kamogawa are exempt (important hospitals etc.)
but our area gets hit always. We occasionally get lucky with a
cancellation when electricity demand is low.

Karamoon: Thanks! I am sure we will need volunteers. The number and
hours will depend again on who comes. We also got hooked up right away
with some student volunteer groups who want to help out somewhere near
Tokyo.

That's my update for now! Thanks all!

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/

http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

On Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 12:20 AM, MRE^2 <epre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What is your blackout situation like over there? How often and how
> long?
>

[Chris Harrington]

Hi,

Carl Sundberg has kindly offered some PC equipment as well that is
located at a company called Fusion somewhere in Tokyo.

Lauren, do you think it would be possible to grab that with your truck
when the time comes?

We want to make sure we actually have refugees coming first, though.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Chris Harrington]

Update on the evacuee center in Kamogawa, our staff who are on a trip
up north got directed to a evacuee center in Ibaragi where some people
had already fled to from Minami-soma, Iitatemura, and some other towns
in Fukushima. When they got there they found 200 people in a gymnasium
with basically nowhere to go next, as in many might never be able to
return "home", so they are giving an official presentation to them
today at 15:00.

At the same time we are finally starting to get phone calls from other
evacuee centers. The phenomenon we are seeing is that almost 4 weeks
after the disaster started, primary evacuation sites (gymnasiums,
large halls, hotel lobbies, etc.) are either growing really old for
the occupants or else the operators need the evacuees to move on so
they can get back to their normal business or what have you, so people
from different places are starting to look to us as a place where they
will be allowed to settle in for several months with a bit more
privacy than a gymnasium. The actually contacts are coming from
various NPOs acting as go betweens.

So at any rate we will likely have more firm scheduling on the number
of and arrival dates of evacuees/refugees within the next few days to
a week.

I guess technical terms evacuee = someone who will eventually go home,
refugee = someone who can't go home. We may get both.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 4:48 PM, Chris Harrington

[Akiba]

Sounds like you guys might be getting busy soon. We were discussing taking a
trip out to Kamogawa. Some people said next week, others said wait 2-3
weeks. Any opinions on when a good time to head out there would be?

[lauren shannon]

I am ready with my truck too!

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--
We LOVE Food and Wine!

Try my catering company at
www.tothemoonandback.jp

and our new wine bar at
www.kimonowinebar.com

[Taylan Ayken]

When are you planning to move? I might have some stuff to pick up on the
weekdays but I can joint on the weekend.

--

[Chris Harrington]

The number and timing of evacuees will probably start being fixed over
the next few days. Then depending on how many/who/what emotional
state, we might want to let them chill for a few days. I'll post when
I know more.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Akiba]

There will probably be many that need to evacuate soon. Government is
re-assessing evac criteria. 20 mSv/yr = 2.3 uSv/Hr. I'm sure those levels
exist outside of 20 km evac zone.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/83604.html

[Chris Harrington]

Chris, it turns out we got some great video of the geiger counter in
use in Iitatemura. I have to tell you it is pretty spooky to see the
thing maxed out going "screeeeeeee" and then panning around to look at
the peaceful parking lot. Will try to get that online when we can.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Akiba]

If you can get that in the TedX video, it'd be good. People can get a sense
of what its like up there.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
Web: http://www.freaklabs.org
Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs

[Kalin KOZHUHAROV]

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 11:52, Chris Harrington
<chris.har...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Chris, it turns out we got some great video of the geiger counter in
> use in Iitatemura. I have to tell you it is pretty spooky to see the
> thing maxed out going "screeeeeeee" and then panning around to look at
> the peaceful parking lot. Will try to get that online when we can.
>

Video will be good, but how high was the reading on the analog scale?

Kalin.

[sonicviz]

RT @jgtokyo Freaky video of car venturing into heart of Fukushima
exclusion zone. Wandering dogs & cows, destruction http://bit.ly/hC2vBa

On Apr 7, 12:00 pm, "Akiba" <ch...@freaklabs.org> wrote:
> If you can get that in the TedX video, it'd be good. People can get a sense
> of what its like up there.
>
> Akiba
> FreakLabs Open Source Wireless
> Web:http://www.freaklabs.org
> Shop:http://www.freaklabsstore.com
> Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/freaklabs
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> > [mailto:tokyohac...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris
> > Harrington
> > Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2011 11:52 AM
> > To: tokyohac...@googlegroups.com
> > Subject: Re: [THS:9665] Re: Setting up a refugee center in Kamogawa
>
> > Chris, it turns out we got some great video of the geiger
> > counter in use in Iitatemura. I have to tell you it is pretty
> > spooky to see the thing maxed out going "screeeeeeee" and
> > then panning around to look at the peaceful parking lot. Will
> > try to get that online when we can.
>
> > Chris Harrington
> > ch...@harrington.jp

> > chris.harrington...@gmail.com
> > chris.harring...@softbank.ne.jp

[Chris Harrington]

Update to what's going on in Kamogawa at the moment. We are finding
increasingly that people are slow to take up our offer to get out of
the packed gymnasium situation etc. due to probably a number of
factors including distance, not having been here before (fear of the
unknown), generally not having the motivation to get up and move
*again*, etc.

We still expect to be required in the long term as the evacuation zone
is expanded.

However, in the meantime we've come up with the idea of helping out by
making the live's of evacuees and their care givers just a bit easier
by offering them "weekends off" for free in Kamogawa. We're trying one
this weekend. We plan on going up by tour bus to an evacuation site in
Kanuma (Tochigi) and bringing up to 20 people to spend the weekend
down here with a bit more privacy, some fun for the kids, relaxing
walks, etc., all free of charge (in exchange for which they don't
exactly get the Ritz Carlton).

I imagine that if this turns out to actually be helpful to anyone,
then it will likely (hopefully) be imitated. Also, hopefully one
successful trip will invite donations which we can then use to put
people up in local hotels and that sort of thing and get a
two-birds-with-one-stone synergy to help out the dying local tourism
industry.

We'll be looking for some people to help out during the tour, so let
me know if anyone wants to come down for the weekend, Fri.-Sun. You
will be required to pay your own way, but there are plenty of futons
and room to sleep, probably you can cook for yourself too if you want.
Jobs will include giving final touches to rooms before guests arrive,
helping with cooking/serving breakfast, being available overnight in
the building if something happens, that kind of thing.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp

http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Chris Harrington]

One warning though: bathing schedule will be per Japanese rules so be
ready to do without your morning shower, or to take it much earlier
than usual (there is one normal apartment style bath in the school
building which you will be free to use off hours, i.e. early morning
or late night)

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Lauren Shannon]

Ooohhh I wish I could but we hv events all weekend in kimono :-(

Sent from my iPhone

[Lauren Shannon]

Impt question
I hv a truckload of new blankets that were donated. Tohoku relief folks don't need them anymore?! Can you guys use them in the center?
Please let me know ASAP. The silly donors are thinking of throwing them away!!!
Lauren

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 12, 2011, at 12:01, Chris Harrington <chris.har...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Chris Harrington]

Hi Lauren,

Thanks, but like many other places now, we are pretty much all set on
donated living supplies.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[Lauren Shannon]

If anyone hears of a need for these please let me know as they will otherwise be thrown away which is a bummer.

Sent from my iPhone

[Chris Harrington]

Rapidly changing situation down here.

1) We've moved the date of the Kamogawa trip for evacuees to the
weekend of 23/24 so again anyone who wants to help out let me know.

2) We just got a phone call from a family evacuated from near the
nuclear plant to Kanuma in Tochigi prefecture who want to evaluate
Kamogawa as a place to move to. We've come to the conclusion that this
type of need is likely to be a primary role of our centre for the long
term. I'm going into Tokyo tonight with a group to participate in an
anti-nuke planning meeting and then we'll be driving up tomorrow to
get them.

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 1:03 PM, Lauren Shannon

[lauren shannon]

if you need anything in town tonight let us know. do you have a place
to crash tonight? where is the meeting?

On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Chris Harrington

--

[Chris Harrington]

We'll (probably) be staying in (famous singer) Kato Tokiko's place in
Sendagaya, so should be all set. Thanks!

Chris Harrington
ch...@harrington.jp
chris.har...@gmail.com
chris.ha...@softbank.ne.jp
http://chris.harrington.jp/
http://facebook.com/chrisharrington/
@charringtonjp - English
@charrington_ja - Japanese
090-8812-8911

[lauren shannon]

If you need dinner or a glass of something tonight, please drop by
Kimono, it would be nice to see you.

On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Chris Harrington