The courtyard§
Marliene got down at Leriduson and the train ran the six hours on to Lindoma through the night. Vlad and Akima walked back from Statiun Centrala on the first tram of the morning and slept in their own buildings for the first time in a week.
The commune answered his balcony report several days later. His block was already on the list, and the finding on the two slabs moved it to the front of it. The residents' assembly met on Thursday the thirteenth and set the date.
The people of his building started emptying it over the weekend. Most of them are going into the new block at the far end of Marginal street, four hundred metres and no further, and the commune sent the portable belts for the move. Two of them are standing in the courtyard now on their folding legs, running from the stairwell doors out to the loading bay, with crates going along them.
The rest of the neighbourhood came for the ceremony. They are standing in the courtyard between the belts and the drying frames, the older residents at the front where the chairs are. Akima is at the side by the bin shelter, out of the way of the loading, listening.
Ilvena
My name is Ilvena and I am with the housing cooperative for this end of Marginal. I have no paper with me, so I will say it the way I would say it to any of you at the door.
Marginal 20 is a P-4 block of the 1966 series, eight floors, four stairwells. Its extended useful life ended in March. We told the assembly then and we are telling you now in the open: the building has to come down, and it has to come down this autumn.
You have watched it happen from your own windows. The fifth floor balcony went first, two years ago in the rain, and after it the fourth, the third, the second and the first. The slabs above them are cracked in the same places and the reinforcement behind them is thin and wet, so they will go the same way. The inspection puts the risk of a structural collapse at one year or less. The tremor on the third of August was step one here and almost nobody felt it, and the instruments on the north wall recorded movement at four of the balcony anchorages that has not closed since.
So the block is emptied and nobody stays in it, and that part is settled. We are standing here for the other part.
It was a standard building. There are four hundred like it in this sub-region and the drawings are the same in every one. It was also where the courtyard cinema was put up in the spring, where the assembly met for thirty years before the school hall was built, and where a number of you were born.
The courtyard stays as it is. It is being kept as a playground, and the plan for the site behind it goes to the assembly in October with nothing built over this ground. The belts run to the new block at the far end, four hundred metres, and the cooperative moves whatever will not go on a belt.
I am sorry about the building. Take your time this morning, and come and find me if anything about your move is unclear.
Why it cannot be repaired§
Vlad
raising his hand Why couldn't the building be rehabilitated or reconstructed, like the panelaks, plattenbauses, and blocuri?
Ilvena
Because renovation works on a sound frame, and this one has lost it. Insulation, windows, a new roof, new lifts, all of that we have done on twenty blocks along this street and it adds forty years. It adds nothing where the reinforcement in the slabs is corroded through and the anchorages are moving. looking up at the north wall We costed the reconstruction in February. Taking out and recasting the floor edges on eight storeys came to more than the new block, and everybody would have had to leave for two years anyway.
Resident
And the dust? gesturing along the street That is eight floors of reinforced concrete coming down. Everything from here to the water tower will be under it, and the windows are open in this weather.
Ilvena
It is not going down with charges. pointing at the roofline A machine works from the top with a jaw and takes it apart floor by floor, and the water cannon runs on the arm the whole time, so the dust is wetted where it is made.
The rest is on us. We give you the dates and you close the windows on those days, and there are screens on the two sides facing the street and a wash for the road every evening. a pause You will still get dust on the sills.
Resident
Then the noise. raising her voice a little from the back A jaw taking apart a concrete floor is worse than somebody drilling a wall, and it carries across the whole courtyard. How long are we listening to that?
Ilvena
Twelve weeks for the structure, and the basement after it. The hours are eight to six with nothing on Sunday, and the loudest part is the first three weeks, when the floor edges come off.
For the nights, anybody who cannot sleep through it puts their name down with me. There are temporary rooms at the school annexe and the cooperative is bringing in multi-capsules for the courtyard behind the new block, and they stay for as long as the work runs. We are also putting dampening on the two faces of the new building that look this way. It comes off when we finish here.
The metal and the cooker§
Resident
older man near the front, in a work jacket And the metal? Where I came from a van went down the street twice a week with a loudspeaker on the roof calling for old iron, batteries, washing machines, televisions, fridges, cookers. a short shrug There is no money here and I still see people carrying doors and pipes out of a yard at the end of a job. Eight floors of rebar sitting in this courtyard is a lot of iron.
Ilvena
You see it because it happens. Somebody takes a radiator off a wall, hands it to a cousin, and the cousin puts a set of shelves on his balcony in return. On paper that transaction does not exist. In practice it exists all over this street, and the reason it stays small is that the same radiator can be booked out of the reuse yard for nothing by anybody who asks.
The site is fenced and the sorting is done inside it. Cable, pipe, radiators, doors, frames, sanitary ware, the good panels, all of it goes to the yard at Sederna gate and comes back into the catalogue, and the rebar goes to Ferrista for melting. The record is published, tonne by tonne, and it stays open.
to the whole courtyard What I ask of you is this. Take from your own flat whatever you want to keep and take it now, before Friday. Anything left in the building on Friday goes into the sort, and once it is inside the fence I have to account for it.
Resident
a woman on the chairs at the front And our things? The cooker in my kitchen is nine years old and it works. Does it come with me, and if the new flat has one already, who takes the old one out? And if the new one breaks in a month, who answers for it?
Ilvena
Your cooker is yours to keep and it goes on the belt with the rest, and the fitters connect it at the other end. The new flats have the connections and nothing standing in them.
Whatever you leave behind goes to the yard, gets tested, and goes back into the catalogue for somebody else. Anything past repair is stripped for parts.
On the guarantee, it is the same as anywhere. Every appliance carries a declared service life, parts are furnished free for the whole of it, and the workshop is on Iupin. If a heater or a lift or a tap fails in the new building, that is on the cooperative and it is repaired without any of you writing to anybody, since we hold the maintenance. a small movement of her hand Water, heat and power go on the day you move in.
The bus and the new block§
Resident
younger man standing by the belts And the transport. The 28 comes right up to this corner and I get on it downstairs. The bus goes nowhere near Silist street, so from the new block I am walking back here to catch anything.
Ilvena
The 28 stays where it is, the depot is not moving a tram line for us, and from the new block it is a four minute walk to the same stop you use now. turning to point down Marginal The bus route is being extended past the junction to the end of Silist with a new stop at the top, and the stop is called Silist after the street.
Resident
middle-aged woman, arms folded And what are we moving into? I have seen what goes up elsewhere. Ten years and the cladding is coming off, and we don't know who built it or what it is made of.
Ilvena
Reinforced concrete frame, cast on site, with the floors as flat slabs and the walls non-loadbearing. The insulation is on the outside in mineral wool, the cladding is fibre cement on rails and every panel comes off with a key, and the balconies stand on their own columns with a thermal break, so a balcony there can be replaced without touching a floor. Five floors, a lift in each of the three stairwells, and the risers run in a shaft you can open from the landing.
to the whole courtyard The design life is a hundred years, with a full inspection every five and the record published each time. Marginal 20 was given sixty and got fifty-nine of them, and the reason it is coming down is the same design fault everywhere in that series, the reinforcement too near the surface.
You can read the whole file. Materials, where each of them came from, who cast what and on what day, the inspection dates, all of it is in the building's record and the copy is at the cooperative office on Iupin, open to anybody.
Whether it was checked for shaking§
Resident
older woman, near the chairs And has it been checked for the shaking? a small movement of her hand In Belvacius they lost buildings that everybody said were sound, and those were newer than this one.
Ilvena
It has, twice. The frame was designed to the current seismic code and it was checked again by a second engineer who had nothing to do with the design, which is required above four floors, and both reports are in the file with the calculations in them.
a pause Belvacius is the reason the code was rewritten in 2019. What came down there was mostly infill and stair cores in buildings from the eighties, where the frame held and the stairs failed and people could not get out. The new block has the stairs cast with the frame in one piece, and the partitions are tied back so they stay standing.
I will not tell you a building cannot fall. I can tell you what it is built to hold, and this one is built for step 7 with people inside it and no collapse.
Resident
the same man in the work jacket It is still a plain concrete frame. There are no dampers in it, nothing under the foundation, none of what the Japanese put in their towers.
Ilvena
There are none, and there is nothing here to put them in. Isolators and dampers earn their cost in a tower, where the building is tall enough to sway and the mass at the top does the damage. Five floors do not sway, they take the shaking straight through the frame, so the answer at this height is the reinforcement in the joints and the stairs cast in one piece.
a small movement of her shoulder Nothing in this sub-region is above eight floors, and the code is written for what we actually build.
Akima
from the side, near the bin shelter, her voice carrying just far enough Excuse me. I live in the square block on the diagonal, so none of this is my move. How large are the flats?
Ilvena
finding her at the edge of the crowd Two rooms is fifty-two square metres, three is sixty-eight, four is eighty-six, and every one of them has a balcony of six and a store off the hall. The standard is by household size and it is the same standard in every commune.
Akima
quietly, more to herself than to the courtyard Mine is fifty-four. looking up at the block coming down My flat in Chiba was twenty-eight for two rooms, and I thought I was doing well to have it.
Plaster off the north corner§
Resident
pointing up at the roofline, half turning to the others It is going now. Look at the parapet on the north corner, there is plaster coming off it while we are standing here. That started years ago and it was a small piece. It is coming off in sheets this summer.
Ilvena
following where he is pointing and then stepping back two paces herself I see it. That corner has been shedding since the inspection in June, which is in the file, and it is one of the reasons the date got moved forward.
raising her voice for the whole courtyard Everybody comes off the wall side. Move behind the belts, please. The line on the ground was painted this morning and nobody stands past it, and that goes for the loading as well.
Resident
a man with a tape measure clipped to his belt, standing close to the wall until she waves him back It is more than the plaster. The steel in there is rusting and rust takes up more room than the metal it came from, so it is pushing the concrete off from the inside. That is what the sheets are.
And the thing is floating. You cannot see it and you cannot feel it standing here. The door on my stairwell binds in the mornings and swings clear by six, the crack over the second landing opens and closes, and last week the frame on my kitchen window sat three millimetres out of where it was in spring. Nothing in that building is holding still.
Ilvena
nodding slowly, and looking at him rather than at the crowd You are describing the readings. There are twelve targets on the north face and they have been moving through the day and back, and the daily range has been getting wider since June, and the anchorages stopped returning to where they started.
to the courtyard This is the whole of it, in ordinary words. The building moves and nothing you can see tells you when.
The wind comes down Marginal§
A gust comes down the length of Marginal and crosses the courtyard, and the north face of the block moves with it. The movement is small and everybody sees it. Something goes in the basement under the second stairwell, a low sound with grinding in it that carries up through the ground and into the soles of everyone standing on the concrete, and the plaster comes off the parapet in a long sheet and breaks on the loading bay.
Ilvena
already moving, her voice up and flat It is going. Everybody back to the far wall, past the frames, now. turning to the belts Get those crates off and clear the doorways, and then leave the belts where they stand.
Ilvena
to the crew at the stairwell doors Out. Anybody inside comes out with their hands empty. Nobody carries anything, nobody goes up a flight for one more box.
Resident
the man with the tape, backing away along the painted line, watching the second stairwell The sound was under the stair. That is the wall in the basement.
The wind comes again, harder and without a break in it this time, and it keeps on coming down the street between the two blocks. The north face goes over with it and stays over, and the parapet line is no longer straight against the sky. Dust starts to come out from under the eaves along the whole length of the building, in a thin continuous run rather than in falls.
Ilvena
counting the crew off the stairwell doors as they come through, one hand up to hold the courtyard back Four out, five, that is six. Who is on the third stairwell?
Crew
last man out, coming at a run with nothing in his hands All out. The doors are open and there is nobody past the ground floor.
Ilvena
pulling the radio off her belt without taking her eyes off the wall Marginal 20 to the depot. Cut the power and the gas to the block now, and get the road closed at both ends of Marginal.
Everybody to the far end§
The wind holds and the north face keeps going with it. The building starts to lose height at the corner, slowly, in a way that is easier to read against the drying frames than against the sky. The floor edges above the fallen balconies crush down onto the ones below them, a few centimetres at each level, and the whole corner takes on a sag that runs from the roof to the second floor. Cracks open along the line of every landing window at once. The frame stops there, standing on the four inner columns and the stair core, which are the only parts of it still sound.
Crew
at the meter cupboard by the first stairwell, pulling the last of the leads clear Power is off, gas is off, water is capped at the main. We are out.
Ilvena
walking the front of the crowd, turning people by the shoulder toward the far end of the street Everybody to the new block, all the way to the end of Marginal, and stay on the far pavement. Leave the crates and leave the belts.
The neighbours go in a loose column past the drying frames and out through the gate, the older residents first with the chairs left where they were standing. Vlad goes near the back with his bag over one shoulder, looking behind him twice.
Akima crosses her own courtyard and goes up. She closes both windows in the kitchen and stands at them. From there the sagging corner is straight in front of her at eye level, three floors down and forty metres away, with dust running out of the joints in the sunlight and the parapet line bent where it used to be flat.
The 28 is turned§
The corner keeps going. Another floor edge crushes down onto the one below it and the sag reaches the first landing, and a section of the north parapet comes off the roof and lands inside the courtyard, short of the belts. The line of the wall now stands about half a metre inside where it was.
Ilvena
radio up, walking backwards along the pavement with the block in front of her Marginal 20 to traffic control. Priority. The block is coming down on its own and the north face is over the courtyard wall. Take the 28 off Marginal now.
TRAFFIC CONTROL
the radio, flat and quick Traffic control. Confirm the 28 in both directions?
Ilvena
Both. Marquena to Serpina, the whole of that stretch is under the building.
TRAFFIC CONTROL
Understood. Turning them at Calmura on the false line, so the inbound goes back down the loop and the outbound holds at Marquena. The panels will read line closed and the reason will read structure. Two cars are between Marquena and here now.
Ilvena
The one on the way in has to stop before the corner. Stop it at Marquena and get the people off the front end, because the wall is forty metres from the track.
TRAFFIC CONTROL
Stopped. The driver has it and he is holding at Marquena with the doors closed. a short pause on the line The 12 and the 6 are being turned as well, and the buses off Iupin are going round by the water tower. The road closure is with the commune and the crews are on their way to both ends of Marginal.
Ilvena
Keep everything off this street until I tell you, and send me the demolition duty engineer. The building is going to finish this by itself.
The crews arrive§
The demolition cooperative arrives at the top of Marginal several minutes later, two machines on low loaders behind the duty engineer's van, and the road crews come in behind them and start closing both ends of the street. Two of the crew walk the building with the stairwell doors open, one stairwell each, calling up the flights and coming back out.
Crew
coming back through the gate at a walk Nobody inside. All four stairwells, ground to eight, doors open on every landing. The second stairwell has a crack across the basement wall you can put your arm into.
Duty engineer
looking up at the sagging corner, then at the low block across the courtyard It comes down today. It cannot stand overnight, and if that corner goes on its own it goes north across the courtyard and onto the single storey buildings, so we take it in the order we choose instead of the order it chooses. Machines start on the roof at the far end and work back toward the corner.
Ilvena
to the crew chief Then the street is shut from the junction to the water tower, and the props go in this afternoon. The bin shelter and the substation on this side, and the ground floor of the square block on the diagonal.
Duty engineer
Do that block first. Ground floor props and the boarding, and the windows on this face closed and taped.
Someone brings a megaphone out of the van. A crew of two starts along the diagonal block and the low buildings, ringing at each door, going up floor by floor and checking that every window facing the courtyard is shut, taping the frames on the two lowest levels as they go.
MEGAPHONE
from the courtyard, the voice slow and carrying up all four faces of the square block Attention. Marginal 20 is being taken down this afternoon. Marginal is closed from the junction to the water tower. Stay in your homes, keep away from windows facing this courtyard, and close every window on this side. Do not come out for the noise. If your window on this side does not close, open your door to the crew and they will board it.
Props, nets and sheeting§
The street empties inside a quarter of an hour. After the megaphone goes round twice the courtyard, the only movement on Marginal is the closure barriers going up at both ends and a road crew wetting the surface ahead of the machines.
The reinforcement goes in the way a pit stop goes: eight people to a stairwell, everything cut to length on the pavement and pushed in. In the diagonal block they start at the ground floor on the courtyard face, props under the landing slabs at every stairwell, adjustable steel to the underside and hardwood plates top and bottom, then hooks driven into the joints and strapped across the two openings that face the sagging corner. The low buildings get the same treatment, and the substation gets a frame around it and boarding over the vents.
Outside, another crew works on the windows. Netting goes over every opening on the courtyard face of both blocks, hung off hooks and pulled tight, fine mesh on the lower three floors and coarser above. The frames on the first two levels are taped where the seals are old. Every entrance door on this side gets a sheet across it, weighted at the bottom and taped to the frame, with a slit down the middle for the crews to pass through.
Crew chief
at the diagonal block door, counting his people back out Props are in and loaded on three stairwells. Nets are on the courtyard face to the fifth. Doors sheeted, both entrances.
Duty engineer
from the courtyard, without turning round Then get everybody behind the barrier and give me the machines.
The corner that fell§
The first machine comes through the gate on its tracks with the jaw folded and the water line already running along the arm. It goes up the far end of the roof, away from the sagging corner, and starts taking the parapet down in bites. The concrete comes off in pieces the size of a table and drops inside the footprint, and the water cannon runs the whole time, so what rises off the pile is a grey mist that stays low.
The work goes slowly and it goes well. The machine clears the eighth floor along the south half, sheet by sheet, moving north a few metres at a time, and the second machine works the pile at the base and keeps the ground clear ahead of it.
Then the north-east corner goes.
It goes with no more sound than the machine is already making, and it takes four floors with it in about two seconds. The corner column buckles at the second landing, the floor slabs above it come down flat onto each other, and the whole quarter of the building folds inward and drops into its own footprint. A wall of dust comes up out of it and rolls across the courtyard as far as the drying frames, over the belts, and up the face of the diagonal block, and the netting on the lower floors goes grey in one movement. The machine on the roof is thirty metres away at the far end and its operator has it backing before the dust reaches him.
DUTY ENGINEER
on the radio, already walking to the barrier All stop. Everybody off the pile and off the roof. Nobody moves until I can see the building.
The dust takes several minutes to drop. What comes out of it is the south half of the block still standing to the eighth floor with the machine on it, and a slope of broken slab where the north-east quarter used to be, running back into the footprint at about forty degrees.
Duty engineer
at the barrier with the survey tablet, taking readings across the face before he says anything It came from underneath. The brace we put across the basement wall in June has taken the load off that corner column and moved it onto the footing, and the footing has gone, so the column lost its base and the four floors above it followed. The sequence started below ground and everything visible up there was the consequence.
turning the tablet toward the crew chief Nothing above the sixth moved on the south half, which is what I would expect if the frame is intact there. What I cannot tell you from here is whether the other three basement braces are doing the same thing more slowly.
into the radio Machines stay off the pile and off the structure until the basement is surveyed. Get me the ground radar and a second engineer, and hold the props in the diagonal block where they are. Nobody works this side of the courtyard.
Two robots and the water§
Four engineers set up at the courtyard gate with two tracked robots, small ones, a camera and a lamp on each and a cable running back to a drum. They send them in through the first stairwell where the basement stair is clear, and the survey runs on a screen in the back of the van with the four of them and the duty engineer around it.
The first robot gets forty metres along the main corridor before the picture changes. Water is coming across the floor toward it, moving, and by the time it reaches the second cross wall the wheels are throwing a wake.
Engineer
stopping the robot and turning the lamp onto the wall There. The crack over the brace is running wet along its whole length and it is coming through the wall, not off the ceiling. That is groundwater under pressure.
Duty engineer
watching the level on the screen rather than the wall Then the footing did not fail dry. Something below it has been washing out for a while.
Engineer
bringing the second robot round to the third brace The floor is under water at this end already and it is rising while we look at it. Two centimetres since we came in, near enough.
Duty engineer
straight into the radio Get both robots out now, and get the water cooperative here with pumps and somebody who can tell me where this is coming from. Nobody goes below ground on this site.
to the crew chief, without looking up And put another set of props into the diagonal block, ground floor and basement, on the face nearest to us. If the ground is moving under that corner it is moving under the courtyard as well.
The water cooperative arrives inside twenty minutes with two pump lorries and a survey crew, and they open the chamber at the top of the courtyard before they do anything else. The assessment takes them under an hour.
Water engineer
coming back from the chamber, wiping his hands The main under Marginal is intact. What you have is the old branch that fed the block, a cast pipe from the sixties in a trench that was never backfilled properly, and it has been leaking under that footing for years. The soil under the north-east corner is washed out and the water is standing in the basement because the basement is now the low point. We can cap the branch at the junction and pump the basement, and the ground under that corner stays soft either way.
Duty engineer
Then the machines stay off it. I am not putting sixty tonnes on a slab with nothing under it.
Water engineer
nodding at the standing half of the block Which leaves reach. Take it with the ball from the hard ground on the south side, where the footings are dry and the pipe never ran, and you never drive a machine onto the corner at all. The crane stands on the road, the ball works the top down, and the pile comes off the courtyard afterwards.
Duty engineer
looking at the distance from the road to the wall, then at the diagonal block behind him A ball throws further than a jaw and it needs a curtain on the courtyard side. Bring the crane in tonight, and I want the branch capped and the basement pumped before it swings.
Water engineer
Bring it now, not tonight. The pipe is capped in an hour and the pumping runs whether the crane is standing there or not, and my problem is the ground, which is getting softer while we talk about it. The road on the south side is dry today. nodding at the sky over the rooftops If that wind brings rain onto an open trench overnight, you get the crane onto that stretch in the morning and it sits on something else than what I surveyed this afternoon.
Duty engineer
looking once more at the standing half Then now. Get me the crane and the ball, the curtain along the courtyard side, and the crane sets up on the road with mats under the outriggers.
into the radio Traffic control, Marginal 20. Keep the closure and clear me the whole width of Marginal from the junction to the water tower. A crawler crane is coming in and it stands on the road all night.
The crane on the road§
The crawler crane comes up Marginal on a low loader with an escort in front and behind, wide enough that the barriers at the junction have to be taken out and put back once it is through, and the drying frames at the courtyard gate come off their posts to give it the turn. The ball follows on a second trailer with the rigging.
The crew starts on the buildings again while the crane is still being set up. Marginal is narrow here and the standing half of the block is close to both sides, so the props go in a second time and deeper: the diagonal block gets its basement propped along the whole courtyard face, the low buildings get raking props off the pavement into the ground floor openings, and the substation frame is braced back onto its own slab. Hooks and straps go across the two openings nearest the wall on every floor to the third.
The curtain goes up last, hung off a line of scaffold along the courtyard side, heavy sheet with a mesh face, doubled where it stands opposite the diagonal block.
Crew chief
walking the line of props with the duty engineer Basement and ground done on the diagonal, rakers into the low buildings, straps to the third. The curtain is up and weighted.
Duty engineer
checking the mats under the outriggers Then we swing in the morning, off the road, top down, and the ball goes nowhere near the north-east corner.
The pumps run through the night, and by seven the basement is dry enough for the branch to be capped and signed off. The machine that has been standing on the roof since yesterday comes down on its own tracks along the south side, off the slab and out through the courtyard gate, and the second one is walked back behind the barrier.
Crew chief
at the barrier Everything is off the building and off the pile. The site is clear.
Duty engineer
into the radio, watching the standing half Water is capped and the basement is pumped. Nets are on, curtain is up, props are loaded. Take the top course on the south end.
The crane brings the ball out slow, on a short line, and drops it onto the parapet at the far end from the corner. The first hit takes the top course and half the eighth floor wall with it, and the concrete goes inward and down onto the pile. The sound reaches the courtyard a moment after the wall does, and dust comes up the curtain and stops there.
The ball goes back out and comes in again. The block is coming down top down.
What the ball cannot reach§
The ball works the block down through the morning and into the afternoon, a swing at a time, from the south end toward the corner that fell on its own. The pile in the footprint rises as the building comes off it, and the second machine keeps the ground clear along the road side so the crane always has a hard stand in front of it.
By four there is no building above the first floor. What stands is the ground floor slab on its four inner columns, the stair core to the first landing, and the basement walls under all of it, low enough that the ball cannot swing at them without dropping onto the courtyard.
Duty engineer
walking the edge of the pile with the crew chief The ball has done what it can. Everything left is below the height it works at, and I want the basement walls taken apart, not knocked over, because the ground under the north-east corner is still soft.
Crew chief
Breakers, then. Two rigs on the slab from the road side, drill and break the columns at the head, and hand tools at the stair core.
Duty engineer
nodding at the low buildings behind the curtain Drill the basement walls from the top down and take them in courses, and the props stay in the diagonal block until every one of these is on the ground.
The crews come off the diagonal block over the next two days. The netting comes off the courtyard face first, floor by floor, and the tape off the frames, then the sheets off the entrance doors. The props stay one more day and go out on the third, and the drying frames go back on their posts.
The stream from Tokyo§
Akima's phone, times shown relative to Republic of Fluid
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秋間さん、ニュースで見たんですけど、そっちの首都で団地が一棟壊れたって出てました。近くじゃないですよね。
Akima-san, nyuusu de mita n desu kedo, sotchi no shuto de danchi ga ittou kowareta tte dete mashita. Chikaku ja nai desu yo ne.
Akima, I saw on the news that a housing block came down in your capital. It is not near you, is it?
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近くです。私の台所の窓から数メートルです。
Chikaku desu. Watashi no daidokoro no mado kara suu meetoru desu.
It is near. Several metres from my kitchen window.
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大丈夫ですか。怪我とかは。
Daijoubu desu ka. Kega toka wa.
Are you all right? Was anyone hurt?
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誰も怪我してないです。中に人はいませんでした。取り壊す日が決まってて、朝はその式典だったんです。中庭でみんな集まってて、私は端で聞いてました。
Dare mo kega shitenai desu. Naka ni hito wa imasen deshita. Torikowasu hi ga kimattete, asa wa sono shikiten datta n desu. Nakaniwa de minna atsumattete, watashi wa hashi de kiite mashita.
Nobody was hurt. There was no one inside. The demolition date was already set and that morning was the ceremony for it. Everyone was gathered in the courtyard and I was listening from the edge.
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式典。取り壊すのに。
Shikiten. Torikowasu no ni.
A ceremony. For a demolition.
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そう。住宅協同組合の人が原稿なしで話してました。建物の説明と、なんで直せないかと、みんなここで暮らしてたっていう話。最後に謝ってました。
Sou. Juutaku kyoudou kumiai no hito ga genkou nashi de hanashite mashita. Tatemono no setsumei to, nande naosenai ka to, minna koko de kurashiteta tte iu hanashi. Saigo ni ayamatte mashita.
Yes. A woman from the housing cooperative spoke without any script. What the building was, why it could not be repaired, that people had lived their lives in it. She apologised at the end.
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それ、日本だと業者が挨拶して終わりです。近隣に紙が入るだけ。
Sore, Nihon da to gyousha ga aisatsu shite owari desu. Kinrin ni kami ga hairu dake.
Here the contractor bows and that is the whole of it. The neighbours get a slip of paper.
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式典の途中で崩れ始めたんです。風が来て、北側の壁が動いて、そのまま。角が四階分落ちました。
Shikiten no tochuu de kuzure hajimeta n desu. Kaze ga kite, kitagawa no kabe ga ugoite, sono mama. Kado ga yonkaibun ochimashita.
It started to come down during the ceremony. The wind came, the north wall moved, and it kept moving. The corner lost four floors.
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式の最中に。
Shiki no saichuu ni.
While you were all standing there.
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はい。みんな新しい棟のほうに歩いて行きました。私は自分の部屋に戻って、窓を閉めて見てました。今も見えてます。
Hai. Minna atarashii tou no hou ni aruite ikimashita. Watashi wa jibun no heya ni modotte, mado o shimete mite mashita. Ima mo miete masu.
Yes. Everybody walked down to the new block. I went up to my flat, closed the windows and watched. I can still see it from here.
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配信見つけました。今ずっと流れてます。下のほうを削岩機みたいなので壊してますね。柱のところ。
Haishin mitsukemashita. Ima zutto nagarete masu. Shita no hou o sakuganki mitai na no de kowashite masu ne. Hashira no tokoro.
I found the live stream. It is running now. They are breaking the bottom part with something like a rock drill. At the columns.
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音、そっちまで聞こえてますか。
Oto, sotchi made kikoete masu ka.
Can you hear it from where you are?
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聞こえてます。壁越しでも響きます。基礎と一階だけ残ってて、そこは玉じゃ届かないので削って壊してます。
Kikoete masu. Kabe goshi demo hibikimasu. Kiso to ikkai dake nokottete, soko wa tama ja todokanai node kezutte kowashite masu.
I hear it. It goes through the wall. Only the basement and the ground floor are left and the ball cannot reach that low, so they are drilling it apart.
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秋間さん、家からどれくらい出られなかったんですか。
Akima-san, ie kara dore kurai derarenakatta n desu ka.
How long were you unable to leave the flat?
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最初の日は夕方まで。倒れた日です。次の日から出られました。うちの棟は支保工が入ってて、窓に網が張ってあって、玄関にシートがかかってました。三日目に全部外れました。
Saisho no hi wa yuugata made. Taoreta hi desu. Tsugi no hi kara deraremashita. Uchi no tou wa shihokou ga haittete, mado ni ami ga hatte atte, genkan ni shiito ga kakatte mashita. Mikka me ni zenbu hazuremashita.
The first day until the evening, the day it came down on its own. After that I could go out. My block had props in it, netting over the windows and a sheet over the entrance, and all of it came off on the third day.
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仕事は普通に行ってました。道が閉まってるのは向こう側だけだったので。
Shigoto wa futsuu ni itte mashita. Michi ga shimatteru no wa mukougawa dake datta node.
I went to work as normal. The closure was only on the other side of the street.
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仕事、何やってるんですか。倉庫って言ってましたよね。
Shigoto, nani yatteru n desu ka. Souko tte itte mashita yo ne.
What do you do at work? You said a warehouse.
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港の倉庫協同組合です。デスクでフロアのボットを動かしてます。荷物の量を見て、経路を割り当てて、詰まったところを直す感じです。
Minato no souko kyoudou kumiai desu. Desuku de furoa no botto o ugokashite masu. Nimotsu no ryou o mite, keiro o wariatete, tsumatta tokoro o naosu kanji desu.
The docks warehouse cooperative. I sit at a desk and run the bots on the floor. I watch what is coming in, assign the routes, and sort out anything that jams.
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それ、前と同じ現場ですか。
Sore, mae to onaji genba desu ka.
Is that the same kind of floor as before?
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似てます。知ってる仕事だから選びました。言葉ができなくても取ってくれたので。
Nite masu. Shitteru shigoto dakara erabimashita. Kotoba ga dekinakute mo totte kureta node.
It is similar. I chose it because it was work I already knew, and they took me with the language I had.
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違うのは時間です。週二十四時間で、残業はできません。時間が切れるとシステムが締め出します。二回目の月に一度居残ろうとして、画面が落ちて何もできませんでした。
Chigau no wa jikan desu. Shuu nijuuyon jikan de, zangyou wa dekimasen. Jikan ga kireru to shisutemu ga shimedashimasu. Nikai me no tsuki ni ichido inokorou to shite, gamen ga ochite nani mo dekimasen deshita.
The difference is the hours. Twenty-four a week and no overtime at all. When my hours run out the system locks me out. I tried to stay late once in my second month and the screen went dark and there was nothing I could do.
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締め出されるんですか。
Shimedasareru n desu ka.
It locks you out?
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はい。
Hai.
Yes.
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どうやって回してるんですか。
Dou yatte mawashiteru n desu ka.
How does anything get done?
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人数で回してます。同じ床を四交代で回してて、私が抜けたら次の人が来ます。あと、ここは人が働く時間そのものを減らすのが目的なので、埋めるために時間を伸ばすっていう発想がないです。
Ninzuu de mawashite masu. Onaji yuka o yon-koutai de mawashitete, watashi ga nuketara tsugi no hito ga kimasu. Ato, koko wa hito ga hataraku jikan sono mono o herasu no ga mokuteki na node, umeru tame ni jikan o nobasu tte iu hassou ga nai desu.
By having more people. Four shifts cover the same floor and the next person comes when I go. And the point here is to reduce the hours themselves, so nobody thinks of stretching a shift to cover a gap.
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上限は憲法にあって、年に二十時間だけ例外が認められてます。春に裁判があって、その二十時間も本人の意思では超えられないって決まりました。マレンドのソフトの協同組合の件です。
Jougen wa kenpou ni atte, nen ni nijuu jikan dake reigai ga mitomerarete masu. Haru ni saiban ga atte, sono nijuu jikan mo honnin no ishi de wa koerarenai tte kimarimashita. Marendo no sofuto no kyoudou kumiai no ken desu.
The ceiling is in the constitution and the only exception is twenty hours a year. There was a court case in the spring which decided that even those cannot be exceeded by your own choice. It was a software cooperative in Marendo.
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本人がやりたくても駄目なんですね。
Honnin ga yaritakute mo dame nan desu ne.
So it is not allowed even if you want to.
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駄目です。私はそれでいいと思ってます。うちの棟の人と話してて、私だけ賛成で二人反対でした。
Dame desu. Watashi wa sore de ii to omotte masu. Uchi no tou no hito to hanashitete, watashi dake sansei de futari hantai deshita.
It is not. I think that is right. I talked about it with the two I travel with and I was the only one in favour, the other two against.
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いいですね。ほんとに。
Ii desu ne. Honto ni.
That sounds good. It really does.
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私は行けないですけどね。
Watashi wa ikenai desu kedo ne.
I could not go, though.
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行けないというのは。
Ikenai to iu no wa.
What do you mean, could not?
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母がこっちにいて、去年から一人だと無理なんです。週三で通ってます。小金井にしたのもそれが理由で、通勤が短い分そっちに回せるので。
Haha ga kotchi ni ite, kyonen kara hitori da to muri nan desu. Shuu san de kayotte masu. Koganei ni shita no mo sore ga riyuu de, tsuukin ga mijikai bun sotchi ni mawaseru node.
My mother is here and since last year she cannot manage on her own. I go three times a week. Koganei was chosen for that, because the shorter commute goes to her.
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だから、秋間さんの話を聞くのが楽しいだけです。行きたいとかじゃなくて。
Dakara, Akima-san no hanashi o kiku no ga tanoshii dake desu. Ikitai toka ja nakute.
So I only enjoy hearing about it. It is not that I want to go.
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分かりました。聞くのはやめます。
Wakarimashita. Kiku no wa yamemasu.
I understand. I will stop asking.
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やめないでください。
Yamenaide kudasai.
Please do not stop.
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じゃあ何を聞けばいいのか、少し考えてます。
Jaa nani o kikeba ii no ka, sukoshi kangaete masu.
Then I am thinking a little about what to ask.
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秋間さん、そこでいつも止まりますよね。前からです。話は続けたいのに、質問が出てこなくなる。
Akima-san, soko de itsumo tomarimasu yo ne. Mae kara desu. Hanashi wa tsuzuketai no ni, shitsumon ga dete konaku naru.
You always stop right there. You did before as well. You want the conversation to go on and the questions run out.
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そうです。こっちの三人と話しててもそうでした。向こうが聞いてくれるので続くんです。それで、話す中身はほとんど日本のことでした。会社のこと、残業のこと、母のこと、二部屋の部屋のこと。
Sou desu. Kotchi no sannin to hanashitete mo sou deshita. Mukou ga kiite kureru node tsuzuku n desu. Sore de, hanasu nakami wa hotondo Nihon no koto deshita. Kaisha no koto, zangyou no koto, haha no koto, nibeya no heya no koto.
Yes. It was the same with the three here. They ask, so it keeps going. And what I talked about was almost all Japan. The company, the overtime, my mother, the two rooms.
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これからのことを話したいと言っておいて、出てくるのは全部終わったことでした。
Kore kara no koto o hanashitai to itte oite, dete kuru no wa zenbu owatta koto deshita.
I said I wanted to talk about what comes next, and everything that came out of me was finished business.
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それでいいと思いますけど。十四ヶ月分たまってたんですから。
Sore de ii to omoimasu kedo. Juuyonkagetsu bun tamatteta n desu kara.
I think that is fine. Fourteen months of it had built up.
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たまってたのは八年分です。
Tamatteta no wa hachinen bun desu.
Eight years of it had built up.
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話が変わりますけど、JRイースト・シミュレーターって知ってますか。友達がそれを持ってて、山手線と中央線を運転してました。
Hanashi ga kawarimasu kedo, JR Iisuto Shimyureetaa tte shitte masu ka. Tomodachi ga sore o mottete, Yamanote-sen to Chuuou-sen o unten shite mashita.
Changing the subject, do you know the JR East Simulator? One of my friends here has it and he was driving the Yamanote and the Chuo on it.
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JR東日本トレインシミュレータですね。正式にはそっちの名前です。
JR Higashi-Nihon Torein Shimyureeta desu ne. Seishiki ni wa sotchi no namae desu.
You mean JR EAST Train Simulator. That is the proper name for it.
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実は、いとこが本当にJR東日本の運転士です。八高線です。
Jitsu wa, itoko ga hontou ni JR Higashi-Nihon no untenshi desu. Hachikou-sen desu.
As it happens, my cousin actually drives for JR East. On the Hachiko line.
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本物の運転士。
Honmono no untenshi.
An actual driver.
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はい。あれを買って一度やって、それきりだそうです。実際のとは全然違うって言ってました。
Hai. Are o katte ichido yatte, sorekiri da sou desu. Jissai no to wa zenzen chigau tte itte mashita.
Yes. He bought it, played it once, and never again. He said it is nothing like the real thing.
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友達は逆で、定位置に止まれたのが一回だけだって笑ってました。ブカレストの地下鉄の運転を先に覚えたそうです。
Tomodachi wa gyaku de, teiichi ni tomareta no ga ikkai dake datte waratte mashita. Bukaresuto no chikatetsu no unten o saki ni oboeta sou desu.
My friend is the other way round. He laughed that he only stopped on the mark once. He learned the Bucharest metro first.
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そりゃ止まれないですよ。十両ですから。
Sorya tomarenai desu yo. Juuryou desu kara.
Of course he cannot stop it. It is ten cars.
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全然違うって、どういう意味だったんですか。
Zenzen chigau tte, dou iu imi datta n desu ka.
What did he mean by nothing like the real thing?
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信号の扱いが入ってないって言ってました。実際は信号を見て、指差して、声に出して確認して、それが仕事の大事な部分なのに、ゲームだと指差しても何も起きないし、誰も何も言わない。無言なんです。
Shingou no atsukai ga haitte nai tte itte mashita. Jissai wa shingou o mite, yubisashite, koe ni dashite kakunin shite, sore ga shigoto no daiji na bubun na noni, geemu da to yubisashite mo nani mo okinai shi, dare mo nani mo iwanai. Mugon nan desu.
He said the signalling side is missing. In the real cab you see the signal, you point at it, you say it out loud, and it is an important part of the job. In the game you can point and nothing happens and nobody says anything. It is silent.
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あと、後ろに車掌がいないし、指令とのやり取りもないし、遅れても何も来ないって。止まる位置と時間だけ見てる、と。
Ato, ushiro ni shashou ga inai shi, shirei to no yaritori mo nai shi, okurete mo nani mo konai tte. Tomaru ichi to jikan dake mite iru, to.
Also there is no conductor behind him, no exchanges with control, and nothing comes at you when you run late. He said it only watches where you stop and when.
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なるほど。友達は逆のことを言ってました。うるさすぎるって。速度落とせ、ドアが閉まります、ずっと鳴ってると。
Naruhodo. Tomodachi wa gyaku no koto o itte mashita. Urusa sugiru tte. Sokudo otose, doa ga shimarimasu, zutto natteru to.
I see. My friend said the opposite. That it is too noisy. Slow down, the doors are closing, going the whole way.
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そこは鳴りますね。喋らないのは人のほうです。
Soko wa narimasu ne. Shaberanai no wa hito no hou desu.
That part does sound. It is the people who do not talk.
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人のほうが喋らない、というのは。
Hito no hou ga shaberanai, to iu no wa.
What do you mean, it is the people who do not talk?
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すみません、言い方が悪かったです。ゲームで鳴ってるのは全部機械の音ですよね。速度落とせ、ドアが閉まります、装置が出す決まった音です。それは実物と同じです。
Sumimasen, iikata ga warukatta desu. Geemu de natteru no wa zenbu kikai no oto desu yo ne. Sokudo otose, doa ga shimarimasu, souchi ga dasu kimatta oto desu. Sore wa jitsubutsu to onaji desu.
Sorry, I put that badly. Everything you hear in the game is machine sound. Slow down, the doors are closing, fixed noises the equipment makes. Those are the same as the real thing.
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入ってないのは人の声のほうです。運転士が自分で声に出す確認、後ろの車掌とのやり取り、指令との無線。運転席で一番喋ってるのは人なのに、ゲームだと機械しか喋らないんです。
Haitte nai no wa hito no koe no hou desu. Untenshi ga jibun de koe ni dasu kakunin, ushiro no shashou to no yaritori, shirei to no musen. Untenseki de ichiban shabetteru no wa hito na noni, geemu da to kikai shika shaberanai n desu.
What is missing is the human voice. The driver calling his own checks out loud, the exchanges with the conductor behind him, the radio with control. The cab is mostly people talking, and in the game only the machine talks.
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分かりました。それで無言なんですね。
Wakarimashita. Sore de mugon nan desu ne.
I understand. That is what silent meant.
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そうです。音は鳴ってるのに誰もいない、という感じだと思います。
Sou desu. Oto wa natteru no ni dare mo inai, to iu kanji da to omoimasu.
Yes. Everything is sounding and there is nobody there.
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それなのに、友達はあれでもうるさいって言ってたんです。実際の半分も鳴ってないのに。
Sore na noni, tomodachi wa are demo urusai tte itteta n desu. Jissai no hanbun mo natte nai noni.
And even so my friend said it was too much. When it is not even half of what actually sounds in there.
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その方、日本語は。
Sono kata, nihongo wa.
Does he have any Japanese?
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分からないです。単語をいくつか。
Wakaranai desu. Tango o ikutsu ka.
No. A few words.
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じゃあ全部同じに聞こえてると思います。意味が取れないと、鳴ってる時間だけが残るので。こっちの人は聞いてないんじゃなくて、要る部分だけ拾って残りを流してるんです。
Jaa zenbu onaji ni kikoete iru to omoimasu. Imi ga torenai to, natteru jikan dake ga nokoru node. Kotchi no hito wa kiite nai n ja nakute, iru bubun dake hirotte nokori o nagashite iru n desu.
Then it all sounds the same to him. When you cannot take the meaning, what is left is how long it goes on. People here are not ignoring it, they pick out the part they need and let the rest run past.
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私もそうでした。長年にわたり、次の駅の名前しか聞いてませんでした。こっちに来て、放送が全部知らない言葉になって、初めて長さが分かりました。
Watashi mo sou deshita. Naganen ni watari, tsugi no eki no namae shika kiite masen deshita. Kotchi ni kite, housou ga zenbu shiranai kotoba ni natte, hajimete nagasa ga wakarimashita.
I was the same. For many years I heard nothing but the name of the next station. I came here, every announcement became a language I did not know, and only then did I notice the length of them.
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その言葉、フルイド語でしたっけ。放送は長いんですか。
Sono kotoba, Fluid-go deshita kke. Housou wa nagai n desu ka.
That language is Fluidian, is that right? Are the announcements long?
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長いです。日本語より確実に長いです。主語を毎回言うので、こっちは省きません。日本語の地震速報は主語がなくても誰も困らないですけど、こっちは全部言います。
Nagai desu. Nihongo yori kakujitsu ni nagai desu. Shugo o maikai iu node, kotchi wa habukimasen. Nihongo no jishin sokuhou wa shugo ga nakute mo dare mo komaranai desu kedo, kotchi wa zenbu iimasu.
Long. Definitely longer than Japanese. The subject is said every time and never dropped. Our earthquake warnings have no subject at all and nobody is confused by that, and here every word stays in.
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一語にいろんな意味を持たせるやつは。すみません、みたいな。
Ichigo ni ironna imi o motaseru yatsu wa. Sumimasen, mitai na.
What about one word carrying several meanings? Like sumimasen.
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それはあります。乗るっていう一語がだいぶ働いてます。ただ、こっちは一語に仕事を足すだけで、文は短くしないんです。だから結局長いままです。
Sore wa arimasu. Noru tte iu ichigo ga daibu hataraite masu. Tada, kotchi wa ichigo ni shigoto o tasu dake de, bun wa mijikaku shinai n desu. Dakara kekkyoku nagai mama desu.
It does happen. Their word for riding does a lot of work. They only give one word more to do, and the sentence never gets shorter, so it stays long either way.
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放送には向いてそうですね。長くても、聞き取れるほうがいいので。
Housou ni wa muite sou desu ne. Nagakute mo, kikitoreru hou ga ii node.
That sounds right for announcements. Long is fine if you can make it out.
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地震も初めて経験しました。旅行の途中で、寝台の下に降りて枠につかまってました。震度三相当です。
Jishin mo hajimete keiken shimashita. Ryokou no tochuu de, shindai no shita ni orite waku ni tsukamatte mashita. Shindo san soutou desu.
I had my first earthquake as well, during the trip. I got down off the bunk and held on to the frame. It was the equivalent of shindo three.
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放送がとにかく長かったです。深さも、マグニチュードも、二十の地域全部の震度も、揺れる前に読み上げてました。
Housou ga tonikaku nagakatta desu. Fukasa mo, magunichuudo mo, nijuu no chiiki zenbu no shindo mo, yureru mae ni yomiagete mashita.
The announcement was very long. The depth, the magnitude and the intensity for all twenty sub-regions, all of it read out before the shaking arrived.
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全部言うんですね。こっちは短いですよね、緊急地震速報。
Zenbu iu n desu ne. Kotchi wa mijikai desu yo ne, kinkyuu jishin sokuhou.
They say the whole of it. Ours is short, the kinkyuu jishin sokuhou.
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その名前がそのまま使われてます。解体の音を聞きながら気象協同組合のサイトを読んでたんですけど、システムの名前がREP-KJSで、KJSは緊急地震速報の頭文字でした。日本のを元にしてるって書いてあります。
Sono namae ga sono mama tsukawarete masu. Kaitai no oto o kikinagara kishou kyoudou kumiai no saito o yonde ta n desu kedo, shisutemu no namae ga REP-KJS de, KJS wa kinkyuu jishin sokuhou no kashiramoji deshita. Nihon no o moto ni shiteru tte kaite arimasu.
They use that name. I was reading the meteorological cooperative's site while the drilling was going on, and the system is called REP-KJS, and the KJS is the initials of kinkyuu jishin sokuhou. It says on the site that it comes from the Japanese one.
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震度も同じです。震度五弱と五強を別の数字に分けて、一から十にしてます。
Shindo mo onaji desu. Shindo go-jaku to go-kyou o betsu no suuji ni wakete, ichi kara juu ni shite masu.
The intensity scale is the same one. They split five-minus and five-plus into separate numbers and it runs one to ten.
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それと、仕様もソースも全部公開されてて、他の国が持っていって使っていいと書いてありました。お金は取らないそうです。
Sore to, shiyou mo soosu mo zenbu koukai sarete te, hoka no kuni ga motte itte tsukatte ii to kaite arimashita. Okane wa toranai sou desu.
And the specification and the source are all published, and it says another country may take it and use it. They charge nothing for it.
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気象庁のを、ただで真似できるってことですか。
Kishouchou no o, tada de manedekiru tte koto desu ka.
So it is a free version of what the JMA does?
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そうだと思います。同じ考え方を、無料で、誰でも持っていける形にしてあるということです。
Sou da to omoimasu. Onaji kangaekata o, muryou de, dare demo motte ikeru katachi ni shite aru to iu koto desu.
I think so. The same idea, free, in a form anybody can take.
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リンクを送ります。英語のページもあります。
Rinku o okurimasu. Eigo no peeji mo arimasu.
I will send you the link. There is an English page as well.
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https://meteo.rof/kjs.html
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仕様と適合試験はこっちです。
Shiyou to tekigou shiken wa kotchi desu.
The specification and the conformance tests are here.
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https://meteo.rof/dev/
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開きました。ポーティングのページまであるんですね。他の国に移すためのやつ。
Hirakimashita. Pootingu no peeji made aru n desu ne. Hoka no kuni ni utsusu tame no yatsu.
I opened it. There is even a porting page. For moving it to another country.
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ただ、気象庁のとは大分違いますね。観測点の数が桁で違います。うちは何千とあるので。
Tada, kishouchou no to wa daibu chigaimasu ne. Kansokuten no kazu ga keta de chigaimasu. Uchi wa nanzen to aru node.
It is quite different from the JMA one, though. The number of stations differs by an order of magnitude. Ours has thousands.
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第一報が四秒から九秒って書いてありますね。こっちは早いときは数秒です。震源の近くだと間に合わないのも同じですけど。
Daiippou ga yon-byou kara kyuu-byou tte kaite arimasu ne. Kotchi wa hayai toki wa suu-byou desu. Shingen no chikaku da to maniawanai no mo onaji desu kedo.
It says the first alert is four to nine seconds. Ours can be a few. Though the same is true near the epicentre, it does not arrive in time.
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悪くはないです。むしろ、この規模でここまでやってるのは立派だと思います。ただ気象庁と同じものではないです。
Waruku wa nai desu. Mushiro, kono kibo de koko made yatteru no wa rippa da to omoimasu. Tada kishouchou to onaji mono de wa nai desu.
It is not bad. For the size of the place I think it is impressive. It is not the same thing as the JMA, though.
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サイト自体もそう書いてます。年に九回しか鳴らないし、震源に近い側には何も届かないって、失敗した回も全部載せてあります。
Saito jitai mo sou kaite masu. Nen ni kyuukai shika naranai shi, shingen ni chikai gawa ni wa nani mo todokanai tte, shippai shita kai mo zenbu nosete arimasu.
The site says as much itself. It fires about nine times a year, nothing reaches the side near the epicentre, and every occasion the system got it wrong is listed as well.
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外したのを全部書いてるんですか。
Hazushita no o zenbu kaiteru n desu ka.
They publish every one they got wrong?
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はい。日付と、何がおかしかったかまで。
Hai. Hizuke to, nani ga okashikatta ka made.
Yes. With the date and what went wrong.
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そこは違いますね。こっちで外したのが話題になるのは、テレビに出たときだけです。
Soko wa chigaimasu ne. Kotchi de hazushita no ga wadai ni naru no wa, terebi ni deta toki dake desu.
That is different, then. Here a miss only becomes a topic when it went out on television.
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NHKが画面を切り替えるのは大きいときだけで、小さいのは何も出ないです。携帯も鳴りません。気象庁のサイトには出てるので、見に行けば分かるんですけど、普通は見に行かないです。
NHK ga gamen o kirikaeru no wa ookii toki dake de, chiisai no wa nani mo denai desu. Keitai mo narimasen. Kishouchou no saito ni wa deteru node, mi ni ikeba wakaru n desu kedo, futsuu wa mi ni ikanai desu.
NHK breaks into the picture only for the big ones and nothing appears for the small ones. Phones stay quiet too. It is all on the JMA site, so you can go and look, and normally no one goes and looks.
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こっちも二を超えないと鳴らないので、そこは同じです。違うのは、鳴らなかった分も外した分も同じページに並べて出してることだと思います。
Kotchi mo ni o koenai to naranai node, soko wa onaji desu. Chigau no wa, naranakatta bun mo hazushita bun mo onaji peeji ni narabete dashiteru koto da to omoimasu.
Here it stays quiet below step two as well, so that part is the same. The difference is that what stayed quiet and what it got wrong are put on the same page.
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八年住んでて、緊急地震速報で本当に身構えたのは二回だけです。あとは鳴ってから何も起きなかったので。
Hachinen sunde te, kinkyuu jishin sokuhou de hontou ni migamaeta no wa nikai dake desu. Ato wa natte kara nani mo okinakatta node.
In eight years there were only two where I actually braced. The rest sounded and nothing happened.
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そっちのテレビの映像も見つけました。八月三日のやつです。白黒の字に赤い帯で、下に全部の地域が並んでました。
Sotchi no terebi no eizou mo mitsukemashita. Hachigatsu mikka no yatsu desu. Shirokuro no ji ni akai obi de, shita ni zenbu no chiiki ga narande mashita.
I found your television picture as well. The one from the third of August. Black and white type with a red band, and every sub-region listed down the bottom.
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一画面に全部載ってますね。震源も深さもマグニチュードも、震度が五つの尺度で、そのうえ震度三の意味の説明まで。あれ全部同時に出てます。
Ichigamen ni zenbu notte masu ne. Shingen mo fukasa mo magunichuudo mo, shindo ga itsutsu no shakudo de, sono ue shindo san no imi no setsumei made. Are zenbu douji ni dete masu.
It is all on one screen. Epicentre, depth, magnitude, the intensity on five different scales, and on top of that an explanation of what step three means. All of it at the same time.
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NHKも情報量は多いんですけど、一度に出すのは少しです。地図と震源と震度、それだけ。あとは順番に足していきます。
NHK mo jouhouryou wa ooi n desu kedo, ichido ni dasu no wa sukoshi desu. Chizu to shingen to shindo, sore dake. Ato wa junban ni tashite ikimasu.
NHK carries a lot as well, and it puts out little at a time. The map, the epicentre, the intensity, and that is it. The rest gets added in order.
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たぶん、こっちは説明ごと出さないと通じないからだと思います。
Tabun, kotchi wa setsumei goto dasanai to tsuujinai kara da to omoimasu.
I think they have to put the explanation out with it or it means nothing.
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日本は学校で教わってるので、放送は短くて済みます。
Nihon wa gakkou de osowatteru node, housou wa mijikakute sumimasu.
In Japan it is taught in school, so the broadcast can be short.
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それはそうなんですけど、あそこは日本じゃないので、同じ物差しで見ても仕方ないと思います。この一週間で読んだ限り、何もかも違います。
Sore wa sou nan desu kedo, asoko wa Nihon ja nai node, onaji monosashi de mite mo shikata nai to omoimasu. Kono isshuukan de yonda kagiri, nanimo kamo chigaimasu.
That is generally true, and it is not Japan, so measuring it against Japan gets you only so far. From what I have read this week, everything is different.
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まず、人に仕事を聞かないんですよね。聞いても何も分からないから。こっちは名刺で始まるのに。
Mazu, hito ni shigoto o kikanai n desu yo ne. Kiite mo nani mo wakaranai kara. Kotchi wa meishi de hajimaru no ni.
To start with, people do not ask what you do. It tells them nothing. Here everything begins with a business card.
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週二十四時間、四日まで。介護が仕事として数えられる。役職に敬称なし。委員長を名前で呼ぶ。十六歳から投票。抽選で呼ばれたら会社は断れない。物は貰うのは普通で、売るのは無効。壊れたら直す。
Shuu nijuuyon jikan, yokka made. Kaigo ga shigoto to shite kazoerareru. Yakushoku ni keishou nashi. Iinchou o namae de yobu. Juurokusai kara touhyou. Chuusen de yobaretara kaisha wa kotowarenai. Mono wa morau no wa futsuu de, uru no wa mukou. Kowaretara naosu.
Twenty-four hours a week over four days. Caring for someone counts as work. No honorifics for office holders, and a committee chair is called by name. Voting at sixteen. If you are drawn by lot the employer cannot refuse to release you. Being given things is normal and selling them is void. When something breaks it is repaired.
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知らない人に話しかけるのが普通っていうのも書いてありました。
Shiranai hito ni hanashikakeru no ga futsuu tte iu no mo kaite arimashita.
It also said that speaking to strangers is normal.
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あと鉄道も見ました。あれは正直、JRとは比べられないです。全国で五千五百キロ、駅百四十五、新幹線に当たるものはなし。三百五十キロの路線に七時間かかってます。表定五十キロくらいです。
Ato tetsudou mo mimashita. Are wa shoujiki, JR to wa kuraberarenai desu. Zenkoku de gosen-gohyaku kiro, eki hyaku-yonjuu-go, shinkansen ni ataru mono wa nashi. Sanbyaku-gojukkiro no rosen ni shichijikan kakatte masu. Hyoutei gojukkiro kurai desu.
I looked at the railways as well. Honestly they are not comparable to JR. Five and a half thousand kilometres in the whole country, a hundred and forty-five stations, and nothing equivalent to the Shinkansen. A three hundred and fifty kilometre route takes seven hours. That is about fifty an hour end to end.
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六時間の夜行に寝台をつけてる理由が分かりました。速くする代わりに、寝られるようにしたんですね。
Rokujikan no yakou ni shindai o tsuketeru riyuu ga wakarimashita. Hayaku suru kawari ni, nerareru you ni shita n desu ne.
Now I understand why a six-hour night service has sleeper berths. They made it possible to sleep through, and left the speed alone.
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その寝台に乗りました。レリドゥソン行きの夜行です。二段のベッドが一つの部屋にあって、下と上で、毛布が足元にたたんであって、それぞれの上に読書灯が付いてます。
Sono shindai ni norimashita. Leriduson yuki no yakou desu. Nidan no beddo ga hitotsu no heya ni atte, shita to ue de, moufu ga ashimoto ni tatande atte, sorezore no ue ni dokushotou ga tsuite masu.
I travelled in one, the night train to Leriduson. Two bunks in a room, lower and upper, blankets folded at the foot, and a reading lamp over each of them.
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灯りは自分の段から暗くできて、ドアは内側から掛かります。予約はありません。空いてる部屋に入るだけです。
Akari wa jibun no dan kara kuraku dekite, doa wa uchigawa kara kakarimasu. Yoyaku wa arimasen. Aiteru heya ni hairu dake desu.
You dim the lamp from your own bunk and the door locks from the inside. There is no reservation. You go into a room that is free.
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思ったより広かったです。
Omotta yori hirokatta desu.
It was roomier than I expected.
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それ、こっちだともう走ってないやつです。サンライズくらいしか残ってないので。
Sore, kotchi da to mou hashitte nai yatsu desu. Sanraizu kurai shika nokotte nai node.
That kind of train barely runs here any more. The Sunrise is about all that is left.
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マレンドに行くときは寝台がない古い車両でした。それでも三人で座席を並べて寝ました。列が空いてたので。
Marendo ni iku toki wa shindai ga nai furui sharyou deshita. Sore demo sannin de zaseki o narabete nemashita. Retsu ga aiteta node.
Going to Marendo it was an older train with no sleeper. The three of us slept across the seats anyway, since the rows were free.
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外が明るくなってきました。もう五時半です。
Soto ga akaruku natte kimashita. Mou gojihan desu.
It is getting light outside. It is half past five already.
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今日は早番なので、そろそろ出ます。
Kyou wa hayaban na node, sorosoro demasu.
I am on the early shift today, so I should go.
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最後に一つだけ。小金井の近くの会社って言ってましたけど、何の会社ですか。聞いてませんでした。
Saigo ni hitotsu dake. Koganei no chikaku no kaisha tte itte mashita kedo, nan no kaisha desu ka. Kiite masen deshita.
One last thing. You said a company near Koganei, and I didn't ask what it is.
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医療機器の物流です。病院に納める分の在庫と出荷を見てます。前と同じ倉庫仕事です、扱ってる物が違うだけで。
Iryou kiki no butsuryuu desu. Byouin ni osameru bun no zaiko to shukka o mite masu. Mae to onaji souko shigoto desu, atsukatteru mono ga chigau dake de.
Logistics for medical equipment. I watch the stock and the despatch for what goes to the hospitals. It is the same warehouse work as before, with different things in it.
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夜は前より早く終わります。
Yoru wa mae yori hayaku owarimasu.
The evenings finish earlier than before.
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分かりました。行ってらっしゃい。
Wakarimashita. Itterasshai.
I understand. Have a good day.
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また書きます。
Mata kakimasu.
I will write again.