Almost through...

Wow, it is hard to believe that I am almost done with my 3 month internship. This week will be my last week in Yokosuka, but I guess I can't get into reflections just yet.

This past week I spent Tuesday and Wednesday with the City Planning Department and Thursday and Friday at the Yokosuka Volunteer Center. The City Planning Department employees briefed me on the strict building codes they have for earthquake-proofing buildings here. On the whole, Japanese building codes are much more lax than they are in the U.S. (asbestos was just banned as a building material last year), but when it comes to earthquakes, Japan is probably one of the tougher nations in the world. The codes became much stricter in the early 1980s as the result of a major earthquake, so one of the major challenges facing Japanese local governments today is bringing older public buildings up to the new codes. Most buildings built before the new codes were made are not held up to the strict standards, but important government-owned facilities, such as schools (which serve as evacuation shelters in major disasters) are being retrofitted to hold up even in the strongest of temblors. I got to see some of the braces they were putting up on some of the schools in Yokosuka, and while I am no expert, it looked like these braces would support the buildings in any seismic event.

One other note on not being an expert: I was reminded how much technical knowledge is needed in government last week. Someone in the City Planning Department handed me an English translation of an overview of the 'Yokosuka technique' for seismic retrofitting buildings. The grammar, as far as I could tell, was flawless, yet I didn't have a clue what I was reading. I didn't feel so bad when I got lost in the Japanese explanation, but I felt a little stupid for not being able to understand a 2 page document written in my mother tongue. Good thing I am in the social sciences...

I will post more on the Volunteer Center and the weekend in a few hours. I promised my mom I would make it to mass at least once while I am here, and it starts in about 10 minutes, so I have to hussle on over to church...