Also certain pagodas are quite earthquake proof, because everything hangs off a central column in an earthquake the column just swings back and forth and things stay together. If you have something with multiple columns the columns move at different rates in different directions which will twist a building apart and cause it to collapse.

Didn't the engineers there say the same thing about the elevated expressway in Kobe? Surviving an 8.0 that is, not the whole pagoda thing.

The view is a visual tsunami

Not cool bro. Not cool.

crab66: The view is a visual tsunami

Not cool bro. Not cool.

**
I don't often feel short in Tokyo -- I'm practically a giant here at 190 centimeters.

It's as imposing as Godzilla but multiple monsters in height.

not to mention the fact that the ground below it is about as strong as tofu.

According to his bio, the author has been covering Japan for ten years. Which makes his choice of references all the more baffling.

Tofu not strong?

sidcart42: crab66: The view is a visual tsunami

Not cool bro. Not cool.

**
I don't often feel short in Tokyo -- I'm practically a giant here at 190 centimeters.

It's as imposing as Godzilla but multiple monsters in height.

not to mention the fact that the ground below it is about as strong as tofu.

According to his bio, the author has been covering Japan for ten years. Which makes his choice of references all the more baffling.

Seriously, it was getting a little embarrassing to read. And that's coming from someone with my username.

I'll believe it when I see it.

he sounds like one of those gaijin who has never left tokyo, and his puns are too stupid to bare

MuffinMan8869: he sounds like one of those gaijin who has never left tokyo, and his puns are too stupid to bare

But you must bare his puns. You know what to do with them after that.

Sybarite: Eye in the sky

Can it read my mind?

Yep, and it's dealing with fools.

MuffinMan8869: he sounds like one of those gaijin who has never left tokyo, and his puns are too stupid to bare

But his bio said he's traveled all over the archipelago! Which is the pompous (and inaccurate) way to describe Japan!

/Sakhalin is not Japan

Good thing Japan doesn't get any earthquakes bigger than 8.0.

moocifer: Good thing Japan doesn't get any earthquakes bigger than 8.0.

Good thing it's pretty much impossible to engineer and build something that is guaranteed to handle a larger event.

crab66: The view is a visual tsunami

Not cool bro. Not cool.

what just about to post about that.
super bad taste

Its almost like the Japanese are trying to compensate for some shortcomings.

sidcart42: crab66: The view is a visual tsunami

Not cool bro. Not cool.

**
I don't often feel short in Tokyo -- I'm practically a giant here at 190 centimeters.

It's as imposing as Godzilla but multiple monsters in height.

not to mention the fact that the ground below it is about as strong as tofu.

According to his bio, the author has been covering Japan for ten years. Which makes his choice of references all the more baffling.

I thought Godzilla was a perfectly valid unit of measurement??

Malcolm_Sex: Its almost like the Japanese are trying to compensate for some shortcomings.

Yes, such as a lack of habitable land, making vertical development much more practical than horizontal sprawl. How embarrassing.

crab66        2011-11-02 10:59:07 AM   
moocifer: Good thing Japan doesn't get any earthquakes bigger than 8.0.

Good thing it's pretty much impossible to engineer and build something that is guaranteed to handle a larger event.

This is a bit late, but the author has failed to point out something. When the engineer refers to the building as 'being able to withstand an 8.0 earthquake' he is talking using the Japanese measurement for earthquake intensity. On that scale, 8.0 is the most powerful earthquake. The Japanese scale measures the apparent shaking intensity at the point of observation.
See the following.
Shindo scale (new window)

Moment magnitude, the scale which most media, excepting Japan, uses to report earth quakes, is a completely different measurement that refers to the amount of energy released during an earthquake.
Moment Magnitude (new window)

So when the engineer says that the tower was designed to withstand upwards of an 8.0 earthquake he means that the building is designed to withstand the strongest earthquake that the engineers could imagine while still staying within realistic design and budget constraints.

Moopy Mac 2011-11-02 10:46:30 AM
MuffinMan8869: he sounds like one of those gaijin who has never left tokyo, and his puns are too stupid to bare

But his bio said he's traveled all over the archipelago! Which is the pompous (and inaccurate) way to describe Japan!

/Sakhalin is not Japan


Sakhalin is still part of what is commonly, and accurately, referred to as the "Japanese archipelago."
It is part of the volcanic island arc formed, in part, by the subduction of the pacific plate beneath the Okhotsk, Philippine Sea and Asian plates.

It is a perfectly accurate way to describe the island group around which he claims to have traveled. Especially since the word means 'cluster of islands.'

If you are still paying attention to this thread I would love to hear why you believe that calling the Japan an 'archipelago' is pompous and inaccurate.
I imagine it involves some very interesting geo-political theory.

I think it looks ugly...