Hello, there!
Again, another typhoon is approaching to Japan. Today’s article is about disaster preparedness for someone who lives alone.
Nowadays, many people live alone in Japan due to change of lifestyle and society, especially in big cities. For example, half of all households in Tokyo are single people.
If you are exchange student, or worker who come from another country, you may be living by yourself in Japan.
According to the survey, 50% of the people who live with someone answered that they are taking some sort of disaster prevention measures.
On the contrary, the number goes down for single persons. People who live by himself/herself tend to neglect countermeasures against disasters.
If we have no family member at home to protect, we tend to think this way.
“Well, I can handle it if I am alone”.
This is not always correct.
Single people need to have people near his/her residence who can help each other in case of emergency.
Whether you live alone or not, we all should be prepared for disaster.
Many single people live in a small apartment.
There are some hints how to arrange your room preparing for a natural disaster.
1. Furniture placement
In big cities, many apartments for single person have only one bedroom (such as 1K/1R).
A room tends to be filled with tall furniture and/or many electric appliances.
In such a living environment, furniture placement needs some ingenuity.
If the furniture in your room fall during a quake, they may block your escape route, or you may get stuck under them.
Around your bed, do not place tall furniture, such as bookshelf or cupboard. Even though the furniture itself will not fall, books or objects in the furniture may pop out.
2. Fix tall furniture
Fix tall furniture with belt, or tension rods to the ceiling.
At Japanese earthquake scale 5 (app. magnitude 8), furniture that are not fixed to the ceiling tend to fall.
If you live in a rental apartment, you cannot nail furniture to the wall or ceiling because that will damage the surface of wall. Ask the landlord how to do.
3. Object placement
During a big quake, objects often pop out of the shelf.
In the Great Tohoku Earthquake of 2011, cups and plates popped out of my kitchen shelf.
Do not put heavy objects on the upper shelf.
4. Food stock
Of course, food stock is necessary for single person.
If you live in a one-bedroom type of apartment, you may think that there is NO room to keep the stock.
Try to find a space under your bed, or in the closet. Food stock is crucial to protect your life.
If you chronically use medicines, it is always best to have spare medicine.
It is advised to add your favorite foods to the emergency stock. Your favorite food will cheer you up during disaster. In the time of disaster, shop and convenience stores often close. Keep some food and water at home.
5. Communication
In case of natural disaster, the people you can depend on is your neighbors.
In the time of peace, you should check the newsletter from your municipality or community. Checking their English website is also a good idea. Get knowledge on how to obtain emergency information at the time of disaster. Verify how your municipality provide you emergency information. Through website? Local broadcasting? E-mails?
From the newsletter from municipality, you can find information on evacuation drill for community people.
Let’s participate in the evacuation drills that are conducted by the municipality.
From the municipality newsletter, you can find information on clubs that are organized and run by the residents. If you are interested, you may join those hobby clubs, to make acquaintances in your neighborhood.
Are you too shy to join a club? Don’t worry.
Even if you are not good at socializing, it is recommended to greet daily your neighbors.
You do not need to manage a complicated conversation. Just greet, with a smile.
To do so, you should remember at least some basic greetings in Japanese. “Konnichiwa”, “Ohayo gozaimasu”, etc.
In your daily life in Japan, you may stop by shops, restaurants or beauty salon in your neighborhood. In this way, people in your community will recognize you. In case you need help, your neighbors remember that you live in their community.