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I'm also in Japan, and I have a pretty serious go-bag for this kind of thing. It's because of political tensions for me; we're in spitting distance of North Kor

I'm also in Japan, and I have a pretty serious go-bag for this kind of thing. It's because of political tensions for me; we're in spitting distance of North Korea.

tomalpha 9y ago
Thanks for the reply. Living on the (sort of) other side of the world, in the UK, I don't feel under immediate or direct threat from current tensions. I am truly thankful that, for my generation at least, that this is the case. It's easy to forget, or minimise the experiences of people much closer to current political tensions and IMHO healthy to be reminded of them periodically.
- JBlue42 9y ago
  We worry about the big, less likely risks than the common, more likely. In a major UK city you might become a victim of a terrorist attack - limited in scope but played out far more in the media - vs getting hit as a pedestrian by a car or a car accident. In the US, we've completely gone down the way of sucking on the fear teat vs the actual dangers in our reality (cars, guns, heart disease, etc) and pay a pretty penny for it, whether security theater at the airport or our current political environment.
hugozap 9y ago
What surprises me is that the foreigners in Japan are the ones who are scared about that situation, Japanese people don't care that much.
- anigbrowl 9y ago
  Western people are largely indoctrinated with the idea of life being sacred and the necessity to protect it all costs; many Asian cultures are much more matter-of-fact about death as the worldview is more cyclical than teleological and reincarnation is quietly assumed as the natural order of things.
  - hbarka 9y ago
    Baloney. Bad clustering conclusion in your imagination.
    - anigbrowl 9y ago
      I'm not sure what you're trying to say other than that you disagree.
  - dragonsky 9y ago
    Change western people to Americans and you might be correct. My experience is that a lot Europeans, New Zealanders and Australians tend to be pretty relaxed about world events. Not to say we don’t have our panic merchants but they do tend to be in the minority. Sorry Canadians, I didn’t mean to lump you in with your southern neighbors.
- jmadsen 9y ago
  That's BS. Completely untrue. You just aren't reading/listening to Japanese people on the subject. No one is freaking out, but we're all tense at more or less the same level, as per our individual personalities.
  - hugozap 9y ago
    I worked in a Japanese company for the last 2 months and people are not tense about it. Looks like you see it differently.
sho_hn 9y ago
Fascinating. I live in Seoul, and we really just don't care.
- marcosdumay 9y ago
  South Koreans seem to be calmer about the entire situation than just everybody else. And I say that as a Brazilian, that is not only on the literally opposite end of the world, but also did not get to see a war since WWII and even then had minimal involvement. You certainly know something that nobody else knows.
  - henrikschroder 9y ago
    Perhaps because they understand the reality of the situation better? Look, almost everyone gets the situation with North Korea wrong. NK has exactly one deterrent from being invaded, and that is a ton of very boring, very conventional artillery that is within firing distance of Seoul. In the case of NK being invaded, they would immediately start shelling Seoul and trying to reduce it to rubble. If you start evacuating Seoul, NK will assume they're going to be invaded, and start shelling it. In the improbable case that NK would start something, they would start by shelling Seoul. All of these scenarios end with NK being reduced to rubble by the overwhelmingly superior force of South Korea + Japan + USA. That's the deterrent we have against them. The nuclear missiles that NK is barking about is not a real threat. Everyone is watching NK 24/7,they cannot launch anything undetected. If something is detected, then South Korea, Japan, and the US will compete with each other about who can shoot the shit down first. And they will shoot the shit down. And after they've shot the shit down, they will invade NK to reduce it to rubble so as not to have to go through that again, at which point NK will start shelling Seoul, which sucks, but at that point it's an acceptable loss. Every single scenario ends with NK reduced to rubble. They know this. They have zero reason to move the status quo. Instead, the real reason for them barking about their nuclear capabilities is to get more leverage in sanction discussions. And everyone goes through with this dog-and-pony show, because we can't openly state the exact capabilities of the anti-missile defense systems that are in place around NK.
    - 9y ago

I'm also in Japan, and I have a pretty serious go-bag for this kind of thing. It's because of political tensions for me; we're in spitting distance of North Korea.

tomalpha 9y ago

Thanks for the reply. Living on the (sort of) other side of the world, in the UK, I don't feel under immediate or direct threat from current tensions. I am truly thankful that, for my generation at least, that this is the case. It's easy to forget, or minimise the experiences of people much closer to current political tensions and IMHO healthy to be reminded of them periodically.

JBlue42 9y ago
We worry about the big, less likely risks than the common, more likely. In a major UK city you might become a victim of a terrorist attack - limited in scope but played out far more in the media - vs getting hit as a pedestrian by a car or a car accident. In the US, we've completely gone down the way of sucking on the fear teat vs the actual dangers in our reality (cars, guns, heart disease, etc) and pay a pretty penny for it, whether security theater at the airport or our current political environment.

hugozap 9y ago

What surprises me is that the foreigners in Japan are the ones who are scared about that situation, Japanese people don't care that much.

anigbrowl 9y ago
Western people are largely indoctrinated with the idea of life being sacred and the necessity to protect it all costs; many Asian cultures are much more matter-of-fact about death as the worldview is more cyclical than teleological and reincarnation is quietly assumed as the natural order of things.
- hbarka 9y ago
  Baloney. Bad clustering conclusion in your imagination.
  - anigbrowl 9y ago
    I'm not sure what you're trying to say other than that you disagree.
- dragonsky 9y ago
  Change western people to Americans and you might be correct. My experience is that a lot Europeans, New Zealanders and Australians tend to be pretty relaxed about world events. Not to say we don’t have our panic merchants but they do tend to be in the minority. Sorry Canadians, I didn’t mean to lump you in with your southern neighbors.
jmadsen 9y ago
That's BS. Completely untrue. You just aren't reading/listening to Japanese people on the subject. No one is freaking out, but we're all tense at more or less the same level, as per our individual personalities.
- hugozap 9y ago
  I worked in a Japanese company for the last 2 months and people are not tense about it. Looks like you see it differently.

sho_hn 9y ago

Fascinating. I live in Seoul, and we really just don't care.

marcosdumay 9y ago
South Koreans seem to be calmer about the entire situation than just everybody else. And I say that as a Brazilian, that is not only on the literally opposite end of the world, but also did not get to see a war since WWII and even then had minimal involvement. You certainly know something that nobody else knows.
- henrikschroder 9y ago
  Perhaps because they understand the reality of the situation better? Look, almost everyone gets the situation with North Korea wrong. NK has exactly one deterrent from being invaded, and that is a ton of very boring, very conventional artillery that is within firing distance of Seoul. In the case of NK being invaded, they would immediately start shelling Seoul and trying to reduce it to rubble. If you start evacuating Seoul, NK will assume they're going to be invaded, and start shelling it. In the improbable case that NK would start something, they would start by shelling Seoul. All of these scenarios end with NK being reduced to rubble by the overwhelmingly superior force of South Korea + Japan + USA. That's the deterrent we have against them. The nuclear missiles that NK is barking about is not a real threat. Everyone is watching NK 24/7,they cannot launch anything undetected. If something is detected, then South Korea, Japan, and the US will compete with each other about who can shoot the shit down first. And they will shoot the shit down. And after they've shot the shit down, they will invade NK to reduce it to rubble so as not to have to go through that again, at which point NK will start shelling Seoul, which sucks, but at that point it's an acceptable loss. Every single scenario ends with NK reduced to rubble. They know this. They have zero reason to move the status quo. Instead, the real reason for them barking about their nuclear capabilities is to get more leverage in sanction discussions. And everyone goes through with this dog-and-pony show, because we can't openly state the exact capabilities of the anti-missile defense systems that are in place around NK.
  - 9y ago