Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, the Japanese took one in the shorts today. Pretty resilient people, though. They got nuked twice and in the span of forty years they were a global economic giant. And they make awesome consumer electronics. Contrast with, say, Haiti where a year later it still looks like Mad Max.

What you might not know is that underneath that pacifistic exterior, the Japanese actually have quite the civil defense program. Not too surprising since a) North Korea is just a short missile ride away and b) the whole country is sitting on terrestrial Jell-O. I was pretty sure Ive posted this video before but I couldnt find it anywhere so Im posting it again. Its a tour of one of several secret underground stocked emergency warehouses for use in disaster. I wont go into the wisdom of putting your supplies 20 meters underground when you live in a place where tsunamis are a problem. Awesome little bunker they’ve got there. I wonder if they cracked ‘em open for this recent geological rollercoaster ride.