How is Tokyo prepared for an event of a major earthquake or some other natural disaster? For an answer, we need to go underground!

In the video, a city official opens a trapdoor on the sidewalk and descends 20 meters deep down the stairway to huge underground warehouse that stocks emergency supplies meant for the public in an event of a natural disaster.

In this hidden area the size of 1480 square meters (15,930 sq ft) that would make James Bond especially happy, they keep stocks of emergency medical supplies, food, 5000 blankets, 8000 rugs, 4000 candles, 300 cooking pots, 200 t-shirts and various other items. They also built a system of conveyor belts that can transport the supplies up to the street level.

For this city of 13 million people, 300 cooking pots certainly won’t be enough. It is known that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government maintains a number of such warehouses along unnamed stations at the Oedo line which circles around Tokyo in a 40 km loop. Where exactly are these warehouses is kept secret in order to prevent too many people from gathering at the locations after a major disaster. At the end of video, the TV crew exits at one of such stations.

Japanese railway company East Japan Railway Co. has officially announced the introduction of a new series of Shinkansen bullet train in spring 2013.

The new E6 series trains will be connected with the E5 series on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line and run at the speed of 320 km/h (about 200 mph) in the section between Tokyo and Morioka. The E6 series will run alone at 130 km/h (about 80 mph) on the Akita Shinkansen Line between Morioka and Akita.

The lead vehicle will feature a 13-meter long sleek nose to reduce air drag and noise.

You can see a picture of the new train here.

Source: http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201002030429.html

Japanese scientists have invented “elastic water”, a new material that consists of 95 percent normal water with added 2 grams of clay and a small amount of organic components, according to this article by Malaysian National News Agency.

A detailed report about the work of the scientists — published in the latest issue of Nature magazine — suggests that the substance is safe for humans and friendly to the environment and as such, could therefore be used in medicine in the future.

The new material is elastic, transparent and looks like jelly. Furthermore, the report says it can be quickly produced and molded into shape-persistent, free-standing ohbjects because of its exceptionally great mechanical strength and can quickly and completely self-heal itself if it becomes damaged. It also preserves biologically active proteins for catalysis.

If they succeed in icreasing its density, the material could be used for the production of ecologically clean plastic materials without depending on petroleum which is today used in production of conventional plastics.

YouTube has announced the nominations for best Japanese video of the year 2009. You can vote for your favorite video from many categories at YouTube Video Awards Japan 2009 until the 10th of January. Here at Daily Onigiri we picked some of the most interesting videos that have received the highest number of votes so far.

Let’s start with a very creative piece Hibi no Neiro (Tone of Everyday) by a band called Sour from their first mini album Water Flavor EP. All the cast were selected from their actual fan base from various countries. Everything was filmed only by webcams:

Next is Daichi who shocks with some serious beatboxing skills. Previously, he appeared in the Japanese TV show Hamonepu:

Let’s continue. Biomechanical Daito Manabe is frightening the world with LED implants in his mouth:

Lisa from Tokyo performs Sea of Stars, a song that she wrote, played and sung by herself — with lyrics mixed in English and Japanese:

For the end, let’s listen to a surreal performance of a new Japanese toy instrument Otamatone that produces sound and sings at the same time if you move its mouth:

For the rest of the nominated videos, head over to the official YouTube Video Awards Japan 2009 web site.

If you plan on visiting Tokyo and you’re into retro games from the 80s and 90s, then you definitely don’t want to miss a shop called Super Potato in Akihabara. It’s one of the few shops in the area that sells old school retro games, but it has the biggest selection and you will find almost any title ever made.

The shelves are packed with literally thousands of game titles for vintage gaming systems like Super Famicom (the mega popular Japanese version of Super Nintendo), Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation (first version), Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, GameBoy, WonderSwan and others. You can even buy the actual used consoles, not just games, of course all in working condition and most of them come with all the necessary accessories. They also sell individual controllers, joysticks, memory and expansion cards and a lot of other devices that an uneducated gamer won’t even recognize. The prices are pretty good overall. If you’re lucky, you can find some used Playstation games for 300 or even 100 yen (about $1!). For some rare titles, the prices can go up quite a bit. The bad news is — if you don’t understand Japanese — that most games are Japanese versions and you’ll have a hard time finding something in English.

Super Potato has 3 floors. In the 3rd and 4th floors they sell games, consoles and accessories, the 5th is a gaming room with arcade machines where you can sit down, throw in a coin and indulge yourself in blasting away the pixelated aliens from 1984.

If you’re looking for directions to Super Potato, scroll down this page to find out how to get there. The store also has a web site.

Used Sega Dreamcast systems, prices average from 3000 to 6000 yen.

A massive selection of cartridges for Super Famicom.

Narrow stairways, like most stores in Akihabara.

Arcade machines in the 5th floor.

Woah! Electric typewriters from the antique period!

You can get to Super Potato through this hard-to-see entrance, and then up the stairs or take the elevator on the left.

Super Potato Directions

The map below shows the shortest way to get to Super Potato if you start at Akihabara Station (follow the red line). First, exit the station through Akihabara Electric Town Exit, turn right and go straight to the main street Chuo Dori. Cross the street under the rail bridge, turn right and walk straight until you see a big yellow sign Jeans Mate in the first narrow street on the left. Go towards the entrance to Jeans Mate, turn right and go forward a few steps. You’ll see the narrow entrance to Super Potato on your right hand side. Click here for the exact location on Google Maps.

Super Potato directions map in Akihabara.