Yes, this wasn't a "nothingburger" either.

While there’s only so much they can do when transport links go down, I was very unimpressed with Narita’a response. 4 hour plus queue for train, but very limited information, no water distributed etc.

A few TV crews around to film the chaos (it’s relative, I know) so interested to see what the reactions / presentation is in local media.

JR East resumed the Hokuriku shinkansen service yesterday (25th Oct) and has published a timetable
https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/hokuriku_schedule_eg.pdf

This is a laudable achievement, but there are caveats - they are running everything they have to maintain this slightly reduced service, but for the New Year and other periods where demand increases, there is (currently, anyway) nowhere to draw extra resources from.

If you are looking to travel on this route at peak times take note that availability will be severely restricted

Anyone who is considering using the Hokuriku shinkansen to commute to the Olympics next year should evaluate all their travel options before committing themselves to doing so.

More info here
Shinkansen line linking Tokyo and Kanazawa fully restored?The Asahi Shimbun

10 people in Chiba and Fukushima dead from the storm that wasn't even a typhoon.

How to prevent deaths from storms in the future?

"Nobuyuki Tsuchiya, a civil engineer specializing in disaster prevention, sees the need for flood controls and evacuation planning.

Dredging rivers so they can accommodate a greater volume of water is one measure to improve flood control, Tsuchiya says…(during the last typhoon) major flood damage occurred where levees have not been upgraded according to existing plans.

For the longer term, he would like to see policies to reduce the population living in danger zones. Japan’s shrinking population would help make this feasible in the smaller towns along rivers that flow from Japan’s mountains."

source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019...owerful-storms

If buying property near Tokyo, I wonder if all these natural disasters make mansions a less risky choice rather a stand-alone home. You will at least be okay during typhoons and, if it’s anything like US, the property management company should take care of everything external to your unit. I saw a guy whose yard was filled with other peoples debris including vehicles that washed into his yard... he had no idea what to do.

My parents home/lot is in a completely flat area, far from ocean, far from volcano (nearest is 100km away), far from any nuclear reactor, no known active fault. I thought their place is about as safe as can be. But as with anywhere in Jpn, there’s a river nearby and their river flooded about 5km downstream. And there’s no place in Jpn that’s immune to earthquakes, is there?

Modern high rises are designed to withstand big quakes and floods. Site epidemics ('sick building') are very infrequent but can be ruinous when they do arise.

The second-worst case involves poor access during extended power and water outages. The gravity of that problem cannot be underestimated :)

Yeah extended power/water outages would definitely be a big nuisance, for sure.
But the fact that you're never going to be left to be the one to have to take care of all the mess involving your entire house and lot (which could take weeks, as opposed to days) is a huge benefit.

Depends what you mean by "okay". One of the high rise apartment buildings near Kawasaki was without power and water for almost a week. Sure, the apartment was untouched, but they're still doing without plumbing and electricity, and walking up and down twenty flights of stairs to commute.

I guess what I mean is nothing catastrophic, nothing that involves having to bear all the burden of dealing with all the aftermath on your property, nothing that requires many weeks just to return to decent living condition.
I don't know if mansions in Jpn are at all similar to ones in US in terms of master deed and master insurance.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the long-anticipated "big one" to hit Tokyo before we know if that's true.

What I do know is that Tokyo is heavily dependent on its supply infrastructure. 3/11 gave a small taste of what that would be like, but that's only about one percent of what you'd experience if a major earthquake damaged Tokyo's aging infrastructure on a widespread basis.

The ten trains are confirmed write-offs:

https://hk.on.cc/hk/bkn/cnt/aeanews/...00912_001.html

English version from the Japan Times

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/11/06/national/typhoon-flooded-shinkansen-trains-scrapped/

Wow.

As for the Hakone Tozan Line, the goal is to have a plan for fixing it by the end of the year. Not to actually fix it by the end of the year, just to understand how long it will take to fix it by that time.

Hakone Tozan Railway (Hakone Yumoto - Gora) has suspended service since last October due to track damage caused by Typhoon no. 19. Hakone Tozan Railway has announced that service between Hakone Yumoto - Gora will resume on July 23. Now travel restriction domestically in Japan has lifted, is Hakone finally getting back to normal?