Yokohama

Another 41 catch virus on quarantined cruise ship

Some 3,700 people are on board the Diamond Princess, which is quarantined in Yokohama for at least two weeks.

The checks began after an 80-year-old Hong Kong man who had been on the ship last month fell ill with the virus.

He boarded the cruise ship in Yokohama on 20 January and disembarked in Hong Kong on 25 January.

A separate cruise ship - the World Dream - has been quarantined in Hong Kong after eight former passengers caught the virus.

It has around 3,600 people on board, but none have tested positive so far.

     

PIC holds successful Pacific Island event in Yokohama

The festival offered visitors their very first opportunity to check out a range of Pacific island products including crafts, noni juice from Samoa and Tonga, PNG coffee, skincare products from Fiji, cosmetics made from Solomon Islands honey and tamanu oil from Vanuatu.

The Pacific Islands Centre (PIC) sponsored the Festival and held ‘Pacific Marche’ to display and sell products from Pacific island countries to promote business and culture exchange.

Sankei Tomitaro Hara’s garden of historic charm

This was the era when the Japanese society moved from being an isolated feudal society to its modern form.

Sankei Tomitaro Hara, the owner of the Sankeien garden built his fortune through the silk business. It took him 20 years from 1902 to construct the garden which covers an area of 175,000 square meters.

Seventeen old buildings of historic value are skilfully arranged that goes in harmony with the seasonal changes of the natural scenery.

Water purification plant advances in technology

In Japan, there are many water filtration plants but one that Loop PNG recently visited is the Kawai Purification plant located in Yokohama city.

Imagine drinking water that has been purified using ceramic membrane filtration system, a filtration system that is as thin as the strand of your hair.

That is basically water filtered through microfiltration filters to purify or treat water. 

That is the level of technology that is being used today at the Kawai Purification plant. It started off in 1901 using the slow sand filtration system.

Why not adopt flood reservoir idea?

Like Lae and other parts of the highlands region, the city of Yokohama, located south of Tokyo in the Kanagawa area, experiences a lot of rainfall and had drainage problems. However, that was addressed through multi-purpose reservoir storage areas.

Port Moresby does not have a river flowing in the city, but the roads turn into fast flowing rivers whenever it rains.

In Japan, the Tsurumi River runs through Toyko and has a river basin of 235 square kilometres that extends to Kanagawa and Yokohama city.

The key to disaster preparedness

Earthquakes can happen at any time. Typhoons, cyclones, floods and volcanic eruptions are among the many natural disasters that occur around us and there is a huge difference between being prepared and not being prepared when a natural disaster strikes.

Japan, like PNG, experiences earthquakes, floods from rain, cyclones and volcanic eruptions but it has changed its awareness of disaster preparedness and is targeting children with disaster education.

Fun trip to the cup noodle factory!

In PNG, Indomie's Pop Mie from neighbouring Indonesia is the most popular cup noodle.

Loop PNG this week visited the Cup Noodle factory in Yokohama, Japan, and witnessed firsthand how the cup noodle is prepared and packed.

This reporter is among 10 journalists from member countries of the Asian Development Bank that visited and had the opportunity to hand pick ingredients for their cup noodle before it was sealed.

The factory sees a lot of visitors, especially school children, during their breaks.

PNG joins Yokohama journalists’ program

This program, in the form of a tour, is a lead up activity that the second largest city in Japan is hosting before the 50th ADB meet in May.

Journalists from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Maldives and Papua New Guinea will be given an insight of the city’s infrastructure, technology, lifestyle as well as arts and history this week.

Papua New Guinea is being represented by Loop PNG’s Sally Pokiton.