Apollo 13 Newtons Laws

holidays in Japan, courtesy of the volcano

Earthquakes, eruptions and frequent Hurricanes of the Japanese archipelago have never delayed trips your well fickle servant more than half a day. And it is because of an Icelandic volcano, and perhaps European administrations since I'm stuck this weekend in and around Tokyo. I should be able to return in a week in France, but it is not certain.

It's never nice to see his plans thwarted, and disturbance of air transport are present there seems no parallel in modern history. However, in the scale of setbacks, this adventure is not extremely severe: a few hundred dollars of false charges, and one week of paid leave not really planned but I will try to make it enjoyable and useful, for example by writing here. It is probably less serious than being robbed his car, and certainly less boring than a large water leak at his home.

the less I can grumble that Japan has a large number of very useful services at reasonable prices that can handle such situations: "business hotel" who put me up in the center of this city of 500,000 inhabitants offers double rooms (equivalent to a good two French star) for 9000 yen (73 Euro), breakfast plentiful, complimentary toiletries, tea making and cable internet connection including broadband. The laundry costs 300 Yen (2.50 Euro) per shirt to impeccable quality. All stations offer lockers. And can be found everywhere, restaurants and caterers cheap, as soba restaurant that I discovered in Tokyo where you eat a hot meal and diet for about 450 yen (3.6 Euros). For a week, it would certainly be boring, but you can do an entire trip by providing about 1000 yen per meal per person. 6 days Japan in a comfortable but not luxurious therefore cost me about 81,600 yen (665 euros) for two people excluding transportation and recreation, but a smile. In France, in a provincial town equivalent, a comparable benefits but probably of lower quality (*) would probably loan of 1000 Euros, or 50% more. Compare prices as it is still unclear, but the experience leaves the impression that one is more for his money in Japan than in our beautiful country. Having ties to both countries, I would think probably long before I moved in either country, and if I had one day build my business, it is possible that I choose to go with my ideas in Japan or elsewhere.

Especially since the Icelandic volcano crisis has probably revealed another weakness of our old continent. Volcanic ash is certainly dangerous for aircraft engines. In particular, there was an incident in 1983 that caused the arrest of four engines of a plane in Indonesia. The context was also special, with the death of Polish president in a plane crash just days before the current upheaval. However, there was to my knowledge no major accidents due to volcanic ash resulting loss of life on a commercial flight. Once out of the volcanic cloud, indeed restart the engines. Even a shutdown of the engines, if that happens, would certainly allow planes over Europe to join a track, a plane at 10,000 feet above sea level can soar over 100 kilometers. The maneuver is obviously not recommended, but it's one more element for relative risk.

Flights from tests conducted last Sunday by Air France and Lufthansa have found no influence on aircraft, it is likely that the ash cloud over Europe, very diluted, did not cause incidents. Weather services, military and civil aviation departments could probably make more accurate measurements, to identify areas of low risk in which they could transit of airplanes, no more risk than the risk, for example, a driver distraction. I'm obviously no expert, but I have a very strong suspicion that the risk analysis was not performed correctly, the name of an excessive precaution.

I also saw some creative solutions in place, while airports in Africa Northern or Southern Europe (all less than 48 hours from France by boat or bus) could remain open. We could even have imagined transfers military transport plane that can probably withstand the volcanic dust. A minister has mentioned transfers by train from Moscow to passengers in Asia, but five days after the start of events, none of these solutions is in place. Knowledge gets married next weekend in Europe with its Japanese partner, and I'm sure the Japanese family had agreed to transfer two days by bus if necessary to attend this unique event. Commercials on their way to the negotiation their lives were probably ready to Palermo-Paris sleeper train to be there on time. Certainly there are logistical constraints that make some of these alternatives are false good ideas. But in addition to the precautionary principle, this leaves the impression of a certain intellectual laziness of our policies. And all this is expensive: it will quantify the specific impact of the crisis, but the billions flew airplanes and empty hotels also have a price in human lives.

volcanic incidents of recent days are also a good opportunity to reflect on the dependence of our society towards the jet, advanced technology, which needs the oil. The airline has a rather marginal place in the economy, and if one is out of stock mozzarella or Italian macaroons "Made in France" in Japan, this is not very serious for all-comers. Some manufacturers may be more bothered if, for example, a replacement must travel by air blocks an important machine in a factory. Communications, for their part are barely disturbed: the Internet, we care just as international mail arrives more. This is for the intercontinental transport of person that the aircraft remains essential. A man political visionary could probably get the project a line high-speed trans-Siberian, which would give an alternative to air travel slower, and probably more expensive, at least until the fuel is tax-free international travel (**) . Meanwhile, fans of Japan would do well to lay candles at the local Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Total, which allow them to indulge their passion.

Appendices

I discovered during my return to France a economical and practical solution for a final night in Japan before a plane early in the morning: The Hotel Nikko Narita (ホテル 日航 成田) offers comfortable double rooms at about 10,000 yen (86 Euro) night and a bus service from Tokyo Station (starting 9:30 p.m. or 23:45) and Haneda (starting 21:00 or 23:15) at 1500 yen per person (13 Euros) from Tokyo (Narita bus and Express costs about 3000 yen (26 Euro) over the same distance). Booking is possible in English on the website ( http://www.nikko-narita.com/english/ ). Details of bus shuttle service is available on the http://www.nikko-narita.com/access/bus_01.html (Japanese only)

(*) Estimated based in France on a 3 star entry quality at discount prices in Nantes (90 Euros breakfast included, internet connection + 10 Euros / day), two shirts from the cleaners (5 Euros each), lunch at a bakery (7 Euros / person) and dinner in a cheap restaurant at 20 Euros per person.

(**) if we apply existing taxes in the car (about 1 euro per liter) on aviation fuel, we get an extra cost of 600 Euros per person per round trip Japan based on a consumption of 3 liters per 100 km per passenger.