VIRTUAL DÉRIVE

BOBBIE VAN LEEUWEN

FIRST DRIFT

The first thing I saw when I opened Google Street View on my assigned coordinates was this man smiling for his selfie while on a boat. This is the only identefiable person I have seen.

FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN

Screenshots of my first drift where I explored the city and and a bit of the surrounding nature.

THERE ARE A LOT OF ELECTRICITY CABLES

The whole city is filled with electricity cables hanging above the streets. Is this common in Japan or an exception?

THE DISSAPEARING MASCOTTE

When I was drifting I saw this strange object on the roof of a Shell gas station. When I tried to get closer, to have a better look of it, it dissapeared. Later on I found out I traveled forward in time. The mascotte was there in 2015 and dissapeared in 2019.

WHAT DID I NOTICE?

MOSTLY, IT LOOKS LIKE AN ABANDONED CITY

While I was drifting I saw barely any signs of life. There aren't many people on the streets and I only spotted driving cars on the main roads.The only things that suggested human life where the following:

Two girls in uniform, which means there probably is a school nearby.

One of the few stores I saw.

Laundry drying in front of the house. I saw this quite often.

Most of the buildings I saw where three storeys high or less. They where all single houses and eventhough almost all homes where not older than fifty years they looked very dilapitad. Almost all curtains are closed.

This bus is the only kind of publc transportation, besides train rails, that I saw. As you can see it isn't used a lot, since there are only two people inside.

I have seen multiple rows or piles of these transparant garbage bags. For something so messy, it is still very organized.

This place, probably a nursing home, is the only crowded place I have seen in Fukushima during my first drift.

Why are these woman all dressed so similar?

This is one of the few advertisement that contains an image. Eventhough there is a lot of signage present, there aren't many images and if there are, they are illustrations. Why?

The cube on top of this building, next to a busy road, is most likely meant for advertisement, so why is it now empty?

THERE ARE A LOT OF PARKING LOTS

Eventhough the streets were almost empty, thare were a lot of parking lots. Most of them were half full.

THEME: ANONYMITY

Eventhough I spent quite sometime exploring parts of Fukushima, I have learned nothing about the people living there and their daily lives. All the faces (of the few people that are actually on the street) are blurred, the curtains are closed, there are no shopping windows, no signs of public transportation, and all the signage and advertisemnt are for me unreadable. This all adds up to a very anonymous city*.

*Side note: I have not been in the city center, so it might not be the case for all of Fukushima.

I want to know more about the daily lives of the residents of Fukushima and how it has changed since the nuclear disaster.

SCHOOLS

SUPERMARKETS

SHOPPING MALLS

RESTAURANTS

MUSEUMS

BANKS & ATMs

TRAIN STATIONS

WHAT KIND OF FACILITIES DO THEY HAVE?

Where do kids go to school? Where do they shop? Is their public transportation? What is there to do in their free time? All these kinds of questions say a lot about a persons daily life. By looking at their facilities I'm hoping to learn more about the residents of Fukushima.

Why are there mostly elementary schools? How does the japanese school system work?

Why are there so little restaurants?

Most museums are memorials or about cultural heritage. Is that common or an exception?

HOSPITALS & MEDICAL CENTERS

There are a lot of stations missing, both zoomed in and out, why?

*Side note: There are probably more facilities than that are showing up on Google Maps. Also because I sometimes noticed that places dissapeared while zooming in or out.

HOTELS

Why are all the hotels so close to each other? Is that the only "good" part of the city?

GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT FUKUSHIMA

CITIZENS:

AREA:

DENSITY:

767.72 KM2

370/KM2

287,357

COUNTRY:

REGION:

PREFECTURE:

JAPAN

TŌHOKU

FUKUSHIMA

As of 2005, the total income of all citizens of Fukushima totalled ¥1.108 trillion (around €9 trillion). Of this income, 0.8% was made in the primary sector, 24.1% in the secondary sector, and 80.1% in the tertiary sector.

Income in the primary sector was led by that from agriculture, which totalled ¥8.939 billion. The secondary sector was led by general manufacturing, with income there totalling ¥218.4 billion. The service industry led the tertiary sector with a total income of ¥271.6 billion.

An ad for why you should come live and work in Fukushima

The Hague, for example. has 6.621/km²

LINE is like whatsapp.

THE MOST POPULAR/USED SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN JAPAN

"Fukushima deli recruitment
There aren't many scouts who are introducing this much.
60 minutes 0,80,100,000, 120,000
Guarantee 30,000 to 50,000 yen
Actual earning about 40,000 to 70,000
Spec 100 ~
A stable shop is recommended during the off-season
Especially recommended for Himekata who earned moss last time
Retweet is Amazon"

TWEETS CONTAINING THE WORD 福島 (FUKUSHIMA IN JAPANESE)

"Somewhere in Fukushima Prefecture Night ra set meal soy source ramen Natto rice
Today's dinner is homemade ramen using handmade noodles made by Y'c
It was pretty good
I wanted to remember the morning ra set meal of hand-made hand rope"

"View of Fukushima with a torii gate"

"Ryosuke Yamada & Kei Tanaka have released #TV Navi on the cover !! Metropolitan area version, Shizuoka version, Chubu version, Kansai version, Miyagi / Fukushima version, Nagano / Niigata version are on sale, Aomori / Iwate version, Akita / The Yamagata version will be on sale on 25th (Fri), the Hokkaido version, Hiroshima / Okayama / Kagawa version, Kyushu version, Kagoshima / Kumamoto / Miyazaki version on 26th (Sat) !!"

"[Anytime Fitness opens in Kuwano! ]
The fitness club "Anytime Fitness" will open in Kuwano, Koriyama City near the intersection of Route 49 and Sakura Dori.
Opening: October 31st
Location: 1-21-9 Kuwano, Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture"

"Recommendation! Due to the extension of baseball, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting will start at 10:50. In Akita, Fukushima, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Ehime, it's from 10 pm!
Asuka Saito, Mizuki Yamashita, and Minami Umezawa from Nogizaka46 will be the guests from the OP! From around 11:40, Mayu Tamura of Nogizaka46 will appear! Please look forward to it ♡ #Recommendation"

"Welfare is cut off when livelihood protection and pensions are no longer needed. Abandonment policy! I have to live."

"Heizo Takenaka introduces basic income in the press 1930.
If you think about it, you will give 70,000 yen a month to all the people, eliminate the livelihood protection you are currently receiving, and eliminate the pension.
The point is to eliminate the welfare pension and make everyone a national pension, reduce the livelihood protection extremely, and do your best with self-help. As expected, Suga's brain."

"#In a word, what you did during this consecutive holiday
I went to Fukushima to eat crocodile hands and deer (-_-) and"

They use a lot of emoji's in their tweets.

A lot of the tweets were about food.

Most of the tweets were about the Fukushima prefecture, instead of the city.

Why are there different versions for different prefectures? And why do they differentiate a metropolitan area?

A very strange tweet! Is owning and carrying a gun legal in Japan?

There were many of these tweets. I don't have a twitter and this is the first time I browsed on the site, so why do these keep getting recommended?

Since it takes a lot of time to translate evrything, I haven't seen many more tweets.

WHAT DO THE JAPANESE FOLLOW ON TWITTER?

That food & drink is the most followed category corresponds with what I noticed. Half of the tweet I saw were about food. But if food is so important, why do they have so little restaurants? Do they always eat at home? If so, do they eat alone or with friends or family?

"Many people participated in the mineral beauty essence making & natural allowance course held in Fukushima City. Healed by the wonderful scent, the beauty essence containing expensive essential oils raises the tension, you can self-care with the essential oils, and you are surprised! ️ Everyone, I had a good time to be healed, and I came home with a completely different expression from when I came.
Thank you"

"Visit the grave in the best weather"

"Shortcut #Fukushima City Beauty Salon #Fukushima City #Shortcut #Minami Fukushima Beauty Salon #Minami Fukushima #Cut #Fukushima City Cut #Fukushima City #Beauty Salon #Short Bob #Shortcut Fukushima City #Short Style"

INSTAGRAM POSTS WITH AS LOCATION FUKUSHIMA

"#Dreaming form"

FOOD

PETS

NATURE

THERE WERE MOSTLY POSTS ABOUT:

SOME POSTS THAT I NOTICED:

There were a lot of pictures of people with this particular haircut, why this one?

One of the only group pictures that I have seen.

I really want this statue!

REPRESENTATION OF FUKUSHIMA CITIZENS

IN THE NEWS:

ON GOOGLE MAPS:

Only men always wearing maks and helmets. Most of the time also wearing full protective suits.

Mostly older woman and almost all of them pedestrians. Because of privacy all faces are blurred.

IN ART:

All art is about the nuclear disaster.

Video about the exhibition "Don't Follow the Wind" that is impossible to visit, because of the radiation.

ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

THE RESEARCH