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Amazing Japanese Efficiency (2011-05-14)

The speed at which Japanese workers fix damages from the 3-11 Quake is nothing short of amazement. 

A section of a highway that was split into two levels by the quake was repaired fully in just SIX DAYS, less than a friggin' week!  The first lot of temporary houses for the tsunami survivors was completed in less than a month.  Their interior looks much better than the first apartment KL and I lived in when we first moved to Japan (!), and they come furnished with brand new appliances.

But the most amazing repair of all was the swiftness the JR East Tohoku (northeast) Shinkansen (bullet train) line was restored.  Here are the statistics:

1. About 1780 places along the 675-km (400 miles)Tohoku Shinkansen line were damaged by the quake.
2. An additional three thousand engineers and repairmen were pulled throughout the country to work on the repair daily.
3. A section of the track that was bent after the quake was hammered into place again BY HAND.
4. Bent power pylons along the track were straightened and erected in just weeks.
5. The entire damaged train line was restored in just 49 DAYS!
6. The Tohoku train line resumed operation on April 29.

I'm just speechless.  Please accept my deepest bow and respect to the thousands of workers who worked day and night to recover the transportation system ravaged by the quake.

P.S. Statistics are quoted from reports by Fuji Television.

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