All Honshu Network: News and Entertainment from the Eastern Jewel of Kusari
Konnichiwa! Ishikawa Ayumi desu. You are watching "Ikiru michi" (//"Way of life") on All Honshu Network. We invite you today to visit the famous floating cities of Honshu, learn about their history and contribution to the planet.
Minakamitoshi, or "floating cities", have been known to humanity since before it left the Old Earth. A true feat of engineering ingenuity, it allowed our ancestors to dwell on the tides of oceans and expand the place of living. For the progenitors of Kusari that was extremely important, and so our forefathers achieved great success in this technology which eventually was brought aboard “Kusari” to our new worlds.
By the whim of fate, the newly settled words were predominantly aquatic, and so Kusarians used to the best of their abilities the know-how of building aquatic cities to support the rapidly growing fishing industry. Honshu was not an exception. Minakamitoshi (//floating cities) greatly contributed to booming salmon fishing that managed to grow from newly introduced species, to abundant, to nigh extinct in mere 200 years. As the fishing industry faded to the background of Kusarian food supply priority, the floating cities became remnants of the past and a tourist attraction. According to the estimation of the Honshu Department for Fishery & Maritime Affairs, there are 252 floating cities remaining on Honshu, spanning from empty museums with skeleton crew to receive tourists to sprawling 100.000+ cities with self-sustaining infrastructure. Today we will visit one of such cities, Mizumura, with population of 14,828 inhabitants not far from the island of Haneda.
Mizumura Docks
Mizumura was established in 78 A.S., making it a rather old city of first generation of the colonists. Originally deployed much further away from Haneda, Mizumura soon moved closer to the island where the city of Minamito was rapidly developing to support the latter with sea products. As the city grew, Mizumura increased its fishing capacity and also constructed oil refineries for nearby seabed oil platforms to diversify the local economy.
Memorial Torii
However, Mizumura probably is most famous for one of the biggest disasters occurred to a floating city in history of Kusari - Komura incident in 149 A.S. As the focus of the local minakamitoshi (//floating cities) was shifting further from fishing and more into refining of crude natural resources, security measures were at times neglected for the sake of rapid re-specialisation of the technological capabilities. Komura company was one of such profit-driven enterprises that eschewed safety for profits, resulting in temporary disconnection of one of the anchor pillars in the eastern section of the city in order to install a mining drill in its place. When a particularly strong taifun hit the area, the lack of one pillar proved to be critical for the stability of city, that was partially ripped apart by the waves. To worsen the situation, the integrity of the petroleum storage was compromised, resulting in severe contamination of the adjacent waters, aggravating already dire situation with sealife on the planet. It also prevented many survivors of the taifun from swimming to safety. Exposed to oil on the waves, many people lost strength quickly and drowned. Others fell victims to sporadic fires ravaging the ruins of the city. 5,062 people lost their lives that day. Although following thorough investigation of the reasons of the disaster and appropriate punishment for the responsible, the reputation of the floating cities took a severe blow. The exodus of the floating cities population combined with fish dying out planetwide, the number of cities decreased from over 500 to less than 300 in two years.
To commemorate the tragedy, a giant torii (//Japanese ritualistic shinto gates) was installed on the spot of the incident. Towering 50 metres above the waves, the “legs” of the torii gate go 300 metres deep directly into the seabed These firm columns are a symbol of us remembering the prevalence of safety and stability over the profits of graceful ever-changing waves.
Tenmei Marine Research Centre
Nowadays, Mizumura is a rather small city that specialises in maritime research. Cooperating with the best universities on the planet and beyond, local laboratories hope to restore the population of salmon on the planet and throughout Kusari. In particular, Tenmei Daigaku laboratories in coordination with Samura are investigating the impact of alien microorganisms from the planet of Kurile on the local sea flora and fauna. Kishiro Technologies uses Mizumura as one of its testing fields for submarine vehicles and pioneer spaceships capable of diving into the seas of newly discovered stellar objects.
There is still, however, the older side of the floating city: sushi restaurants. Now mostly a symbol of the past, sushi-ya-san (//suchi restaurants) procure synthetic salmon from coastal farms. Despite not actually growing their own livestocks, the restaurants are said by the tourists to have exceptional quality of the food. Try the unique recipes of spiced maguro-maki (//salmon roll) with flying fish ikura (//roe) yourself - our filming crew had to stop working for an hour just to enjoy the taste, as well as invigorating atmosphere of old colonists, still thirsty for new discovering and taming their new homeworld.
Hiromi Aquapark
Home to hardworking researchers and kaishain (//office clerks), Mizumura can not boast about its nightlife. The city still can offer a lot of activities during the day: numerous museums, including the Museum of Floating Cities History and our favourite - Museum of Water; Hiromi Aquapark with countless attractions for the kids and adults alike; local flea market where travellers exchange their items from all over Sirius; and an observation platform from which a tired traveller can observe the whole city, as well as enjoy the view over the island of Haneda and the memorial torii-gate.
Mizumura Museum of Water
Located just 30 minutes of flight by a shuttle from the centre of Minamimito, the city of Mizumura is rather easy to reach. The city also has its own spaceport and can receive travellers directly on their own space vessels no larger than 30 metres wide. We advise to come on weekends when most of the facilities are open, and when one can peek at the locals to follow their example in enjoying the unusual life on a floating city, once a pioneer technology and now reminder of the past. And if you find yourself even more interested in floating cities of Honshu after the visit - there are 251 more of those to check out while staying on the planet.
Come visit Mizumura on Honshu, and witness the wonders of Kusarian floating cities yourself! Mizumura ni youkoso (//welcome to Mizumura)!
This programme was sponsored by Haneda Department of Tourism of Honshu and Clan Shimamori. Brought you by
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