It is limited viewing, requires a reservation & the slots run out practically in seconds. Tough for us residents to get it as well. My wife could snag it in her third try, as a late birthday trip last year.
It is gargantuan & having massive holding capacity. To give semblance with something familiar, it was like standing in NY Grand Central station, except it was felt bigger, empty, damp & illuminated by floodlights from all sides. It is probably one and half football fields in length & scales high as much as a five storied building. Uploaded three pics to show the scale of this megalith. (The base of the pillars here are taller than average height of person to give a rough scale. The stairs come down from the ground level)
In addition to this underground chamber, there are two massive pumps on either sides, which divert the water from whichever river is surging to the other (Arakawa & Edogawa possibly). The chamber is the buffer zone between the rivers, not a storage tank ultimately. I was told by the civil engineer of this plant they could pump out as much as a jumbo jet's volume per minute in its storm surge channel/drain to manage flooding. You can walk up to the turbine room at the end of this room, and see its massive blades at an arm length. All with earthquake protection in place as well. Honestly mind-blowing piece of engineering.
It's not the same, but this is similar to Chicago's Deep Tunnel Project. There's a lot of fascinating reading on the project. If you're in the area, you can even get a tour of one of the stations:
22 meters underground, built in 1950s, Tokyo, 5-7% of GDP - yeah the gigantic underground vaults serve as flood protection, to those who have a good understanding of Japanese history, it's understandable to believe these were rather primarily built as bomb and nuclear shelters.
The scale of this facility is deceptive in the video. If you pay attention about halfway through, a man walks through. His head only comes up almost to the top of the taper on the footings.
It has a fantastic reverb too! Would love to take a drum kit down there... and a speaker to play a sweep & capture an IR. Tried using handclaps when I visited.
Colour it green and you have a Mirrors Edge Level - this really looks like the underground part in the first game. The form of the stele as an example.
I am sure other cities have it as well, but it really looks close to the level.
In a similar vein is the surge shaft being built as part of the Snowy 2.0 scheme in Australia. 28 metres diameter and 263 metres deep. It absorbs the momentum of the surge of water when the downstream power station closes its valves.
> In a similar vein is the surge shaft being built as part of the Snowy 2.0 scheme in Australia. [...] It absorbs the momentum of the surge of water when the downstream power station closes its valves.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 50.6 ms ] threadThere was also a good NYT article in 2017 (293 points, 210 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15436943
It is limited viewing, requires a reservation & the slots run out practically in seconds. Tough for us residents to get it as well. My wife could snag it in her third try, as a late birthday trip last year.
It is gargantuan & having massive holding capacity. To give semblance with something familiar, it was like standing in NY Grand Central station, except it was felt bigger, empty, damp & illuminated by floodlights from all sides. It is probably one and half football fields in length & scales high as much as a five storied building. Uploaded three pics to show the scale of this megalith. (The base of the pillars here are taller than average height of person to give a rough scale. The stairs come down from the ground level)
https://i.imgur.com/Jtcy0Ct.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/8Q08eKS.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/y75sfGP.jpeg
In addition to this underground chamber, there are two massive pumps on either sides, which divert the water from whichever river is surging to the other (Arakawa & Edogawa possibly). The chamber is the buffer zone between the rivers, not a storage tank ultimately. I was told by the civil engineer of this plant they could pump out as much as a jumbo jet's volume per minute in its storm surge channel/drain to manage flooding. You can walk up to the turbine room at the end of this room, and see its massive blades at an arm length. All with earthquake protection in place as well. Honestly mind-blowing piece of engineering.
I sometimes forget that manga writers use very real locations as references. I believe this is the backdrop for several Tokyo Ghoul scenes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern
https://mwrd.org/locations/tarp-mainstream-pumping-station
I guess it’s connected to this one, though I can’t find any information on that reservoir in specific.
https://sushitech-startup.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/sightseeing-tour...
It’s pretty relevant as my house is about 50m from that river.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3tdYolqiU8
Also, the rivers around Tokyo all have giant flood areas (parks, golf courses, farms) they can open to hold water in an emergency.
https://www.ktr.mlit.go.jp/edogawa/edogawa01318.html
The earthquakes make it so that what would be a simple overpass has all of this ... stuff that would not exist in a more geologically stable region.
Culture and food were still my main motivations for visiting, but the infrastructure part came as a nice bonus.
I am sure other cities have it as well, but it really looks close to the level.
https://www.snowyhydro.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SH_...
Not the same power station, but I have to post a link to one of my favorite YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJVBlhgt9j8 (Obere Wasserschlosskammer).