Having studied some of the biggest cities of the world, I can assure that nothing about their management is easy. Especially when disaster strikes. And the likelihood of a city like Tokyo being affected by disaster is high.

Urban spots are where human life concentrates. Asking how to prevent damage in these most vulnerable places leads to more questions – where are we even supposed to start?

To cite my own example: Any social change starts at the smallest, the human unit. For years, I had planned to change my electricity provider from Vattenfall, which used to provide atomic energy mainly, to the green provider Lichtblick. It took the nuclear catastrophe in Japan for me to finally do the leap and change. When I read how Vattenfall sued German government for lost profits caused by the shift towards sustainable energy and by the consequent shutting down of atomic reactors, I swiftly changed to Lichtblick and never looked back. Interestingly, because of changing politics and a modified energy economy, contrarily to Vattenfall clients my costs have diminished since then.

*During my urban travels across continents, a specific quest has taken shape in an almost unconscious, natural way: Can our cities provide answers to their self made challenges? What answers are hidden in the urban labyrinth itself, and how do you give that system more awareness of itself, to actually apply its own wisdom? These insights were a driving force in all of my travels so far. Funnily enough, I can only formulate them clearly in retrospective, while I’m back home.*