Technical / Cultural Tours & Accommodation

The 8^th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (8ICEGE)

Technical Tour

Date & Time: May 11(Sat), 2024 / 9:00 - 17:30*
Tour registration fee including lunch: 9,000 JPY (Sign up through the conference registration site.)
Expected number of participants: 30 to 100
Contact: ec_gakkai@nta.co.jp

*Arrival time: Our scheduled return time to Osaka city is 17:30, but please note that unforeseen circumstances, such as traffic, may cause delays. We appreciate your understanding.

Clothing Recommendations:
As we'll be visiting an experimental site, please wear attire that may get dirty. Opt for comfortable and practical clothing, including suitable footwear. Avoid wearing flowing garments, such as skirts, for your convenience.

Course description:
This tour will focus on the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe), Japan, earthquake. On January 17, 5:46AM, the large earthquake (Mw 6.9) struck the city of Kobe and caused tremendous damage to human society. This earthquake was one the first of its kind severely hit the well-developed area and clearly revealed the city’s weakness against large earthquakes. Since then, we, as earthquake engineers, have been learning valuable lessons from the earthquake. Although still far from perfect, many social systems related to disaster management/mitigation have been updated since then, including design codes for buildings, civil and infrastructures, disaster information communication, restoration and recovery process, and people’s awareness of disaster prevention.
In Kobe area, there are many facilities to pass on the memory of the earthquake to future generations. This time, we have selected three of these locations.

1) Hanshin Expressway Earthquake Museum (https://kansai-doboku-style.com/shinsaihokanko/)
2) Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park (http://kobe.travel.coocan.jp/kobeport/earthquake_memorial.htm)
3) Full-Scale 3D dynamic /isolation Testing facilities, E-Defense /E-Isolation
(E-Defense: https://www.bosai.go.jp/hyogo/ehyogo/index.html)
(E-Isolation: https://www.jsil.or.jp/English_info.html)

Participants will be able to see a very rare cross section of a road bridge pier damaged in the earthquake, the remains of the piers in its original form, and the world largest shaking table experimental facility.

A 'Bento' lunch box will be provided for you to enjoy on the bus.

We hope this technical tour will be useful for your future business and research activities.

Organizing Committee

Highlights of the tour

1) Hanshin Expressway Earthquake Museum
Portions of the real structures cut from the damaged structures are on display.

(https://kansai-doboku-style.com/storehouse/)

2) Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park
The Port of Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park preserves a section of the Kobe Port Meriken park.

(http://kobe.travel.coocan.jp/kobeport/earthquake_memorial.htm)

3) Full-Scale 3D dynamic /isolation Testing machines, E-Defense /E-isolation.
E-Defense and E-isolation are located on the same site. We can visit both of the Full-Scale 3D Testing machines in this tour.

The photo above is the past experiment (www.flickr.com). We do not know what models will be on this tour.

The 8^th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (8ICEGE)

Cultural Tour

Click on the image above to view a PDF with details.

Lunch venue:

Ganko Kameoka (Japanese Garden Restaurant)

The 8^th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (8ICEGE)

Accommodation

Several accommodations are available for the conference. Please check the application page for details.

We are very afraid that we, Nippon Travel Agency, will not provide accommodation services of RIHGA Royal Hotel Osaka, the nearest hotel to the conference venue and where Gala Dinner will be held.If you wish to stay at this hotel, please make your reservations directly via the hotel website or via other websites . (January. 12, 2024.)