Flood Control

Descending 65 meters of stairs to enter the main holding tank, we entered a room the length of 2 football fields. Standing at the bottom I felt like a man at the base of something that was left by ancient architects that might have helped build the Pyramids. My intention of going there was to do a technical scout for a film I was shooting. The only problem was there was nowhere to get electricity from to power the lights. It was still wet from the previous storm a few weeks ago and another was on the way threatening our shoot. I couldn’t help imagining what it was like filled with water as I looked around.

We took a short trip about 3 Kilometers away to one of the 5 water silos where water goes into from local waterways before it gets sent into the containment tank.  It is a vertical tunnel that is 32m in diameter and 64m deep.  We went down one of these silos by way of a construction elevator. Not the sturdiest thing I’ve ever been in. These silos hold water as well and are massive; they connect to tunnels in both directions. Strolling down one of the tunnels to check out the lighting and how far they went, I felt like walking into the Holland Tunnel of the end of the world. Dim fluorescent lights lined the walls as far as one could see with the feeling that something massive just passed thru there. The tunnels ferry the water from the 5 Silos to the main holding room.  The whole system is powered by 14,000 horsepower turbines that pump 200 tons of water per second into the outlying Edogawa River before emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

We came up with some great ideas to shoot in the tunnels and holding tanks, and it was going to be a challenge to put lights in this massive underground lair, but unfortunately the day before the shoot a big storm hit Tokyo and the G-Cans were forced to let in water for safety reasons. The water would take weeks to drain completely -- my shoot was canceled. Maybe next trip we can try to do it again, but for now I have to live with the photos I got.