eLovejoy 2009-03-24 22:35:02
[url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/second-scott-saved-in-japanese-ski-town/2009/03/22/1237656766157.html]Original Article[/url] [quote]A young Australian has revealed how close he came to dying of hypothermia in the Japanese ski resort town where Brisbane man Scott McKay went missing. Daniel, who did not wish to reveal his identity, said he would have died wandering the streets in Niseko if not for the intervention of total strangers - Ballina nurse Angie Llewellyn-Sare and her GP husband, Dr David Sare. Speaking to brisbanetimes.com.au yesterday, Daniel - also from Brisbane - said he was on holiday in the ski resort just weeks after Mr McKay's disappearance when he left his friends after a night of drinking in the local bars. McKay, a 27-year old IT business owner, who helped developed a skier-tracking system, sparked a massive, ultimately fruitless search when disappeared en route between a bar and his accommodation in February. Daniel said the beginning of his story was eerily similar to Mr McKay's situation. "The last thing I really remember is drinking at the pub, saying goodbye to a girl I was talking to, then going outside," he said. "I had heard about what happened to Scott, but I didn't realise that this was almost exactly the way he went missing. "Its pretty hot here in the bar, so I was only wearing a t-shirt and had a light jacket round my waist." About 6am the same day, Ms Llewellyn-Sare was sitting in her room at a local guest house when she spied Daniel walking in circles, staggering and crying out. "I wondered why he was out there: it was early, really cold and he didn't look right," she said. "Yes, he had been drinking alcohol but when I found him (in the foyer of the building), that clearly wasn't his problem. "He wouldn't have been seen in the foyer he had crawled into and he was only a couple of hours away from dying." Taking quick action, the Ballina couple took Daniel into their room and gave him warm drinks and blankets, despite having no idea who he was or how he had come to be at their doorstep, suffering severe hypothermia. "Even after half an hour he was freezing to touch," Ms Llewellyn-Sare said. Daniel, who is in his twenties, said he awoke to find he didn't remember anything from the bar onwards and no idea where he was. "Angie told me later that she wasn't sure what I'd do when I woke up." Ms Llewellyn-Sare said humans normally feel cold because blood flows from our skin into the major organs to keep our core body temperature warm, but after alcohol consumption, blood flushes the skin giving a warm feeling but leaving core body temperature to decrease rapidly. "I don't think people are aware of the effect of mixing alcohol and the cold," Ms Llewellyn-Sare said. "I have children who are that age and I really feel for his family. After seeing this young man, I can see how easy someone can get into trouble," she said. Daniel recovered over the course of the day and shouted his saviours to a traditional Japanese banquet. His friends, who had thought Daniel had gone off with the girl from the bar, vowed to watch out for each other better in future. "I owe Angie my life," Daniel said. "I've kept in touch with Angie and they've invited me to go visit them in NSW one day." Daniel has now recovered from his ordeal and has a new appreciation for life and its dangers. "I think people need to be more aware of their surrounding when they go to an environment like the snow," he said. "You can die going out anywhere, but I don't think most people know how much extra danger it adds. "I've always lived life to the full, but you just don't realise how fragile life really is until you've been through something like this."[/quote]
Nelglenski (2009-03-26 18:57:18)
The moral of that story is "remember to wear winter clothes when you go outside in Northern Japan in the middle of winter".
Gtrain (2009-03-27 11:39:07)
You see it all the time. People just wearing skate shoes and a thin hoodie.

It's a shame many people need to discover the dangers rather than realise the dangers before hand.

He was in the final stages. Man, did he come close to the end! I am sure we will see even more people next year walking arouns in stuff all.

This year I saw a chick wearing wet uggboots...WTF? how cold would you be to look cool, dudes just in wet sweaty T-shirts all boozed up and many more people walking around in stuff I wear in Perth in the Autumn. Is it to look tuff or cool? Am I just getting old?

Perswonaqlly I think it shows the level of understanding and respect for the environment they are in. It makes you think what they are like on the mountain!
Pow!!! (2009-03-27 17:08:09)
What an ijiot. I would have used this guy as lawn art. It might even be doing the first Scott a disservice to compare them.

It always seems to be people from warmer climates who this happens to. Hey there, Mr. Lawn Art, you forget that you were not partying on the Gold Coast?

This would never happen to a Canadian!
JA2340 (2009-03-27 17:58:52)
Part of the problem could be the fact that the interiors of many (even most) homes/clubs/restaurants/pubs in Japan are overheated. That you can sit around in a tee shiort and get well boozed up without feeling the need to warm up is (at least) partly the fault if the proprietors whose intent is to make people drink more.

Yep, you need to remember that you are not in sunny NQ, but you also should not be lulled into a sense of how warm it is outside.

I mean, 20 degrees C is about as warm as it needs to be inside in winter or summer! The thermostat doesn't need to be cranked up in winter.!

I feel incredibly sad for the family of Scott McKay - having this hanging over them for this long would be unbearable. I also feel so very happy that Daniel was seen by someone who knew what to do.
legacy (2009-03-27 18:38:03)
You've kind of brushed upon something I've always found peculiar about Hokkaido.

Why in the name of God is it always so hot indoors?

Drives me insane, but the locals look at me incredulously when I strip down to a t-shirt in a room that's 30 degrees. It has got to be a cultural thing. I mean, ever ask Hokkaido people why ice cream is a "winter food"? They are also the first to complain when the temperature drops. You'd think that if anybody in Japan would be used to the cold it'd be Hokkaido people. WRONG.

A dosanko friend of mine went to Tokyo last summer and came back complaining abut how COLD it was... in August! Why? Ever-present air conditioners.
JA2340 (2009-03-27 18:53:31)
Dunno, maybe it's a Northern Hemisphere thing!B)

Same thing in North America (USA & Canada)- indoors at 30 C and you need a dozen layers to go out the door - even just to get the mail.

In Oz, many people are starting to emulate this, with aircon set at 25C during Winter and 17C during Summer.

It would be far more sensible to have 20 as the year round temp, and wear more clothes inside during winter and fewer during summer. Is that so hard to manage?? We did it OK before aircon was invented!
alyuciao (2009-04-06 22:51:25)
ah, but since the aircon was invented, the whole design of buildings has changed too.

Gone are the deep-set windows, that used to encourage a cool draft, even the protruding roofline has gone, leaving no cool shade in the warmer seasons.

it has nothing to do with the inside temperatures,( even though it has to be said that usually in Japan there is a very bad case of overkill when it comes to the thermostat settings) but, it is all about good o'l common sense.

Mix alcohol with stupidity and you can get a severe case of death.
Chishiki (2009-12-07 04:11:29)
Yo StatZer,

The "problem" with Hokkaido thermostats is just that they're set way too high. Room temperature where I'm from, regardless of season, is 68F (20C).

I've found that in Hokkaido the temperature is often set up to 25C. That's insane, and explains why Hokkaido people eat ice cream in the winter, but for many of us that is an unbearable indoor temperature.

I've stayed in hotels (with air conditioning!) where I couldn't set the temperature to less than 22C. I almost threw a chair through a window to get some air.

Flipside: some guys and I have a pub in Hakodate, and if the staff set the temp at 20C, I reckon we'd lose many of our regulars, who are all Japanese, because it was too sammiiiiii!

Cheers,
C
JA2340 (2009-12-07 08:11:03)
[b]StatZer wrote:[/b]
[quote][/quote]

This is all I have been able to see of StatZer's post. Did they actually SAY anything? Obviously, Chishiki thought so, because they replied with a comment. But there is NOTHING there!
Horace (2009-12-11 17:04:02)
Snow and shorts don't mix.
Snow and T-shirts don't mix except in Spring or when you're shovelin hard.
Wish snow and idiots didn't mix either and we'd all be having better times.
Maybe it's just a Queensland thing - they are a bit different or is sloooooooooooooooooooow- maybe they don't know that snow is cold.
Maybe there should be special beanies given out to all QLDers -that way everyone could keep an eye on em.
Heating/Air conditioning in Japan - yeah we all know it isn't logical, just be prepared to strip/add a layer and you'll be sweet.
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