A quake survivor shovels snow in front of temporary housing.

Practice walks will help urban survivors find their way home after the Big One hits Tokyo.

Koken Saito has walked home from central Tokyo to Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, once a year in the past decade. It takes him 17 hours to trek the 50-odd kilometers.

On Saturday, the 63-year-old will again head north from Shinjuku to find a way to Saitama without riding buses or trains.

The journey is part of an annual ``survival walk'' program aimed at training commuters to escape the downtown core on foot if a big earthquake flattens Tokyo.

Saito this year heads the executive committee for the Tokyo survival walk, organized by citizens group Kitaku Nanmin no Kai, which roughly translates as the ``Association of Quake-Stranded People Away from Home.''

``Ten years after the Kobe earthquake, people are better aware of volunteerism, but they have little sense of concern that they may become disaster victims themselves,'' Saito says. ``I hope they'll think about how to survive when disaster hits.''

Ahead of next week's 10th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake, which struck Jan. 17, 1995, and killed more than 6,400 people, many anti-disaster drills, including walks home, are planned for the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The government's Central Disaster Management Council late last year estimated that up to 6.5 million commuters could be stranded in a major quake in the capital.

In addition to Tokyo, where people will walk home from a square near the Tokyo metropolitan government offices in Shinjuku Ward, the Kitaku Nanmin no Kai will sponsor survival walks in Kanagawa, Aichi and Kyoto prefectures.

``As natural disasters occur one after another both in Japan and abroad, we hope people will think about ways to protect themselves,'' says Masakazu Yoshitake, who started the event after the Kobe quake.

Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward estimates 600,000 people could be stranded after a magnitude 7 quake, with about 200,000 around JR Tokyo Station.

About 60 businesses and organizations in the station neighborhood are planning an anti-quake drill Monday.

Popularly referred to as the Tokyo Eki Shuhen Bosai Tonarigumi (Anti-disaster group in the Tokyo Station neighborhood), the Urban Disaster Prevention Organization formed a year ago.

In the drill, about 200 members and more than 100 from the public will distribute water, food and information to people stranded in Marunouchi, Otemachi and elsewhere. Up to 70 others will set out on the long trek home.

Police, Self-Defense Forces, firefighters and others will also conduct relief drills.

``The (council's) estimates of quake damage revealed difficulties anew for stranded people trying to get home,'' says Masaharu Mizuguchi, a Mitsubishi Estate employee who is also Tonarigumi's secretary-general.

``We are studying the best way businesses can help the community.''(IHT/Asahi: January 13,2005)