Waiting to Exhale
It’s hard to explain what is happening in Tokyo. Things have not returned to normal but many normal things are happening. I still cooked and baked yesterday afternoon. Marty has gone to work this morning. But my routine is not my normal one. For the past few days I have been woken by earthquakes and not be an alarm clock. This morning it was the 6.2 quake in Ibaraki-ken that woke me. We have emergency kits in the hall beside the door. I’m not cleaning or doing anything non-essential that would involve using gas or electricity. I am watching T.V. which is something I never do during the day.
I have decided to mostly watch Japanese news. The world news is horrifying in different ways that the Japanese news. It is true that there was an explosion at a nuclear reactor this morning but the world news has lots of speculation and uses sensational words like “Chernobyl”. Here in Japan the news includes lots of information on what is being done by the scientists. I find it comforting that the news is now making lists of services that are closed. This would make incredibly boring world news but it shows that now more things are open than closed. After the first quake it was much simpler to list, for example, which train lines were running as so few were.
We are expecting a power cut soon but I will continue to monitor the news until that happens.
March 14th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
I’ve been following the news and while it’s certainly scary I have faith that things will be under control soon. I have to say, your post about going to the tower for beans and then being on the observation deck during the main quake will make quite a story to tell people someday! Just remember, we’re all (I and many others who know you) thinking of and praying for you and Marty and your friends and colleagues.
March 14th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
The press here are giving it everything they’ve got on the nuclear front. Catastrophe! Meltdown!!!!! Chernobyl!!! (not so much Windscale, though…) Not very much science though… for instance, I haven’t seen so much as a control rod in any of the graphics, just plenty of repeats of the outer shell of the building being blown off. Much better TV… and dare I say it, good campaigning material for those of a “renewable” bent, like the BBC…
March 15th, 2011 at 9:14 am
Thank you Steve. We also have faith in what is happening, which is why we have not yet tried to leave Japan.
Geoff, the news channels here are full of scientists with blue peter like diagrams. We have been amused by how some of the props look but appreciate that so much effort is going into calming people down. Marty’s work also sent him to a briefing today on how nuclear reactors work – so lots if being down to try to prevent panic.