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Thanks to you all for your concern. We were virtualy untouched by the quake and tsunami, which is a good thing, since we live about three blocks from the beach.
The scope and scale of the damage in the northeast of Japan is truly incredible. What is most affecting is the fact that for the rest of us, life goes on as normal. The past weekend here in Japan reminded me of nothing so much as that terrible weekend before Thanksgiving back in 1963, when just about everyone in America was glued to their televisions at the same time watching the news of the assassination,witnessing the shocking murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby, and then the numbing sadness of JFK`s funeral in Washington. Remember? That`s what it was like here. Outside it was eerily quiet -- and it was a sunny, springlike day. I realized mid-morning that nearly everyone who could was watching the unfolding disaster from Tohoku (northern Japan), trying to connect with relatives (we finally did; all are okay), and marveling at the unpredictability of the earth we live in.
The area where I live had a major quake back in 1995. Thousands died and much of the city here was totally destroyed. The reports I`ve been reading and hearing indicate that the current catastrophe is going to be much, much worse. Among other things, this quake was many times stronger and more severe than the 1995 Hanshin quake, and involved an immense and extremely fast tsunami (the first estimate was that 30 minutes would elapse from the time the quake occurred until the tsunami struck; people scrambled to escape; but the wave came, instead, much quicker: hence, the widespread loss of life).
I still don`t know what to make of all this. It certainly has helped me understand the fatalism of the Japanese people. Not wanting to engage in tasteless speculation, but I shudder to think what such a natural disaster would do to the US. I don`t know if we would be capable of handling it as calmly and methodically as the people here...
At any rate, we are headed home to the pacific northwest this coming Sunday for a scheduled two-week vacation. While of course it will be good to be back in the USA, and to spend time with my sons and grandson, I feel almost guilty leaving my friends here. The weeks and months ahead will require all of us to make sacrifices, which for myself and the other temporary expatriates, will be at most an inconvenience. For our Japanese friends and colleagues, however, it will be a long-lasting tragedy and a permanent memory of the instability of the land they live in and the impermanence of life they lead. It will be many years before Japan recovers from this catastrophe.
Again, thanks to all for your kind thoughts. Take care. Keep in touch.
Not sure if you can even get news... If not CNN just as you posted was saying reactors 2 and 3 are suffering more explosions. It seems no one knows exactly where or what has exploded.
Might be a good time to make some distance between you and the reactors if you are close to them.
I am very sorry this disaster has come to pass. I don't have words to express this.
I feel stupid, just saying I am sorry, but I don't know what else to say........
I'm glad you are ok, Teledaf. Mac is right - there simply aren't words than can express the sorrow and concern. I can't even watch the news anymore. My heart is broken for the victims.
The eerie part is that where I live -- Osaka suburbs -- life goes on pretty much as normal. It is hard to beleve that a few hundred miles north of us there are people wandering around who have lost everything -- their homes, their clothing, all of their possessions, and most importantly, family members, young and old, whom they may never see again.
Some of the more gruesome reports I've heard are saying that many bodies are stacked up, unable to be cremated or buried, owing to the lack of body bags, coffins, and manpower to actually cremate the bodies and bury the remains. In a country like Japan, where reverence to ancestors is of great importance, these factors are causing widespread despair and grief.
It's a strange thing. I've had a Japanese wife for twenty years, I've visited and lived in Japan many times for periods of from a week or two to several months, and I thought I knew what made people tick here. I was wrong; or, rather, what I knew was a pale version of the truth. The Japanese are TRUE fatalists. Their obedience and conformity, which can be maddening to a man from the American west, with his optimism and need to break away from time to time and his innate desrie to confound expectations and puncture balloons, are grounded in events like the past week -- events which are cyclical in Japanese history and which form the cultural basis of their worldview, in much the same way that events like the Civil War, the Great Depression, the World Wars, Vietnam, 9/11 and the like -- all man-made, I remind myself -- have served to create an American cultural perspective based on abstract concepts of justice, economic opportunity, military prepardeness, and a desire to export our brand of liberty and freedom, so confident are we that these are needed and desired by the rest of the world.
In many ways, Japan seems so much older than America today -- and not just chronologically. The sadness that I feel, and my need to address the savage harm nature has dealt to my host country, is not reflected in the faces or, I suspect, the hearts of my Japanese relatives, friends, and colleagues. Just as Japan learned --late in her history, and quite quickly -- that her influence on the world in the Western sense, would be brief and limited, so have the Japanese people learned over the ages not to be surprised by calamity or good fortune, so frequently and unpredictably have evidences of both occurred throughout her history.
My anguish is matched by their stoicism; my confusion by their acceptance; my doubts by their certainty. It will take me a while to sort out my thoughts on this whole catastrophe: I only wish I had some of the Japanese sense of the inevitability both of disaster and the concomitant ability of life to overcome and persevere.
I don't know a thing really about the Japanese. Once long ago I met a guy from Shin ji coo... Thats how you say it. I have no idea how to spell it. Not having anything to do with him the Japanese seem like a country of British Sea Captains, all willing to stand at the helm on a doomed ship.
Me I would be screeming, and kicking all the way down.
The news video's are astounding. The rubble seems endless.
Reports of death vary, and I have no idea which figures are correct, so no point in stating what I see on the news. The margin of error is great so far, and I don't think anyone can really know. It is still considered search and rescue, not just body recovery.
Can you get local news? I don't want to just waste your time.
We're going to be 'fleeing' to Osaka soon. Actually I have been planning to move there anyways, but we are expediating things.
Can't get out of Niigata fast enough. That being said, despite close proximity to Fukushima, we seem to be safe from the radiation issue at the moment. But winds could change quickly.
I also noticed Osaka hasn't been receiving the aftershocks until tonight. We've been experiencing MANY of them up here in Niigata. Nerve-racking all the time, to say the least.
We're going to be 'fleeing' to Osaka soon. Actually I have been planning to move there anyways, but we are expediating things.
Can't get out of Niigata fast enough. That being said, despite close proximity to Fukushima, we seem to be safe from the radiation issue at the moment. But winds could change quickly.
I also noticed Osaka hasn't been receiving the aftershocks until tonight. We've been experiencing MANY of them up here in Niigata. Nerve-racking all the time, to say the least.
hmm for the short term can you get out of japan till they get the radiation somewhat contained?
the thing that scares me is if the wind shifts towards tokyo I am still kinda in shock and don't know what to say other then stay safe and I wish everyone there best of luck and keep us informed
This disaster just keeps growing. We should do what we can to ease the suffering in Japan. So many thousands of people directly affected. Events like this serve to remind us that nature still commands.
Tiger Beer, Do you have power? Do you get local news and warnings?
I don't know a lot about radiation, but the more clothing you have on, and the more distance you get the less if gets at you as I hear it.
It might be a good thing it's still winter. I am getting weather for Japan on CNN news, and you are a little warmer than I am in New Hampshire. I still have a good snow pack, but the days are warmer, near to like the weather where you are as best I can tell.
Northeast winds here are near the same as you, and you will want to pay attention to those this time.
I am very sorry this mess has occured. I feel like a fool saying I am sorry, but I have no words to express things like this.
Like in the US, when the gulf coast gets hit with a hurricane, there is very little impact in say Oklahoma, other than some rain. The link is a before and after that shows how some towns were wiped off the map. Very tragic.
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