Earthquakes, tsunamis and radiation issues!

OK, I hear you say, it's been a while and I apologise.  I thought you might find it interesting to know how life has been for us since, what the Americans are calling, 3/11.  The people of Japan have been expecting a huge earthquake for years.  We were well prepared and well rehearsed.  What they did not anticipate was a treble whammy - earthquake, tsunami and a potential radiation problem from a reactor plant which is normally of no significance except that it produces a whole lot of electricity so vital for running the industries and cities in this part of Japan.  My heart goes out to these lovely people.  They have done all they can to restore power and faith to us.  Here in Tokyo we have suffered a minor inconvenience.  Further north their lives have been destroyed and will never, ever be the same again.  We are so lucky to be here and not there.

I had a very humbling experience at the Embassy handout of Potassium Iodate at the weekend.  The queues were long but the system was organised and fair - we just had to wait our turn.  My turn came after a man who had been evacuated from the Fukushima area - he had nothing but a passport and his glasses with him.  He felt lucky too.  Imagine what a fraud I felt when I have a home and all the other comforts of life and he has nothing but his life and his glasses.  There were many stories like that.  There was no sense of panic and no sense of frustration.  Just a sigh every now and again as we inched our way to the front of the line where the FCO people were working so hard to help us all.  They must have been exhausted - it had been a long week and they were still working ten days after the quake - not much respite in between and some were just as traumatised as those around them.

David and I have an advantage here - we were not in the first big quake.  We carry no memory of the awful build up to the shaking and twisting that occurred.  We are emotionally much stronger than those who did and we were so right to come back to support those who have been traumatised by it.  The aftershocks (300 and counting) are still happening and some are large.  We rock and roll and hope that it gets no worse.  Then we get on with life - we went out to dinner after the last one ....  and so did the rest of Tokyo.  Being nine floors up, we wobble quite a bit but it is testament to the Japanese engineering skill that all the buildings in Tokyo have remained upright despite waving in the wind as one friend described it.

The school remains closed for a bit.  The Japanese government has asked us all to conserve power so that it can be directed to the disaster area.  Businesses and schools and universities have been closed to comply with that.  David has a job to do here and I am doing anything I can to help the Japanese come to terms with their dreadful experience.  In all the panic that the expats exhibited, no one actually stopped to think what their disappearance might mean.  It means that there is no one spending money, money that is so vital to support the people from the north - what we do here has a knock on effect.  There are people who were struggling with a recession and now this has happened.   (As I write we are having an aftershock!)

There are children in the playparks, dogs being walked, people in restaurants and Starbucks is functioning just as it always has - I can get my nonfat  latte with a macademia cookie on the side just like normal! They never missed a beat.  We have a bath full of water, our passports on us 24/7 and our potassium iodate tablets at the ready.  We will stay unless the FCO advises us differently.  David is in daily contact with the guys at the British Embassy and that means we have the top people in UK advising us on the risks.  We are not alone - many other expats have stayed for the same reasons as us - this is our home, we have a loyalty to the nation who made us feel so welcome and we feel safe here.

Potassium Iodiate Info



Power cut kit