All is well in this neck of the woods, Ebi-kun thinks he is on holiday and the in-laws are spoiling him rotten!
We are meeting a friend in Osaka today, I know her from uni, she has wanted to come to Japan for years, finally got the funds together, arrived here the day before the quake and well, let's say it is not exactly the holiday she had planned!
She has managed to get her flight changed so she will fly out of Osaka which means she won't have to tackle Tokyo again.
The situation in Japan is still hard, I feel bad leaving friends behind, especially those with small children or babies. Apparently Second Harvest are getting supplies through, they have a special permit to take trucks through to hard to reach places so hopefully the supplies are making it to those who need it. Of course, the nuclear reactor situation is a worry, I think everyone will relax a bit once that is under control. I wish the foreign media would lay off and stop sensationalising the problem, they seem to have no idea what kind of problem they are causing.
I don't know what is being shown overseas but Tokyo is a bit chaotic (well more than usual) the trains are not running properly and there are the rolling black outs to contend with. I know some media have also picked up on the Japanese wearing face masks, let me reassure you that this is perfectly normal, it is hay fever season here and about half of the population suffer from it, wearing a mask helps, I will be wearing one today, it has noting to do with the radiation scare.
The media here are being very thorough, updating often and providing charts and diagrams to explain the situation of the reactor. For a country that has survived two nuclear disasters I think they are doing a great job, the people in themselves are calm and level headed, there are no reports of looting, muggings or murders. If I were to choose where to be if I were to find myself in the middle of a disaster, it would be Japan.
Right, I am going to try and up date the list before we leave this morning, please keep spreading the word, so many people need help and for many of us, the only way to do this is by raising money.
Thank you for your emails and good wishes, sorry that I haven't been able to write back individually.
jo
I can't think of a better place to be than Japan during a disaster too. I can't tell you how impressed we all are with the way the Japanese people are handling this crisis. The media here in the states is really mis-handling everything, it's appalling.
ReplyDeleteI have been reading your updates, the news and praying for you and all of Japan... thanks for keeping us posted. hugs from Hungary
ReplyDeleteI used to think the masks were worn by people who don't want to get sick, but realized after living in Japan that more often than not, it's the conscientious sick people keeping their germs to themselves. :)
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