The children are in Sydney, much to my relief. The airport was very busy, with queue forming at least an hour before check-in, but orderly, and flights were leaving on schedule. Many people looked like they had been sleeping in the airport waiting for their flight. They have now arrived in Sydney. I hope to join them in Perth next week.
The Filipinos as usual were returning home with all their worldly possessions in blue and white striped "chinese samsonite" bags (see photo).
Radiation levels in Tokyo are still normal. These readings are being closely monitored by IAEA so they are trustworthy.
I finally got a chance to have a frank conversation with Steve last night. He is under huge pressure at work: markets are melting, people are melting, the building is shaking at least once an hour. The Japanese staff are like us trying to resist the terrible panic that has spread through the foreign staff, but being irresistibly infected. He spends his time listening to people's worries, trying to support them, but also has to make very tough business decisions. He is coping, and has some strong people working with him, but he cannot cope with the barrage of non-work related emails. So please refrain from emailing him or others in the same situation with your concerns or "get out of there" messages.
Similarly, I am finding it difficult to respond to "how are you coping?" "what are you planning to do?" emails. I know you mean well, but if you really want to help you will not communicate your worry for us, but only your love, trust and support. If you pray, then do so, we are grateful.
There is a huge and inexplicable divide between the messages we are getting from the Anglo-Saxon embassies and the message we are getting from the European embassies. The former are basically repeating that the situation is serious but this is not Chernobyl, the radiation levels in Tokyo are normal, and at worse we will be told to stay home for a few days. People who lived in Berlin during the Chernobyl crisis remember this is what they were asked to do.
The European embassies (the French and Germans foremost, but now Swiss as well) are organising repatriation flights and basically telling their nationals not only to leave Tokyo but to leave Japan, which is ludicrous.
A reminder: the bombs that fell on Hiroshima did not affect people in Osaka (same distance as we are from Fukushima). Even in the worst case scenario, it is impossible for deadly levels of radiation to be experienced in Tokyo. Longer term effects in terms of contamination are a far greater worry and not solved by leaving for a few weeks.
There is a negative feedback loop at the moment with shortages in Tokyo (fuel, food) making it increasingly difficult to send supplies to the areas affected by the tsunami. We are asked to reduce our consumption. Certain shelves in shops are bare, but there is still plenty of fresh food, meat, vegetables. We are not going to starve. Long queues in front of the corner drugstore: people are hoarding toilet paper and tissues. Queues form also outside Tokyu supermarket, which has limited trading hours because of announced power shortages, which in fact have not occurred in our neighborhood.
Going to walk the dog, admire the plum blossoms blooming everywhere under a blue Tokyo spring sky.
queuing for toilet paper
queuing in front of the supermarket, waiting for it to open at 12.
