Reevaluating my Criticality

I think I may have been too critical of the Voluntary Departees (writing it out that way doesn't sound right, like they all committed suicide, but it's better than abbreviating with "VD").

Some have gone simply because it's a government-sponsored vacation, which I'd heard as rumor but had not seen in print until this Stars and Strips article. I have mixed feelings about that.

Some have left because they are so freaked out that they are having trouble functioning. I still think that level of fear of radiation is irrational and unfounded, but if they can't function normally because of the stress, putting them on a plane was the best thing for everyone. I have more sympathy for people traumatized by the earthquakes; the big ones were scary even at this distance and there was a good week of frequent aftershocks. They've become significantly less frequent and less powerful since then, but every now and again they're still noticeable.

Stars and Stripes also has this article in which one person said she left to free up resources for people who stayed, which is noble although I'm not sure it has or will in any practical way.

Another woman left because there was a chance the on-base clinic wouldn't be able to get supplies needed for her pregnancy. Also reasonable.

Or the guy having his wife visit family elsewhere in the country because, on the off chance we did end up having a mandatory evacuation, it would be absolute chaos in logistics. I can't argue with that logic.

Some of it is a difference in priorities. I understand most people that left are wives with small children; I guess I can't really evaluate their decision by my criteria because I don't have kids.

Maybe it would be different if it were for a predetermined amount of time instead of "until we say so."

Maybe it would be different if there was just one city I wanted to go back to, but my parents are in upstate NY, my mother-in-law is in FL, and my job and a significant percentage of my friends are in the DC area. Where to end up isn't an easy choice.

Husband would be staying here, so any trip would be solo. Already not desirable with an open time frame.

And what about the cat? He could stay, but I'm told he gets a little insufferable when I'm out of town. (Not to mention that I'd miss him and not know when or if I'd see him again.) If the cat came with me, it would be a minimum of 8 months before he could return to Japan because of the paperwork and vaccines. Getting him here the first time was an enormous ordeal, I'm not eager to repeat it.

I'm largely balancing perceived danger (still extremely small) with how much it would muck up my life to get on a flight back to the US (significant). But it's not just that. If I were still in DC and there were radiation fears in NYC, I wouldn't see any reason to flee the state, let alone the country. The Japanese aren't leaving in any significant numbers as far as I can tell.

Tokyo is where I want to be and it's going to take actual danger instead of potential danger to make me even consider leaving.

March 29 Situation Analysis Attempt

Today's humanitarian news:
The death toll has passed 11,000.
More than 17,000 are still missing. (source: Kyodo News)


Today's nuclear situation analysis attempt:
Short version: I don't know what the hell is going on with it anymore.

Longer version: It's extraordinarily confusing to try to figure out what is really happening. Every article and headline I read alternates back and forth between "things are bad but stable" and "something bad happened again".

My understanding is that the immediate plant area is fairly dangerous and the coolant water is not only radioactive to the point where it can harm people stepping in it (without proper equipment) but they also don't necessarily know where it's coming from or what to do about it. That water also may be spreading throughout the building and associated tunnels; fingers crossed that it doesn't reach the ocean. (sources: NHK World, Kyodo News)

The three workers that didn't have tall enough boots for wading in radioactive water spent a few days in the hospital but were released yesterday with a clean bill of health. (source: NHK World)

Prime Minister Kan visited the plant today, and one of the things that came out of that visit was that it's highly likely the plant will be decommissioned after they get the situation under control. (source: Kyodo News)

The sea water near the plant is much more radioactive than it should be. I'm not clear on how this will impact the marine animals or fishing industry, I'm not sure anyone can make a credible guess yet. (source: NHK World)

Last week, the drinking water in Tokyo briefly had levels of radioactive iodine that made it unsafe for infants to drink, but was still fine for everyone that is not an infant. (Boldness for emphasis because sometimes people only read the first part of a sentence bearing scary information.) That lasted for a day or two, it has since gone back down to perfectly safe levels for everyone. I'll fill some empty drink bottles with water and set them aside on the off chance I need them, and I am currently drinking some delicious apple tea for the sake of the cause. I'm hoping they just end up taking up space until the situation is resolved.

Plutonium has been found in the soil around the plant, but experts of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency say that there is no immediate threat to human health. TEPCO says the amount found is just about the same as found in most soil, but I read in another article that Plutonium doesn't occur in nature, so I'm confused. (linked sources: Kyodo News, MSNBC)

Some experts are disagreeing on what would be the best course of action, according to an MSNBC article. With the exception of one expert being kind of a jerk ("[the other expert] doesn't know as much as he says,") and the author's use of, "Ooh, snap!" it seems like a good article. The video, though...I really like Michio Kaku, I have mad respect for him, but I don't know if he's accurately assessing the problem or making good TV. Hurting his credibility on this issue is when he said that there were only 50 workers in the plant. This article from Kyodo News says there are 400 and goes on to describe their daily life.

I'm pretty dismayed that they haven't gotten this under control yet, but I'm still hoping they will soon.



Today's Examples of How Life in Tokyo is Pretty Danged Normal:

Our first grocery trip after the earthquake we were told at the checkout that we could only get one loaf of bread. Since then, I've been trying to get only one of each item because I don't know what is rationed and what isn't and I lack the language skills to ask.

Last week, toilet paper and eggs were back on the shelves. Not much bread (if any) but plenty of cake and pastry; no milk but lots of ice cream and cheese; water was sold out but there was plenty of juice, tea, soda, coffee, and alcoholic beverages to choose from.

It's sunny and very nearly spring-like today. There have been no noticeable house weebles since the 6.5 magnitude earthquake up north yesterday morning. It was in more or less the same place as the Big One, but significantly less powerful. There was a brief tsunami warning for the northeastern coast, but I don't think one ever happened. It was definitely noticeable here, but I didn't need to spring out of bed and I don't think Crooked even opened his eyes.

Our college semester has been delayed by two weeks and our class starts next Tuesday; it might be more intense because of the shortened time frame, but we'll proceed as planned.

The cherry blossoms are out, 6 days later than last year. I haven't really gone out to see them yet, but I'll try to do that soon. (source: Kyodo News)

Gorging for Charity

One of our friends organized an informal charity event. We went to a tabehoudai yakiniku restaurant (all-you-can-eat grilled meat for a flat rate within a specific time period), and for every pitcher of beer that was consumed by the group, each person pledged to contribute ¥100 ($.81 USD at the current exchange rate). A couple people within the group went one step further and agreed to match what was raised at dinner. Then the company one guy works for is set to match the entire amount from the evening. The next day, all proceeds were wired to the Japanese Red Cross.

Yakiniku = grill it yourself

As you might expect, most of what was grilled was meat, but there were a few grillable veggies and several cold non-meat dishes. Like kimchi! I didn't eat much kimchi in the US, but I'm definitely gaining an appreciation for it.

The long thin slices of meat are tongue. Yuck, but good on them for using all the parts.

This corn salad was excellent.

I can assure you that there is no real food shortage in Tokyo.


When you see how much beer was ultimately consumed, you'll appreciate the look on this guy's face a little more.


At one point I tried to get some hydration by ordering an oolong tea, but somehow I ended up with something half oolong tea and half sochu (one of those less delicious liquors unless paired with the right mixer). Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'm sure it's my fault because I don't speak very well yet.

We reached the 2-hour time limit having decimated a truly impressive amount of food. Overall, this was a success.

Here's a picture of the beer tally nearing the end of the night:

And the grand total:

All together, we raised ¥252,000 ($3,000 USD). Woot!

Sayonara Dinner and Karaoke

I'll note up front that this entry has nothing to do with the news or the nuclear plant situation. Consider this a commercial break of sorts, I'll get back to the serious stuff soon enough.


One of Husband's coworkers is being relocated for most of the next year, so went to dinner at Manmamiya and then to karaoke.

That night's house appetizer was some sort of tofu topped with mushroom and shallots/green onions/whatever those things are. And something red. Tomato, maybe? The squishy thing on the side might have been a radish cake or potato-based or something, all we could say for certain was that it had sesame seeds in it.



Manmamiya is an izakaya, so there aren't any entrees. Small dishes are ordered for the table and everyone shares. You end up with fairly small portions of everything (if you have a large group) but lots of variety and the whole meal isn't unreasonably priced when all is said and done.

I forgot to take pictures of both salads, the sweet potato fries (served with honey butter, I'm going to try making those at home sometime) and the cherry tomatoes wrapped in bacon on a stick, but I think I got everything else. We got multiple plates of the dishes we really liked.

Chicken and onion skewers:

Fried something-plantlike-or-other, I can't remember what it was called.

Soft tofu, but it came with a great many flavor toppings to choose from.
Sweet? Salty? Spicy? Take your pick!


Not sure if this is a dragon roll, but it's at least similar.



On to karaoke!

The room we were in had the usual setup - booth seats around the edge of the room, a couple tables, karaoke sound system and television...this one was notable because of two things: really comical pairings of stock footage with lyrics and a cartoon of a panda with a microphone in an inappropriate place.


Lyrics and stock footage

Japanese songs (the handful we did) and one of the Chinese songs had the official music videos, or at least ones that made sense with the lyrics. The rest weren't so lucky.

For example, random Chinese song gets pandas!

"Rehab" by Amy Winehouse was paired with farmland and rural America.

"Don't Stop Believing" by Journey had footage of a girl waiting for a friend in Central Park in the middle of the afternoon.


"No You Girls" by Franz Ferdinand was backed with video exclusively of ornate architectural features.


"Love Shack" by the B-52s has all kinds of amusing juxtapositions. You don't need the audio; suffice to say we're not demonstrating perfect pitch, but make up for it with oodles of enthusiasm.

"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails was completely unrelated with its sunny Central Park visuals.

(Lyric: help me I've got no soul to sell)

(Lyric: help me get away from myself)

(Lyric: my whole existence is flawed)

(Lyric: you can have the hate that it brings
This one is my favorite. That squirrel is clearly full of angst.)

"Creep" by Radiohead was alternately spot on and completely wrong. This one actually had a sort of plot, starting with a shy guy with a crush on some blonde that walks her dog. Some of these screenshots are funnier out of context.



So after Shy Guy gives Blonde Girl the love note or poem or whatever, he literally runs away.

And then he sits on the beach, poor acting making him look pretty relaxed and like he's forgotten all about his humiliation and assumed rejection.

But far from "running out again," she stalks him while he's wearing headphones to strike from behind!

She steals his ear buds! And smiles a truly creepy smile.
She puts one bud back in his ear and puts the other in hers. Everybody in the karaoke room went, "yugh." Shared earwax is kinda gross.
But they're both apparently creeps and weirdos, if this out-of-context image is to be believed. So I guess it all works out.


Yeah, the endings of the video and song didn't really jive.


Inappropriate Panda!

On the karaoke machine next to the keypad used for adding songs to the queue, was a looped video. No words, no sound. Unfortunately, it took me a few tries to get the whole Panda sequence because the current or next song's information would randomly pop up.

But it was just so unexpected I had to share it. The internet had to know!

It started out all cute, with a panda traipsing about with a microphone...

...and then it just got weird.

Goodnight, everyone!

House Weebles

I mentioned recently (elsewhere on the Internet) that our house is continuously wobbling because of the earthquakes, but nothing has fallen over. Someone likened this situation to a Weeble.

I think, whenever possible, I shall refer to experiencing earthquakes as "having a case of the House Weebles."

That's all for now, I'll do a more serious update later.


Random Weeble video from YouTube:

My March 23 Morning Headline Mashup

Today's Humanitarian News:
The death toll has passed 9,000. (source: NHK World)



Today's Earthquake News:
I noticed three earthquakes before 8am today. Not big enough to break anything or to hide under furniture, but enough to wake up pretty quickly.

They were all centered up by northeastern Japan (seriously, they can't get a break), and these are the first quakes since Saturday to be measured at an upper 5 magnitude. (source: NHK World)



Today's Nuclear News:
Power has been restored to the No. 3 reactor control room and thermometers are working again. (source: NHK World)

High levels of radiation have been detected in the soil 40km from the plant and may pose long term problems but no immediate danger. (source: NHK World)

Radiation is being found in more foods produced in Fukushima, residents are being advised not to eat leafy greens grown there. (source: Kyodo News)

In classic American media-fueled panic, some military wives are refusing to buy spinach on bases in Japan even though the spinach in question has been imported from the US. (source: the grapevine)

Radioactive Food and Robots and Some Other Stuff

Nothing significant has happened since my last update, really, I'm mostly checking in to assure my friends and family (and whomever else may be reading) that things are pretty normal in daily life. Now that the mainstream media has forgotten about Japan in favor of Libya, maybe people will calm down. We had a pretty big radiation spike this morning within the already-evacuated area (I prefer to call it the "GTFO Zone.") but nothing was reported after that, so it probably went back to normal-for-this-week levels after a few hours.

Voluntary departures have started at bases across Japan; I can't imagine how much it's costing the military to fly out entire families (possibly also pets, we're getting conflicting messages about that and I don't know who to believe) and process a ridiculous amount of paperwork. I only know a handful of people on our base but I think they're all staying, and that may or may not be indicative of the whole. I've heard that families at some other bases are leaving in droves, but I haven't seen any official tally of percent leaving versus whole population.



Radioactive Food

Some radiation has been found in spinach and milk from Miyagi Prefecture, but it's still within reasonable limits. Some articles (I've forgotten where I saw it first, linked article is from The Japan Times) state if you drank the milk every day for a year, the radiation you would be exposing yourself to equals one CT scan. Eating the spinach every day for a year would equal one fifth of a CT scan.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll cut back on spinach milkshakes for a while.

For some general perspective on radioactivity and what levels are how significant, xkcd.com has a pretty comprehensive chart:


(click the image or the link for the larger version)



Robots

The robots have arrived! According to this article from the One Per Cent blog on NewScientist.com, they have finally dispatched a Monirobo (monitoring robot) to enter the dangerous area immediately around the plant to detect radiation levels, take 3D pictures, and monitor temperature and humidity. A different flavor of Monirobo should follow pretty soon to take dust samples and test for flammable gases. How cool is that? Popular Science has a picture of the Monirobos:

Evidently France sent some robots, too, although it's only been mentioned in passing in the articles I've found, so I don't have any real information on them.



Some Other Stuff

A friend showed me a link to japanquakemap.com. It has a really neat visualization of the earthquakes we've had in the last couple weeks. All 679, at time of writing.

It sorts them by depth, not magnitude (although you can sort of choose what magnitude range to include), but it's still pretty neat to see. If you start with "all since March 11," it's kind of slow for the first thirty seconds, then they show up like the grand finale of a firework show. If you're prone to worrying, don't watch it. Or if you are but your curiosity gets the better of you, remember that we haven't felt all of these quakes. Personal testimonial: today there are 11 earthquakes listed, but I've only noticed one. Maybe two, sometimes it's hard to tell.

I Call Shenanigans!

Friday night (last night, at time of writing), we went out to a bar to get a beer with some friends.

Shibuya is darker than usual because businesses are trying to save electricity, but restaurants and clubs are still open. It's fair to say there is probably less foot traffic than normal. It wasn't crowded by any means, but it wasn't empty, either.


The stories of panic in Tokyo are overblown.

Look how afraid these guys are for their lives. They are clearly this close to bolting. And they're even foreign! How often are you hearing about non-Japanese that are staying? Oh, right, you aren't. Because it's not as dramatic and emotionally compelling as people who are loudly fearing for their lives and the lives of their children.

It did feel kind of wrong to be enjoying a beer and good conversation while the television showed pictures of destruction and devastation on the north coast, but if we could do anything to help directly, we would. But because we aren't doctors or helicopter pilots, there just isn't anything we can do to help right now. At least we're contributing to the local economy, right?

I'll admit there were fewer people than expected on a regular Saturday night, but it's hard to say if it's because people are leaving in droves or because they're simply staying in more. It's only been a week since that record-breaking earthquake and tsunami, after all. I don't know how many people in Tokyo are missing or mourning friends or family. If I'd lost a loved one in the last week, I don't know if I'd feel like going out either.



Shenanigans #1: CNN iReporter

This iReporter (not staff reporter) on CNN's website isn't helping calm anyone down. The article title, "Tokyo is Becoming a Ghost Town" is untrue, at least the way I define "ghost town." People are leaving, sure, especially foreigners, but that hardly puts it on its way to being abandoned. What she's saying in the article itself is largely factually true but situationally misleading.

This is the train station in our neighborhood Saturday afternoon. Look how abandoned it is!

The trains are even running on their usual schedule. They don't all have heat/air conditioning, and they don't all have the interior lights on, but you don't need either in the middle of the day in spring anyway (and it's definitely spring today, I think it hit 60 degrees).


This is a street that we entered from small exit from the Shibuya train station (yes, we went back to the same area where we went for beer last night). I don't know how you define "ghost town," but this doesn't even come close to fitting my criteria.


It's quieter than usual, but that's largely due to electricity-saving measures. Less ambient music, people aren't standing in front of stores with megaphones yelling about today's deals, and the usual giant televisions are off.


Shenanigans #2: Fox News

Fox News supplied this helpful graphic a few days ago. It's been debunked all over the internet, I'm sure, but I wanted to have a go at it too.
(Screenshot snagged from here.)

Please note the plant located in the heart of Tokyo named "Shibuyaeggman."

We had no idea that they built a nuclear plant in the middle of such a major metropolitan area, so we went to see it:
Can you see it? It's to the left of The @ Super Suits St0re. Behind the "Wrong Way" sign. Here, let me get closer.
Eggman is a concert venue in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya. Nothing like a nuclear plant. In fact, if you visit Eggman's site, they specify that they do not have a nuclear plant. It's fine print, but it's there.

If you think about it, "Fair and Balanced" doesn't say anything about accuracy of information.

We couldn't resist getting tourist photos. Look at me, I'm at the doorway of a dangerous radioactive site! And I'm not melting or exploding or anything!

Husband even got in on the touristyness.
Sigh.


On the walk back to the train station, we saw a horrible monstrosity, obviously created by all this radiation floating around. Look how big and cartoony her head is! Oh, the horror!

This fake bowl of noodles has developed a life of its own!

You can almost feel this group's panic as they rush to flee the city. And see the fear in their faces.

There are significantly fewer people at this intersection than usual, but I'd hardly say this city is on its way to being a ghost town.

Seriously, media. Shenanigans.

Oh! I almost forgot! If you haven't seen the Nuclear Boy animation, explaining the nuclear situation to kids in terms of poo, you absolutely must.