The last week of March

Today's walk revealed this streetside bouquet

Who knew March would end like this? Nuclear reactor news goes from bad to worse and the situation concerning all four reactors is still very grave. Work has been suspended on reactor #2 as the radioactive levels have been found to be too high for workers to enter. Things are going in the wrong direction.
     To cope with the reduced electricity supply, rolling blackouts continue and many businesses have reduced their services/production schedules or shut down completely. Tokyo Disneyland is one of these and their temporary closure has forced surrounding hotels to close for the time being too. Some companies are running at night instead of day to avoid the blackout schedules and to ease the strain on electricity needs during peak hours. Train schedules are severely impacted: many lines have cut 20% of their services or more at rush hours, resulting in long waits for trains in the hope of boarding sooner or later.
      As for the direct results of the earthquake, the news here is reporting lots about those in evacuation facilities. As of today, there are more than 190,000 people living in vacant schools, stadiums and other makeshift facilities. Goods are finally moving to them and gas deliveries were made for the first time on the weekend. People with functional vehicles that can get some of the gas can finally move. The expressways were open to private vehicles over the weekend as well, and the highways were crowded with people travelling to the affected areas.  Little by little, things are getting under some sense of control, though in a very temporary and fragile way. Support by volunteers and donation foundations has been overwhelming. The city of Tokyo stopped accepting donations  temporarily after receiving over 12,000 packages because they didn't have enough manpower or gasoline and vehicles to transport the goods. Grassroots organizations, NPOs, and individuals are giving great help too. And lots of companies are making financial or material donations in very big ways. This is the good news.
     A nice story I heard yesterday: A group of high school students wanted to know what a certain shelter was lacking, and they were told pillows. So, they hurriedly made a bundle of pillows, embroidering messages of encouragement on them and delivered them to the shelter. Just one of thousands of warm gestures.
    However, the quakes are still not over. We were treated to a shake-free weekend in Tokyo, but at 7:24am today there was another one, which was 5+ intensity in Fukushima and fairly significant here too.
  The sun was shining though and it was a calm, clear day in Tokyo today, always a good thing. And look - the cherry blossoms have decided to come out after all!

Cherry blossoms beginning to bloom

Continued quakes, radiation fears, and more

Here in Tokyo, we have been feeling the effects of intensity 5+ earthquakes in Fukushima area this week: three in a row early Wednesday morning, one on Thursday at breakfast time that stirred my coffee for me (all intensity 3), but thankfully none so far today. And the aftershocks continue in between. They occur hourly or more frequently in the disaster areas at intensities of 1-5. This is very disturbing for them and also for us here, since they do remind us all of the big one two weeks ago and that things are not yet settled down there.
     Everyone in Japan's lives are permanently changed by all of this, I believe. Though the effects are diluted by distance away from the disaster zones, they are still being felt everywhere, emotionally, physically, and materially.  Immediate effects are obvious here in Tokyo - people are much more low-key, and there is a hush in stores, with people buying only what they need.  TV newscasters have been wearing black/dark colours this week in a gesture of sympathy, and the AC (Japan Ad Council) commercials continue, thankfully with more appropriate content.
     And if the quake business isn't enough, the nuclear reactor difficulties continue, creating more anxiety as they remain out of control. This is evidenced in part by the radioactive material that is entering the atmosphere - air and water, and also food. The radioactive levels in water have finally settled down in Tokyo area, or that is what we are told. The news reports data from the Kanamatsu purification plant (which is one of the reservoirs that serves Tokyo) as follows:
     March 22 - 210 becquerels/kg
     March 23 - 190 becquerels/kg
     March 24 - 79 becquerels/kg
     March 25 - 51 becquerels/kg
with levels above 100 becquerels/kg considered unsafe for infants under one year.
     These levels above are inflated by the fact that the water was sampled from the purification plant, and do not reflect the values for tap water, which I found out to be as follows for Tokyo's Shinjuku ward for the same period (which is not us, but reliably comparable):

These levels are very low, so with the combined data, I can feel a little better about the water. However, we are still exposed to radioactive iodine in the air, which, though insignificant in its values on the map, will accumulate over time, making these two sources of danger worrisome.

(all data from The Japan Times, March 25, 2011)

And, to top it off, we had a suspicious "visitor" to our condominium yesterday. One of the tenants called the police to come over and check around. He wasn't found, but we got to know that he contacted several people in our building and asked them to buy something from him. There was a similar incident with a man who matched the description of our guy in another neighbourhood in Setagaya ward (our ward) reported by the ward office today. Keeping our doors and windows locked is the obvious action, but it is yet another thing to think about!

Maybe turning on the TV for more news is a bad idea, but in the hopes for some late-breaking signs of reassurance about something, I am compelled to tune in.

A Simple Way to Make a Contribution

 We Love Japan campaign/ELTBOOKS.com and Pearson Japan Relief Fund will make a $1 (US, I assume) donation on your behalf to the Save the Children fund for Japan.

No strings attached as long as ELTBOOKS and Pearson come good.

Care to give it a whirl?

Here are the details, which I got from my eltnews.com email newsletter, which you can see here.

ELTBOOKS.com to donate 50 cents per message to We Love Japan

   Of course, established aid organizations such as Save the Children, the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières and others are doing a fantastic job. We're encouraging teachers to donate to these organizations, and have launched our "We Love Japan" campaign, where teachers and students around the world can send a message to people in Japan.

Sister site ELTBOOKS.com has decided to donate 50 cents per message published on our We Love Japan message board to Pearson's Japan Relief Fund, thus doubling the donation to $1 per message, since Pearson Japan is matching every donation received (see eltnews.com newsletter for details). 

ELTBOOKS.com will be doing this until they reach 2,000 messages. 

So please spread the word!

Japan Advertising Council: AC Japan

Since March 11, advertising sponsors decided on their own volition to stop broadcasting TV and radio commercials and replace them with ads from the nonprofit organization Japan Advertising Council. According to a report on The Wall Street Journal's site, "AC commercials are aired on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and have several permutations, most of which promote traditional Japanese virtues such as helping one another and the importance of communication."

　The article gives an example of one of the group of ads that have been airing constantly over these past days:

In one commercial, a teenager sees a pregnant woman board a bus, and then sees another woman offer her seat to her. Racked with guilt for not helping, he then sees an older woman outside walking up some stairs and goes to help her.

　Some people are getting tired of the ads and have voiced complaints. They are annoyed by the repetitiveness and the perky "A~C~♫" at the end of every commercial, which are mostly 30-second spots. Some evacuees are also upset - one woman complained that the ad urging women to have regular examinations for breast and cervical cancer was infuriating since she couldn't receive even basic medical care in the shelter where she is staying. AC has announced that they are making efforts to cut the melody out of their ads and create new commercials that are more suitable for the current situation. [note: this has already begun - goodbye melody, hello new ads].

　Poster ads seem to have disappeared from train cars too, in an effort to avoid the possibility of upsetting or offending people. 

This ad, "arigato, " stresses the importance of giving greetings, saying thank you

 and expressing other kindnesses to make friends.

Ad with English subtitles here.

The entertainment industry has shown similar restraint by pulling films from screens that may offend or upset audiences in the wake of the past week's events. The same goes for TV movies. All in all, the media are trying to show respect by keeping low-key profiles.

One more ad with English subtitles here.

Things are starting to move

Central Community Chest logo

Getting help where it is needed is finally gaining momentum. The information has been slow in coming, but we are now getting better advice about where and how to help.

The two main donation organizations in Japan and perhaps abroad are Red Cross and Central Community Chest (a division of United Way). Donations started being accepted from around March 14, if not before.

Red Cross states their activities as follows: Your gift will support the Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) disaster relief efforts to help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Funds will be utilised for the on-going provision of immediate relief and for eventual recovery support to the affected population.

CCC promises to "support victims and volunteer groups who are working in the disaster zones." As of today, they have collected 5,127,646,958円. 

Thanks to contributions in Japan and from abroad, they are collecting a ton of money. However, I have no hard information about how fast either of these organizations are dispersing what they are collecting.  If you hear, please post a comment!

For those of us in Japan, donations of goods, as we did yesterday, are being welcomed to some extent. Next time, we will donate to Second Harvest, who welcome money to support their volunteer work and  goods for them to deliver. They seem to be very diligent in their operations and reporting of what they are doing. And they are moving fast.

Besides the above, lots of others everywhere are getting donations together - this is great news as story after story of the needs continue to surface: one recent news item reported that over 1,000 people in an evacuation centre at a stadium in Saitama can use the facilities only till the end of March. Where they all will go has not been clearly decided, though it seems that at least some of them will move to vacant schools. A TV report tonight said that it will take up to a year to build temporary housing for everyone who applies. 

People are coming together throughout the world to help. This is pretty terrific and encouraging news.

Second Harvest Japan

As a postscript: The Japan Times ran an informative article today about the relief activities that are currently underway.

We got worms!

Mikiya had great luck getting gas yesterday. He was in line around 6:30am and waited about 30 minutes for his allotted 20 litres. Gas prices have been rising recently in Tokyo and were ¥144/litre yesterday, not because of the earthquake, but due to the political situation in the Middle East.

The news reports constantly describe the dire need for goods. People are flocking to the 2,300+ evacuation centres, many with absolutely nothing. They need anything and everything. Cash donations are being gratefully received, but they also need things - immediately. We did a search and found a few NPOs that are delivering donated goods from Tokyo to the areas that need them. We chose Nihon Uniba (Japan Universal Design Coordinator). The site is in Japanese only, but to give you an idea, they are welcoming nonperishable food and personal goods. I bought a bunch of toothbrushes and toothpaste (which are things that I would go nuts without), a big bag of rice, and some ready-to-eat food. We had disposable chopsticks and cutlery, disposable hand warmers and towels here which we added to the box. Now it is off, so we hope it helps a few people for a few days.

Companies are being very generous with their donations too - toilet paper (Kao), bottled water (Coca Cola, Suntory), radios (Sony), batteries (Panasonic) are just a handful. Furthermore, Uniqlo donated 0.7 billion yen worth of heat-tech underwear. The company also donated 0.3 billion yen in cash, and the employees gave a total of 0.1 billion yen themselves. Finally, CEO Yanai donated 1 billion yen from his own pocket. Others, including big entertainment and sports figures have made huge cash donations. Nippon Ham made their game today in Sapporo a charity event. Maiko (apprentice geisha) appealed to the public for donations at Kyoto station today.

Temporary housing construction has begun, but this will take time to fulfill all of the requests. Article here. Volunteer doctors and caregivers are also finally making their way there with medicine and supplies and their skills. So there are bright spots here and there, including the miraculous rescue of an 80-year-old grandmother and her 16-year-old grandson yesterday, on day 10.

It is a national holiday here today - spring equinox day. It has turned out to be a very quiet, all day rain day in Tokyo. A good day to stay indoors and be thankful to be warm and nourished.

Saturday March 19, 2011 - the bird and the worm

No worms for breakfast this morning, and no early morning gas-up either. Somebody slept in!

But he did send me this useful  link to live streaming of NHK news in English. Seems to be up to the minute - maybe worth a look at once in a while since it is relatively first-hand and looks to be quite timely and accurate. It plays in a reel and updates are added as available. The site will surely be useful for me in the event of a blackout.

Looking at the "other" disaster: No wonder people are being urged by the government to leave the area and relocate to other parts of Japan, at least temporarily - there is nothing left in much of this Reuters slideshow.

And in stark contrast, life goes on here seemingly normally, and a look outside the window or a walk through our neighbourhood shows people doing their regular Saturday things - walking, cycling, playing in the park, going shopping, working in their yards.

And a little about us

Just to let you know how we are doing - this is all rather tiring and distracting, but knowing the situation for so many others makes things here rather insignificant. In some ways, it would be better for me to be going to work or having some specific task to do (my university is on spring vacation and we are going to work on a need-basis, though the office was closed this week). I should be preparing for classes in April and doing work on my film festival research project which is to start next month, but can't get in gear for either. Mikiya went to work today and has students coming tomorrow for closing ceremonies to mark the end of the school year.

Thank you for your patience and support. We are keeping a close eye on the situation. The alerts I am getting from the Canadian Embassy are telling Canadians within the evacuation areas to follow instructions:

     We advise against all travel within 80 km of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

     Following damage to the Fukushima nuclear power station in Okumacho, Canadians are strongly advised to follow the advice issued by the Japanese authorities. An evacuation order is in effect for the zone within 20 km of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Japanese authorities recommend that people between 20 km and 30 km from the plant remain indoors with windows and doors closed and refrain from using ventilation systems.

    There is no radiation health risk to Canadians travelling into or out of Japan, provided they have not been within the evacuation zone established by Japan.

     Given the evolving situation, Canadians located within 80 km of the plant are advised that they should, as a further precautionary measure, evacuate this area. The directions of the Japanese government and local emergency response personnel should also be followed by all Canadians in Japan.

For the moment, we are still safe in Tokyo. But we are keeping informed of what may happen in the coming hours/days and are thinking about relocation options. Mikiya just told me that evacuation centres are being set up in Tokyo for people fleeing the Miyagi area. That is some level of comfort to us, on the one hand, since Tokyo is still considered safe.

Gas is in short supply in Tokyo too - M will go and try for gas by getting in line (or making a line) at 5:00am for the station's opening at 6:00am. Can he get up? Stay tuned!

Friday evening news continued - Evacuation efforts

It is going slowly and evacuation centres (some DIY) are very makeshift. There are too many people housed in one place and people are getting sick. Influenza is spreading. Those that came there sick are suffering from lack of necessary medicine. Lots have no utilities - from water to electricity. And there is a grave shortage of medical workers. Volunteers are coming to the fore to do what they can. Supplies and manpower are starting to get through to where they are needed - that's everywhere - but in a limited way.

The hub terminals have supplies but it is difficult to get the goods to the areas - there are not enough vehicles and the supply of goods is not enough. There are 40,000 people in evacuation centres and hundreds of thousands of people who have no way of getting food. They are lining up for rations. Furthermore, since there is no electricity, they need ready to eat food.

Since the earthquake occurred on a weekday afternoon, many children were at school at the time of the earthquake. They are struggling to be reunited with their families, though many have lost their parents and siblings. Some saw their parents washed away by the tsunami. On top of all of the physical hardships, they are in severe mental trauma.

The search for survivors continues. As you can see there is a lot to be done and not enough resources to accomplish all of the tasks. Furthermore, it is very cold, especially atnight and in the morning, when temperatures fall well below freezing.

Already one week has passed since the earthquake occurred.

Friday evening reactor news

I am typing as I watch the 9:00pm news.

The SDF was planning a second effort to spray water on reactor #3 to cool down the pool this evening (there was one earlier today). The fuel rods in this reactor are in grave danger of melting. Getting the fuel rods immersed in water is essential to shield radiation emissions.

Now, there is a problem with the electricity being down at the plant, so the water spray effort is aborted for tonight. Electric power needs to be sent to all 6 reactors in the battle against radiation emissions and to facilitate the cooling of the reactors to proceed. The restoration of electricity is not the end. The switchboards are submerged in water as a result of the tsunami, so they will need to be repaired/replaced. All of this takes time. Workers can only be exposed to the current levels of radiation in the plants for about 20 minutes at a time. It will take 3 days to restore electricity on #1 and #2 reactors and then they will move on to #3 and #4.  Then, it will take time for the electricity to run through the lines. Pumps need power to pump the power. This water generates heat, so more pumps must pump cool sea water to add to it. Till power resumes, spraying is the only way.

Reactor #4 has also had its troubles, though it is difficult to know what exactly is going wrong. It is possible that a hydrogen explosion occurred, resulting in the exposure of some of the rods. It is difficult to see what the white smoke coming out from it is.

Background info:
1. All 6 reactors have lost power and 4 of them have lost their emergency power systems.
2. The situation is rated as a level 5 accident on an international nuclear accident scale of 1-7.

More later - want to get this up now.

March 18, 2011

St. Paddy didn't bring luck to Tokyo yesterday. He didn't even show up at all. The nuclear reactor situation in Fukushima is getting more and more out of hand as desperate efforts to cool the rods continue. The last news I read was this morning on nikkei.com. And the aftershocks continue with the quakes occuring in various locations, some frighteningly near at various levels of intensity from 3-6+ on the Japanese scale of 1-7 (the quake on Friday was 7).

I signed up for alerts from the Setagaya-ku earthquake information site and their emails tell me the time and intensity of each quake, just seconds after they happen. Ditto on TV. It is comforting to hear the "ding" of mail in the inbox when they occur to remind me that I am not alone.

Back to the nuclear crisis in Fukushima: Rolling blackouts have been in effect since Monday to reduce the amount of electricity consumed in order not to make the rods cranky (I am sure I am technically incorrect about that, but the bottom line is that the amount of electricity being consumed is overloading the system). Up to now, our district has had few scheduled blackouts and our neighbourhood has had none. The situation last night became more severe and there was the threat of a sudden mass blackout. Even then, we were left out, so I don't think there was one after all.

Train lines agreed to cut or suspend their services from 17:00 yesterday, which may have helped. Needless to say, this left thousands of people stuck for several hours at stations from rush hour into the night as they waited for a train to get home. Not a hardship I guess when you know why (that is a separate, troubling issue that I won't get into).

And amidst all this troublesome news, stores are miraculously springing back. Today I dropped into a supermarket to survey the scene and saw that their shelves were about half full. In another store, they were about 20% full.  Whatever the results, they are really working hard to obtain goods for us. I thanked several of them for their hard work. Seeing this rebound in such a short time, even though it might just be temporary, is somehow encouraging.

But it is still no comfort for the survivors in Miyagi and surrounding areas who have little or nothing to eat. Relief efforts are ready to go, but they can't get there because of transportation difficulties and lack of gas to get there. People there are freezing too as they have no oil for heating and in so many places there is no electricity. The places that can offer help are doing so in the ways they can - for example, some ski resorts in some areas have donated their rental skiwear for people. A hot spring hotel opened its doors for people to get warm, have something to eat, and take a rest. Supermarkets opened their doors to people to come and take what they needed, at little or no cost.

Healthcare and medicines are not available because of the above - no transport, no heat, no supplies near enough to the places that need them. Just today, relief workers were able to get enough of the debris cleared away to open some roads. Hope exists in this flicker of a path.

Being my first report, the above is very scattered and parts of it erroneous at best, I am sure. Please feel free to add corrections in the comment window below. Thanks for reading. More to come later, as we like to say!

My little red lantern