Took the nightbus to Osaka with the boy. We found a cheap good guest house we are staying at. 25 bucks a night for he and I with free internet. Very good deal by Japan standards. We are not that worried anymore, but either way the kid always said he wanted to go on a backpacking trip with me anyway. He has now discovered he doesn't like them as much as he had imagined. I can go to a "cultural site" in Kyoto etc. and be happy there for hours. He would rather wander the streets of Osaka looking at shops. I mention you can shop anywhere and that the inside of a big electronics store is identical to one in Tokyo, but he won't listen. Wife has a good part time job and wants to keep on working in Tokyo.

It is also a numbers game with the radiation, Lea. I knew it even near the beginning, but now it is becoming clear that this will go on for months, with marginally higher radiation levels in Tokyo, occasionally upticks when things go awry, which I am sure they will continue to do. We have procured a safe water source just in case and don't drink milk (which we never really did anyway.) Have to watch other dairy products. The bad stuff is supposed to be off the market, but who knows how much could build up in a cow even futher away who is eating open grass everyday.

Well Lea, the govt made the water announcement when levels went to 210, twice the number they should be for infant safety. Then they went back down to 79 two days later. They think the rain washed everything into the reservoirs. But I haven't seen any govt announcements about the level since the numbers went down. You'd think they'd tell us just to keep us calm.. I think ther are govt websites where you can find the numbers. They can't scare people too much, because it would of course cause a panic. I honestly think TEPCO the co. that runs the plants is the one who is/was being less forthcoming. But I have done my own research as well, and have decided we are relatively safe but that there is nothing wrong with taking extra precautions about water etc.

can't remember if I posted something about this, but talking about the inability to cremate victims and other sadness reminded me of the blurb below, which I sent as an email to a few people:

School graduations take place in gymnasiums in Japan as well. This is graduation time in Japan. The news is showing ceremonies taking place up north where the quake/tsunami hit.
Kids come up to take their diplomas, tears in their eyes. They are often simply dressed and so is their principal who is handing it to them. And their audience is the refugees who have been placed there. Sitting on the floor watching, probably in the same place they slept the night before. Moving stuff.

Maybe should've mentioned that both the kid and I are on spring vacation from school, so no trouble on that end.

Had a good 9 days or so in southern Japan. Back at work. It is a good distraction. Radiation levels (still quite manageably low) are lower here than where I live. Ironically though, radioactive iodine levels are quite a bit higher (but still not in the danger range we are told). I don't drink the water much anyway.

Yesterdays 7.4 earthquake woke me up at 11:30 pm. I immediately switched on the news b/c I was worried about the reactors in Fukushima. They got a bigger shaking than Tokyo, but late into the next day, they appear to be okay.

Just found a great summary update of each of the reactors at Daiichi. May read very dryly, but I can't believe how much I hang on this stuff:

"Here is the current state of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Reactor No. 1

Overheating has caused a partial meltdown of the reactor core. TEPCO believes some 70 percent of the reactor’s 400 fuel rods have been damaged.

Workers have injected pure water, switching from sea water used last month, into the pressure vessel via a pump, but the cooling system has not been restored yet.

With hydrogen and oxygen likely to have accumulated inside the reactor vessel, workers began pumping inert nitrogen gas early Thursday to prevent a possible hydrogen blast.

Workers had begun pumping out radioactive water from the basement of the adjacent turbine building, but they found more in a trench outside the turbine building, about 56 meters from the ocean.

Reactor No. 2

The reactor is also believed to have suffered a partial meltdown, with about 30 percent of 548 fuel rods likely damaged.

The torus—the reactor’s suppression pool which controls the pressure inside the reactor container—has likely been damaged.

Spent fuel rods in the pool were fully exposed at one stage, but TEPCO has said the rods are now submerged in water and in a stable condition.

A puddle of highly contaminated water was found in the basement of the turbine building and outside in a trench, where a radiation reading of over 1,000 millisieverts per hour was measured.

Workers have injected pure water containing boric acid into the pressure vessel, after dumping sea water as an emergency means.

They found a crack in a seaside concrete pit near this reactor, which was leaking highly radioactive water.

After several failed attempts to seal the crack, using cement, and even newspapers and sawdust, workers stopped the leak on Wednesday morning after injecting sodium silicate, a chemical agent known as “water glass,” to solidify soil near the pit.

Reactor No. 3

A hydrogen explosion badly damaged this reactor’s outer building, and a partial meltdown is also suspected. TEPCO said about 25 percent of the reactor’s 548 fuel rods may be damaged.

Three workers were exposed to high levels of radiation last month when they stepped in contaminated water at the basement of the turbine building. They were found to have suffered no major injury.

Workers had used sea water to cool both the reactor and spent fuel pool, but they have now changed to fresh water.

Reactor No. 4

This reactor was undergoing maintenance when the quake struck. There were no rods in the reactor core.

Fires broke out in the building several days after the quake. The fires were put out with water, which made its way into the spent fuel pool.

Firefighters doused the spent fuel pool using a concrete pumping vehicle, usually used in the construction industry. TEPCO has said the reactor’s spent fuel pool is now submerged in water.

Contaminated water was found in the basement of the turbine building, but workers have yet to remove it.

Reactor Nos. 5 and 6

The two reactors were undergoing maintenance when the quake hit, but their fuel rods were already placed in the cores as they were prepared for operation.

Workers have created three holes in each of the two reactor buildings, aiming to vent hydrogen out and prevent an explosion.

They have restarted the cooling systems of the two reactors and the spent fuel pools, which have remained stable."

Jeez.. what a mess.
Glad you guys are doing ok.
Thanks for the updates.

I was sure I would hear something hear about Fukushima Daiichi being raised to a 7. It is sobering, but it is more of an admission of how much radiation had been released, and I am confident Japan is taking steps to protect people from irradiation more than Chernobyl ever was. I was surprised when Japan first set the crisis at a 5, when it was an obvious six. So, I guess they decided to go all out this time and go straight to 7. Anyway, even at this point, after a month, it is just 10 percent of what Chernobyl released in it's explosion. But still a long row to hoe.

In some ways we are entering new territory, as Chernobyl was one big release, and Fukushima Daiichi (it is hard for me just to call it Fukushima, the name of the prefecture I lived in for six years) is releasing smaller amounts over an extended period of time. The govt is just starting to grapple with this, and is acknowledging that winds (mostly northwesterly) are affecting nearby areas outside the 30 km radius.

Yeah, just read that this morning about them raising it to a 7. It was on the back page of the main section.

Is your Government actually telling the people of Japan the real truth what is going on there with this kind of dangerous radiation levels or just hiding the facts?

I'm guessing since he is neither a nuclear physicist nor a political insider in Japan, I'm thinking that he doesn't know either one.

Do you?

Sheesh...seriously?

I think the government has dropped the ball a few times, TEPCO even more times, but I think they are being as truthful as they can. There are independent sources all over watchdogging them. I think the fact that it was raised to a Level 7 by the Japanese nuclear authorities, after the fact, before the crisis was over, is a clear sign that they are being pretty straightforward.