I predicted that this year would be one of the craziest years of my life and the first three months have not disappointed me. I’ll come back and update on January/February but as this is the last day of March I thought I would recap what has been happening this month.
The month started with a visitor from France. We were very excited at the upcoming arrival of Helene’s father Chris. Helene had been homesick for some time and rather than going home for Christmas, this visit was the trade-off that she needed. I was looking forward to getting to know Chris a little better especially because I had homefield advantage. All of our previous meetings were in his backyard and it was always hard to know where the boundaries were especially since I didn’t know much about French/British boundaries. Besides, a lot had changed since we last met and it was neat to see his reaction to those changes.
The visit lasted a week and in that time we all had a chance to spend time with each other. I spent two days with Chris showing him the sights of Kyoto while Helene was at work. The next day the three of us went to Osaka. I always thought Osaka was a day trip: the Castle and the market pretty much takes the whole day. I spent the next few days at home working on my thesis and as my foot was in a lot of pain (more on that later) it was probably a good idea. And the last few days were filled with our favourite restaurants and the remaining bits of Kyoto. From what I gathered he had a great time.
Kyoto is such a beautiful city so it’s always great to have a chance to see the sights. When you go with people who have never been to the sights it’s like seeing them for the first time.
Within a few days of Chris leaving, we were hit by the giant earthquake and the tsunami. That pretty much consumed the next two weeks as panic and hysteria made decision-making very difficult. Overall learning to make rational decisions under pressure was a good skill to develop. I learned that balancing out all the information and misinformation from the news was very hard, especially because Helene became very overwhelmed by all the news and left me to deal with news reports while she focused on embassy websites. To put it simply, the western news thrives on bad news and makes everything sound more horrible than it actually is and tries to get people overexcited about things that don’t concern them. Bottom line - don’t watch CNN ever! It’s designed to scare you.
The last few weeks have been filled with parties. Those who didn’t go home for the winter break or run away from the nuclear meltdown threat were around to enjoy the parties. Helene’s birthday party was last weekend: we went out for Karaoke which was very hard since I think I had bronchitis. It was a great party with lots of food and people. Our friend Kate was also having her birthday party that weekend so we made it a double event. Also that week had a few graduation parties for those who finished this semester. It was sad to see some of them go. But hopefully I’ll be able to keep in touch with them.
I’m going to write about what happened to my foot as soon as I can find the plug to get the photos off my phone.
Next month school starts again and that is a whole new headache of stress just waiting to be undone.
This was a crazy month, visitors, earthquakes and hysteria, hospital visits and lots of studying and parties. I also got a chance to practice on my guitar a bit.
ARTICLE WRITTEN IN A U.S. PAPER ABOUT CANADA ON NOVEMBER 7TH, 2003 IN THE PITTSBURGH POST- GAZETTE.
You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is cared-for, his house is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he doesn't always lock his front door. He wears Dockers. You hardly know he's there. And then one day you discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse. Allow me to introduce Canada.
The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there,but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's like discovering that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic have been building an espresso machine.
Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little tag-along brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only assume American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon," because nobody here eats the stuff anyway.
And then there's the wild drug situation: Canadian doctors areauthorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession, as you may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under 15 grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of wasps,it's smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to swat every individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong.
Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand. These poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug problem:Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be heavily armed,the law-abiding civilians helpless and the government on the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place since the '70s, but I'm sure the government will get around to the confiscation eventually.) They don't even have a death penalty! And yet nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining since 1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there are still crimes committed with guns brought in from the United States, which has become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too relaxed to commit violent crimes. They're probably more focused on shoplifting boxes of Twinkies from convenince stores.
And then there's the most reckless move of all: Just last month,Canada decided to allow and recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking? Will there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north.
This sort of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite, beer-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled by loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government than liberty and independence.
But if we are the rugged individualists, why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so progressive about letting people do what they want to? Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by large, well-organized religious groups and thus has more in common with those of Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran.Canada signed the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita than the United States.
These are all things we've been told will wreck our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems oddly sound. Like teenagers,we fiercely idolize individual freedom but really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult -- more secure. They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality. Most of all,they're not afraid of each other.
A lot of people have been asking me how I’m doing, what my plans are and what is happening in Japan. This is a fairly complicated situation not only because of the actual Japan event but in choosing what to do next and seeing how others have handled it.
Overall the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant is not going well but from what I understand it is not as bad as it sounds. I’ve been getting my information from the western media and the Japanese media. Although both are trying to be objective there are alternative interests at heart.
The overall trend from the Japanese media has been to display the information on what is happening in an objective view. It is most likely that they are censoring some information to avoid panic but overall they are trying to say that the situation is not that bad and that precautions are being taken. The Japanese have tried their best to cool the reactors by pumping sea water that will keep the temperature down but the continuous earthquakes in the areas and the failure of the equipment has escalated the event. Overall, they are succeeding in lowering the temperature of the reactors but it's taking longer than expected and because of that they are losing containment of the radiation due to pressure from the temperature. In the surrounding area, there have been some reports of people irradiated but it is not a huge outbreak of radiation.
In the western media, please keep in mind that their interest is to be entertaining, thus rumours, exaggerated stories and misinformation have clouded the entire media. Compared to the Japanese media where they are trying to keep calm, the western media is making a frenzy of this event. It is possible that the west simply wants to create panic in the market so that the value of Japanese goods and bonds go down and thus are cheaper to buy. But that’s just speculation. Always keep that kind of stuff in mind when you listen to news. What I’ve heard in the western news is a gross misrepresentation of events.
First of all, the French have offered to evacuate people. This was done as a political move due to pressure in France. They are not evacuating people, they are offering evacuation for those who want it. This is nice but the western media took it as a full scale evacuation. Second, the Russians and Koreans are checking constantly to make sure that there is no risk of radiation on their shores, this is understandable. However, in the media this has been exaggerated to suggest that there is radiation on their shores. Next, the news has been showing people evacuating at the Tokyo train station. If you look closely, they are all Japanese business men who are going home after work. Lastly, some foreign officials are evacuating their families. But the media has twisted this into a full evacuation by foreign officials.
From what I've understood, this image is 100% wrong. Not only is it unnecessary speculation, it is fear mongering. These numbers make no sense. And yet this is some of the stuff that you see in the news. Absolutely absurd.
If your still not convinced that people have no basis for freaking out, watch this video. Seriously some people are so silly.
I’m not sure what to believe about the radioactive steam and hydrogen gas that they have released into the atmosphere. They say that it is not dangerous but what do they mean. Direct impact does not affect us immediately, but over many years? I’m worried what this will do to my health in the long run and more immediately what will this do to the rain and to the food that I eat in Japan. It’s hard to balance these things because they mostly are talking about immediate threats not long term damage since this cannot be assessed very well at the moment. Some of the reports suggest that ,if there is an explosion, it won’t be big enough to alter the rain but food-wise there will probably need some review especially for seafood.
I understand that the closer you are to the reactor the more danger you are in. People in Tokyo are panicking since they are not that far away. I’m 800km away and generally, logic tells me not to worry. Experts seem to say that 30km away is very safe. If this there is a meltdown in the next few days then there will be an explosion of radioactive material. They say that this is serious for the locals of that area (30km) and no more. But even the experts can be wrong and basically it depends on too many variables; wind, size of the explosion, etc.
The other aspect that is in the news is comparing this to Chernobyl. I understand that this is not the case. It’s like comparing the Gulf war to WWII and trying to find a link. Of course it’s going to sound bad if you make a huge jump like that. First of all, this is Japanese engineering vs. soviet Russian engineering. Second, this is 25 years later and they learned from that experience. Chernobyl exploded into the upper atmosphere for a few months. They say that this event would be a few hours at most but then again, what do they know. The fires that occurred in Chernobyl seem unlikely in this situation as there is not the same amount of pressure. The fire is what caused the problem to continue for so long.
What is overall escalating the event is that it has monopolised the news. No one cares that there are mass killings in Libya anymore. Japan has even taken this over. Because of that people think that the situation is really dangerous here in Japan and creating a panic around it. The media is trying to sell papers/ratings. I don’t believe they are seriously hiding information just choosing what to give out. But I’m tired to not knowing and being on edge.
The panic being caused is also compounded with people asking if I am panicking. I’m not sure I should be, but the constant question makes me doubt myself. I would like to fly out but overall prices have shot up to $5000 and this is just too high.
We have stocked up on extra water and canned food, with some tape to mask the windows just in case we need to barricade ourselves and we are waiting. At this point in time that’s all I think I can do.
In addition, unfortunately one person has already cancelled her trip to see us because of this thing and it’s unclear if her visit will be rescheduled.
I really appreciate all the attention and effort people have made in the last week to contact me and check up on me. I love you all and miss you very much. But please try to not escalate the situation, i.e., jumping to conclusions when you read something on the news. Thanks again for all the e-mails and let me know if you have any more questions on what is happening.
The decisions that we have made is that when a rational government, i.e. UK or Canada, start telling everyone to leave than we know there is a serious problem. If it’s too late by then, well there is little I can do right now anyway. It’s hard to consider leaving since we have a home and life here. If we were to leave then returning may not be an option. The other 150 million Japanese may not have that choice.
For now we’re going to wait it out and see. Thanks for your support and I look forward to hearing from you. :)
As all of you have heard, a 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on Friday at about 2:45pm followed by a 10m tall tsunami. For starters in case you didn’t hear or haven’t gathered yet, for the moment I’m OK, but there are a few extra elements that may be hazardous to my health in the near future.
Although the earthquake may have been quite large the damage it caused did not seem so severe. From the footage I saw, only ceiling tiles and roof shingles seemed seriously affected. Yes, there were some larger fires but for the most part the earthquake was not impact the country as much as the Tsunami that followed. The Tsunami followed a few minutes after the earthquake and if you haven’t seen the images, it just consumed most of everything in its way. Parking lots, buildings, fields, cars, people. It’s very tragic and shocking to see.
My story is mostly uneventful but for clarity I thought I would explain. Interestingly enough, I don’t have access to Japanese television in my house so since arriving I’ve only had a handful of chances to watch it, but coincidentally enough I was watching TV at this exact moment. I was over at a friend’s house for coffee and he was remarking how he likes to leave the television on so that he becomes comfortable with the language. I rather thought the television in the background was rather distracting and in the back of my mind I was considering asking him to turn it off. For some reason I didn’t. The senate program was interrupted with a calm message informing us that an earthquake was eminent in the northern prefectures. The images seemed typical of a 6.5ish quake that they were reporting. I may have that confused somehow but the point is I wasn’t that shocked. I didn’t feel anything but apparently, Helene felt the house rock back and forth. I was told later that this was a horizontal earthquake which causes houses to teeter back and forth compared to vertical earthquake which causes buildings to fall.
The images that followed seemed right out of a movie. I watched a car sitting in a parking lot be approached by a puddle that eventually turned into a title wave consuming the car. Watching the car float away, the footage cut to a suspended highway with cars flipping off the side from the impact of the water. You can see most of this footage on You Tube by now. The most shocking is this one
All the networks were down, probably swamped with panic so I left back to the house to calm Helene and tell her what was happening. The following day we saw the images on television of what was left after the event. To put it simply it was shocking. What makes this different for us compared to people overseas, is the look of the cities, meaning, these are the same buildings, cars, trains and fields that a person would see in my area but not in other countries. The shock was that it looked like it could easily have been in my city . The image of the JR train split in half is quite strong with me since I take a JR train every day.
But to give you some relief the picture here shows you where we are (arrow) and where the earthquake hit (the X) and the damaged areas are the red parts on the east coast. There was no effect in my area short of a loss of cell coverage and some brownouts.
The brownouts are what the real story is for me. Turns out that the earthquake damaged a few nuclear reactors on the coast and the backup generators have failed to work. The relief effort is trying hard to keep the reactor cool but there is huge fear that it might meltdown. Right now we are watching the news and wind direction information carefully in case there is an explosion. The radioactive cloud would probably flow right across Japan given the right wind speed. So some are freaking out and collecting supplies and others are suggesting I leave the country. Maybe they are right but it seems so incredible to me that it just doesn’t seem likely to escalate to such a level. Nonetheless, I’m watching the news (NHK) to be sure. It seems that all other news is about a day behind on events.
If the reactor were to blow and the Canadian government doesn’t try to evacuate me ,then the best I can do is seal up the house as best I can and wait it out. Maybe I’ll have health problems down the line but now I’m talking too hypothetically.
I’m glad that everyone I know appears to be unharmed so far and no truly personal tragedies have come up yet. We have made a few donations and some are even making videos to coordinate a relief effort. I wish all the best to those who have lost their homes, friends, businesses and belongings and I wish there was more that I could do to help.
If I missed anything here let me know.
Thank you so much to everyone who contacted me in the last few days. It truly heart-warming and overwhelming how many of you contacted me to make sure I was alright.
