- It's been another long day. Despite starting well with a nice hot shower (water and gas supplies have been no problem since the first day) and porridge for breakfast, we learned today that radiation had in fact leaked from the Fukushima plant.
- Our Man can't pretend to keep up with the micro-serviettes that radiation is measured in, but as far as his addled brain can ascertain, there were 400 of them outside the gates and some found their way to Ibaraki (the next prefecture (which means big county) to Chiba (which is the prefecture/big county that Abiko is in)) so, er, he was getting worried.*
- Our Man had prepared for blackouts (the power variety) scheduled for 12.20 to 16.00 by toasting his last-but-one loaf of bread by 11.55, percolating a pot of coffee by 12.05 and a second pot (our last ground beans) that was decanted into a flask, for future consumption, by 12.15 - leaving five minutes to lie back and think of England, when...
- There were no bloody power cuts after all, despite loudspeaker announcements from city hall to the contrary during our Man's morning shower earlier in the morning, if you were paying attention. A nice surprise? No, dammit, Our Man had prepared for power outage suffering and was a little miffed not to have been given the chance to meet the challenge.
- Then everyone started leaving. The more cynical/sensible foreign folk of twitter buggered off out of the Greater Abiko Co-Prosperity Sphere and Tokyo to escape the miniscule increases in radiation. Let's hope. Though, the longer Our Man lives here (or anywhere for that matter) the longer he doubts what the experts tell him. What? There's a story in there somewhere of the exodus of the gaijin, and one Our Man understands will be in tomorrow's Japan Times.
- Where was I?
- That's it for now. And donate here for the poor fuckers who are in genuine hard times, not like Our Man, who will just suffer a sore head tomorrow morning at worst.
*Don't worry too much. The brackets within a bracket only reached semi-Inception meltdown status. The Holy Grail being three brackets within brackets, which slows the reader down to a speed of 1/32th regular velocity. Think Daily Mail.
9 comments:
The wrong kind of power cuts. But at least Our Man knows where his towels are. Super duper!
So you're not worried at all? How much radiation is really getting out, anyway? American news is telling us everything is just fine and dandy, the nuclear power plants only leaked as much as a nuclear fart (I'm paraphrasing here), but uh...didn't they extract all of the power plant's staff via helicopter?
Also, those brackets within brackets blew my mind, man. Craaaazy.
Which do you prefer the foreign media or Japanese media? For all the complaints how you can't trust what those press club coddled Japanese hacks write at least I haven't noticed them turning the whole issue into a political football (I'm looking in your direction CNN).
The foreign media seems to delight in writing the most scare mongering headlines the thesaurus function on their word processors will allow. Even worse, the coverage has already been turned into a political football with every expert either being anti-nuke and thus super scary or pro-nuke hunky dory.
I'm beginning to think if I can get to watch NHK news instead of CNN then my NHK subscription fees might be worth it after all.
Ha. I think the biggest disaster in your Abiko home is having porridge on the menu, yuck. I have decided to stow the panic. There's far more radiation taking the flight home. Let's all stay in the 'keep your head' club.
I hope all is well there.
Have some wikileaks to cheer you up:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8384059/Japan-earthquake-Japan-warned-over-nuclear-plants-WikiLeaks-cables-show.html
Thanks Our Man! I need some level thinking right now like you wouldn't believe. Got all kinds of shit racing around my head, none of it good. Have to stop outside take a deep breath sit down beneath the moon and stars of a clear crisp evening, say a little prayer and just be without thinking of the things that have had my heart beating at a frightening rate since this afternoon. But your post was like a sedative, a slap and a chill-out and take it easy. So thanks yo!
Deeply offended by point number 5. @byronkidd has been nothing but cynical through out the situation and is still hunkered down with his family just 15 minutes from Shibuya.
Thanks for all the fish, Our Man worries, he likes his head, he watches all kinds of media, wiki-who, loco chill, we can all be more cynical.
There, answered all of you, now move on.
The nuclear reactor situation does not seem to be improving. Hope it will soon. They are now teaching kids in Japan about the situation through this cartoon
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/cartoon-explaining-the-fukushima-nuclear-reactor-problem-to-kids/
Post a Comment