Black rain and Spring flowers

The plum blossoms are out, and smell heavenly. This photo was taken yesterday a few yards down the road.  The weather has been cool, sunny and quite windy.  Very refreshing.  There is a small organic farm in our neighbourhood owned and operated by a guy our age.  He has a self-serve road-side stand for neighbours.  Strawberries are in season here and his have the most exquisite perfume.

We’ve been looking for informed expert opinion about the radiation risks for our area given the reactor trouble to the North.  Via The Guardian, a British expert panel discussion at the British Embassy in Tokyo is extremely reassuring. The short story: the worst case scenario is long term contamination of a 30km radius, with no health effects in Tokyo.  If you are worried, it’s definitely worth reading the transcript.  The modelling results from the Nulear Regulatory Commission in the US that led to a recommended exclusion area of 80km do not seem inconsistent with the British evaluation.

Also via The Guardian, a blog post at Nature provides a quick, technical-but-plain-language refresher on what radiation is for those of us who slept through physics class.

In spite of the absence of a radiological risk to Tokyo residents, several embassies, including the British, French and Australian, have recommended that their citizens consider leaving the Tokyo area.  This is because of infrastructure concerns, not radiation. Also keep in mind that Tokyo is in great shape compared to the humanitarian crisis along the North-Eastern coast.  Infrastructure damage,  the large affected area, and the large number of evacuees have led to unmet need for warmth, food and medicine.

An electrical blackout is imminent here, so that’s it for now.  Also time to change a diaper.  Again.

For better or for worse

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We had tickets to travel to Japan on Sunday, March 13. On Friday, there was a large earthquake and tsunami near Sendai, about 300km North of Tokyo. On Saturday, Narita International Airport and the trains were running, and we decided to board our flight. As we were leaving, news of problems at nuclear reactors in the Sendai area broke. After we landed, this news has only become more alarming. The map above shows Kagawa Train station, which is a five minute walk from our house (which google can’t seem to map).

For now, we are fine and enjoying the company of family, all of whom are well. There has been a bit of panic hoarding by shoppers, so we had to check several stores before finding diapers (including some awesome ones with Anpan Man on them). There are scheduled electricity black-outs, and most gas stations only sell 20 litres at a time, with long queues at the pump. The beautiful bird in the garden eating grubs doesn’t seem to care about any of it.

If there is a radiation risk in this area in the coming days or weeks, we will have to do our best to leave promptly, but for now, we’ll enjoy Spring blossoms, family feasts and the luxury of Japanese bathing. Our feasts are being constrained, however, by the hoarding. We can buy fresh meat, fish and vegetables, but milk, eggs, bread, tofu and natto are sold out. Cup Noodle is also sold out, but this affects us less.