(no subject)
Quick update.
We went to see Tangled today. I really liked it, a great distraction from all the downer mood lately...
...Until 20 minutes before the end, when another earthquake rattled the room. It wasn't huge, probably a 3 on the japanese scale, but it really freaked me out and kinda ruined the ending for me. I guess I'm still spread a little thin... And the fact that we were in a dark room with nowhere to hide probably added to it too (as does the fact that we haven't had anything really noticeable for over a day now).
apparently it was a 5+(the same strength we had during the main quake last week) in Ibaraki.
It's of course nothing compared to the really affected areas, but Tokyo is in a sort of state of emergency as well.
Electricity supply is limited as a result of several power plants shutting down in the quake and/or tsunami, so Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) scheduled planned outages, as well as warned people there might be unsuspected shutdowns if demand was too high... So everyone is saving power. Half of the street lighting is off, most stores are leaving their outside lighting off, and shutting part of the interior down too. The trains are also on half power, so most people are going home early... I've been heading home before 7 for most of the week, but with all the lights out, it feels like midnight. I've never seen Tokyo this dark.
In general, there's a lot fewer people on the streets of Tokyo, however I'm not sure if that's because they fled the city, or just heading home earlier and taking more time off (I suspect the latter). It definitely looks like a LOT of the foreigners here have jumped ship, I've seen like 4-5 caucasian faces the past few days, and two of them were carrying TV cameras.
Lastly, food supplies are still scarce. The usually super useful convenience stores have half-empty racks, especially cup noodles and drinks are almost universally sold out.I'm glad we stocked up before everyone went nuts.
There's been only a few developments about the situation about the situation in Fukushima...
The JSDF (=Self Defense Forces, the japanese army) dropped water on some of the reactor buildings because they'd become too hot to really go close, and they're now watering the reactors and spent fuel pools with fire trucks and water throwers. They managed to reconnect power to reactor #2 today, which sounds like a huge step forward (after confirming all the circuits, that will enable them to use the emergency cooling systems, a big step towards stabilizing the reactor core and containment vessel).
There hasn't been a huge fluctuation in radiation anywhere outside Fukushima Pref. (The official evac radius right now is 20km + 10km where people are asked to stay indoors)... Radioactive Iodine and Caesium isotopes have been detected in the water, milk and spinach from Fukushima, however not at threatening levels. Radiation in the prefectures outside has been heightened but not threatening (Ibaraki, the prefecture next to Fukushima in the south, reported something like 1 microSievert, which, while far higher than the natural background radiation, is nothing to worry about in terms of health concerns. Needless to say, levels in Tokyo are negligible as well (about 0.05-6μSv, Rome has about 2μSv natural background radiation).
I'm of course monitoring the news as well as several measurement stations, but as before, haven't found a reason to worry. Saw an interview with a WHO official today saying the same too... So I'm staying put.
We went to see Tangled today. I really liked it, a great distraction from all the downer mood lately...
...Until 20 minutes before the end, when another earthquake rattled the room. It wasn't huge, probably a 3 on the japanese scale, but it really freaked me out and kinda ruined the ending for me. I guess I'm still spread a little thin... And the fact that we were in a dark room with nowhere to hide probably added to it too (as does the fact that we haven't had anything really noticeable for over a day now).
apparently it was a 5+(the same strength we had during the main quake last week) in Ibaraki.
It's of course nothing compared to the really affected areas, but Tokyo is in a sort of state of emergency as well.
Electricity supply is limited as a result of several power plants shutting down in the quake and/or tsunami, so Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) scheduled planned outages, as well as warned people there might be unsuspected shutdowns if demand was too high... So everyone is saving power. Half of the street lighting is off, most stores are leaving their outside lighting off, and shutting part of the interior down too. The trains are also on half power, so most people are going home early... I've been heading home before 7 for most of the week, but with all the lights out, it feels like midnight. I've never seen Tokyo this dark.
In general, there's a lot fewer people on the streets of Tokyo, however I'm not sure if that's because they fled the city, or just heading home earlier and taking more time off (I suspect the latter). It definitely looks like a LOT of the foreigners here have jumped ship, I've seen like 4-5 caucasian faces the past few days, and two of them were carrying TV cameras.
Lastly, food supplies are still scarce. The usually super useful convenience stores have half-empty racks, especially cup noodles and drinks are almost universally sold out.I'm glad we stocked up before everyone went nuts.
There's been only a few developments about the situation about the situation in Fukushima...
The JSDF (=Self Defense Forces, the japanese army) dropped water on some of the reactor buildings because they'd become too hot to really go close, and they're now watering the reactors and spent fuel pools with fire trucks and water throwers. They managed to reconnect power to reactor #2 today, which sounds like a huge step forward (after confirming all the circuits, that will enable them to use the emergency cooling systems, a big step towards stabilizing the reactor core and containment vessel).
There hasn't been a huge fluctuation in radiation anywhere outside Fukushima Pref. (The official evac radius right now is 20km + 10km where people are asked to stay indoors)... Radioactive Iodine and Caesium isotopes have been detected in the water, milk and spinach from Fukushima, however not at threatening levels. Radiation in the prefectures outside has been heightened but not threatening (Ibaraki, the prefecture next to Fukushima in the south, reported something like 1 microSievert, which, while far higher than the natural background radiation, is nothing to worry about in terms of health concerns. Needless to say, levels in Tokyo are negligible as well (about 0.05-6μSv, Rome has about 2μSv natural background radiation).
I'm of course monitoring the news as well as several measurement stations, but as before, haven't found a reason to worry. Saw an interview with a WHO official today saying the same too... So I'm staying put.