Here, now.
I'm currently living in Niseko, Japan. While we were able to feel the big earthquake that hit on Monday here (I was the first in the office to notice it), the tremors weren't that strong this far away, though they did go on for a while longer than most of the quakes I've felt here. There have been no reports of damage to any buildings in the area, and I don't thing the avalanche warnings have increased. When I got home from work, nothing had fallen over, and I have a couple of action figures that will nose dive from the air currents caused if you walk by them too quickly.
I've seen some of the footage of the ensuing tsunami/tidal wave, both aerial as well as on the ground video, and it's awesome in the older sense of the term as in "Leaves you in awe of nature's power" not awesome as in "Dude, do it again!" Being up in the mountains and a bit inland, the tidal wave was not an issue of direct personal danger. I see some coastal areas in Hokkaido had some damage as well, but nowhere near a severe as the Sendai area.
Now I'm watching the news about the nuclear reactors and trying to filter out the scare mongering and sensationalism of the media and the paranoid, as well as trying to read between the lines of what the government is officially saying and likely understating. not being a nuclear physicist myself, this is not an easy task. This site has been helpful: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/. Around the office, we've been checking some of the numbers of the reported level of radiation which is causing panic among some people (not so much in Japan, actually, but among those shrill people on the western news channels), and it seems that what is hitting Tokyo right now increases your cancer risk about as much as smoking one and a half cigarettes.
Flights are currently operating fairly close to normally, except for the areas heavily hit such as Sendai. Tokyo and Chitose are operating as normal, so it looks like my job interview is still on for Thursday (2 days from now), so I'll be flying down to Tokyo tomorrow unless another catastrophe jumps on the dog pile.
At work, we are in the winding down period as we approach late winter. We've been getting lots of calls from people wanting to cancel their trips. This is one of those situations where I hate being the guy on the front lines of this sort of thing, as most of the hotels, property management companies, etc, are taking a strict line of no refunds. Most people have been fairly good about realizing that I'm not the one making the policy, but it still makes for less than pleasant phone and email conversations.
I've seen some of the footage of the ensuing tsunami/tidal wave, both aerial as well as on the ground video, and it's awesome in the older sense of the term as in "Leaves you in awe of nature's power" not awesome as in "Dude, do it again!" Being up in the mountains and a bit inland, the tidal wave was not an issue of direct personal danger. I see some coastal areas in Hokkaido had some damage as well, but nowhere near a severe as the Sendai area.
Now I'm watching the news about the nuclear reactors and trying to filter out the scare mongering and sensationalism of the media and the paranoid, as well as trying to read between the lines of what the government is officially saying and likely understating. not being a nuclear physicist myself, this is not an easy task. This site has been helpful: http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/13/fukushima-simple-explanation/. Around the office, we've been checking some of the numbers of the reported level of radiation which is causing panic among some people (not so much in Japan, actually, but among those shrill people on the western news channels), and it seems that what is hitting Tokyo right now increases your cancer risk about as much as smoking one and a half cigarettes.
Flights are currently operating fairly close to normally, except for the areas heavily hit such as Sendai. Tokyo and Chitose are operating as normal, so it looks like my job interview is still on for Thursday (2 days from now), so I'll be flying down to Tokyo tomorrow unless another catastrophe jumps on the dog pile.
At work, we are in the winding down period as we approach late winter. We've been getting lots of calls from people wanting to cancel their trips. This is one of those situations where I hate being the guy on the front lines of this sort of thing, as most of the hotels, property management companies, etc, are taking a strict line of no refunds. Most people have been fairly good about realizing that I'm not the one making the policy, but it still makes for less than pleasant phone and email conversations.