Unaffected(maybe)

Of course, most people know there was a quake on March 11th in Japan. The epicenter was just off the North East coast of Japan, but it was strong enough that we had a bit of a shake here. I was pretty clueless as to how major the quake was until the next day when we all started seeing the results of the tidal waves that swept through the northern towns. While there was a tsunami warning here in Hamamatsu the waves did not reach destructive sizes here.

The story that took over and has been at the back of my mind since it all went down has been the situation in Fukushima. The cooling systems initially shutdown in one reactor causing anxiety about the rods overheating. An aftershock took out another one, and it seems like dominoes 4 reactors have had mini explosions (we've been reassured these are hydrogen explosions not meltdowns) and the buildings are a mess, exposing radiation to the air. They have been working for 2 weeks now to get the situation under control. They haven't totally lost the battle, they are fighting hard, but there is some huge damage, that they will only really fathom the magnitude of only years down the road. The great story is the Fukushima 50. 50 workers who have basically put their lives on the line to get the situation under control. Just yesterday I saw that 2 members had severe levels of poisoning as a result of stepping in some contaminated water. Food from the North has gone questionable- farmers had to dump their milk and destroy their crops as the food is inedible. In Tokyo they advised not to feed the tap water to small babies. I would say that is a sign no one should be drinking it. I want to say we are far away from it all to not feel the effect. But with contaminated food, there is potential that something gets through unchecked. And water. I read in the Canadian newspaper they detected some elevated levels of radiation (not dangerous though) off Canadian shores- we are much closer to it all than Canada is. Well, we are staying put- until I hear some news that the levels are becoming dangerous- which I hope they would report if it happens.

The picture at the header tells of the biggest real impact we have felt so far- the panic shopping, or hoarding factor. For about a week, you couldn't find toilet paper on the shelves. Same goes for water, rice, diapers and other such goods as people stocked up their home supply. Crazy panic- I almost had to fight with a lady over the last bag of rice at the Supermarket (we were legitimately out...), but she changed her mind and I got it in the end. To be fair, I think a lot of people have been shipping some stuff to friends in Tokyo as the supplies are much thinner up there.

Wow, that was a mouthful- but needed to document what has been going on.