Good move, TokyoPlayer. Good move. I hope others are also wise enough to play it safe and get the hell outta the way.
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](Meltdowns Grow More Likely at the Fukushima Reactors | HuffPost Impact)
For clarification; I’m staying put for now. It will be easier for me to get a ticket or to flee by myself then to try to get tickets for everyone so we’ll have them leave first.
We think it may be over-reacting, but better safe than sorry. Of course, if things get worse before they get better then it’s better to have the kids out of the country.
Gas is rationed, people are stockpiling food, so there any any rice to be had. I spend all the morning looking for diapers, and then waiting in line for my 20 liters of gas. Good thing I ditched the gas-guzzling BMW for our smaller car.
I’ll continue to monitor the situation.
Good luck, TokyoPlayer, and all the other JapanDopers, and, well, everyone. Know that we go with you in our thoughts.
Good luck Tokyo Player. With what’s happening now, and if I lived in Tokyo I’d consider a short vacation too.
Better safe than sorry. Let us hope that indeed it was an over-reaction and that there is nothing to worry about.
Seems like the prudent move to me, too, TP. Good thoughts headed out to you and all our Japan Dopers.
I was also wondering about the effectiveness of staying indoors; seems like it would be a delay tactic, at best.
Good luck Tokyo Playeryou have to do what is best for your family. I have spent the day coordinating the escape of a fellow foreign wife and her children from near the exclusion area. It has been exhausting and frightening and I’ve been tempted to send my kids away. But I have just checked and their Japanese passports are out of date by a few days each. If they leave the country on British passports they will be breaking the law. Also my husband was really angry when I suggested it to him in a brief phone call today. He pointed out tartly that the people in the town he’s helping to dig out aren’t going anywhere. So for the moment we stay here. I’d stay anyway but I hope my kids will be safe.
Thanks for all the good wishes for his safety. There are 100,000 soldiers, plus more police, firefighters, coast guard and the like. So keep them all in your thoughts please.
Safe journeys, TokyoPlayer!
It’s easy for someone over here to say you’re over reacting, but then, I’m not the one with the kids to worry about.
Look, Japan is in crisis right now. It’s not JUST the nuke plants, right? Massive earthquake, tsunami, tens of thousand of dead, the prospect of rolling blackouts, massive economic hit…
It is perfectly natural to want to leave that situation!
Even without the nuclear issue you would all be feeling major stress right now. If you can take a vacation right now (call it that, a vacation - it’s not running away, it’s a vacation) and get away from all that mess DO IT. Go somewhere that isn’t suffering multiple natural disasters and widespread human misery. It will do all of you good. MUCH better than sitting at home fretting. Much better than indecision and worry.
And you don’t have to to justify yourself to ANYONE. They give you guff, send them to me - I’ll give them a finger wag and a stern talking to, you hear?
Wifey and I are sticking around, and going to work in central Tokyo as usual tomorrow. We live in her hometown near her parents. Her family has over 400 years history in the area. She isn’t going anywhere, and I’m not going to leave her behind. We’ll see how things develop.
We just had another strong quake (10:31pm local time), but this time in the Tokai area in eastern Shizuoka. It’s a magnitude 6.0 tremor with no tsunami warning.
The quakes from the past few days have been in areas north and northeast of Tokyo. However, this one took place SOUTHWEST of the Tokyo Metro area. Yikes!
Why not, TokyoPlayer. I don’t actually think anyone would criticise.
In additon to all of this every person who leaves, particularly the very young, very old and their caretakers reduces the drain on the limited resources that are now available.
It makes perfect sense to get out of the way so not only are you more secure but the focus can be on those who need more assistance.
I was in China during SARS. It’s a tough thing to try deal with in a foreign country, especially if you and your wife are not actually Japanese nor have family in Japan. Sending your family off now makes it easy to bring them back when things calm down.
And, as you pointed out, as a single guy it’s significantly easier and safer if you have to evacuate only yourself. And as pointed out, you’re freeing up potential resources to focus on the people who can’t leave.
6.0 in Shizuoka just an hour ago or so. I wonder if this was the “70% chance of a 7.0 or so quake in the next 3 days” that I heard predicted by Japanese news a few days ago. Quakes, tsunamis, radiation, volcanoes exploding… when will this all end?!
I was wondering if people would be less likely to donate to Japan relief because Japan is a rich country, sure enough there was an article about it that there has been less money donated than for Haiti or Post-Katrina. Yes, Japan is rich but something on this scale is going to drain resources and people and I don’t see how they can do this on their own.
In other news, Gilbert Gottfried has been fired as the Aflac duck for tweeting a bunch of tasteless jokes about the earthquake and tsunami. I’m guessing he won’t be asked to perform at any benefit shows either.
Autolycus - I got a small preview with the SARs experience. Keep focused one day at a time and stay strong for your students.
Gallows humor helps some people and you’ve always got the Dope. A few cliche’s may be helpful like “this too shall pass”, “it’s not anyone’s fault, just their turn” or the short version of the Serenity Prayer “Shit happens.”
Finally heard from a friend of mine. Retired navy vet, his ex-wife and children are in Japan, but are ok. For now. The situation with the reactors and a possible change of wind direction could place them in harm’s way.
They are down to a volunteer crew at the plants pulling a Spock (as in Wrath of Khan) trying to prevent the bigger disaster. What I read was almost all personnel are gone now and that would indicate the remaining crew will be exceeding any safe dosage before they are done and clearly they must know what they are doing. I hope they are making their sacrifice in a successful heroic act. They will probably live long enough to be properly lauded for it at least.
More that I found more on CNN:
This isn’t a year ago and Japan isn’t as bad off as Haiti. We also weren’t asked for help initially because the Japanese are well organized if not THE most organized rescuers on the planet. Money will flow as the situation gets worse but this is couldn’t happen at a more inopportune time. There is high unemployment in the US and other nations.