As Japan makes incredible efforts to keep spirits up and get back to work I feel inspired to do the same so I will continue, within my limited capacity, stuck here in a hotel far from home and studio, to continue with my projects and music production.
Dragon looks up.
That said, I will still post regularly on the situation in Japan/Tokyo as well, which reminds me…
Media.
Please, please stop listening to the majority of talking heads on TV spewing more toxicity than all major nuclear events combined. They are not delivering anything healthy or useful to the issue on the ground here in Japan – they are simply contributing to the damage.
Their skewed coverage of the nuclear crisis has undermined attention to the human tragedy happening up North. Supplies are slow in arriving, it is the end of winter here in Japan and snowing up in that region. Sendai around this time of year is deadly cold well into early April and many people arrived at shelters wet and in the clothes they were wearing as they ran out the door – the focus should be here – where people actually are dying and in immediate danger for lack of medical care and adequate supplies.
Reuters Live Blog remains a good source of info.
The Nuclear Issue.
The Nuclear issue is serious – for Fukushima – it’s 250kms north of Tokyo and at the moment poses no major threat to the capital. Those living within 30km of the stricken nuclear reactors have been evacuated and people immediately outside the evacuation zone have been told to stay indoors.
View Tokyo in Relation to Earthquake Area in a larger map
Travel
You should probably not travel to Tokyo in the next few weeks but that has nothing to do with radiation.
The North’s infrastructure has been dealt a mighty, mighty blow, enough to cause serious issues for Tokyo over and above the nuclear crisis. The “evacuations” (a loaded word indeed) of foreign nationals from Tokyo are based on speculation about their ability to access resources – that means food and fuel at this point – and have been primarily motivated by this factor.
A reminder that it is late winter here and rotating power outages in some areas mean spending nights in the cold and it also makes storing non-perishable foods difficult hence the empty shelves in Tokyo the last few days.
These power shortages and rotating power cuts in some areas will most likely be fixed in Japanese time i.e. the next few weeks – if not days – and millions of Tokyoites are holding back on electricity usage to do their part in making it easier for everyone to see the situation through.
There are shortages of fuel and food but that will also be rectified in time as roads are rebuilt and power grids restored and supply chains re-linked – I have been told by friends in Tokyo that it’s already possible to get some basic food stuffs again in some parts of Tokyo, albeit in limited quantities.
Never forget that this is the land of the rising sun and it’s called that for a very good reason.
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Shane Berry
19/03/2011
@GishFerriere thanks for the comment. there are of course some media channels doing simply amazing work and bringing much needed news and footage to the world but the rampant editorializing and opinion based “news” coming primarily from the US media is staggeringly irresponsible.
Shane Berry
19/03/2011
@RD Thanks for the comment, doing my best to balance the seriousness of the situation with the reality on the ground.
Gish Ferriere
19/03/2011
Thanks for the update. I go in every day to see what`s happening and I like the way you tell it as it is. Keep up the good works. Love ya!
Rhythm Droid
19/03/2011
As always, thank you for the level-headed information. All the media wants to talk about is nuclear this and nuclear that while the tsunami victims still wait for absolutely bare necessities.