WALK LOOKING UP

via Reddit

MORE LIGHT THAN DARKNESS

I didn't see the whole thing, didn't catch the name of the small town, just saw the last bit of a news report I guess it was, then it was gone; clicked in right where some Japanese schoolgirls age 12~13 were walking cheerily along a just-cleared road amidst mounds of tsunami destruction in one of the severely afflicted towns, a place of narrow valleys among small steep mountains where folks still live at heights the tsunami hadn't reached.

As the girls walked along they tossed a volley ball up into the air, chatting and playing, passing through the devastation they had just survived. They were on their way to a playground somewhere, I thought, taking that to be the point of this little clip: have hope, don't give up, get some fun, live on and brighten-- until they arrived at a rare surviving building, slid back the door and entered, put down the ball and each shouldered an old-fashioned basket backpack that was heavy with something. They then departed and with their burdens began walking once more, this time in twos up the steep ways that threaded the sides of the mountains and led to houses up there, mostly occupied by elderly folks cut off from a world that is no more, a world erased as far as they could see.

As the girls neared each house they called out a friendly hello, said their names and Here's lunch! From within came a glad response, the pair then entering to bring a meal to one or more elderly folks who had been waiting. Thus the girls went from house to house, calling friendly greetings and being welcomed with happiness. In this way they were meeting the elderly people in their town, folks they would otherwise never have known but now were visiting daily, knew now by name and feeling, saying good morning not by rote but in a friendly, even familial way, bringing food and new companionship to these elders who in their lonely places were grateful… 

At each house they'd chat a bit, those elders now having two young girls in their daily lives, like family, bringing them aid without obligation, in return the girls having all these grandmas and grandpas; the girls do this every day and they like it, they like the smiles that greet them and the cheer they cause, the chatting with and helping all the elders only yesterday absent from their lives, as it is also for the elders, who are joyed to have youngsters come to their home and relate to them personally, in a caring way -- it was uplifting to behold. 

This is the way it should be, these young women happy to be giving a gift that is more than just the food they bring, each day doing wonders that they never thought of before, in turn receiving the gift that many never come to in all their lives: the understanding that elders need the young, but the young need elders just as much. How better to uplift a society than by such ways as this? Things should be like this, things should always be like this: no distance between the generations, no life without their touch. 

On they go even now, the girls among the smiles, beyond the end of that brief part I saw-- they lift up all those lives with their baskets of food, their warmth and words, happy in calling out Good morning! Hello! See you again tomorrow! and going on their way, up to the next neighbor on the mountain. They are heroes, those girls, to themselves and to us all, even to those who have not seen this little story. 

I will never forget them, walking through that wreckage, rich with future, on their way to share that wealth with those who yesterday were isolated strangers having nothing but a roof and what was left of life, who thanks to the girls have lived to see beauty rise from devastation with a shout of greeting and the wave of a hand, living proof each new day that the heart holds more light than darkness--

As if to give some other depth to the value of this task, at the end of the clip the adult female reporter, who has been following the girls around the mountain paths for the story, one morning tries on one of the baskets filled with bento lunches and staggers backward at the heaviness...

***

This ramble appears in Kyoto Journal's first digital issue, #76, a fine publication to be released just as soon as the magazine's long-awaited new website is finally launched. Meanwhile, KJ is best tracked here: http://www.facebook.com/kyoto.journal

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE 5.22.11

Contamination: From Minamata to Fukushima

Since 11 March 2011, a different kind of toxin began making its way through the veins of common food sources after TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) completed a planned dumping of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean at the site of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.  Spinach and other green leafy vegetables, milk, and water have been found to have iodine-131.  Fish, cows’ milk, and water have been contaminated with cesium-137.

--

Pensioners come forth for Fukushima

As the Japanese government and TEPCO struggle to bring the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant under control, a group of pensioners has decided to put their lives at risk to save younger people from radiation.

via reddit

--

Fukushima Update: A Very Bad Situation

TEPCO has finally admitted that Reactor #1 has experienced a meltdown event that may have breached the primary containment vessel. Further, truly alarming levels of radiation are now being reported in and around Tokyo.

--

Atmosphere Above Japan Heated Rapidly Before M9 Earthquake

Infrared emissions above the epicenter increased dramatically in the days before the devastating earthquake in Japan.

FUKUSHIMA UPDATE 5.18.11

Two months later, whereabouts of 9,500 still unknown

--

A Fukushima Update

“The fact that reactor three used MOX fuel has prompted a Russian Chernobyl expert to even assert that ‘(the) release of plutonium will contaminate that area forever and…is impossible to clean up.”  [emphasis mine - RB] 

via reddit

--

Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers

[Surely officials of other nations would never do the same??]

   "Although the predictions sound eerily like the sequence of events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago to shut down another plant, long considered the most dangerous in Japan...

   The lawsuits reveal a disturbing pattern in which operators underestimated or hid seismic dangers to avoid costly upgrades and keep operating." 

--

Fukushima Reactor 1 melted down, 2 and 3 may have too

--

Jinzaburo Takagi

(In case you thought that this was all so unexpected:)
   In 1995 Jinzaburo Takagi (1938~1995), who received the Right Livelihood Award "...for serving to alert the world to the unparalleled dangers of plutonium to human life,”
“blasted the government and power companies for ‘refusing to consider emergency measures in the event of an earthquake because they assume nuclear power plants will not break down in an earthquake and have stopped taking further steps at all.’
   He also argued that the Great Hanshin Earthquake was a wakeup call for getting nuclear power facilities ready for emergencies, such as being ‘attacked by a tsunami along with a quake.’
   ‘Discussions on the safety of nuclear power plants or disaster preparedness measures on the assumption of those situations occurring have been shunned, on the grounds that it is inappropriate to make such assumptions or such discussions have some ulterior motive,’ he said.
   The paper [Nuclear Facilities and Emergencies - with Focus on Measures against Earthquakes, 1995] cited Fukushima Prefecture's Hamadori coastal region as one of the areas with a concentration of nuclear facilities that could face a situation ‘beyond what has been imagined’ if a major earthquake strikes. The region is home to the Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants run by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
   Tsunami-hit Fukushima No. 1 is also referred to in the paper as an ‘obsolete [in 1995! - RB] nuclear power plant that raises the greatest concerns’ and requires holding concrete discussions on its decommissioning.”
[emphasis mine - RB]

Stated by an expert almost 20 years ago!

--

Reactor Vents That Failed in Japan Are Used in U.S.

--

I wonder if anyone else

thinks of this

profound infliction

from earth and sea

as partly a matter of

whale and dolphin

karma...

--

But there are new-old paths emerging...

(via Ken Elwood)

A GOOD MOVE--

Japan to Shut Nuclear Plant on Quake Fears;

Another Leaks Radiation

  +
Japan Earthquake: Two Months Later

via reddit

ONE MONTH +

One month since the quake-tsunami-reactor failure, and looks like they’re gonna Chernobyl the whole tangled, steaming, leaking, glowing mess, bury it under concrete, let it melt down if it wants to, isolate the whole area for whatever half-life has the most public appeal, because they haven’t got it under control, likely never will. Also they’re running out of technicians at minimum wage. Folks up there seem to think it’s safe though, as the govt keeps reassuring everybody. To add weight to their conviction, they've doubled the minimum acceptable radiation dosages and are expanding the forced evacuation zone to 30 km. Personally I’ve always found government reassurances to be a rich source of healthful inner laughter.

Tatsuya came down by train on Saturday evening for a big two-family confab, at which the majority felt that it really was safe up there: there was water, electricity, gas etc. all restored; Tatsuya swore it was all back to normal and anyway he had to work there, he missed his family, the girls were missing school there, which was back in session, so they all left Sunday morning and headed back up into only time will tell; I hope my own misgivings are wrong... Will feedback here any news from the intrepid quintet...

Another aftershock up there last night, powerful winds from the north all day...

Kasumi called from her apartment up north just now (Mon PM) at 5:15 and at 5:16 while on the phone she all at once stopped talking to Echo and yelled in panic to the trio: "Earthquake! Earthquake! Outside! Get outside! Fast! Hurry! Open the door and go outside! Out! Get out!" and the phone went dead. We turned on the tv at once and heard it was a 6+ magnitude, with tsunami warning announcements “...tsunami are expected in the following areas... waves up to two meters high, everyone near the coast must move to higher ground...” recycling over and over even now, for the first time in English, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese. Kasumi called back a few minutes later, is still on the phone. Will update later.

+

Later: There have been tremors happening ever since they arrived back up there. Looks pretty severe on the webcams. Also they can’t buy bottled water anywhere around there and K doesn't want to drink the tap water until she is fully satisfied it's safe. We’ll send some from our stored stock to tide them over.

--

“A week before becoming ground zero for the world’s biggest nuclear crisis since 1986, the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant offered $11 an hour for full-time maintenance work in an area of Japan that was lagging even before last month’s earthquake and tsunami struck.”

QUAKE UPDATE Day 27 ++++

Domestically, things get ratcheted up and most interesting when you suddenly go from being a couple to a family of 6, the little ones enjoying no school and the big ones debating how best to react to the new national reality... Setting up plans B and C as we speak... Red pill or Blue pill... Green pill might be good...

Heard from Tatsuya up north, outside the evaluation zone, that things appear to be getting closer to normal in his vicinity, he has both water and electricity now, still no trains running though, tells of the weird thing he saw when walking back home along the coast for 7 hours through the tsunami area in the dark of that first night after the quake, no houselights no street lights suddenly saw, as best he could tell, out there in the dark dozens of clusters of people in white carrying other people in white out from a big building and setting them on the ground-- he was puzzled at first but as he walked by and heard the talk he realized it was a hospital being evacuated in the dark... the staff was moving all the patients who could be moved outside to safety from the aftershocks... those who could not be moved or needed electricity for various equipment had to be left to their fate...

Another tale I saw on the news was of an elderly energetic man who all his life had been a maker of kokeshi dolls, until his house, shop and supplies had been destroyed; he had decided to give up, he was over 80 and all was gone and that was it, but then because he was apparently well known for his dolls he started getting requests from people who wanted dolls from him for various festive occasions in their own lives, who urged him to keep on making the dolls and not be defeated, the requests kept coming so he took up doll making again, became one of the many icons of recovery that are emerging here and there...

--

And now for your modern living convenience, here’s a Handy Radiation Dose Chart - Good to know the relative values of what we’re dealing with here in this radiant reality... Keep it on your fridge, but don't stand too close for too long!

--

Truthiness is good for business

“Visiting General Electric Co. CEO Jeffrey Immelt said Monday that the nuclear power plants it sells worldwide are safe despite the crisis the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant [using a Mark 1] GE built more than 40 years ago is going through.”

but

“Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing -- the Mark 1 -- was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power... ”

and

Fukushima GE-Made Reactor's Safety Doubted Since 70s

“The warnings were stark and issued repeatedly as far back as 1972:

If the cooling systems ever failed at a Mark 1 nuclear reactor — developed in the 1960s by General Electric — the primary containment vessel surrounding the reactor would probably burst as the fuel rods inside overheated. Dangerous radiation would spew into the environment.

Most nuclear reactors around the world are of this type.

But the type of containment vessel and pressure suppression system used in the failing reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant — and in 23 American reactors at 16 plants — is physically less robust...”

--

Tepco is still wearing those short boots...

"On March 31, in the third week of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, owner TEPCO submitted a plan to add a seventh and eighth reactor at the stricken site to Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. TEPCO is required to submit yearly reports, which include future development plans.

The company claims that due to the confusion brought about by earthquake and tsunami, they did not have an opportunity to revise the plan and, faced with a strict deadline, simply chose to submit it."

The Japanese people are getting angry, the decisions of career bureaucrats hanging over their heads...

+

Communities Struggle to Rebuild Shattered Lives on Japan’s Coast

+

Aftershock shakes Japan's ruined northeast coast 

+

Tsunami-hit towns forgot warnings from ancestors

"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants...
Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis.
Do not build any homes below this point."

--
"Always be prepared for unexpected tsunamis.
Choose life over your possessions and valuables."
--
"It takes about three generations for people to forget..."

+

Japan Aftershock Leaves Two Dead, Millions Without Electricity

"Aftershocks will continue for a year or so..."

QUAKE UPDATE Day 22 ++


Modelisation de la dispersion des rejets radioactifs dans l’atmosphere a l’echelle globale...

--

Japan's Nuclear Rescuers: 'Inevitable Some of Them May Die Within Weeks'

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says that workers were only eating two basic meals of crackers and dried rice a day, and sleeping in conference rooms and hallways in the building.

According to Kaieda, not all of the workers had apparently been provided with lead sheeting to shield themselves from potentially radiation-contaminated floors while sleeping.

“My son has been sleeping on a desk because he is afraid to lie on the floor. But they say high radioactivity is everywhere and I think this will not save him,” said the mother of the worker...

+

Rescue trucks inch

along narrow winding roads

footing steep canyons

of home fragments

+

TEPCO Confirms That Groundwater Radiation Is So Bad,
Everyone Thought It Had To Be An Error

(Follow link in short article for further details)

QUAKE UPDATE Day 19



Kasumi and the girls will be moving in with us for a time... This should be interesting...

--

Looks like they’re gonna go all Chernobyl on it... hints at abandoning the reactor site altogether and smothering the whole thing in some sort of substance...

"I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe," said one expert, Najmedin Meshkati, of the University of Southern California, adding it may take weeks to stabilise the situation and the United Nations should step in.    
"This is far beyond what one nation can handle - it needs to be bumped up to the U.N. Security Council."

The isotope "most useful for nuclear weapons..."

Interesting little tidbit for all of us currently on this planet [emphasis mine]:
"If plutonium enters the blood it can do a lot of damage to our cells, leading to cancer of the bones or liver. ... Plutonium-239, a byproduct of fission, was found in soil samples taken on the plant site March 21 and March 22, according to Tepco. Two of the five samples contained more plutonium than known to have been deposited by atmospheric nuclear-bomb fallout and probably came from the damaged plant.”

I.e., all soil in Japan and around the world now (and since the sixties) contains plutonium - half life 24,000 years -... You'd think that was important, but funnily enough they never mentioned Plutonium-239 during the long fallout of atmospheric nuclear bomb testing... they only mentioned Strontium-90...

And "Duck-and-Cover"...

Malignant-looking stuff, plutonium...

QUAKE UPDATES Day 11 +++

Had the trio stay over Sunday-Monday, on Sunday took them for lunch to Hot Station, where we ate outside in a field of nanohana with (nanohana in our bento!) beneath the snowy mountains, then went to get some spring water - which the girls love to do - then back home to our very own mountains of private snow that have arisen from the multiple shovelings of the deck over the ages of this winter, so the ladyettes could make snow men and in Kaya's case (quite the little artist) a snow rabbit. In mid-task she asked if we had some red berries, we had none; I thought a minute and gave her a small dried red pepper from a bunch hanging on the wall and her face lit up; I went out later to see what she had made and it was a wee snow rabbit with its wee snowfriend. Fun till bed, when they made a nest for themselves in an upstairs room, settled in under the big blankets, yawned and were asleep.

I did the same. Woke to laughter of Echo and the girls downstairs at breakfast... how quickly the young recover... giggles are a major gift of nature, good for every ill... and what bright energy the girls are now, for these moment untroubled and happy, with fun to be had... Kasumi was better by Monday and came to join us for the day, which was when we took the photo.

+

Started to order some stuff from the US via the internet the other day and at checkout was told: "Shipments to Japan will be delayed indefinitely." Apparently, all cargo transport is being commandeered for aid etc. for an indeterminate time, which is fully ok with me, but it was something of a shock to discover that sources abroad are cut off 'indefinitely.' Saw no news about that in the media; or when private shipments will be restored...

+

"Now I just feel hatred towards TEPCO," he says. "It is very difficult for me to say this since I have worked for them for 18 years. But I just think they should come clean with all the information they have."

Company's Handling Of Nuclear Crisis Sparks Anger

+

One positive aspect to these catastrophic events, and historically perhaps the most remarkable, judging from what I've experienced here and in these past few days, is that because of the media revolution the world has just had its first genuine experience of The Global Community, its first real full-spectrum sense of how we are all in this together.

Japan's harrowing disaster, in all its horrible reality, was borne at the speed of light directly to the eyes and hearts of different cultures all around the world, whose people could right now see and be with and among the victims of quake, tsunami, radiation accidents; they could share the plight of countless of their fellow humans as never before in history-- oceans different from seeing in the morning paper over coffee a photo of some buildings fallen yesterday somewhere else in the world with another Thousands Die headline, then heading off to work...

In this new instant, the world became Japan and Japan the world. For the first time in history, we all felt it: we are all in this together. This was not politics, this was not spin, this was life - our life - all of us, here on this small blue spaceship. I believe that this will go down in history as a major turning point in the hopeful advance of civilization... If we can maintain our native integrity, keep our minds clear and learn to learn what we are being taught...

QUAKE UPDATES Day 7 +++

Another heavy snow here, another earthquake up there, where "suicide squads" are frantically trying to stop several meltdowns as quakes keep happening and it's extra cold for March, but at least Kasumi and family are out of their shaky waterless danger-zone apartment and safe down here, at least till the next step, whatever that may be... no telling when or if they might return up north...

I haven't seen them yet, they arrived in Kyoto late afternoon yesterday, exhausted (they took 5am bus from their town), hungry and with basically only the clothes on their backs and a few things - and from there went to Tatsuya's parents' big house across the lake, ate, bathed (the luxury!) and went to sleep. Miasa was sick but seems better, but now Kasumi is sick. I'll talk to them tonight, find out when they'll be fit to visit over here where the kids can pick some spinach, plant some radishes, stack some firewood, go wild...

I see that the US govt is urging Americans to leave Japan or not travel to Japan, has planes at the ready to assist where necessary; press is interviewing Americans here, most aren't leaving, it seems, though some may, I don't know anyone who is... I've long opposed nuclear power for many reasons, and if this involved plutonium, the use of which is insane, I'd be out of here last week, but as of now I have no plans to leave despite some uranium byproducts in the air. I'm assuming that they'll see the dumbth of their ways, clean it all up eventually under the gaze of a stern public eye and never do it again, but I'm not holding my breath, though I might wear a mask while I withhold judgment pro tem. It's just too beautiful here to let it be destroyed for any reason, let alone greed, and though long-term foreign residents can't vote in Shiga, we can oppose. This site has good insights and rich links on local nuclear activism.

Always amazing, how low ad hoc lowlifes can go; in this case, a potassium iodide ripoff! List price $5.99!...

+

"But what makes reactor 3 so special? In one acronymic word: MOX.

All of the fuel rods in all of the other reactors are made essentially of uranium with a zirconium cladding to seal in radioactive emissions. Reactor 4 uses something different. Its fuel rod are only 94% uranium, with 6% plutonium stirred in and then the same zirconium shell. This mixed oxide (hence the MOX moniker) formulation has one advantage [the public doesn't know what's actually in it]—and a number of disadvantages."

THOSE IDIOTS! 24,000 years!! Five times the length of our civilization!! Rethink.....

+

"Denis Flory, a top safety official at the agency, pointed out that all used nuclear fuel contains plutonium." [Oh, that's OK then...] It forms naturally within conventional uranium fuel as the uranium is bombarded by neutrons. ["Naturally..." that's a nice 'official' touch...]
And although plutonium is a long-lived emitter of radiation, it is also quite heavy, so it is not likely to move very far downwind from its source. [Comforting, to be sure. And just how far IS "not very far downwind," in officialese? Just keep running, folks, and don't breathe too much... only 23,999.999 years to go...]

QUAKE UPDATES Day 6 ++
“The United States on Wednesday urged Americans who live within 50 miles of Japan’s earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to evacuate, and the top U.S. nuclear regulatory official indicated that Japan faces an increasingly dangerous situation at one of the plant’s reactors.”

Got up at dawn this am, looked out the window at a foot of snow, high snow country cloud bank taking up 3/4 of the sky to the north, must be snowing heavily up there...

Message fm Kasumi that Tatsuya will come with them, at least for a while, they will keep trying to get out... if nothing soon I'm heading up there via the Japan Sea coast with a car full of gas and water... Tokyo is panicking to the north, I'm off into Osaka this am, on Tues there were 1/3 fewer commuter train passengers... seems folks are staying home and indoors... More from the big city when I get there...

+

Here's a picture of the girls in their kimonos in better times, a few years ago...

Kaya in the middle, Mitsuki on the left, Miasa on the right.

More asap...
The train is half full today... even emptier than two days ago... I've never seen this... I can't help but think it's because of the radiation threat, though it hasn't reached here yet, as far as I know... in any case, Japanese workers in the spirit of Bushido never take days off for earthquakes, hurricanes, blizzards etc. if they can get to work at all, even when severely ill, as long as they can walk... but radiation may be different; I can't think of any other reason why they might be collectively staying home in such numbers...

+

Came out this morning into the dawn from tsunami dreams to clean the snow off the car for the trip down the mountain and saw that the mountains around were rumpled up like an old blanket with the snow thick in its folds... how clear it was from this broad snowscape that the earth, the mountains and the Lake itself, to say nothing of the sea, have always been shaken, pushed, tossed, buried, uplifted, flooded and stretched, forested and burned, molten and broken into cliffs, ground into ground, smoothed out by winds and rains, seas and ice and torn again with tremors, that we as part if it all live here now in sufferance of the same perils... that we should never be too complacent... that farming and the like labors - the waiting, snow-covered paddies informed me - honor this reality, are matters of hope and gratitude... it's hard for individuals alone to nurture hubris, it's only when they mass into government and big industry, big finance, that the restraints of common morality fall away... the earth, the sea and the seasons are simply being true to their natures-- as we should be true to ours, and to our place in the world...

******

Just got word from Echo that Kasumi has emailed: "we're leaving the house at 5am [not sure whether that's tomorrow or today] to catch the 7:30 bus to Tokyo, then shinkansen..." Hope everything goes smooth...

Turns out that's today, and by around noon they made it to the shinkansen, which is FULL of kids being sent south... they should be in Kyoto soon. Will post a picture of them all when possible...

QUAKE UPDATES Day 5  ++++

Yesterday I emailed Kasumi saying since Tatsuya isn't working and the kids aren't in school why not come here and wait it out, make further decisions together, we have food backup etc. I can meet you somewhere with gasoline...

Kasumi family has only a half tank of gas, roads broken and crowded, so as it is, if they could find a navigable way out they'd run out of fuel in the vehicular jam before they could get far, so I offered to drive toward them with cans of gas from here... shops even around here, far south of Tokyo, are running out of essentials as folks anticipate... this am we’re going to make a run for some essential backups, though we’ve been ahead of the game for years now, using kerosene lanterns, woodstove etc.

Six reactors now problematic, say the reassuring heads.... not to worry, just don't go outside or breathe too much... pay no attention to the frantic activities behind the radioactive curtain... we were on lunch break... the plug didn’t fit... the generators ran out of gas... the reactor coolers ran on electricity and the reactors...um... weren’t generating electricity, how could we have foreseen that in all our tons of plans on paper, so we got some more generators... we have a big plan... we’ve always had a big plan... astonishing, when all is revealed...

Once again Japan is the world’s canary in the coal mine...

Cryptic txt note from Kasumi last night: “WE FOUND A POSSIBLE ROUTE”, apparently by bus? or train? to Tokyo, then Shinkansen to Kyoto... no details... emailed back, waiting...

Thank you all again for your emotional support... will keep you posted asap...

Love to all...

+

No looting, just keeping calm and carrying on: Ordinary Japanese try to get back to normality

Chernobyl clean-up expert slams Japan, IAEA

America on radiation alert: Japan faces world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as experts warn fallout may reach U.S.

"They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots." 

 +

Strong winds last night from north, not good; today colder with snow, gentle wind from southwest, good.

Got in touch with Kasumi later this morning, she said they're thinking about delaying the departure because one of the girls has a fever; Tatsuya thinking of not coming south because he has to be ready to go to work when the company notifies him. He doesn't think it's going to be too serious but the girls should leave just in case; it's a bus-local train-another local train kind of route they figured out might work, I can't picture that, carrying so little with them, Kasumi doesn't want to take the van and run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, doesn't trust the roads or access to needfuls along the way anyway, and how would I find them, me without a cell phone...(!) Tatsuya will go with them via their route to Tokyo and then return to their apartment at least till further decision, when he solo could move quickly...  I told her to argue with him, so I suppose she is... he could get back there quickly enough from here... six reactors now problematic, it appears, fewer and fewer reactor buildings left standing, in charge of The Faceless 50... 

Another 6.0 quake up there around noon today... 

Snowing hard now; have to go out and buy supplies...  more later, w/time and energy... 

+

Got back from our foray to find a message from Kasumi, she’s been trying but can’t get a place on any buses heading out, likely all booked up for quite a while... no surprise there... I have the feeling we’ll eventually have to go get her and the girls somehow...

Shoulda said 'have to go out and try to buy supplies'... At the various country shops things are sold out completely like flashlights,batteries, buckets, water containers, masks, gas bombes, cooking stoves, tarps, certain tools, the list goes on, but don’t bother, there aren’t any. Oh. My mistake; there was one tiny flashlight left, for 50$. Asked if the big farm store will be getting some of all the other stuff soon: “No telling when; they’re all being shipped north.”

We did get some stuff though, in case the electricity goes, like a big steel pot to put atop the woodstove for hot water... harks me back to the days of living in rural Spain with no utilities (where Kasumi was born; that picture in the sidebar is us in Spain, her at the age of 3 days and I somewhat older). 

This will be just like old times... only hold the radiation, please...

Lotta snow tonight; hope those good folks up north have at least found warm places in the dark...

 

QUAKE UPDATES Day 4 ++

I have been asked a number of times where folks can donate to help alleviate and overcome this disaster. So much is needed, of so many things. This link is to the best list I've seen of reputable organizations through and to which one can donate.        (big thanks to Kimberlye...)

+

No endless "talents" on tv! No ads! No sports! It's real tv, telling real words, with real emotion, about real events! Folks in Tokyo stocking up on radiation masks and bottled water, real food! Gasoline!

A beautiful girl about 12 years old, camera-lit in the dark of the crowded gym, forlorn and tearless, says: "I have no family... I have no home... I have no food... now I know how really happy I used to be..."

Kasumi and family are hanging in there through the aftershocks in their chaotic apartment, thinking the future over... electricity on and off but no water yet, the girls are making the best of it, fortunately K and they went camping last summer for the first time so they knew together what to take fast when the time came in the dark of the shaking apartment: light, water, warm clothing, dense foods... and Kasumi learned from her parents (that's us) to have a good backstock of food in the house... the shops that still exist ration sales in the dark, and are all emptied fast... a friend from a nearby town called Kasumi, desperate for gasoline, asked if there were any open gas stations near her house, but he finally gave up... one station with a line for miles... the owner was tiredly pumping out by hand what gasoline was left... no deliveries coming anytime soon... Tatsuya and so many others called by their companies, told not to come to work until notified... Toyota, Sony, Honda, Nissan, Panasonic also closing down for who knows how long due to absence of infrastructure-- no utilities, ports, roads, rails.. injured/missing/homeless employees... and who will rebuild there? A third reactor has exploded, rolling blackouts everywhere in the north, including Tokyo...

Some foreign journos are puzzled over the protracted absence of looting in Japan following the long quake, like they see everywhere else in the world in the wake of natural devastation-- Chile Haiti etc.... Where are all the looters in Japan they wonder, it’s been three days, where are they... fact is, those poor folks have never lived anywhere as deeply civilized as this country... yes, this level of civility can be achieved, but it may take a few millennia...

They just can't figure it out, though; there must be some reason-- they must want to loot, they must be like us, they'd loot if they could... No, it's because they have respect for one another right from the start, earthquake or no. And as to gangs? One of the most helpful groups at the local level in the ‘95 Kobe quake was the yakuza.

This morning on the way to work I passed several groups of young folks out on the streets with boxes for donations to help the earthquake needy... they were shouting "help the victims" and so forth, the open-topped boxed in their hands were filled to overflowing with bills and coins, and I am certain that not one yen of all that money will be filched, misdirected, or snatched by sly passersby-- it will all go where it is intended to go. That’s why there was so much in those boxes, why folks were so willing to give on the street to strangers: because they trust one another. Anything else would be unthinkable. That characteristic of the Japanese is their biggest asset in overcoming any difficulty, even devastation like this, the images of which at times remind me of the aftermath of Hiroshima. Look what these folks accomplished after that.

Millions homeless, cold night, snow falling up north...

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“Please do not go outside. Please stay indoors. Please close windows and make your homes airtight. Don't turn on ventilators. Please hang your laundry indoors,"

Better go cover my lettuce...

A bit of prelude...

QUAKE UPDATES Day 3  ++

Tough day yesterday...

Called Kasumi’s cell phone many times but battery likely out as seems to be a common problem with cell phones inundated with well-wishing inquiries that use up battery life... so on an off chance E called their apartment phone and there they were!

K and T had just arrived back home to look things over; the building was damaged externally but structurally ok as of the moment (T is an architect, so I trust his judgement), so they went in and began trying to clean up while the girls stayed back at the gym and played with friends... When the big loooooooong quake (first tremor 20 times longer than the Kobe quake of '95) hit on Fri afternoon K was home alone working on her jewelry when suddenly the building began rocking violently she stood in the room doorway for a bit but the shaking was getting worse, she figured she’d better get out, got the front door open went out as the shaking got worse, figured she shd head for school and the girls, but by then she couldn’t walk, the building was tossing her around, so she just stood there holding on to the railing... oddly, there was no one else in sight! In quake intervals she finally got down to the ground, took her bike to the school over the broken road, found kids milling around outside and inside, the teachers looking everywhere for the Earthquake Emergency Guide, she took the girls home, Miasa barefoot, lost her shoes in the gym, had to run back and find them amidst the tremors and screaming children everywhere, they finally got to their still shaking home, grabbed some blankets and pillows and slept in the car. Well, the girls slept. K said she couldn't sleep at all in the car... too worrying, too cold and earthquakes every 15 minutes,though it's a lot better now, only an earthquake an hour...

More soon...

Love to all for your kind messages and thoughts...

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After all I’ve seen, wherever I go around here, my eyes expect disaster... Words fail, the things we’re seeing and hearing 24/7... over 10,000 lost, injured and missing thus far, homes lost, whole villages, cities lost... only by chance and good fortune were Kasumi and family spared... the sorrow everywhere, people finding each other, losing each other, tales of helplessness at watching family members washed away perhaps never to be found... who can sleep? I want to go there with water and food and help... so many tales of courage... husband, wife and daughter washed away holding hands, swirled far away until, passing a stationary fragment of another house managed to clamber onto the roof of the car in the remains of the garage, stood there all night as the water roiled at their feet; father tiring, daughter took off her belt and looped it over an wooden beam of the garage so her parents could hook their arms through and hold on... an elderly man in the flooded house, hearing their panic in the darkness, kept yelling out all night “Ganbatte! Ganbatte! Ganbatte! Hang on! Hang in there! Don’t give up!” His cries weakening through the night... when in the morning they were saved by rescuers, the man in the house was found to have died.  

Other glimpses:
...he can’t even find the street where their house used to be... roofs full of people, rivers filled with houses, even the water is on fire... cars speed down narrow streets, the drivers fleeing fishing boats... village floats past its residents, watching from the hillside... all the paddies now sea marshes... everywhere smells of gasoline... boats on expressways, cars clustered like bacteria, no exit from the flooding bridge... waves full of roofs... was that a person? the center does not hold... only the sea is true... the sound of trucks, roofs, earth, walls, cars grinding together... it all... slows... to silence... then reverses faster, faster out to sea... Amid the aftershocks, elderly woman points to building in her garden, asks What is this? How did this get here? So many tales of strength... Tatsuya starting out from his workplace right after the first quake and walking the debris-washed beach road of the lightless night through the aftershocks, tsunami threats, mud and wreckage to get to his family 7 hours away... Husband and wife in their late 80s rescued from the wreckage of an old inn, he and she smiling, saying Let’s push on, let’s rebuild! They remembered the last tsunami and how they did so then... There’s the heart to it all...

And in the young couple holding hands in the distance, walking the lost road out of the remains, their lives in their backpacks...

More, soon as I can...

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Only once in 1000 years - quake magnitude 9.0

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Astonishing before-and-after photos of tsunami areas - slide black bar across photos...                    via Mary Contrary

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Can’t even send Kasumi packages by private delivery services...

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--"Partial Nuclear Meltdown 'No Disaster'" says the talking head... The awkwords of authorities trying to calm us down...

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 Rolling power outages start today in Kanto...