::::::: y a n o s h ... in ... winterwonderland :::::::

not too much new things here today. i am fine and more relaxed, now that i have rearranged my schedule returning to europe on saturday/sunday directly from kansai airport (i.e., i don't have to go back to tokyo and narita airport - fortunately i made a clever decision when deciding to bring all my stuff to kyoto instead of leaving my big suitcase at the tokyo institute). western japan inclusive kyoto is doing well - life is largely as normal, except growing numbers of "refugees" from tokyo area filling the hotels. i will stay here and have hotel room until saturday and am optimistic that the situation remains here as is now.
the workshops i was here for are over now (or rather: the remaining parts have finally been canceled). basically i was supposed to return to tokyo today, but the people in tokyo institute were sane enough to allow me to stay in safer kyoto and leave to europe earlier than planned (not that they could really force me to return. but they could have caused quite some trouble to yasuko as the person responsible for me and my actions.). for the next two days, yasuko has organized an office at the university of kyoto from some former colleagues of her for us to work. so i hope, i can finally get some work done again. and now... bed. i need some sleep. the 8 hours time shift with europe is quite exhausting at the moments - all telephone calls with concerned people back in europe are done in the middle of my night... - but, no complaints. it feels good to hear from all of you!

today the events picked up pace and felt situation got rapidly worse. in the evening we met a french couple, friends of yasuko, at our hotel - just by chance. he is working at an agency or company at the french embassy. they were told to leave tokyo and moved to kyoto yesterday. they also reported that tokyo is largely a ghost town these days with shops being plainly empty. later came the information that the situation worsens at fukushima nuclear power plant, becoming very chaotic, removing most of the staff from there since radiation levels are getting high. eventually, when we arrived back to the hotel after dinner and i was sitting in front of the computer i felt some swaying. first i thought, yanosh, you have to go to sleep - you already feel shakings were none are. but yasuko felt the same. short time later the news in tv - earthquake with japanese strenght up to 6+ with center at shizuoka. that's quite close to kyoto compared to the previous ones. calmed me down when i recognized, it's at least still at the edge of the same tectonic plate as all the others. but still, it raises some fear again that this series of earthquakes might trigger the long awaited big tokai earthquake (statistically every 70 years. last one has been 1923 tokyo quake). not exactly comfortable (slight rush of panic)!

beside that, i got news from the travel agency - the airline handling my ticket allows rebookings related to japan issues for people traveling before March 31. but, rebooked flights need to be same booking class as originally booked - which in my case means, the flights would be operated by another airline which doesn't have any seats available before my original return date. great! also an offer for cancel/refund and new booking. but new booking still from tokyo, and that i would really like to avoid by now. (nevertheless big thanks to the travel agent for the efforts made during the last 2days!)

so i spend some time searching for flights from kansai airport myself. also contacting my boss for advise/support/confirmation (thanks!). eventually i now BOOKED FLIGHTS FOR SATURDAY from kansai via hongkong to frankfurt and from there via prague to stockholm, arriving sunday, March 20th, afternoon. so i hope, this will work out and situation in kyoto stays stable until then. it however feels very strange and uncomfortable to know that i will leave friends and colleagues behind, who can not just escape from here...

oh, and, yesterday i received an email from the university surveying (in support of swedish embassy, where i am not really sure they are or will feel responsible for me as german citizen) how many and who of university staff or students are currently in japan. i shortly reported on my being here and soon after received an answer "thanks for reporting. good you are fine. have a safe flight back.". what? what's that? today it got more... well, ridiculous? bold? today a mail came asking whether people affected by the disaster would be willing to answer questions to swedish media. that. and nothing else. no "how are you?", "can we support you?", no offer or advise or support. maybe i am overreacting, but i think these people really have nerves (while mine are currently quite a bit frayed)...

ps. thanks to everybody, who contacted me, for your support, advise, expressing your concerns and wishes!

sorry for no report yesterday - it was not because something bad happened to me, but i was plainly busy preparing my talk for the workshop.
in kyoto the situation is as before - business as usual. kyoto and the west of japan in general has not been affected by earthquake or tsunami or nuclear power plant problems. hard to judge whether production and product supply/distribution to western japan might be affected in future.
i was scheduled to return to tokyo tomorrow. a colleague from the tokyo institute has been here today to give his talk and reported that situation in tokyo is getting thougher - hardly any people at the institute and supply situation getting tight (that's the things - lack of drinking water, food, too a less extend also heating - i am afraid of more than the radioactivity), shops fairly empty. with this situation it doesn't make sense to go back since i will hardly be able to perform the work i was supposed to do (data processing machines largely shut down for the power outages and to save energy; unsure whether my collaborating colleagues will be available). therefore i decided to stay in kyoto at least until the end of the week like several other colleagues (they were actually supposed to participate in another workshop, for which i didn't got permission to go to by tokyo institute. the workshop has however been proposed (correction: postponed, off course), but people being here and with hotels booked still stay here.). i furthermore contacted my travel agency for rebooking and they are doing their best - it's waiting for updated info from the airline, which for the moment is only rebooking people on goodwill base that were scheduled to travel until March 15th (i.e, today). I do not actually see a good reason for that - if it's crisis here, it's crisis regardless of what return date my airplane ticket has. however, that's as it is at the moment. so i hope, some solution can be found until end of this/beginning of next week.

before eventually going to bed, a short summary on today.
i am fine, yasuko is fine, the student is better again (though probably not fine) and taken care of - she really panicked this morning, maybe traumatized and is in hospital now. furthermore, basically all people i know more closely here are well, even the ones from sendai. interestingly, the internet seems to work in most regions of the country. it's currently the best way to contact people.
in kyoto is basically business as usual. if you don't watch news, you wouldn't recognize here a catastrophy happened (and maybe still under way) in another part of the country.
several foreign attenders of the workshops arrived (mostly those from sweden. remarkable.), though another colleague was said to immediately have turned around taking next the flight back right after arriving to kansai (osaka) airport. information on the nuke plants is still contradictory - i have the feeling western media and governments are somewhat overexaggerating, while japanese authorities probably play the issues down. i have to admit, i currently like the latter best - doesn't help anybody when people start to panic. and it's anyway difficult, i believe, to get the people out of the areas around the nuke plants - they belong to the most devastated with roads and train tracks blocked or destroyed.
i will stay here for the moment. doesn't make sense to stress others for getting a flight out of here, i think. i will not die or get seriously injured here - even if nuke plant situation escalates. also, people living here can not just escape, so leaving would feel like betrayal to my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues here. as long as they recommend i stay, i will (i think. though subject to reconsideration when situation worsens).

as explained, before we decided to move to kyoto this afternoon/evening. by now, we arrived. shinkansen worked well. the areas of tokyo, i've seen looked pretty normal - if you had missed the quake and didn't listen to news, you wouldn't necessarily recognize. except for fairly empty bento-box and bottled water and green tea shelves. and, for my feeling comparably few people at all of the stations. people are extremely disciplined.
news about power plant are very ambiguous. japanese government at least claims that the explosion wasn't the reactor core and that now they pump seawater to the reactor to coll it down, i.e., maybe less horrible than sounds/sounded from several news channels. and, trying to think rationally - even at chernobyl the immediate effect didn't reach more then a couple of ten kilometers. mid- and longterm radiation is a different question, which is definitely a serious issue for people living here. but i will make it sooner or later out of here again alive and with, i am fairly confident, minor health damage.
apart from the power plant, one is trying to restart the "normal" life again - more and more trains are going again, most airports are said to be open again (though it seems most inbound flights from europe and the us have been cancelled), shops are open, ... at the institute in tokyo employees even came in today for their planned football match (even though for example one of them had walked home the night before from tokyo station in the east to one of the outskirts in the west, about 20-30km)!
what seems strange and over the top to me, however, is that the workshop i was supposed to go shall still be held. though basically no foreigners will make it to here. and though the offices and labs of jaxa in tsukuba (north of tokyo), one of the main organizers of the workshop, are strongly damaged (so i wonder, what sense does it make to order those people to kyoto in the west. they might have better things to care for now...).

ok, summary: i am in kyoto now and will likely be until wednesday. until then i hopefully see clearer, what to do then - whether to go back to tokyo and stay as planned, or try to get a flight out of here (at least i took all my stuff with me from tokyo. so i am prepared. but asked for advice, both my ex-boss and german embassy didn't suggest to immediately try to leave, but to stay calm and wait for further information), or stay in kyoto longer. for the moment things are ok here - i have a warm room, food seems to be available, water is running, i have internet and can work. also, most of the people i know here are alive and well taken the circumstances.