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

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!