Samstag, 12. März 2011
arrived in kyoto
yanosh, 18:59h
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.
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.
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