The continuing (worsening) drama at Fukushima Daiichi Power Station have caused the Australian Foreign Minister to announce that all non-essential Australians should evacuate from Tokyo and the 8 affected prefectures. Embasssy staff have been told they may leave Japan if they wish. Things are continuing to spiral down... meanwhile the actual radiation levels observed in Tokyo are currently very low, and whilst there's ever present concern the brave Tokyoites are being strong and resilient.
I've included a Japanese-language stream from NHK below from UStream.
Stream videos at Ustream
We've now about 4 days to decide how to proceed with our trip to Japan. The biggest problem is that whilst Sapporo is quite safe now, transport is still currently passing through Tokyo.
my missus just cancelled her trip planned for next friday to tokyo with our two kids. it was a difficult decision for her but she finally decided that she should wait a little before taking a 6 month old and a 5 year old to tokyo. her main concern was the power outages. there was also an element of trying to weigh up what to believe between the sensationalised western media and the probable underplaying of the japanese authorities.
ReplyDeleteI can understand the frustration (on both sides) - whether to go, or not to go. In our case, we're travelling to Sapporo (via Tokyo), but are due to come back to Tokyo for my brother-in-laws wedding in the second week of April.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for my wife to think about these things without feeling too many emotions. At the end of the day, she wants to go home to her parents.
As for the power outages - they were warning of massive power outages this evening in Tokyo (that doesn't seem to have happened yet however... thankfully). Even without the nuclear fallout, the power outages are pretty scary when it seems they can't really control them.
I do think however, that Tokyo itself seems quite calm now. It's hard to know what to think.