Japan - Page 6

Glad to see you are doing well, Clarita.

glad you're ok Clarita. keep us posted.
we were just talking to my brother in law in Tokyo, he seems to think they've got the nuclear plant under control.
i didn't hear anything about another tsunami warning, any updates on that?

Yay NZ only got about 40cm-1M tsunamis. Keeping my thoughts with Japan and everyone I know there. The death toll is so high

I haven't heard any more tsunami warnings - there was one here but it's over. As far as I can tell, the reactors are pretty critical but are under control.

The earthquakes stopped too (I heard that there were a bunch of aftershocks after the 9.0 one)?

No, there are still aftershocks.

I imagine there will continue to be aftershocks for the next week or two. I recall back in 1994 the Northridge earthquake here (which was "only" in the 6.6-6.8 range) continued to generate pretty strong aftershocks for about 1-2 weeks after the initial quake.

yeah my BIL posted on facebook about 6 hours ago that he got woken up by another aftershock
he's a little worried about the power plants and he and his gf are thinking about heading to Osaka, where some of their friends have gone to wait it out.

Yeah, there was one in Nagoya yesterday, fairly large I think, but we didn't feel it here.

There's a 70% chance of aftershocks of 7.0 or higher through tomorrow, I think. But there's still a high chance of them of all sizes through April, if I remember correctly.


Where does he live? From what I can tell, the power plants aren't as bad as they're being made out to be on international news. I mean, it's bad, but from what I can tell western news is saying "MELTDOWN blah blah run for your lives it's EXPLODING AS WE SPEAK nothing can be done YAHGHGHGHGH" when they're really working as fast as they can to cool them. The reactors are critical right now, but the information we're getting here seems to be that, as bad as they are, they are stabilizing them. Thankfully.

But I can definitely understand the impulse to get farther away. My friend lives about 150 miles from them, and she's a bit afraid as well, but she can't leave because she has to work (even though half her city's infrastructure is shut down...).

Hi! Im here in Otaru , near Sapporo. Is there any one in the house close this way whos vegan? thanks! jeff

I've heard that the Japanese are downplaying the nuclear radiation issue, while the international coverage is exaggerating it. From what I understand, it is a serious problem with further radiation exposure likely. Many of my contacts in the Yokosuka area are saying some people are beginning to panic & a number of people are leaving. I'm keeping a close eye on the situation since my family is due to move there in four months! It scares me now since I have two children to consider.

I think they are downplaying it a little, but that western media is really exaggerating. It's bad, but it's not hopeless. And I think right now downplaying it is good. People are panicked enough as it is. You don't want tons of people flipping out and trying to move around the country, clogging roads and buying up supplies when those roads could be used to transport those supplies to people who really need them. I think Japan is pretty careful, and if they truly are going to lose control of the situation I think they'll step up evacuations and such in a nice, orderly fashion, as they tend to do. :P

I'm sure you're right! Time will tell. In the meantime, I need to stop stressing about it.....

this is exactly what he's been telling us too, that international media are making it out to be way worse than it is, that the situation isn't good but that it is under control and we shouldn't worry. but he's a performer and nobody wants to go to a theatre show right now in the midst of all this death and destruction, so he has some time off until things calm down a little, and several of his friends and coworkers made their way to osaka so he decided to go as well just to be safe. his girlfriend works at the same theatre in the offices, she was back at work the day after the quake but there's only so much they can do, making sure equipment is still working and the building is still safe, etc, and then i imagine refunding tickets for shows over the next few days, rearranging schedules and show dates etc, but i guess she was able to get time off. they headed to osaka yesterday and posted on fb that they did arrive safely.

they live in tokyo, i forget the name of the area... it's long... somethingsomethingzawa lol and the theatre they work at is in Roppongi

All I have to say because I love Japan so much is to please donate to the groups that are trying to help over there. I suggest The redcross https://american.redcross.org/site/D...rm1&df_id=5052

There are other ways to help as well http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/03/11/...tims-in-japan/

I have friends I've made over there and I worry about them everyday so I'll be doing my part. I hope a lot of people will too.

God bless those poor, resilient people. My heart and prayers go out to them. BTW, I have already donated to the Red Cross. I hope everyone else gives what they can. Every little bit helps.

Laura

yay my BIL is coming home. hopefully this week some time. his show is postponed for a couple weeks, hopefully things will have settled down a bit more by the time he goes back.

there was another 6.5 earthquake the other day and they issued a tsunami warning which was cancelled not long after. better safe than sorry ne? but had us all in a panic once again until we finally got hold of him and made sure it was all ok. the news is slow to get here, by the time we heard about it the warning was already cancelled. he didn't even feel the quake this time. must be getting used to them

Looking forward to heading to Okinawa at the beginning of next year. Should be a nice couple years living on a tropical island, and rediscovering what the sun is, England's sun is very shy indeed. I don't think any of you guys are on the Ryuk islands, but if you do maybe we will see each other.

hey all, haven't posted in ages ^__^;
so my brother in law and his girlfriend are coming for christmas i'm wondering, if i were to ask him to bring me some japanese goodies, if anyone can recommend some vegan stuff for me to ask for. he's not so good with the vegan thing or the reading ingredients thing, or the reading kanji thing lol so it's easiest if i have a specific item to ask for. but i don't know of any. one thing i really want is some mocchi but i don't know what kinds are good, which ones have gelatin and which don't, etc. i tried a green tea one once that was fine and then when i looked for some at an asian confectionary shop the only type they had listed gelatin in the ingredients.

i guess nobody posts in here anymore they brought me some mochi, just plain mochi, so i have to figure out what to do with it. i meant to ask for daifuku, silly me. looks like the best and easiest thing is to just toast it in the toaster oven or on the stove, and i don't know if i can find the sauces i usually see recommended for dipping when i search it online, so it'll probably just be soysauce or something. gonna try it at my mom's tomorrow though. when i mentioned daifuku when we were chatting here over the holidays Yuki said they tend to have a short shelf life so they wouldn't have travelled well anyways so i'm better off this way. i did want something sweet though, oh well.

the best news ever... my brother in law proposed to her on xmas eve! and now the whole family gets to go to Japan for a traditional shinto wedding! *dies* it'll probably be this fall, shinto ceremonies i guess are always spring or fall and seems like they don't want to wait for next spring and this spring would be too soon to make plans. hopefully it will be enough time for us to save up the money. hubby and i think we've got the airfare covered for the two of us between an award he's getting at university and our income tax return that we'll get in the spring.. so we just need money for hotel food and shopping.. lots and lots of shopping. oh and a wedding gift, and kimono to wear to the ceremony most likely *squeeeee*

anyway i'm just researching vegan restaurants and i'm surprised at how many there are! i found a site to order a guide for vegan travellers to tokyo but i'm finding enough info on my own that i can save the money and just compile my own guide :P but if any of you have any recommendations please post them. the ceremony will likely be in Nikko but we will be spending a fair bit of time in Tokyo as well. there's quite a list of restaurants and cafes on happy cow for Tokyo, only 3 in Nikko that are veg-friendly and they have very limited seating, so it might be tough there.. i think the most important thing is to learn how to ask for specific items, or how to leave off specific items, so i can just eat anywhere, since i'm the only veg in the family anyways. i can get away with a couple meals at veg places probably but i'll have to make do with wherever the rest of the group wants to go ^_^;
i have been studying the language for some time now (though it's slow going since i'm not disciplined enough to get at it every day like i should... i'm making more of an effort now that i know we're actually going in the near future) so hopefully i can get to that point before we go, and be able to read ingredients as well so i can buy snacks etc

so excited

>> I've heard that the Japanese are downplaying the nuclear radiation issue, while the international coverage is exaggerating it. From what I understand, it is a serious problem with further radiation exposure likely.

anything that don't make you dead immediately is good to downplay because this can help people avoid panic ?
e.g. cigarette smoking.

>> exaggerating

if no body can be very sure for something, it is again hard to prove they are exaggerating.

i hate exaggerating really.

http://www.facebook.com/nuclearfree
http://www.facebook.com/nukefree

been a while since I updated, the wedding will be July 2013. it will be hot as sin. but we have 2 teachers and a student in ourhousehold so they went for July so it's easier for them to get the time off. they were just here visiting for 2 weeks. the show my brother in law was in in Tokyo is closed now, he's going to Europe for 4 months and then they're moving to Canada we'll get to see them much more often so that's exciting. and her parents want to come over and visit and meet her future inlaws and stuff, probably this fall. they don't speak much english so it will be interesting. but it will be good that we'll have met them before going over for the wedding, should make things a little less awkward

here's something that might be helpful to veg*ns living or visiting in Japan. cuecards for food restrictions that you can show servers. yay ^^

 

http://www.justhungry.com/japan-dining-out-cards