I’m taking refuge in Seoul right now with my girlfriend, who is Korean. The first day here I resolved to avoid Japan-related news, a policy which ended up carrying over to the second day. After the post-quake stress, it was necessary to unwind—and I mean this in an almost literal way. An hour or so after the earthquake hit, as the gravity of the situation became apparent, adrenaline took over and did not let up for days. Living in this state twisted my thoughts and crippled my decision making. Booking this flight out put me at ease, but even then I couldn’t believe what I was doing, I almost talked myself out of it. There is something exciting about this time, when the city becomes a wild place. The aftershocks were not reason enough to leave, but the situation in Fukushima really poked a hole in the quasi-romantic, urban camping fantasy of holing up in one’s apartment with food and batteries.
The problem with the situation in Fukushima is that the quality of information is so poor. It’s hard to trust what TEPCO and the government is saying, but it’s equally hard to believe that someone in Washington really knows what’s going on either. It’s incredible that even with the full attention of the world’s media on a tiny area, we are still in the realm of speculation. Cameron Allan McKean is writing as clearly as possible about this experience. He’s around Osaka right now, having left Tokyo a few days ago.
Cameron said this as well, but what we really want is to go back to Tokyo. After the mental break of the first two days in Seoul, we’re starting to live in reality again: reading the news, thinking about Tokyo, talking about when we might be able to return. Although we’ve unwound from the stress of the earthquake, we’re not at all back to normal. It’s my sneaking feeling that things may be the same for Tokyo.
The photo is from Tokyo’s Yushima Station, at about 7pm, a few hours after the earthquake.
I don’t think things ever got bad enough to leave Japan, though I’ll admit by Saturday evening I was acutely worried and that carried over into Sunday.
Like you, I’m about the same distance from Fukishima only I’m in the direction off the prevailing wind. By Tuesday the enormity of the disaster was quite plain to see but the nuclear problem was only a small part off it.
Now, I feel the Japanese got it right, tight concise reporting, issuing the facts and not trying to alarm people (we could argue all day if Japanese media ever does report the fact’s or significantly holds back the facts…) The western media was quite alarmist and in some way’s sensationalistic. This I think scared a lot off gaijin’s in Japan especially when it did not tally with the Japanese media reports.
I’m still in Japan, my friends are still in Tokyo/Yokohama. Fukushima is not good but not so bad either.