Quite right - and I suspect S&R efforts will continue well beyond this week. The damaged areas are extremely extensive, and there is a physical limit to how much searching they can do. Much of it is done by hand because they cannot put any heavy machinery in many areas. Many Japanese people are indeed in a state of shock and have not quite realised the true impact that will spread across the country in due course. However I have heard reports of supply shortages now starting to spread further west today, and that is only the beginning. People from Tokyo are now going shopping 100s of miles away because there are shortage of certain goods in Tokyo.

And that is precisely the problem of going there when they are in the crisis phase. They will try and help you and avoid making you feel uncomfortable, and mask their own sadness, concerns etc. That is not what we should "make them do".

Have you got water. Are the toilets working okay?

Thats the next problem and can cause health issues.

[QUOTE=HIDDY;16026886]I agree....go.

LTN Phobia can advise you better as she is in Tokyo just now.[/B]

LTN Phobia, glad that you are ok, didn't you that you were there. Thought you were moving houses.

Earthquacks are scary and the scarier part is that the after shocks are so unpredictable. Experienced lots of them in LA, but nothing of that magnitude. Somehow you stop trusting the earth. I always remember the utter silence just before the rumbles begin.

I'd reconsider. I was hoping (still hoping) to go there myself this year but I'll not be planning any last minute breaks in the near term. The whole place needs to calm down (especially in the tectonic sense) and they will need to stabilise energy supplies and food distribution. You'd be doing no one any favours by going to Japan any time soon.

I have, but I am in an 'undamaged' area (I'm now staying near NRT). In the affected areas, the loos aren't flushing because there is no running water (even in undamaged buildings), there is no gas, no electricity, and no heating in freezing temperatures, and they are running short of medicines. Despite all the efforts, I suspect a major humanitarian crisis occurring. Sanitation will become an issue, although being Japanese they will do what they can to keep themselves clean. They are distributing drinking water by tanks and food such as bread etc.
Also, there are just so many people who have been rendered homeless who all need better shelter than they have got now (a lot of them are staying in communal buildings such as school sport halls, village halls etc), not to mention rescuing whoever they can, and recovering the bodies of the deceased.

I have just been out to a supermarket near NRT to have a look at the situation and they had very little bottled drinks left, many shelves were empty, and they had no 'instant' food like pot noodles. And Narita wasn't really affected by the earthquake much, and it was not affected by the tsunami. So you can just about imagine the devastation of the areas that were affected.

Many shops were closed because their staff could not get to work due to transport disruptions. There was a big queue at a petrol station that had petrol to sell. So, the situations are not looking good at all, and I really think it will take a long time for them to recover, despite their extremely organised ways of doing things (and although they were really organised, the flow of information about transport disruptions fell apart due to the scale of the problems).

Thanks for updating us on the situation. The tv crews like to put ther own spin on it.

Try to stay safe.

Thanks. If anyone has any questions about the situations, I am more than happy to answer them.

In the meantime, I find the NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) news fairly fast and quite reliable, and reasonably balanced:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/index.html

They do focus on the worst affected areas, so it is difficult to find out what the situations in the rest of the country are like from the media.

I have just been talking to someone in the more western part of Japan and heard reports that people have started stockpiling things, resulting in some areas originally unaffected by the earthquakes having shortages of certain goods such as torches, emergency supplies etc, as they are concerned that the increase in seismic activities around Japan may well lead to a major earthquake in the Tokai area.

I have a trip to Tokyo coming up on 14 April. Hope things are back to normal by then.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people affected by this horrific disaster.

Thank you Yahillwe. I'm doing both :eek: (no, I'm not moving to Japan) - returning tomorrow to move house. I will probably come back to Japan very shortly to volunteer if I can make some arrangements to make sure I can actually help rather than hinder.

Echoing the sentiments of others, glad you're ok LTN Phobia. Looks like Mother Nature misinterpreted your plans on moving house literally!

Absolutely jaw dropping what's going on in Japan and my thoughts are with those in Japan- it's going to be decades before they can fully recover from this I suspect.

Thank you Stez. I should tell everyone that they should not be travelling when/where I am going. I have been a disruption magnet, unfortunately - so much so that I strongly believe that if my travel insurance hadn't been a group policy, I'd have been refused cover by now.

I was getting ready to move house, but kept my scheduled trips including one to Japan. It really caught me by surprise, as I had already been feeling a bit stressed about moving house when I set off on the trip. I was hoping for a few days of relaxation during my Japanese trip, but that was not meant to be. Although I did not find the actual 'shaking' part as stressful as many travellers as I have been in many earthquakes before, it was still disconcerting. I was talking to Australian and American ladies today and they seemed genuinely stressed about what they went through with the earthquake.

I think you are right. I certainly think it will not be matter of weeks but months, even just for the crisis phase to be over. The full scale of this tragedy and disaster hasn't been fully appreciated yet.

By the way, I hope you are safely home and not back in Libya?

Had a short break and will be going to the UAE this week for two months. Tempting fate I know...

Keeping my fingers crossed for you that the UAE will be peaceful. Don't worry, the trouble magnet LTN Phobia currently has no plans to visit the UAE.

Lady Phobia, If they need volunteers I am willing to go and even have a place to stay at, so won't be a hinderance. Meanwhile, if you are in London on the 7th of April, join us for drinks. And maybe we can have oysters after

Something to look forward to,Stez can't come, but maybe his plans might change. Who knows.


Mother nature is very powerful indeed. Saw a bit of reporting on tv while I was at the gym and was very glad that I don't watch tv, instead get my news through print media.

Thank you, and I'd love to join, but I'll be in LIS on 7th. I'll raise a toast to everyone from LIS - I'll be engaging in an alternative drinking sessions there.

Very powerful indeed. I do not normally watch television but felt compelled to share the pain somehow. It is such a terrible event, I don't have the words to describe it.