Posted by Jess
31 Mar 2011

Aftershocks happen really frequently here these days but its hard to feel most of them in Tokyo.  As you know from previous posts, Japan is pretty earthquake happy in a normal state - somewhere in the country, probably every day, there's a small quake.

After the earthquake on March 11th though, things really started rocking.  It seems like the north of Japan is just constantly getting hit - both on the fault line from the big one, and then on the opposite side of the island as well.  The Japanese Meteorological Agency reports (just like the US Geological Survey does) all the earthquakes.  When I feel something here, I go check out what's happening on the website to see what I felt.   Many times in the past I'd look out there and see nothing - something in my equilibrium made me think there was an earthquake when there wasn't.  So strange.

I've also downloaded an iPhone app called "QuakeWatch" that reports the same information.  So last night at dinner I was able to scope things out after we felt an aftershock.  That one was a 6.1 and I'm not sure if it was because we'd had a few, but we barely felt it.  One guy was walking around when it came and he didn't feel it at all.  And that's kind of how it is - you really only notice them if you're sitting quietly or have a glass of water nearby.  The epicenters are usually still 150-200 miles away and even when they are closer, the shaking is not as drastic as I might have pictured it to be before coming here.  Although Jason's view might be different I'm sure after having been through such a strong quake!

Wednesday was pretty active for aftershocks, mostly in the 4-5.5 range.  The all-knowing iPhone tells me there were 14, not counting other random ones that were not aftershocks of the March 11th quake.  There was one 6.0 in the middle of the day, but I didn't feel it - I was in a meeting during that time so I must have been busy talking or concentrating on the work at hand and didn't even notice it.   But a 5.3 tonight and I felt it because I was just sitting here at the computer watching Glee.

I guess I'm sharing this because when I tweet or facebook that we had an aftershock and it was a 6.0, I remember how dreadful that would have sounded to me a few months ago.  But these are still pretty far away from Tokyo and we're built to withstand things like this (the tsunami was a MUCH bigger cause of damage and death than the earthquake was) so I want to say - don't worry!

Coming soon - a blogpost about something non-earthquake related - yay!  Stay tuned...

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
30 Mar 2011

A little bit more on energy conservation efforts here to help delay power outages to the Tokyo area and to save electricity for when the summer comes and we all want to turn the air conditioning on:

My office is in a 9 story building.  My company occupies 3 floors of the building and there are various other tenants on the other floors.  In order to reduce electricity usage, the building is doing the following:

• two of the six elevators will be out of service
• we have one escalator betweens floors 1 and 2 - it will not be running
• the tv monitors next to the elevator bank on each floor will be turned off
• only half of the lighting will be on in the common areas
• temperature will be set differently to use less power

Our office added on to this message with the following tips (which is all things we should be doing anyway!):

• turn off the lights, projectors, a/c for all offices and conference rooms when leaving them
• turn off monitor power at night
• the a/c and lights were set to come on at a certain time, but now people will need to turn them on when they arrive
• turn off all lights in your area if you are the last one to leave
• temperature will also be set differently to use less power

Other things I've noticed around town -

• the convenience store in our building only has half its lights on 
• the big tv screens that usually run ads at my train station are off
• stations have some escalators running, but some are shut down
• the big billboards near our apartment are turned off

So while most people are making a concentrated effort (as am I - how much light does 1 little person really need anyway?) some people still surprise me.  Some people come into the office and switch on the light when it seems like the sunlight is more than enough to work by...but to each his own!

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
29 Mar 2011

We are on the email list for the U.S. Embassy in Japan and have been getting messages regularly from the embassy on the situation here and what we should be doing.  This was a recent message:

U.S. Embassy Warden Message to U.S. Citizens: March 26, 2011



Availability of Potassium Iodide Tablets


As a precautionary measure, the U.S. Embassy is continuing to make potassium iodide (KI) tablets available to private U.S. citizens who have not been able to obtain it from their physician, employer, or other sources. We do not a recommend that anyone should take KI at this time. There are risks associated with taking KI. It should only be taken on the advice of emergency management officials, public health officials or your doctor. For more information about KI, see this fact sheet from the Centers for Disease Control, http://emergency.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp, or contact your doctor.

At this time, the tablets are available ...with instructions. Allotments of KI tablets will be provided only upon presentation of a valid U.S. passport. U.S. citizens may obtain an allotment for each family member’s valid U.S. passport presented....An allotment of tablets will also be made available to a U.S. citizen for his/her non-citizen immediate family members upon presentation of satisfactory evidence of the relationship.

...


Safety of Tap Water


The United States Government advises American citizens that, in accordance with guidelines that apply to water in the United States and based on analysis of tap water samples for radioactive iodine on March 24, 2011, the water in Tokyo is safe for drinking. U.S. Government officials are consulting with health experts and radiation experts, in both the United States and Japan, and are continuously monitoring the situation. If more information becomes available, we will share it with you on the Embassy Web site.

And so today I skipped out of work for an hour to head to the embassy to pick up my KI tablets.  For the record, I don't anticipate ever having to take it.  But if there is ever an email that comes that says "if you have potassium iodide, now's the time to take it" I wouldn't want to be the one who said, "oh shoot, I knew I forgot to do something!"  

The embassy experience was interesting, since we haven't been to the embassy before for anything official.  When I entered, I was screened like at the airport.  I had to take out my phone and camera, which was funny, because I was actually carrying 3 phones.  The security guard laughed at me.  Then after it was scanned, it went into a basket and I was giving a number so I could pick them up later.  I get it - no pictures at the embassy.  

The process was simple.  There was a tent set up, I signed a form, they scanned my passport and gave me the pills.   And I can take pictures at home.  So this is what the tablets look like, if you're curious.  There are 7 tablets here, each compartment in the package is about the size of a dime.  


They are attached to a fact sheet.  The tablets each work for 24 hours, so this is 7 days worth.  Potassium iodide does not stop you from getting iodine radiation in your body, but it helps protect the thyroid gland from taking up the poisonous iodine if you are exposed.  It doesn't protect against cesium or plutonium - the other two radioactive substances of concern here right now. 

So that's the story of the KI tablets.  And I'm sure I'll never have a blog post that talks about the day I took them, but just in case...

Kanpai!
Jess 

Posted by Jess
28 March 2011

I arrived back in Japan yesterday.  Things so far do not seem much different than when we left two weeks ago.  I spoke to one of the front desk staff at our apartment and she told me that our complex is pretty empty yet but that people are starting to come back very slowly.  The common areas of our building is still dimly lit in order to conserve electricity, which reminds me to lean over and turn off the kitchen light while I write this.  The front desk informed of two very important things - 1st, power outages/rolling blackouts have not impacted our ward yet, but they are not sure when/if it could so we should be ready and 2nd, there is bottled water available for sale from them.

After unpacking some things and starting to put the apartment back together (we had new carpet installed while we were away), I checked the news for the latest on food and water situations and headed to the grocery store.  Many of you saw Jason's pictures from 2 weeks ago when he went to buy bottled water.  I can say that it doesn't look much better now and the other shelves are pretty empty as well.  Produce was readily available though.  However since I can't read any of the signs, I don't know where its coming from so I'm not sure I want to buy it.  I don't think the store would sell anything from the Fukushima area and I've never really worried about where it came from before, but when the government says "don't eat these 11 types of vegetables" I guess I'm just not going to buy it.  

In the beverage section there were signs on the water shelves.  I believe the signs said that there was a limit of how much you could buy (2 x 2L bottles at a time?) but I think that's a little funny because there were no bottles to be had.  The 2L tea and soda section was empty as well, which as a diet pepsi/coke addict makes me a little nervous.  But hey, there's millions of vending machines in this town so I'm sure I can find some.    I took a few pictures with the iPhone - sorry for the quality, but it was also a little strange to stand in the store and take pictures of empty shelves!  I bought a 2L of water from the front desk when I returned home.


The dairy section was also very empty as you can see here.  I was able to get some milk and eggs, but there were signs on the milk and yogurt as well which again I think limited you to two per customer. 


The meat and fish sections I didn't look at too closely, but you could see that there were some empty spots on the shelves.  I'm not sure if this is a supply shortage issue since they are not bringing in food from 2 prefectures or if there is a supply route issue as trucks work to get into the city.  I think its the first reason, but I'm not sure.  I also took a look at the ramen/instant noodle section.  People are definitely storing these up at home in case of emergency and I believe I can buy them at the front desk as well.  It doesn't seem that prices are much more expensive than they were before, but its hard to tell as Jason did most of our grocery shopping before.  I had heard in the past that there are laws about price gouging in Japan as well so I wonder if that's helping to keep prices down as well.


Our apartment building also has a board in the front that they've put up to tell the status of various forms of transportation every day. 


On our entrance doors is also a sign saying that Japan is in a State of Emergency and that the building will be doing their part and they ask us to do the same.


The signs says a few different things.

• If we have blackouts, the water will not work (electricity works the pump) so keep the bathtub filled so that you can manually flush toilets and have water for washing if you need it.  
• Save electricity - limit washer/dryer use, heat/air conditioning, dishwashers, lights
• Keep batteries handy for radios so that you can keep informed during power outages and keep a flashlight handy too.  
• Don't lock security latches on outside doors or bathroom/bedroom doors inside the apartment
• Guest services will be at a reduced service level for a bit (house keeping, garbage pick-up, dry cleaning, etc)
• Don't monopolize internet bandwidth by streaming tv/radio
• No candles.  Candles are great for no electricity, not so great for aftershocks since candles sliding off the tables starts fires.

I'm going to go up and fill up the tub just in case.  I've kept the heat off in the girls rooms and closed their doors and have just one small light on in the living room.  I also have the iPhone upstairs as my alarm to be sure I have one in case our alarm clock gets power cut off in the morning hours.  Plus I need music to sleep in this empty house. 

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
27 Mar 2011

Sadly, our Hawaiian vacation ended this weekend.  The trip was great and I'm sure we'll have a few posts to show what we were up to during our 2 weeks on O'ahu. 

As the time away went on, questions kept coming up on what we'd do at the end of vacation - return to Tokyo?  Home to Minnesota?  Somewhere else altogether for a while?  We put off the decision as long as possible but I can say that it was on Jason and my mind every day last week.  The news wasn't any help.  One day things at the power plant were looking better, aftershocks subsiding, train service and food delivery back up and running in the city.  The next day more radiation concerns (no tap water for Abby?), grocery store shortages and a few 6.0+ aftershocks. 

While we were gone my company had allowed people to move to Osaka - a city about 3 hours south of here that was not having any issues as a result of the quake.  The company would pay living expenses and employees could work from our offices there.  People who stayed in Tokyo worked flex hours, taking care of their children and families as needed since many schools were still closed and power outages were uncertain.  As of Wednesday, it was back to business as usual for the company - everyone back in our Tokyo offices and normal hours (note this was after one of those good days I mentioned above).  When that email came, I knew that I would have to be back at work on Monday.  So the only decision left was what Jason and the girls would do. 

School emailed Friday to let us know that they would be open again on Monday (last week was Spring Break) but that instead of being in the 4th floor classroom, they would move to a smaller classroom on the 1st floor that was not being used.  This would make it easier if they had to evacuate due to aftershocks and it was next to the parish office so there would be help for the teachers easily if needed to.  Knowing school was reopening was a good sign, moving to the first floor, not such a good sign - more mixed signals.

Most of our network in Japan went back to the US or left Japan during the last 2 weeks so getting an idea of what things were like there was tough.  Trying to make decisions off of information on CNN is not easy.  I spoke to my manager on Friday and he let me know that his wife and 9 month old daughter would be staying in the US indefinitely and that he would be in the office on Monday.  Another coworker was working at our offices in Singapore these past few weeks and let me know their family going to stay there one more week and re-evaluating after that, but that he didn't know if the family would come back at all (he is set to transfer to Singapore this summer).

So based off of all of that information and what you've all read in the news, what would you do?  As of Friday night Jason and I went to bed thinking we'd head back to Japan, try to get an idea of what was happening here and then if we needed to leave again, we would.  But knowing that the situation hasn't changed much in two weeks didn't give us a lot of faith that much was going to change in the coming weeks or months.  I think that's why we kept pushing aside the thoughts that the girls shouldn't come back here.  In our hearts we knew it was what we should do, but when it could be up to 4 months apart its pretty hard to pull the trigger.

Our flight on Saturday morning from Honolulu was scheduled for 9:30am.  After getting up at 6 and getting ready to go, I think we just knew that what we had to do.  No new news prompted the decision, but when it came to putting the girls on an airplane and taking them someplace where we didn't know if they'd be safe, we couldn't do it.  And so the chaos began: calling the airline to change flights, rental car to let them know we'd return it at a different time and repacking suitcases to make sure Jason had some clothes go home with him (which I'm still not sure that worked).  My parents and sister were on a 8pm flight from Honolulu to LAX to MSP to Green Bay, so we booked Jason, Abby and Ella on the same flights to Minneapolis and let his mom know that they'd be arriving on Sunday.  Oh and that they all only had beach gear - no winter coats, no long sleeves, Ella didn't even have full length pants - only capris. 

Jason and I drove to the airport in tears.  You all know that I travel a lot for work, so time apart isn't a big deal for us.  I think the part that bothers us this time is that we have no idea when we'll be back together.  I guess in my mind I'm thinking a month, maybe?  I'm hoping they can be back before a trip we have planned at the end of April.  And then my heart breaks because if that's true I won't see them for a month and that's unbearable to me.  But ultimately 1 month apart for never having to wonder if they'll get cancer some day because of my job in Japan?  What can we do?  All we can do is send them where we think things will be safer for them, even though I'm devastated.

It's weird to come home from a trip for me and walk into an empty apartment.  I'm used to big running hugs and yells of "momma's home!"  Even after work, I get greetings at the door that make any bad day better.  I'll sure miss those for a while.  I couldn't get the computer booted up fast enough when I came home to turn on music and get some noise in here.

I hope that the coming days bring good news and this separation is short.  And I hope Ella and Abby are good for their dad (who has help that we're very grateful for!). 

More to come about how things are going here.  I'm headed to the grocery store in a few minutes which should be an adventure.

Kanpai,
Jess

Posted by Jess
21 March 2011

I wish my 100th post would be more exciting, but I just wanted to take a quick minute to let everyone know that the Vernal Equinox is a National Holiday in Japan.  Don't you wish that you had the first day of Spring off as a holiday?  While we're not in Japan today (it's Spring Break!), we will celebrate the day with some grilling out here on our vacation.  Here are a few quick snapshots of what we've been doing the past few days....


playing in the water at Waikiki beach

checking out the animals at the zoo

practicing our swimming in the hotel pool

celebrating St. Patrick's Day

taking in beautiful views

enjoying time as a family

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
14/15 March 2011

As most of you know by now, Jason and I made a few big decisions on Monday, the 14th.  Let me fill you in on what happened from Sunday to Monday to change our direction and lead us to leaving Japan.

On Sunday, life seemed pretty normal.  The story of the nuclear reactors indicated that things were starting to stabilize and although they were widening the evacuation radius little by little, the Fukushima plant is so far from us that we were not concerned.  Aftershocks were frequent but small.  Only one opened the lighter drawers in our house, the rest were similar to the types of earthquakes we feel about once a month in the normal course of business.  I spoke to my boss and we decided that unless things changed in the next 24 hours, we'd still leave for China on Monday night and return on Thursday.  I was also told that the office would be open on Monday but it was up to each individual to decide where they needed to be that day.  It seemed like a beautiful day; People were out and about and the sun was shining.  Our favorite park was closed, but we walked to the ATM and gave money to the Lions Club members out to collect for disaster relief. 

School emailed on Sunday and said that initial inspections had passed and school would be in session on Monday.  We were to be sure Ella had emergency contact information attached to her backpack so in the case of an aftershock or power outage, someone could be contacted.  We were asked to respond to let school know if Ella would be attending and reply all (there's only 10 kids in the school) to make sure everyone knew what was going on.  We received one or two responses from parents saying there were heading to Singapore through Spring Break (Mar 21-Mar 25) and their children wouldn't be in school  Then a couple of  hours later we received an email that said International Schools would be closed on Monday and so would Ella's.  Throughout Sunday afternoon and evening there were public loudspeaker announcements telling us to conserve as much electricity as possible and we lit the house by candles that night.  The only appliance we kept on was the laptop - everything else was turned off or unplugged as we tried to do our part.  Ironically we noticed that there were still large neon billboards on in our area.  Someone was asleep at the wheel on those. 
Still thinking that people were overreacting a bit to the nuclear radiation danger to the Tokyo area, I headed to work on Monday.  We were told that if we wanted to go to a different regional office (like Singapore or Seoul) or send our families home, the company would help us to do that but it was our choice.  Jason and I, as of Monday morning, were still planning on me going to China and us leaving for Hawaii on Friday.  Then I got to work.  Once there I heard more stories of Friday and what it was like to be at the office during the quake.  A very level-headed coworker told me that he was taking his family to Singapore for the week.  I read a news report from the Japan Meteorological Agency that said there was a 70% chance of a large aftershock by Wednesday morning and a 50% chance by Saturday.  Large = 7.0 or more and another possible tsunami.  Oh and the 300 or so aftershocks that had already happened were steadily moving south on the fault line towards Tokyo.  I really hope they are wrong.   At the same time, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) started issuing notices that as of Monday, they would start doing rolling blackouts for periods of 3 hours at a time across central Japan.  It did not appear at that time that our apartment or the office was included.  And again, people came into the office and turned on all the light switches as they do every other day even though the sun was shining and the lights were unnecessary.  Seriously? 

I kept Jason up to date as I found out new information on Monday morning and with all the news, we started to think about our options.  It was a hard decision and we waffled a bit.  I really did because I wasn't there on Friday so I really don't have much perspective on all that happened and what might be coming next.  To investigate our options, I called Delta to ask about moving up our Hawaii flight.  Bravo Delta for allowing people to change flights to/from Japan without change fees.  I started drafting an email to my boss telling him that we weren't sure what we wanted to do and then called Jason.  As I was telling him about our options a large aftershock came.  We waited for a minute thinking it would pass and as it went on, we hung up, he corralled the girls and I closed my desk drawers.  I called him back and he said "let's go".  At the same time my boss sent me a note saying "that last one sealed the deal, no Shanghai".  And I called him and said we'd like to leave, we're headed out tonight and I'll work from Hawaii this week.  All he said was "you should go."

And so within an hour we changed our flights, booked a car to the airport, booked a hotel room, cancelled the Shanghai trip, rearranged schedules, called family to let them know our change of plans and I headed home.  Luckily we had packed nearly everything before Monday since I was going to be gone most of the week.  We made the decision at 11am and by 2pm we were in a car to the airport.  While waiting for our flight, we felt a few small aftershocks but nothing too big.  Our flight took off on time and in 6 hours we had landed on Oahu where for now, we are safe.  I know that we are still in a risky place for a tsunami but moving up our already scheduled plans was the easiest way to get out fast and we knew that if we went to Seoul or Singapore, we'd have to fly back through Tokyo on Friday to get to Hawaii.  Plus, this flight change had no cost associated with it. 

Today in Hawaii we've been watching the news and hearing about the deteriorating situation at the Fukushima power plant and I learned that everyone in the office was sent home early because the planned blackouts would impact our offices after all.  Even some who decided to stay on Monday are rethinking today as the situation seems to be getting worse, there was another explosion at the plant, another reactor exposed and the winds have shifted a bit from headed out to sea to inland.  For now we'll stay here and continue to monitor what's going on through news sources as best we can and hopefully head back home at the end of our vacation as we originally planned.

We are grateful to be safe and away from home.  While Ella sees the news and understands some of what's happening, I wonder if she'll only remember that after the earthquake, we had a big vacation at the beach! and nothing more.  Today she saw an escalator that wasn't working and she said "I wonder if it broke during the big earthquake".  I can't imagine the stories she will tell my parents and sister when we meet them later this week but I don't know how much she will retain or how much she should.  I know that Jason and I will never forget the news updates.  9,000 missing in one town.  2,000 bodies found on shore.  17 US Navy tested positive for radiation.  One hour of exposure near the plant today = 3 years of radiation in your body.  Its unclear what the totals will be when all is said and done and its hard to know where the numbers are coming from that are reported in the news.  Last night while watching again the footage of the tsunami I noticed a man walking in the foreground of the shot. The water is coming behind him, taking down houses and he's just walking, not running, as if he knows that all hope is lost.  The camera cuts out before the water gets to him, but that hasn't stopped my mind from fast forwarding to how that story ended.  Heartbreaking,  haunting images. The Japanese man next to me in front of the airport monitors yesterday started to sniffle and tear up. I do that about 15 times a day.  I'm doing it now as I write this. 

We received word on Monday that our employees (54 of them) in the Sendai region were safe and accounted for and many were using the company branch office as shelter with their families.  The office had running water and electricity and had somehow managed to get a small food supply.  But the people had nothing else - no blankets, no clothes, no gasoline if they still had cars and not enough food to sustain them for any length of time.  The company was working to get them more supplies as soon as possible.  Sadly, they were lucky to have as much as they did at their shelter.  450,000 people are currently living in shelters -that's a lot of emergency food and medical supplies to get out without all the roads, trains and bridges.  People are sitting out overnight to buy groceries and cars are lined up by the hundreds for gasoline. 

We hope you'll consider donating to the Red Cross for disaster relief.  Check to see if your company will match the donation.  You can direct your donation directly to the Japan disaster and it is tax deductible.  Even if its only $10, don't think "what could that do?"  Every little bit helps and these groups are far more efficient at spending those $10 than you or I. 

http://www.redcross.org/

Kanpai,
Jess
 

Posted by Jess
14 March 2011

Hello again everyone.  I thought I'd give a brief recount of my earthquake story - mostly so that at the end of this year when we print the blog for our own scrapbook, we remember all the details.  Although I'm assuming this is a weekend we'll never forget. 

I was in Texas from the 5th to the 11th for training, scheduled to leave on the 11th in the morning from San Antonio to Detroit to Tokyo-Narita, arriving 5pm on Saturday the 12th.  My flight from San Antonio was at 7:20am so after dinner and shopping with a few colleagues I headed back to the hotel for a final pack-up and some sleep.  I asked for a 5:15 wake-up call and a 5:45 taxi, watched some reality TV and went to sleep.  I awoke at 5:15 and immediately started getting ready for the day.  As I was leaving the room with two very full suitcases I picked up my phone and saw text messages from Jason.  "Huge quake here, we are all ok, buildings emptied out".   As I was not quite coherent and had not seen any news, I wrote back and said "ok, girls wake up?"  I have to say that we have had a few earthquakes here so I guess I just thought 'no big deal'.  Then I checked my email and saw that Jason had written a message to me and our family to let them know they were ok and he shared a few more details.  Still doing fine - realized it was bigger, but not really getting it yet.  And it was 5:30 in the morning. 

I went down to check out and checked more of my inbox while the woman at the hotel worked out my bill.  This is when reality started to hit me.  I had an email from work asking me to report our status on the emergency system.  Then the woman behind the counter printed my bill, saw the address and said "you live in Japan?  oh goodness".  And then the tears started.  Oh my.  My mind started to go crazy with all the things to do so knowing very little about what actually happened, I started figuring out alternate ways to get home and who I needed to call.  First call was to my parents - knowing that they would wake up and turn on CNN, I wanted to pre-empt any panic attacks.  So I called and I cried to them about how everyone was ok but that I didn't know how I'd get home and was so mad that I wasn't there when it happened.  My taxi didn't arrive either so that didn't help with my situation as I was thinking I wouldn't even make it to Detroit on time. 

Next call was to Delta.  Can I get a flight to Minneapolis instead of Detroit so that way if the flight didn't go today I'd be stranded there instead?  No, flights were full.  Plus the flight from MSP to Tokyo was cancelled today already and Saturday's was too.  Call back to my parents - ok, Minneapolis not an option, if I am stranded in Detroit for a few days, can I come to Green Bay? 

When I arrive at San Antonio airport about 50 minutes before my flight, my flight from Detroit to Tokyo is still listed as on time.  How can that be?  The Delta guy at the ticketing counter doesn't believe it either and books me on the Monday flight from Detroit as well just in case.  I make a few more phone calls at the gate to let people know what's going on with me, plus keep sending messages to Jason to learn a little more about what's going on at home.  I also start getting an overwhelming number of emails from friends and coworkers checking in to see that we are all ok.  Getting on the flight to Detroit was the best thing I could do because I had no connection to email, news or anything else.  I just had to let it all go for a few hours - it was a nice break.

I arrived in Detroit and my flight was still listed as on time.  I went up to the gate and asked for them to print my boarding pass.  The woman told me she'd have to cancel my "just in case" reservation if she printed my boarding pass.  I said "are you sure this flight is going to go?" and she said "yes" but the manager standing behind her looked at me and said "we have no idea".  Mind you, the flight is leaving in less than an hour.  I take the boarding pass for Friday's flight and decide to take my chances.  After stepping away from the counter I notice a Detroit News Crew taping and talking to passengers. 

We board as usual but the plane is really empty.  I hear the man behind me on his phone saying "well, in theory, we're going to Tokyo".  Exactly sir.  In theory.  A few conversations ensue with the other passengers about whether or not we're headed to Japan or not. In the meantime my sister calls and says "Narita shows the flight is cancelled, but Delta still shows it as on-time".  I fully expect us to deplane and head back into the airport, but no!  The captain comes on and tells us that Narita is open, the runways have been inspected and we'd go, but if in the morning in Japan the story is different, we will be diverted. 

We sit at the gate for a long time as they take luggage off the plane of a school group that has decided that this week is not the best time for their field trip (can't blame them!) and take off about 2 hours late.  We arrive in Tokyo at the scheduled time.  I have no idea how, since something like 400 flights were cancelled between Friday and Saturday but I guess I was lucky. 

Since there were connecting flights cancelled, many people were sent to Immigration/Customs without their documents ready and there were only a few people at the counters.  Not many of the agents could get to work and I'm sure they weren't expecting too many people to come through since most flights were cancelled. 

After getting my bags, its time to figure out how to get home.  I took a quick picture of some people camping out at the airport as they waited for connecting flights or were stranded.  Here's a quick shot from my iPod Touch.



I take my bags downstairs to see what trains are running.  This is confusing on a good day.  I always take the same train since I know the schedule.  There are 2 express train options usually and 1 local train.  The train I usually take doesn't seem to be running so I try the other express.  I go up to buy a ticket and she tells me track 3.  After getting on the train, I realize this is not an express at all.  In fact, it will be at least a 2 hour ride into Tokyo and that will still be on the other side of town from where I want to be.  Oh yeah and I have 2 suitcases that equal 140lbs. 

The train ride is horrible.  Cramped and everyone has suitcases and I have two GIANT ones.  Plus I'm not completely sure of whether or not I can stay on this train or have to switch trains to get to my destination.  So when we stop and everyone gets off the train, I get off too - which was the right decision as another (smaller) train showed up a few minutes later with the stop I wanted to get to listed on the side.  Getting back on the train with my luggage was horrendous and some Japanese woman tried to help move my 80lb bag.  I'm sure she probably only weighed that much.  I was so worried she was going to hurt herself I told her "it's ok!" in a bit more forceful voice than I inteded. 

I got to the final stop on that train about 35 minutes later and then switched down to the local subway.  After another 30 minutes, I got to the stop by our house.  Luckily Jason and the girls came to meet me because the elevators at the station were still out of service and I would never have been able to haul the luggage up by myself.  Once at street level, I noticed how nothing looked any different from before but that the streets were totally empty.  We were the only ones out, which is not normal for a Saturday night.  I arrived back at the house around 9pm and we unpacked and headed to bed around 11pm. 

About 7am, Jason and I woke up to our bed shaking a bit.  The girls woke up a few minutes after that and in most ways, Sunday seemed normal.  We felt aftershocks about every hour or so that were about the same as the earthquakes I've felt before but nothing like Friday's quakes.  I started watching the news and understanding everything that happened.  And that's when we started finding out more about the power situation....more on that in the next post.

So that's the story - I'm so glad that Jason was able to send word as frequently as he did.  My coworkers walked home from work on Friday in their helmets (which we all have under our desks) and for some it took 3 hours.  Others slept at work on Friday night.  I don't know how I would have gotten home if I had been at work when it happened and realize that being out of town was not the worst thing in the world.  A part of me is sad that I missed such a monumental event in Japan's history and I'll never be able to say "I was there" but I recognize that I only say that because the experience for Jason and the girls was the best one possible in such a horrible situation. 

More to come on the current situation in Japan, but I'll echo Jason's comments. 

Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed.


http://www.redcross.org/

Its winter here and below freezing at night.  The shelters do not have steady electricity (if they have it at all in Sendai) and people are freezing - your help can bring them blankets and food. 

Kanpai,
Jess

Posted by Jay
13 March 2011

I apologize for not having a fancy title for this post, but I felt it was a little too serious for one.  I wanted to take this post to give everyone an idea on what it was like to experience the recent earthquake.

Friday March 11th at 2:49 in the afternoon Ella, Abby and I were walking home from Ella's school when we noticed that the glass door to the Geox store on our corner was oscillating.  At this point I had not noticed the ground moving, but the store employees quickly got into the doorway of the store and kept the door open.  We were on the sidewalk in front of the store and soon felt the ground moving.  I made Ella hold onto the stroller and I braced myself.  I don't know how to describe the feeling, but I think the closest I can get is the feeling of trying to stand still after a few beers too many.  The shaking lasted for 3 minutes or so and all of the office workers were emptying the surrounding buildings.  I can't describe myself as being scared, but more clueless.  Ella was not scared at all, as soon as the quake was over she wanted it to happen again.  At this point the ground was stable and we made our way through the mass of office workers and headed to our apartment. 

When we got to our apartment we found everyone outside in the driveway area including the staff.  I talked to the building manager and he showed me where the manhole cover had lifted up and some sewer water had splashed from the shaking.  We were advised to stay outside as there was a likelihood of aftershocks.  I was able to access the internet through my iPhone, but had no mobile service, not that I had anyone to call as Jess was in Texas.  I updated my Facebook status and Google Voice texted Jess, gotta love modern technology.

In the face of natural disasters it is a good way to get to know your neighbors.  We met many very nice people and some very nice furry friends.

Abby and Quentin

 There was another family with a boy about Ella's age that was very upset over the quake and was crying.  I took out my iPhone and put on a Diego video for all the kids to watch.  The mother commented that it would make a great Apple ad, when in an earthquake use the iPhone to entertain.  About 45 minutes after the first quake we had just gone into the lobby area when the first aftershock hit.  This felt almost as massive as the original quake and we all emptied back into the parking lot and sat on the ground.  Ella, again thought it was really cool.  Eventually we felt comfortable to go into the lobby are to relax and watch the coverage on the TV.  This is when we saw the live coverage of the tsunami wreaking havoc on the NE coast of Japan.  It was horrifying to watch as the helicopters were broadcasting live and you could see cars trying to get out of the way of the water with no real chance. It was extremely sad to watch. We had multiple small aftershocks through the evening, but none too bad. 

Picture care of BBC News

The original earthquake was just reclassified as a 9.0 magnitude and is the 5th largest in the world in modern recording.

Earlier in the day I had gone to the grocery store and like most stores they deliver later in the day.  I had no expectations that they would deliver due to the quake, but at 5pm in comes the delivery guy with my groceries.  One of the other moms watched the girls while I helped the guy haul my groceries, including 6 bottles of wine, up 4 flights of stairs to our apartment and quickly stuffed the fridge with what needed to go in.  On the way down I grabbed a diaper bag, a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, a knife and some juice boxes.  When I got back down I made pb sandwiched for the kids. Only in Japan would a store still deliver after a major quake.

The girls had lots of fun the whole time running around and playing with the other kids and the other adults.  One of the dads ran to the local grocery store and just started buying prepared food.  We had quite the feast set up as shown below.

About 8pm the staff finally said it was safe to return to our rooms.  The staff had gone through every apartment to make sure everything was ok.  When we returned to our apartment I found that overall it had survived just fine, the only things out of place was a piece of artwork that fell down in the hallway and a bunch of drawers that had opened up.  I put the girls to bed and spent most of the night facebooking ans skyping with friends and family.  I spent the night in my clothes on the couch and got a few hours of sleep. The enormity of the situation really didn't hit me until 530am the next morning.  The incredible destruction and loss of life is horrendous and I can't imagine what the result would have been if it had happened in a country that was not up to the earthquake standards of Japan.

In following posts I will describe more about the earthquake and what the current situations with the power plants and rescue/recovery operations are.  Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed. 

http://www.redcross.org

Also we have found that the best place for accurate information are either the BBC or NHK.  We have found that most American stations are really going for the sensational aspects of the story.
Kanpai,

Jay

Posted by Jess
9 March 2011

Editor's Note: I created this post last week but did not get the pictures added until today.  More posts to come about the current situation in Japan and our stories of Friday's earthquake.

This week I am in San Antonio, Texas for work from Tuesday-Thursday.  And since I have a fabulous husband and a few extra airline miles, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to see the state a little bit and asked my sister to join me a little early for sightseeing.  On Saturday I flew to Minneapolis and had lunch with Jason's mom over lunch (thanks again!) and a little later my sister joined me and we flew down to San Antonio. 

We got in late Saturday night and headed up to the room to unpack.  After a quick stop at the spa on Sunday morning, we headed out to the Natural Bridge Caverns and took a tour of the area.  It was our tour guide's 17th birthday and he told us some riveting stories about cave formations.  The tour was a bit too long though since after about 15 minutes in it all started to look the same.

In the afternoon we headed to Target.  Yay!   I stocked up my suitcase of snacks and goodies to take back and had fun shoppping.  I don't get to do that very often anymore.  (update - my suitcases were too heavy...78lbs and 57lbs on the way back.  Those were hard to carry back, especially with the long ride home I ended up having!)

On Sunday night we headed out for mexican food at a long standing San Antonio establishment called Jacala Mexicana.  While the neighborhood wasn't the greatest, the restaurant was nice, the food authentic and margaritas were good! 

On Monday morning we headed out to see the 5 Missions of San Antonio.  The missions are within about 8 miles or so and are the ruins of old churches and fort areas from 1700's.  These are forts where the Spanish friars worked to convert the natives to Christianity by providing them with consistent food and shelter.  Some areas have been restored and some have not.  The Alamo was the last one we visited and is in the middle of downtown San Antonio.  This was my least favorite just because it was so busy and so commercialized.  The other areas were so peaceful, this one was bustling.  We went back later in the evening after it closed and were able to get some pictures without people in them. 

Mission San Jose (1720)

Mission San Juan (1731)

Mission Espada (1731)

Mission Concepcion (1731)

The Alamo/Mission San Antonio de Valero (1718)

After the missions, we went down to the River Walk, a pedestrian area on the San Antonio River with mostly restaurants and hotels.  Its a very popular tourist destination - the 2nd in Texas - and only a short walk from the Alamo.  The San Antonio River in this part is only about 3 feet deep and maybe 50 feet across.  After walking around for a bit we decided to take a boat tour of the area.  The tour was inexpensive and kind of Disney Jungle Cruise-ish, but did give some fun historic facts about the area. 


During the tour the San Fernando Cathedral was pointed out to us.  This is the oldest cathedral in the U.S. so we decided to walk over and check it out.  After a brief walk through, we headed back down to the River Walk for some Bar-B-Q dinner.  After some baby back ribs, fries and cole slaw, we headed back to the hotel to hang out and get ready for the next day's work and Kiki's flight.  Kiki left early on Tuesday morning and I headed in to the office.  I don't really feel like we missed a lot around here after only a day and a half of touring around.  If we were going to go to Six Flags (right by the hotel) or Sea World, we would have needed more time but I think we hit the highlights and the weather was great! 

Kanpai!
Jess

08 March 2011
Posted by Jay

This past Sunday we were invited by some new friends to go to the Children's Hall near our house.  Now we had already been to the Children's Castle and enjoyed it immensely.  The Hall is only a few blocks away from the Castle and is totally free of charge. 

The Children's Hall is 5 (six if you count the roof) floors of activities and fun for kids.  It is really geared towards elementary school and under aged kids, so perfect for us!  We were with our friends who knew the hall very well and so off the older kids ran to the 3rd floor to climb on the human body maze/jungle gym and play with the hula-hoops.  There was also a large padded area for toddlers to run and play in. The girls got lots of exercise and Abby was in love with the hula-hoops.
Next we headed down to the 2nd floor which had a large jungle gym, a wooden train set and a large area for babies and toddlers to play. Ella loved the trains and really liked that she got to sign her name to check out the locomotive.
The kids were pretty hungry so we headed to the cafeteria for a snack and had some hot dogs and juice.  We then headed up to the music floor to make a ton of noise.
After our ears had enough we headed to the roof to try out rollerblading.  Ella did pretty well and was really excited to try it out.  They also had unicycles and stilts to try.
The play-date was a success and we enjoyed hanging out with our new friends, especially since mom is a Badger!

Kanpai!

Jay

Posted by Jess
5 March 2011

Today marks the 7 month anniversary of our Japan adventure.  Time is surely flying now!  So much left to do in such a short amount of time.

For this month I thought I would share some information about money and purchasing power in Japan.  The Japanese currency is the Yen.  The word Yen means 'round object' in Japanese.  The yen was officially adopted in 1871.  Prior to that, Spanish silver dollar coins had made their way to Asia from Mexico and those were used for trading. 


Yen coins come in a range of 1 to 500 and notes from 1,000-10,000.  With the current exchange rate, 1,000 Yen is about equal to $12.  The symbol for Yen is ¥, like a dollar is $.

I was going to take pictures of the coins and notes to post, but Wikipedia does it better.  So here are pictures of the coins (1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500)



Notes were harder to find pictures of, so Jason took pictures of what we have around the house (1000, 5000 and 10000).  The notes are larger than US Dollars, but not by much, and about the same weight and thickness.


The 10,000 Note has a picture of Fukuzawa Yukichi on the front and a picture of the Phoenix Statue at a famous temple on the back.  Yukichi-san was a scholar, writer, teacher and translator, living from 1834-1904.  He founded Keio University.

The 5,000 Note has a picture of Ichiyō Higuchi on the front and a famous painting of irises on the back.  Higuchi-san was also an author and one of the first modern female authors in Japan.  She wrote 3 novels before dying of TB at age 24. 

The 1,000 Note has a picture of Hideyo Noguchi on the front and Mt. Fuji, Lake Motosu and Cherry blossoms on the back.  Noguchi-san lived from 1876-1928 and was a Japanese bacteriologist living in America who discovered syphillis as the cause of paralytic disease.

Although it is changing, Japan is still a very cash based culture.  Credit cards are not as widely accepted as they are in the US, especially at small stores and restaurants, and even in some taxis.  We were pleasantly surprised to find credit cards are able to be used more than we thought after we arrived, but we definitely carry more cash on us here than we do in the US.  Credit card processing is not as immediate as it is in the US either.  Our local grocery store only posts to Visa once every two weeks as far as we can tell, and the doctors office seemed to post once a month.  Because of all this, it is not uncommon to have 40,000 yen ($400) on you each day.  It's strange to walk around with that much money in your pocket at first, but once you realize that everyone else has it too and that crime is so low, the chance of getting it stolen is pretty low.  The chance of losing it, however...

As far as purchasing power, I did some quick checking of how expensive some normal household items are in Tokyo versus Minnesota to try and give you a picture of how much it costs to live here.  Here are some examples, based on recent currency exchange rates and adjusting for the size of the products.

I was looking at a Bloomberg report of the 2010 most expensive international cities today and Tokyo is #1, with Japan having 4 other cities in the top 10.  The other cities on the list are in Norway and Switzerland, and one in Angola!  These rankings were based on consumer goods and not things such as rent and living expenses.  New York was ranked #29 on this list. 

According to EuroCost International, Tokyo also has the highest cost of rent for expatriates (i.e. us!) worldwide.  New York ranks 7th in rent costs.

So there you have it, some (hopefully) interesting ramblings about money in Japan. 

March brings a month of travel for all of us and friends coming to visit!  I am sure I will be writing next month's anniversary post before I know it.  Today my day ends back in the US and soon on a shopping spree at Target.  Whoo hoo!

Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
4 March 2011

Tonight we had a dance party at the dinner table. 





Kanpai!
Jess

Posted by Jess
3 March 2011

Today is Doll Day in Japan.  It's called Hinamatsuri in Japan and celebrates girls!  Little platforms are set up and covered with red carpet called hina dan and are used to display sets of ornamental dolls that are dressed up in traditional Japanese dress.  The displays can have up to 7 tiers with dolls representing the emperor, empress and people of the court.  The highest level is reserved for the emperor and the empress and the placement of the other dolls indicates their role in the court as well.

Here is the small display that is in our apartment building lobby.



The tradition started in the Heian period, which was from 794 to 1185AD.  The people then thought that dolls could contain bad spirits, so they took dolls like these and put them on boats.  When they floated them out to sea, they felt that the bad spirits went with the dolls.  Today certain shrines still do this tradition and pray for the safety of children.

My boss brought the girls some customary treats like hishimochi, a rice cookie.

Google even got in on the action today.  I'm not sure if this was the home page doodle back in the States, but at least here I found this:




Some pictures of the girls and their treats:






Jason stopped and picked up special cakes for dessert on the way home and made pancakes for dinner.  A special day for the girls for sure!



Tomorrow the dolls will be taken down - leaving them out past March 3rd is superstitiously believed to cause your daughter to have a late marriage. 

Boys have a similar day, formerly called Tango No Sekku on May 5th which has since become a National Holiday called Children's Day - more on that when the day comes!  

Kanpai!
Jess