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Atticus

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Yo... konnichiwa and greetings from Japan...

I live in on the western side of the main island in Ishikawa-ken (Ishikawa Prefecture if you want to google map it... im 15 mins away from Kanazawa)... and things here are business as usual. The day of the Quake i was in the middle of teachin a 3rd grade class.. and the teacher was tellin me about how one of the students from the class died about 2 weeks ago (their desk was empty with a commemorative name card on top... it was really sad).. and then she stopped and was like "i think its an earthquake"... and it was then that i realized that the building was kind of swaying back and forth... it felt like being on a boat. It wasnt violent or anything... but you could feel that the ground beneath you wasnt sturdy. All of the kids were made to go under their desks.. and they checked information. 3 minutes later.. they told us that we were ok... and we continued with class. After class, I was the only one who made it a point to check the news.. b/c people were hittin me up on facebook askin me if I was ok.

Things where im at are ok... people are going about their lives. My Japanese friends and coworkers tell me that they cant do anything about it except donate money and continue to live their lives. I kinda admire that about this culture...

While im ok.. the Tohoku region is in all kinds of bad shape right about now... the news here has been focusing on logistics instead of sensationalism.... but judging by the emails im gettin from my friends and family... the foreign media is really playin it up over there. The news has been pretty misleading.

This site has some pretty good info on the levels of radiation that have been detected... and how much of a cause for concern it really is...

Also.. people gotta realize that all of Japan is not Tokyo. People are askin me if im going to come home... thats like livin in Florida durin Katrina... and getting calls from Japanese people tellin you that its not safe in America... its absurd.

What really worries me is not the Fukushima plant.. whats really concerning me is how they are going to ration the food out to all those people who are now homeless... how they are going to get clean water to them... what are they going to do about all the power outages.. and how are they going to reunite people with separated love ones.

So please... dont buy into the media hype in the states... instead focus on praying and donating money to help out these people in need..

__________________

Iconz - おかげさまで

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With you there Iconz. They are making a big fuss in Australia, especially about the reactor problems. I guess thats because alot of government officials here are opposed to nuclear power and they see this as a good means to turn the country against it.

At the same time, the tsunami did look rather devastating and there has been a large loss of life involved.

There are going to be some hard times ahead for the japanese.

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The Japanese survived Godzilla AND Mothra. I think they're going to be fine.

I can back up what Toten is saying. On the news over here they are talking about the nuclear plant like it's already gone Chernobyl. I'm glad to hear that that's not the case.

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It's definitely sensationalized in the U.S. "Meltdown" is a term no self-respecting physicist would use. :D

The tsunami does indeed look devastating, but the Japanese recognize that they live on a major fault (unlike California...take a hint Cali) and have THE most stringent building laws in existence. That's why you see things like pictures of a yacht twice the size of a building ON TOP of a building. The Japanese are prepared and are doing better than anyone else could in this situation.

That being said, I am not against Nuclear power because there are far worse methods of obtaining alternative energy (fracking), but I seriously do not like the fact that, as you can see, it's NOT a safe source. Chernobyl is the worst incident, but in Pennsylvania, there was a similar incident in the 80's involving a nuclear plant much like one of Japans. The county in which this happened suffered no dangerous side effects, but two of the counties near it had elevated levels of cancer within the communities fifteen years later.

The last thing the Japanese need is prolonged exposure to radiation. I wish them the best. The situation is obviously being sensationalized (the media knows how to milk a situation...look at the Michael Jackson funeral), but on the other hand, this shouldn't be down played because we are talking about radiation exposure that could turn into a radioactive fallout if the situation does not improve soon. I'm not talking about The Situation either...I'm hoping the last season of Jesery Shore being filmed in Italy is a sneaky way of deporting all them. ;)

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its so sad too. We will never have vehicles with a 100 year fuel capacity as long as mass hysteria rules the media. Glad your OK Iconz. Keep us posted.

There is a positive note, none of the psycho political pundants in the news will run for president because the pay and benefits doesnt compare to what they get now.

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I am really impressed by the Japan community.

Despite the fact that the media here in eastern Europe is stressing on the "extremely" bad situation around the nuclear reactors there have been no reported cases of marauders and when I watch the news there seems to be no panic in the japaneese society.

They work together against the catastrophy.

Something impressed me quite a bit, when there was news about Europe offering help and the japaneese government was replying something along the lines that if there is going to be help sent, the countries that are seding it should try not to hinder their own organisation i.e. it's clear that you are not going to help but please try not to cause a problem.

Was quite funny to recieve such a reply by a country that was hit by not one but three major disasters.

I am certain though, that if there is a country that can cope with such a situation that is Japan.

Good luck Japan.

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Not sure how any of you can say the situation isn't an extremely bad one.

Many died, most cannot be found. Many more will die. That poor country has been hit with natural disaster after natural disaster in the past four or five days. Now I hear a volcano is erupting?

Everyone who believes the situation isn't a 'bad' one needs to open their eyes. People died. An economy collapsed over night. Two nuclear power plants are -still- on fire (and one of the managers of one of the power plants has stated it's already in nuclear meltdown) and the workers can't get the diesel engines up and running to move the coolant into the bays.

There are large holes in the cooling systems, too, which would prevent one of the nuclear power plants from cooling down. U.S. helicopters are pouring water over top of the plants trying to help, too.

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