Monday evening

I have just done a series of interviews (RTE, BBC, Newstalk) on the situation here and it struck me that I am beginning to slip into full on "Here comes the Apocalypse" mode. I think it is the nature of the media beast that you tend to play up the doomsday scenario at the expense of something a bit more considered and measured. It simply makes for the better news story. And unfortunately I find myself somewhat pandering to that.
I also tend to get asked in hushed tones, 'How bad is the devastation where you are?', to which I should really honestly reply "What devastation?", as there is none. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It is almost surreal how normal life in Muroran is at the moment considering what occurred just over an hour's flight away. But again, such a response wouldn't make for a very interesting story, so I tend to dodge around it and start churning out the grim statistics and speculation about what is/going to happen.
In additon, given people's (understandably) scant knowledge of geography over here they tend to equate the description 'northern Japan' with where I am. However, to be more precise in placing Fukushima and the afflicted nuclear stations, the location should really be described as 'northern Honshu'. Where the stations are is approximately the same distance from Muroran as Frankfurt is from Dublin. In other words, we are not that close. And in no immediate danger. Or even distant danger.
So deep breaths people - despite my journalistic doom-mongering, it's not that bad.