Tuesday Afternoon

I am sure you are all waking up around now and wondering when I am going to confirm witness accounts that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have been seen galloping through the streets of Tokyo.
Some perspective. Outside of the immediate area - the Tohoku region - life is going on pretty much as normal. People are at work, schools are open, kids are outside playing in the local park and the workmen in front of my office are making a godawful racket jack-hammering the road open. Yes, there is an ever present awareness of how events are unfolding around Fukushima but thankfully pragmatic acceptance rather than blind panic tends to be the general attitude here.
As I said in a previous post the media are, being the media, obviously concentrating on the crowd-pleasing doomsday scenario. But for us up here in Muroran and for the majority of people throughout Japan, that right now is just that: something that is happening on the television in a distant place rather than in our immediate walking-talking here and now.
And the soba, by the way, was delicious.

Tuesday lunchtime

I am not too sure how many more blogs I can begin along the lines of "things are getting grim here". As you can imagine we are monitoring events closely further south, minute by minute at this stage, and yes, the thought has crossed our minds about what to do in the worst case scenario - which unfortunately seems to be shifting from a "what if" to a "when".
Still, it is lunchtime, I am hungry and so I'm off to have a bowl of soba.

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.

Journalism

I have, by dint of being apparently the only Irishman in northern Japan, become both a de facto journalist and a line producer for RTE's correspondent over here. Given the time difference between here and back home, it has so far involved a lot of late night phone calls and early morning reports "Live from the Gaynor-Takahashi bathroom", as that is the most sound-proofed room in the house. The initial glamour of it all (if even there was any) has long since worn off and both Cian and Sanae are getting pretty irritated by it all.
But as I tell them, as a journalist I answer only to the people, not my wife and son. Which usually provokes a response of "Would ya ever feck off, ya big arse" and a couple of digs. For a hobbit, my wife packs a mean punch.

Devestation

The New York Times have a series of harrowing before-and-after satellite photos showing just how extensive the destruction was.
Click here to view them.

Monday Morning

Another day and more bad news - things are not getting any better over here unfortunately. Latest reports from the stricken nuclear plant down in Fukushima say that there has been an explosion at the No. 3 Reactor. It is, apparently, a similar explosion to the one that occurred at the No. 1 reactor on Saturday. At the moment they say three employees in the plant have been injured while another 7 are unaccounted for.
This, to be honest, is beginning to get a tad worrisome. While here in Muroran we are far way from immediate danger I am not so sure I can confidently say we are far away enough to be comfortable. Chatter on various mailing lists here in Japan and conversations and emails with friends scattered across the country have begun to take on a "What if.." attitude, with various contingency plans being knocked around about getting out of the country if worst comes to worst.
At the same time I don't want to be too alarmist. As I said, we are far to the north, there is a large winter-type, low pressure system coming in from Siberia at the moment bringing with it strong westerly to north-westerly winds and is due to effect us for the next number of days. Therefore, should there be a serious radiation leak it will blow the debris well way from us, out over the Pacific ocean.
Just to put some figures on the distances involved. The current exclusion zone is 20km around the affected nuclear plant. Tokyo is some 240 km from the plant, while Muroran is close on 550 km.

Sunday Morning

There are growing concerns about the safety of a nuclear reactor at a second power plant in Fukushima. Trace elements of radioactivity have been detected in people who were being evacuated from the surrounding area. While we are far away from immediate danger it's no longer case of we are far away for comfort. The second reactor in particular is a cause for major concern as it is a plutonium powered MOX type and if it explodes, well, then, all bets are off. Should extensive radioactive material escape in to the air then you are simply at the mercy of the prevailing winds and all you can do is hope is it blows far away from you.

If ever there was a convincing argument for the abolition of nuclear power, then I think this picture makes it.

These are kids being checked for radiation as they are evacuated from the hinterland around the Daiichi Nuclear Reactor in Fukushima.