Earthquake 2011 - Update 2

Things are slowly edging back towards normal in Tokyo. The reactors are still a concern, as are the continued reports of radiation in the environment and in food products. Today it was announced that levels of iodine-131 in the Tokyo water supply were at 200 becqerels, which is twice the safe limit for infants. The recommended limit for adults is 300 becqerels, so of course there was a run on bottled water. From what I have read, for anyone other than very young children drining water with that level of radiation for a year would not be harmful, and likely the stress of thinking about the radiation is actually more harmful than the radiation levels themselves. It is believed that the increase in radiation levels in Tokyo are due to changes in wind patterns and that as soon as the winds move back to normal the levels will again drop. Iodine-131 has an 8-day half-life meaning it realatively quickly dissapates in the environment, which is good to know (or should I say hear).

But just to be safe Aya and I purchased our ration of bottle water and tea this evening to add to the 'emergency water supply' I already had stashed

Aya helping to scale the narrowest building I have seen yet in Tokyo. I checked and if I stretched my arms out fully I was wider than the house. Must suck to wake up.

Sunday we attempted to go to the museum to see the Boston Museum's collection of Japanese Art. That's right, I traveled all the way to Tokyo to see an exhibit from Boston, of Japanese Art. It was a nice day and something fun to do to refresh our minds. But unfortunately the museum closed 30 minutes earlier than usual due to the earthquake and energy conservation efforts, so we got there 2 minutes too late to get in. So instead we decided to go to an early dinner at an Izakaya that was featuring some early cherry blossoms.

Something about a yellow filter makes beer look even better than it already is.

Cheezu

A massive cherry arrangment in a private dining room

This place seemed like an old house with the way private rooms were everywhere. It was a really interesting place, and I am happy that we stumbled upon it.

Last week we celebrated the last day of Kombara-sans' appreticeship

Miyakoda-san demonstrating how he is going to crush the next earthquake that dares to interfer with his employees ability to work

Sometimes I dress up as a surgeon and try to impress people

Aya doesn't think that is funny

It is still eerily dark in many parts of Tokyo