Saturday, after I got home, I rode my bike a lot and played DDR in Kawasaki, but I wasn’t feeling in the dancing mood. I wanted to go to the gym, but then I heard about the nuclear power plant going critical, so I went back home.
Sunday morning, I was reading twitter and saw my friend and MMA photographer Dan Herbertson (http://danielherbertson.com/) wrote that he was going to Nagoya and had friends there. He offered to take me along. I started reading about how anonymous government sources stated unofficially that traces of radiation were being detected in Tokyo, and it was recommended to take iodine pills. I went to the drug store but found out that they don’t sell them here in stores…it’s like a prescription drug. So I stocked up on nori (seaweed) and while munching on that, went back and kept monitoring the situation from online.
Dan was really going to Nagoya, so I decided to go with him. I packed my bags and met him Shinagawa. It took about an hour and a half, and we got here at about 6:30 PM.
Walking around at night, I saw many pretty buildings and structures!
I’ve never been here before. The Nagoya station is the largest station in Japan, and Nagoya is the fifth largest city in Japan!
I’m so grateful that they let me sleep on their futon on the floor. We went to an Izakaya Japanese restaurant for dinner, and then back to their place.
This is me and Dan in the restaurant eating chicken wings. We don’t what we’re doing. We’re just ‘winging it’ from here. *drum roll*
Three other people from Tokyo are staying, so ten people crammed into this small apartment.
This is Dan and I in the restaurant…we’re just ‘winging it’ by eating chicken wings. 😀
I really want to go back home….I keep hearing how the nuclear situation seems to be stabilized… I wanna train and I wanna work and I wanna be in my own apartment, but there’s also supposed to be a 7 magnitude earthquake in Tokyo!! within the next three days. Apparently there’s a 70% chance. And if another reactor blows and the winds blow radiation towards us, it’ll be bad.
I was considering going back anyway, but I just learned that in addition to the rolling black outs, the train lines are stopped…maybe half throughout Tokyo. I saw pictures of Kichijouji and Shinjuku station, where people are lined up in vain trying to get to work.
I JUST got a phone call from my manager saying that lessons are cancelled today and tomorrow, and regarding Wednesday, we’ll wait and see. I’M SO RELIEVED. I don’t want to lose my job because of this. Dan said, “There’s NO WAY they would fire you! This is said to be the worst disaster since WWII” but hey, management fired a union member for asking to extend her leave of abcense because she needed breast cancer treatment, so I wouldn’t put it past them. But I’m glad they’re doing the right thing.
It’s really amazing how the Japanese swallow everything the media says. Us Americans are raised with a natural distrust of the media and government, so when I start noticing contradictions between scientists and politicians, I call “bullsh*t” and make my own decision. I talked to a co-worker’s Japanese roommate and explained about the “source” who mentioned the traces of Tokyo radiation. He said to me, “….No, there’s not! Calm down, Miss Roxanne. There’s no radiation!” I said, “I’m telling you, there is…” He said, “Really, there’s no problem! There’s no danger at all! There’s been no announcement on TV! Stop wooooooooorrying!”
69 thousand people were stranded at Tokyo Disneyland this weekend.