Monthly Archives: March 2011

Invitation I sent to some friends

I admit, some of this is probably the result of reading Dune a mere 3 or 4 weeks ago.

Hi all,

I know you must all be stressed. Let’s get over it through the warm Canadian tradition of togetherness.

I invite you to a night of drinking decedent unpolluted water, Indian food that has not been irradiated (due to uncanny foresight by yours truly), and the warmth of a Canadian Muslim home in Tokyo.

Learn the delight of living next to rich people, as I uncharacteristically keep my heater on. Enjoy the thick concrete walls that reduce your exposure count.

Appreciate the joys of building Nuclear power plants as we play POWER GRID, a top-10 game on Board Game Geek. Bargain and screw over your competition, while you attempt to build the strongest grid possible.

If you have a significant other that you want to invite, they are welcome as well. I must insist that you let me know the exact number so I can extract the necessary supplies from my bunker.

My current mindset

For those wondering, I wrote an email to someone that I think explains my current mindset in regards to staying calm vs. panicking in regards to the situation in Tokyo. I’m posting it with the identifying information removed.

Knee jerk “stay calm” messages are as destructive as “panic” messages, particularly if the situation gets worse. I feel the responsible message is “be prepared, here is the worst case scenario. It’s not going to happen most likely, but if it does, this is the best way to prepare.”

I stockpiled water and food back when you were saying not to panic and well before the nuclear accident reached its apex. Are you seriously saying that I spread panic by telling friends to do the same? Are they in a better situation or worse situation than if they had not done so? With safety instructions & boiling, they are two steps ahead of the scenario around them. This isn’t an “I told you so”, it’s a question of sharing uncommon sense with people who have fortunately never been in this sort of situation before.

Constantly staying calm in a fluid, dangerous situation is important, and I commend you for being a rock of calm in a sea of nonsense from the western media. However, being prepared for the worst likely scenario is important. As well I don’t think you are being particularly fair in regards to the second aspect.

Please dont take this as an attack on you. I just want us all to get out of this with minimal damage and to laugh about it three years down the line.

Who do you trust?

This is THE QUESTION. The ONLY question.

I KNOW that there cannot possibly be enough radiation to trigger my evacuation… yet.

If the problem is resolved, no harm, no foul. The government claims this will happen.

Historically, government ALWAYS underplays nuclear risks.

If I wait for a final answer and it turns out to be an evacuation response, the result will be catastrophic since I will have to compete with a larger segment of the population to escape.

So, given that, what would you do? Especially with the dark shadow of a magnitude 7 earthquake (40% chance according to the media – I don’t trust round figures like that either)

I’ve been told, by someone I DO trust, that the current radiation level is 30 times normal in Saitama. This is not a dangerous amount, but it is a huge increase. (Yeah I know the banana comparison). What matters is that the government originally said there was no chance of anything but trace radiation reaching this area. “Minor, unharmful” radiation.

Who do you trust? Who should I trust?

Rah rah stay calm bullshit without facing this calculation – is a farce.

Scatterbrained Update

Not feeling too awake right now so this will probably wind up a long run-on sentence :/

You all know there was an 8.8 or 8.9 earthquake here in Tokyo. Yes, I did feel it (they felt it all the way in China) and yes, it was scary. Anyone who pretends otherwise is a tool.

After the earthquake, people kinda waffled in the office until they found out the 4th floor had evacuated. I had already gotten my jacket on and was out the door when they all went out.

I went out to the nearby park (designated retreat area) but it turns out everyone just was lingering around the office (in case they could go back in). I went back and noted (to my horror) that my iPhone was almost completely out of charge. I snuck back onto the 2nd floor and hooked up my phone and iPad. I also went and pulled out the unused iPhone 3GS battery that they had lying around; if no one else was going to use it, I would! (Turned out to be a vital part of my escape plan)

After charging my phone & the battery up to max, I decided that staying in Yokohama and sleeping with my co-workers was out of question so I left. I didn’t intend on walking the full 35 kilometers, but I was willing to do so if necessary. Fortunately, I passed an AEON department store and got my hands on a 300$ mountain bike. I also rendez-vous’d with my co-worker Hiroki (who kept in touch with me via Skype, the only functional way to have a voice conversation all day) , and we parted company only after finding a cheap 35$ mama-chari for Hiro and reaching Shin-Yokohama. From there, it was an exhausting 3 hour trip, weaving through traffic and flipping off impatient drivers, while consulting my phone map (and draining both the additional battery and the phone battery itself)

Reaching home and opening the door, I was prepared for my Apple TV and monitor to be smashed, along with some boxes to have fallen, but it seems the recent update I did to the interior space had prevented that. Everything was fine, except my sister was repeatedly messaging me, forcing me to stop, pull out my phone and see what was happening.

In short, I’m alive, back home, and didn’t lose anything. Thank God.

You can check the pics on my twitter feed. (@_jm)