Author: Oggy (Page 19 of 29)

A few friends (one is a coworker) and I have evacuated Koriyama. In Koriyama, we were only about 70 km away from the nuclear reactors, and with the threat of multiple core meltdowns and containment vessel damage, we wanted to get away. Currently, we’re in Niigata at a hotel. We are currently nearly 150 miles away from the reactors. We will probably be here for at least two more days as we pay close attention to the news and reassess our situation.

I think the main problem right now is being caused by spent fuel rods in reactor 4 at the Fukushima power plant. Overheating apparently caused a fire there, and, while the first fire was put out, a second fire started there. During these fires, there was a lot of radiation released. They are doing everything they can to get this and all the other problems at the reactors under control.

I am now weighing my options, and coming back to the states is definitely one of those options. There are also a few other places that I have considered as well (China, Korea, and even Europe).

We have been very lucky. The wind has almost constantly been blowing towards the east, so contamination on mainland Japan has not been a problem yet. As long as the wind continues to blow toward the east, I don’t think we’ll have any major problems.

My work has been suspended throughout this disaster. I don’t know when we will be asked to begin work again. While that isn’t a major concern (obviously, my health is the most important factor here), it is something that I must take into consideration.

I’ll keep you updated as the situation develops.

Bryan

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to world news, there was a disaster in Japan this weekend. What started it, was the fifth biggest earthquake in recorded history (magnitude 9.0). The epicenter was in the pacific ocean about 130 miles off the eastern coast of Japan. By the time it reached me, it was still in the low sixes. This earthquake prompted some huge tidal waves (up to 40 feet high).

The earthquakes caused some damage, but the tsunami was what caused most of the damage. There are many towns and cities on the eastern coast that have been completely destroyed. There are over 3,000 confirmed dead right now, and over 10,000 still missing.

That was the first part of this disaster.

Japan mostly uses nuclear power to supply the country with electricity. This is a very clean and efficient form of power… as long as nothing goes wrong. So, the giant tsunami crashed into the reactors, which had already been shut down because of the earthquakes, and broke some of the cooling systems. This was the beginning of the melt down process for at least two reactors and has caused two hydrogen explosions, so far. There is a third reactor that is currently having problems, and is likely to follow the same chain of events as the first two.

While, looking at a map, Koriyama looks very close to the Fukushima power plant (only about 70km), we are currently perfectly safe due to Japan’s geography and weather patterns. We have a mountain range between us and the busted reactors, and the wind constantly blows to the east.

While food and fresh water are in low supply right now, we currently have plenty of both. I currently don’t have any running water in my apartment, but a friend of mine does. I have been staying with him through all of this. I have also stopped by every vending machine that I see to buy more when it is available. We combined our food and now have about one or two weeks worth of food stockpiled. We are also going out everyday to see if there are any stores or supermarkets open, so that we can add to our stock.

I have had many friends and family members ask if there is anything they can do. Unfortunately, if you aren’t a nuclear physicist, there isn’t much that can be done but donate. There are a number of organizations that are accepting donations. To start, you can start at the Red Cross. If you really just want to donate to someone you know though, I’d happily accept any donations =)

I want to thank everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. I am safe, and constantly watching the news for updates.

Since I came to Japan, most of my posts basically say the same thing: “Look, I’m in shiny Japan. I’m working a lot, and enjoying my time here.”

Well, I wanted to change the pace a little bit by talking about the cost of food here. I’m doing this because when I chose to make the move to Japan, everybody told me that eating in Japan was extremely expensive. So after six months, I think I finally figured out that that statement is both true and false. Dining out, is expensive. It’s expensive anywhere you live. The lifestyle I led in the states was one that I would eat out three or four nights a week, and sometimes I would cook for myself, but it certainly wasn’t common. Also, eating like an American here is very expensive. Most of the foods that are common here that aren’t common in the states. For instance, rice is eaten with almost every meal. They don’t eat 8-16 oz steaks here. If you want to find one, it will cost a lot of money. Foreign fruits and vegetables are also very expensive (one cantelope costs over $10.00). The price for a liter of milk here is about the same as the price for a gallon in Oklahoma (and it tastes terrible here).

When I cooked for myself in Tulsa, I found that I would go to the store, and spend around $20 for a meal, sometimes a little less, but not much. It always ended up being more expensive than it would have been to just go out to eat. Even the items that I would buy once and use again and again seemed very expensive (I was paying around $10.00/lb for good rice). I would cook, have extra, and it would go to waste, because I’ve never been very good with left-overs.

At first, when I came to Koriyama, I was eating out a lot. Primarily, because I wanted to get a taste for local cuisine, but also because something as mundane as shopping at the supermarket was a chore. It was difficult, confusing, and stressful. Everything was in a foreign language, and it all looked so different.

So, now that I’ve figured out the whole shopping thing, I noticed that I’m actually paying a lot less for food. So here’s a brief rundown of one of my dinners:

Package price first, then serving price (if applicable)
Rice – 5kg – $15.00 – 1 serving (100g) – $0.30
Frozen Vegetables – 1 package – $1.00 – 1 serving – $0.50
Hamburg Steak (essentially a Salisbury Steak) – 1 Steak – $1.00
Eggs – 10 – $1.50 – 1 egg – $0.15
Rolls – 6 – $1.50 – 1 roll – $0.25
Misc Costs (oil, butter, drinks, etc) – $1.00
Total – $3.20

That’s dirt cheap. I wish I had learned to do this cheap food kind of thing when I was back home. Maybe I would have been able to save much more.

Japan is known for their quality for a reason. The cheap foods here are about the same quality as our middle-quality foods. I haven’t noticed the use of things like hydrogenated blah blah in a lot of stuff unless it’s imported. Secondly, it’s not difficult to find packages for one here. In the states, most things are sold in Texas sized packaging. This tends to be wasteful for single people since they can’t finish the whole thing off before it goes bad. It makes sense, since there are a lot of families. In Japan, there is a large single population, so many foods are packaged for one.

I am, by no means, saying that it’s cheaper to eat in Japan than in the States. I am saying that, for me, once I figured out what types of things are good and easy to make, I started spending a lot less money on food than I did at home. I’m sure, that buying food for a whole family would be very expensive here, though, depending on what you eat.

On the downside, it’s almost impossible to find decent beer here, and all the beer is very expensive. Buying one beer costs around $2.50 in a store. I have heard that there are crazy taxes on beer so that they can protect the Sake industry. I can actually buy Japanese beer in Oklahoma cheaper than I can in Japan. It’s pretty ridiculous. On the other hand, sake and liquor is dirt cheap. A bottle of Crown here is about $3-4 less than in Oklahoma. Strangely enough, Jack Daniels is about the same price or a little less, than in Tulsa, and they love it. Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to see a bottle of Jack Black sitting on the supermarket shelf.

So, it’s been four months since I left Tulsa. Things are going well here. I don’t have a lot of news, but I just want everyone to know that I’m still doing great.

Work has been keeping me busy, but I like that. My schedule keeps me going to different places, so I’m spending a lot of time on the train. It’s nice to travel, but since overtime is calculated based on teaching time, I have little to no chance to get any, even for really busy months.

I think my routine is pretty well established. My eating habits are getting better now that I am starting to find places that sell food which with I am familiar, and also becoming more familiar with the Japanese cuisine.

I’ve received a couple packages from home. I was able to introduce root-beer floats and a couple other basic American things to a couple friends here.

My social life here is not nearly as colorful or eventful as it was in Tulsa, but I think that’s due to the fact that I built a nice network of friends over the course of my school years. It’s hard to find the same thing in only four months, especially with the type of gaijin turnover you have here. Many people stay here for just a year, or sometimes less when they are able to find shorter contracts. I do have a few friends that have been here for 3+ years that are not going to be leaving anytime soon. And despite the fact that my Japanese is still terrible, and nobody speaks English here (except the teachers that I meet) I have met a few Japanese people that I can hang out with, although conversations tend to be very difficult at times.

For everyone that I don’t get to talk to very often, I’m sorry. Due to the time differences, and my night owlish tendencies, it’s hard to call at appropriate hours.

I have been spending a lot of time following facebook from my iPhone, so it’s very comforting seeing how everyone is doing, and keeping up with the news back home.

I hope everyone is doing well, and look forward to talking to everyone when I can.

Bryan

So this weekend all started out with a nice game of futsol (a game much like indoor soccer which is played outside and only five people on the field on each team at a time). The car we were going to use wouldn’t start, so we had to ride our bikes. Since I don’t have one that works yet, I ended up using one of the bikes at our building which is very old and has a light attached. Let me tell you, it wasn’t an easy ride. It was a 4.5 km ride up and down a lot of hills. I had a friend coming into town, so I had to leave a bit early. I found an easier way to get back that was mostly flat. Then I went out for drinks.

Sunday, I went to Tokyo. Tokyo is separated into little towns, each with its own personality. The first stop was Ueno. Ueno is a nice, mostly quiet place with a lot of museums and a zoo. We didn’t go to any of the museums, but we did check out the zoo.
The second stop was Akihabara. This is the tech district. It is also the anime district. I had a lot of fun there. You can get anything you want if you are a computer nerd. There are even places you can go to buy individual chips. I was shocked. There aren’t many, if any, places like that in Tulsa. This is also where we found a Neko (cat) cafe. It’s a little coffee shop that lets cats run around. All of them were pretty friendly. I loved it. It made me miss Thorin all that much more though.
The third stop was Shibuya. This is the shopping district. People have told me that it is a lot like Hollywood, but I don’t really think so. Sure there is a lot of shopping there, but I don’t think Hollywood compares to the vast amount of people roaming around Shibuya at all times. The streets and sidewalks were consistently packed. It was tough just to move around.
Finally, we went to Odaiba. This is a nice place. It’s very calm and relaxing. We hung out at the marina and looked at the Rainbow bridge. It was beautiful.

I’ll have to write more later. I have a Japanese lesson to go to. I hope everyone is having a good time wherever you are.

PS – Pics updated!!!