day 19

As of 10am on 3/30, the recorded amount of radiation in the air in Shinjuku was 0.108 microsieverts/hour.

The reading for tap water in Shinjuku for 3/29 was 5.63 Bq/kg for iodine-131 and 0.51 Bq/kg for cesium-137. Cesium-134 was detected only at minimal amounts yesterday

The recorded amount of radioactive materials in particles in the air (dust and rain) for 3/28 was 36.9 Bq/meter squared for iodine-131 and 18.1 Bq/meter squared for cesium-137.

All of these radioactive materials are not good. But one thing I have learned is that history from the Chernobyl accident shows that iodine-131 is one to pay close attention to. Iodine-131 tends to accumulate in the human thyroid and it is believed to be the cause of all the increases in thyroid disease and thyroid cancer in the Chernobyl region.

The scare in the Tokyo tap water last week was due to the iodine-131 levels increasing. Since then, the levels have gone down but bottled water is still hard to come by.

day 18

As of 11am on 3/29, the recorded amount of radiation in the air in Shinjuku was 0.108 microsieverts/hour.

The reading for tap water in Shinjuku for 3/28 was 9.82 Bq/kg for iodine-131, 0.25 Bq/kg for cesium-134, and 0.56 Bq/kg for cesium-137.

The recorded amount of radioactive materials in particles in the air (dust and rain) for 3/28 was 45.5 Bq/meter squared for iodine-131 and 5.52 Bq/meter squared for cesium-137.

I'm sure all of you have seen numerous videos of the earthquake and especially the tsunamis. Today, I will turn the focus onto our neighbor to the east, the city of Urayasu in Chiba prefecture. It's only an hour drive (if that) out of Tokyo. Urayasu is where Tokyo Disneyland is located (yes, Tokyo Disneyland is not in Tokyo. Sort of like the New York Giants really play in New Jersey).

I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but Urayasu was one of the places most affected by the earthquake (non-tsunami area), especially in Tokyo vicinity. The city of Urayasu is mainly built on reclaimed land. When the earthquake hit, a phenomenon called soil liquifiquation occured. Saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to the earthquake's shaking, resulting the soil behaving like liquid. Result of this is water and soot coming up from the asphalt, manholes/sewers popping out of the ground, ground level sinking, etc.


This is a shot of Urayasu as the earthquake hit.



This what Urayasu looks like now.

There are still wide areas of Urayasu that do not have water and electricity. Also, the sewer lines were broken so even if you do have water, you can't flush toilets, etc. They have port-a-potties set around the city. They showed someone's home on TV and if you place a ball on the floor, it now rolls by itself because the house is no longer level. They were saying on the news that roughly only 20% of homeowners carry earthquake insurance. What would you do if you still have loan payments to make on a house that now leans like the Tower of Pisa? Scary.

day 17

Sorry to keep everyone waiting for a day and a half. I'm sure you all were on pins and needles. But to be honest, there really isn't much new to update.

As of 7pm on 3/28, the recorded amount of radiation in the air in Shinjuku was 0.109 microsieverts/hour.

The reading for tap water in Shinjuku for 3/27 was 19.7 Bq/kg for iodine-131, 0.47 Bq/kg for cesium-134, and 0.72 Bq/kg for cesium-137.

The recorded amount of radioactive materials in particles in the air (dust and rain) for 3/27 was 101 Bq/meter squared for iodine-131 and 35.9 Bq/meter squared for cesium-137.

As you can see from these numbers, the radioactive materials being detected is trending down. I know there are reports of damage to the containment vessels of the nuclear reactors, but from the data it doesn't seem like there has been an increase in radioactive materials being released into the environment.

Today I will try something different and post some pictures I took over the weekend.


This shows the reduced hours now at Takashimaya.


Some of the ticket vending machines at Futagotamagawa station are turned off to help conserve energy.


Some high school kids collecting donations at Futagotamagawa station.


The down escalators are turned off at Futagotamagawa station.


Some of the subway entrance/exits (kaisatsu) are turned off at Shibuya station to help conserve energy.

The next three are from the famous Shibuya Hachiko scramble interestion. The video ad screen were all turned off. Those of you who saw Lost in Translation may remember the scene when dinosaurs walked across those screens.








The picture above is a sign at the Tokyu supermarket in the neighborhood. It states "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but following items are limited to one per customer. Water, eggs, milk, natto, toilet paper, tissue."

And finally....



Jackpot! I was able to buy toilet paper and tissue this weekend!

day 15

As of 12pm on 3/26, the recorded amount of radiation in the air in Shinjuku was 0.122 microsieverts/hour.

The reading for tap water in Shinjuku for 3/25 was 31.8 Bq/kg for iodine-131,
0.92 Bq/kg for cesium-134, and 1.22 Bq/kg for cesium-137.

The recorded amount of radioactive materials in particles in the air (dust and rain) for 3/25 was 178 Bq/meter squared for iodine-131 and 36.9 Bq/meter squared for cesium-137.

Other than the task of buying food and supplies, life in Tokyo continues to return to normal. We are getting used to dealing with the reduced store hours and limited supplies for various things. I have started to see batteries more and more in stores now. I went out to get orange juice this morning, but the only kind of juice I found was grapefruit juice. Usually they have all kinds of juices—orange, apple, grape, grapefruit, etc, etc—but today there was only grapefruit. I haven’t seen any two liter bottles of water, tissue, or toilet paper the last few days. (I’m sure you guys are probably sick of hearing about toilet paper by now. Maybe I should just call this blog “the toilet paper blog”).

It has been reported that there may be damage to the containment vessels in one of the nuclear reactors, but so far it hasn’t caused too much public fear or panic. The damage has not been confirmed and some of the other data would support the theory that there is no damage. Still kind of wait and see.

So much happened the first week and things were changing at such a furious pace. That has dramatically changed and now it’s kind of the opposite. Just kind of waiting for something new to report.

There are a lot of people (especially young people) who are out at train stations and other public areas collecting donations for the relief effort. Today, there were several local youth soccer teams lined around Takashimaya holding donation boxes. There is a strong sense amongst the public of “mijika ni dekiru mono (small things that even I can do to help)”. All different kinds of ways to conserve energy, not hording food and supplies, not spreading false rumors/chain mail, donations, etc, etc, etc.

day 14

We are still doing OK. For the most part, living pretty comfortably for now.

As of 12pm on 3/25, the recorded amount of radiation in the air in Shinjuku was 0.130 microsieverts/hour.

The reading for tap water in Shinjuku for 3/24 was 25.6 Bq/kg for iodine-131 and 1.43 Bq/kg for cesium-137. There is a new reading starting today for cesium-134 and it was 1.01 Bq/kg.

The recorded amount of radioactive materials in particles in the air (dust and rain) for 3/23 was 12,790 Bq/meter squared for iodine-131 and 155 Bq/meter squared for cesium-137.

I think if you look at the trend from all of these reading from this week, you get the sense that they get easily affected (spike) when it rains. I don’t know if that’s a coincidence or not.

OK. Yesterday, it was declared that the Tokyo tap water is now safe again for infants one year old or younger. The reading at the same purification plant a day later was only 79 Bq/kg for iodine-131 (below the standard of 100 Bq/kg for infants). One day it’s not safe, the next day it’s safe. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is going to ease the mini-panic there is over bottled water In Tokyo. If you were a parent, you’d still use bottled water over tap water, right? Even for yourself, you'd go bottled water if possible, right?

There’s a big supermarket that I pass on the way to work each morning. I noticed a sign in the window that says it limits purchases of one item per customer for these items: toilet paper, tissue, bottled water, and natto. Why natto??? It seems really weird. (Natto is the fermented soy bean food that is pretty gross in my opinion).

It’s the end of the work week and things are starting to get back into a routine. We did not have any interrupted work schedules this week. The power in our area stayed on all week. There is talk of splitting the current 5 groups for the rolling blackout schedule into 25 groups. It confusing as it is to know if the power is going to get cut off or not, it’s hard to believe having 25 groups will make it less confusing. 
We’ll see.

Yesterday, I felt pressure to get things done so I could make it out of the office in time to get home to do grocery shopping. The Takashimaya grocery is now open until 7pm in our neighborhood. Got there at 6:45pm. Maybe one of the side benefits of all of this will be to change the stereotypical Japanese culture to work long hours. “Must leave the office early to go buy water and toilet paper!” J