Nya uppdateringar fran Tokyo/New updates from Tokyo (English version further down)

Om man inte var har forra aret, sa tror jag inte man hade markt att det var nagot annorlunda alls, forutom att delar av strommen fortfarande ar kapad pa manga tunnelbanestationer. Men det ar mycket tyst jamfort med forra aret. Om det var fa vasterlanningar har normalt sett, ar det nastan tomt nu.


Atminstone bryr sig inte Hanami (korsbarsblomningen) om det skakar eller inte. At least Hanami (the cherry blossom) doesn't care about the shakes.

Pa ett satt vill man ju sa desperat att allt ska bli vanligt igen och blir rent ut sagt riktigt besvarad nar nagon papekar hur det egentligen star till med Fukushima eller att det ar vansinne att inte kanna sig saker nar man ater eller dricker. Det ska vara OK, men om nastan hundratrettio miljoner manniskor far panik och slutar ata, samt forsoker ta sig harifran, ar inte det varre da an om nagra blir sjuka? Arligt, hur skulle man resonera om man var i en beslutsfattande situation? Jag vet verkligen inte, men man maste tanka bort det och lita stenhart pa myndigheterna i detta laget och jag hoppas verkligen for mitt liv att de har ratt. Att lita blint pa ett privatforetag som skott en katastrof som denna med de resultat vi ser nu, kanns for mig totalt vansinnigt. Jag forstar ocksa att med min nationalitet, bakgrund, personlighet och alder, ar jag oerhort kritisk i detta laget. Inget har faktiskt hant mig rent fysiskt och vi lever valdigt bekvamt jamfort med de drabbade i norr. Man blir djupt bedrovad nar man tanker pa hur illa det faktiskt ar och kanner sig brutalt lojligt nar man gnaller over ovan- och nedanstaende, men jag tycker detta ar skitjobbigt.


Brandrok over staden 110311. Smoke from the fires at 110311.

Problemet sitter ju naturligtvis till stor del i ens huvud och det far man ju helt enkelt jobba aktivt med (motion, avslappningsovningar, lasa pa angaende stresssymptom) om man ska orka vara har. Man har borjat vanja sig vid att vakna flera ganger per natt, halla koll pa sin jordbavningsvaska och ga och lagga sig med foreberedda skor vid sangen. Det viktigaste ar nerpackat, inget star framme som kan ramla omkull och krossas och all dorrar star oppna sa vi kommer ut om huset satter sig.


Sprickor i marken fran alla skalv. Cracks in the ground from all the shakes.

Jordbavningsapp:arna pa telefonen star nu installda att varna for flera magnituder hogre skalv an forsta veckan, eftersom om man satter dem pa for laga varden, larmar det hela tiden. Det var ca 16 000 skalv under 20 dagar totalt och ca 900 av dem var storre an 3or pa JMA (ca 4.5 och uppat pa Richter); det brukar normalt sett vara ca 200 skalv totalt den har arstiden.


Jordbavningsalarmet i lagenheten ar var palm. Om den skakar ar det borjan till en jordbavning, eftersom det nu ar omojligt att avgora sjalv. The earthquake alarm in our apartment is the palm tree. If it shakes, it's the beginning of an earthquake, since it's impossible to determine this on your own at this point.

Samtidigt spelar allt det dar absolut ingen roll nar man kommer hem pa kvallen och ska laga mat och det borjar skaka sa man far halla i diskstallet samtidigt som man far lobba stekpannan in i hornet av spishallen for att den inte skulle aka i golvet. Ska man slanga sig under bordet igen? Funkar telefonen? Man blir livradd och vill bara att det ska sluta. Det ar alltsa precis som om det var sjogang pa en bat, men just nu hade det kannts tio resor battre att sitta pa ett skepp i en storm och iallafall se vagorna. Jordbavningsvagor ar totalt osynliga och man har ingen aning om nar de slar till eller hur stora de blir. Jag ar fullt medveten om att vart hus ar byggt sa att det just ska svaja med jordbavningar och vi bor pa 10e vaningen, sa alla har inte detta problemet, men inte fan visste jag att man kunde bli aksjuk av att laga mat.


Jag hoppas sa att detta fina folk far ordning pa allt sa snart som mojligt. I so hope this fantastic people can sort it all out as soon as possible.

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If you weren’t here last year, I don’t think you’d noticed anything different at all, apart from some of the power being cut at many metro stations. But it’s very quiet compared to last year. If there were normally few westerners, it’s almost empty now.

In one way, I desperately wish for things to go back to normal again and become flat out very troubled when someone points out how things really are at Fukushima or that it’s crazy not to feel safe eating or drinking. It should be OK, but if more than one hundred and thirty million people are struck by panic and stop eating, at the same time as they try to leave, wouldn’t that be worse than if some got sick? Seriously, how would you reason if you were in a decision making situation? I really don’t know, but one has to trust the authorities in total now and I hope for my life that they’re right. To blindly trust a private company who has handled a disaster with the current result we are seeing, is for me insane. I also understand that with my nationality, background, personality and age, I’m immensely critical in this situation. Nothing has happened to me physically and we live in enormous comfort compare to the people in the north. One becomes deeply devastated thinking about how bad it actually is and feel brutally ridiculous when whining about the above and below, but I think this is bloody hard.

A huge part of the problem is of course mainly in one’s head and it’s just active work (physical exercise, relaxation practices, to read up on symptoms of stress) which will cut it if one is supposed to be able to be here. You also get used to waking up several times every night, have complete control over the earthquake kit and have prepared shoes by the bed. The most important items are all packed, nothing is out in open space which can fall over and be crushed and all the doors are open if the house would collapse. The earthquake app:s on the phones are now set to warn for several magnitudes higher shakes compared to the first week, since if they are set at too low values, there is a constant stream of alarms. There were ca 16 000 shakes during 20 days in total and ca 900 of them were larger than 3:s on JMA (ca 4.5 and up on Richter); normally there’s ca 200 shakes in total in the same amount of time, this time of the year.

In controversy, none of this matters when you try to make dinner after coming home in the evening and it starts to sway so that you have to hold the drying stand for the plates with one hand and at the same time try to shove the frying pan towards one of the corners of the stove with the other, just to avoid all of it ending up on the floor. Do I have to dive under the table again? Is the phone working? You become petrified and just want it all to stop. It’s like being at sea in bad weather, but right now it’d felt ten times better to actually sit on a ship in a full frontal storm, since then you can at least see the waves. The earthquake waves are completely invisible and you never know when they will hit or how big they are. I’m now fully aware that our house is build so that it’ll sway with the quake and we live on the 10th floor, so not everybody has this problem, but I didn’t bloody know one could be car sick from cooking.