While the western media continues to fuel a panic, resulting in the USA and Britain now joining the French who immediately panicked, the cherry blossoms around Odawara Castle prepare to blossom.

Meanwhile, the levels of radiation in Tokyo remain about the same as they were back in December. Below 60 is normal. As of this writing, Tokyo sits below 20, yet the panic intensifies thanks to a media looking for ratings.

In my neck of the woods, the fear and panic isn’t much better. Stores in Oregon are reporting a run on potassium iodine tablets, leaving the shelves empty. Never mind that radiation from the equivalent of 1,000 Chernobyls was released closer to Oregon (mostly in the Pacific Ocean) during the nuclear testing of the 1950s and 1960s and taking potassium iodine wasn’t necessary then either.

Where are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert when you need them? It’s time for another rally.

Posted on March 17th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: castle, cherry blossoms, odawara, sakura. Comments Off on Odawara Castle during cherry blossom season

… about the nuclear problem as it relates to Tokyo.

Japan Nuclear Update

Posted on March 16th, 2011 under Japan. Comments: 1

Time to turn off CNN or whatever news show you’ve been watching for the past five or six days. Time to realize that the news is performed by actors looking for ratings, not reporters looking to give you a true picture of reality. Sure there was a massive quake and tsunami. There is lots of damage, death, and destruction along the coast near Sendai and in Fukushima. Japan will recover, rebuild, and be better than before.

The news media are not presenting things accurately. I cringe at nearly everything they say. The western news media in particular seem to be totally clueless. They sometimes don’t know where they are (naming places that certainly aren’t currently located at as their current location), can’t even pronounce Tokyo (it isn’t To-ki-o), and sensationalize the facts. It’s almost as if they want things to be worse. I watched one news guy call the area hit by the tsunami a “retirement community” since there are so many old people. Rural Japan is loaded with old people. That’s Japan! Elderly people didn’t move there in retirement (which is what an American might think).

We have friends and family who have been watching the news calling and emailing us saying how fortunate we are to be back in the USA and not in Tokyo where we wouldn’t be able to find food to eat, water to drink, and where we’d be dying of exposure to radiation. Ha! I’d take the food selection in Tokyo, post-earthquake, any day.

Here are a couple more links to show how things really are in Tokyo:
Food crisis in Tokyo!!! (not)
Post Earthquake Tokyo

BTW, today’s photo is from Tokeiji in Kamakura. It represents a call for more calmness and less panic-spreading nonsense from CNN and the other news outlets.

Posted on March 16th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: kamakura, tokeiji, Tokyo. Comments: 6

The best part of this photo is not that my son and I were able to time travel back to get an authentic photo in the Edo (Tokugawa) Period of Japan’s history. No, it’s the fact that if you look really closely you’ll see how friendly the ladies were back before the Meiji Restoration.

Actually, I think it was the female in the orange and white outfit’s friend who was taking our picture. This was taken at Edo Wonderland in Nikko, Japan on one of the funnest days I’ve ever experienced. The peace-sign flashing photo sneaker was a pleasant surprise when I downloaded the pictures off my SD card later.

Posted on March 16th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: edo wonderland, nikko, people, ryan. Comments Off on Edo period female sneaks into my photo

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan: Readers’ Photos from the New York Times. The quality of these isn’t always great, but it gives you some idea of what Tokyo was like on March 11, 2011.

Posted on March 15th, 2011 under Japan. Tags: Tokyo. Comments: 1