Radiation rising...

I came home from work to this article in the news

 - Asahi Shimbun - Raising levels of Radiation

There have been more rumours of the government lying to us and it is scary to see another map like this.

Should there be another big earthquake in Fukushima, Japan will be over with...so I have heard.

Apparently, the mountainous areas of Saitama have been hit quite badly.

So, what does it mean?

We pack our bags and go? Science professionals and farmers wish they could. A few we know are...

Fukushima is on the news a lot these days, but we know about the animals dying, but what do we know about the radiation?

No one can measure the levels and predict it all accurately.

Not out to scare you but we need to think about these things.

The thing is, the 'radiation' lines conveniently stop at the borders of Saitama, Chiba and Tochigi, not reaching to Tokyo, Niigata, Nagano. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not wishing clouds of radiation to float over anyone. However, I am thinking, that should there be any levels of radiation in these prefectures, then we need to know. It would mean that half of Honshu island is affected, but of course, no one knows that yet.

Check out this picture from May -There has been a clear spread of radiation in the past few months, so it just makes you think ahead, that's all. What to do and what to believe is another matter.

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Blind - A short film

Watch this - it will take five minutes, but you will be thinking for a lot longer.

It is a video about a salary man and his journey to work. It might seem so surreal, yet, in today's world, it is more real than we realise.


blind from YUKIHIRO SHODA on Vimeo.

Slightly worrying...

Not being alarmist, but, this just caught my eye. The spread of radiation is evident.

I had heard that there could be another extension of the zone. This is by no means confirmed, but looking at this makes me slightly worried.

Even more so, is the random patch of radiation in Chiba (not too far from where we live at all....).

The levels are still low and we must put into perspective everything we have learnt about sieverts so far.

http://static.ow.ly/photos/original/aAT2.png

(photo taken from https://www.facebook.com/Tokyo.Radiation.Levels - a very useful page indeed, putting many people's mind at rest. Thank you.)






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Location:Kasukabe,Japan

JEARS - SENDAI HOUSE (Please read and Share with your friends)

Dear Friends & Supporters of JEARS

I am pleased to say that we have found a base in Sendai, Miyagi for the volunteers and some of the animals we are still rescuing.

Until now, the JEARS team members have been doing very hefty journeys across the whole of Japan on pretty much a daily basis. From Niigata to Fukushima/Miyagi/Iwate in one day, every day is hard work, not to mention with animals in the back as well!

However, we have done all this willingly and without complaint as it is our job. We are here to rescue the animals, and shall continue to do so.

The Sendai base will make this job a whole lot easier.

And this is where you can help too.

I am personally sending a request to you, my friends, to think about helping out. This is direct action and something so small can go such a long way.

You can send a small packet, takkyubin up something large (cage, for example), or even send a care packet for the volunteers, who, will have their travel time eliminated, but not the work load. (Please let me know if you will send a cage or something big.)

Animals are in need of food, wet & dry (cat, dog, rabbit, hamster...), packaged milk for pets, peed pads, toys, spare carriers, if you have them, let me know if you have cages, as we can use these too. We can alwasy use, blankets, small towels, toys...anything animal related is great!!!!!

You can, also keep donating and supporting JEARS through their web page. Your cash donations can be used directly to purchase the above items fom the store just nearby and we can take them directly to the affected areas. (www.jears.org)

Thank you, as always for your love & kindness.

Lee xxx

宮城県　981 3131

仙台市

泉区

七北田

字

大沢

相の沢　２－２８

Miyagiken, 981 3131

Sendai-shi ,

Izumi-ku ,

Nanakita,

Aza,

Osawa,

Ainosawa 2-28

Outside Sendai station, April 2011

Sieverts

Doing my research, it seems that there are some very interesting facts to be learnt.

Right now, the radiation levels in Saitama, where we live are a mere 0.107μSv. This is microsieverts, which is less than milli (mSv) and much less than a whole sievert.(Sv)

Basically, the levels of radiation at the plant that the workers were exposed to were 100mSv, which, is half their limit for being plant workers. This is just double of regular background radiation in parts of Europe....

I am not saying this is good in any way at all.

(Actually, I just saw that regular workers should have 20 mSv..)

I think that their work is still high risk and the plant has admitted to not having checked the radiation levels regularly enough. The other day, the workers were wearing suits to protect them, but they were standing in highly radioactive water and that water was seeping through their clothing.

But, to put it all into some perspective -

A flight to New York from Tokyo is 9mSv (so the ''fly-jins'' exposed themselves to more than they were actually fearing in the first place..)(This is the figure for flight crew. Passengers would have 0.2 mSv, for a round trip)

Sleeping next to a human for a minimum of 8 hours a night, for one year is 0.02 mSv

(I would dread to think of the statistics if one was sleeping next to Elbi and his farts...!!)

Just one banana has as much as 0.0001 mSv, so think about that!!

Smoking a packet a day exposes you to 3 mSv - 60 mSv

And, finally, and perhaps this is where I should worry, for I have been exposed to more radiation at the hospital this year alone than in my whole life.

A brain CT scan is 0.8 mSv - 5 mSv

A chest CT scan is 8mSv - 18mSv

Anything above 250 mSv doesn't bear thinking about, but if treated early, some patients can recover.

As a precautionary measure, some of the embassies are issuing potassium iodide tablets.

Should there be an exposure to a high does of radioactivity, we will take these tables to counteract the radioactive iodine.

We are very positive this will not happen, but, it does help to be prepared. As you can see, Kitty is guarding them for us.

I think that's enough about sieverts from me. My head is in a spin from it all. God bless the nuclear experts who have to deal with these figures all the time.

Things are still unstable in Fukushima. All we can do is pray and pray and pray. xxx

People power....Peer pressure....

Firstly, hats off to all the workers, anyone involved with the Fukushima plant.
Amidst all the heavy criticism, the doubts, the fears, they have battled non-stop to rectify a very bad situation. At no point did they think, 'I've got to get out of here', 'What if there is a nuclear fallout?', 'I can't be bothered with all this'...

No, they have pushed through, and today we finally have some good news that they are regaining control of the reactors at the plant.

THANK YOU!!!!!

I have just read this updated article from the foreign office....
http://ukinjapan.fco.gov.uk/en/news/?view=News&id=569052582

It basically reiterates what Beddington had said before. This guy knows his stuff, and even after repeated, precautionary, but nonetheless, annoying questions, he states that we ARE FINE!

The worse case is a cloud floating over us over 2 days, and that is ultimately a worst case involving southern blowing gale winds.

Sure the news is negative, but whose media is this? CNN have jumped on the fear bandwagon already. Spinach and milk has been found to be 'contaminated'. This is from Fukushima, right by the plant, and reports should not be blown out of proportion.

It is media like this that is giving me and all my friends a headache.

It is media like this that has driven us out of our home.

We are constantly having to fend off relatives and friends and fight for the country in which we live. One person in particular is making my life unmanageable. When people believe what they read and then relay this information as 100% fact, it is hard to contend with. When someone doubts you, it shows a lack of respect, not just for you, but for your friends, family, and the life that you lead.

We have been dealing with such things since last week, and we are exhausted.

Ironically enough, the BBC now pipe in with a report about the tsunami, saying that, one week on, it is the tsunami that is important. WE KNOW!!!!

People are suffering from lack of supplies. People are cold. We need to really help those in the north, but instead the media wants to drag Japan down into a cesspit of filth and lies.

I heard a very sad story today. They need diapers desperately. We sent some boxes up today, but stupidly no diapers.
If you are reading this and are in Japan, please send more to Second Harvest. I posted the link in another post. The address is in Tokyo and can be done with regular post.

Here is the story I heard from my friend....

・ I need to change my daughter's diaper, but there is any diaper left.

・ We evacuated to the shelter. We have a baby crying in the night, it seems to make people annoyed. We are at a loss.

"・ I am looking for my wife every day, but she is still missing. I have nothing to confirm her safe...

・ Gasoline has run out. We can't go to our uncle's funeral.

・ Our family was ok, but our house, money, everything were washed away by tsunami. We have no hope in the future.

・ Water is still cut off in the shelter. Sanitary condition is getting worse day by day. An increasing number of evacuees sufeer from a wide range of physical irregularities."

We need to focus on helping. Hopefully, we will be able to follow this man more. Prayers and love to his family. I hope he can at least say good bye to his uncle.

After all this ranting, I want to end on a heartwarming note; animals reunited with their owners...

http://www.ctv.ca/gallery/html/japan-quake-dogs-pets-victims-110318/index_.html

God bless them all xxxxxxxxxx








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Location:Gift City, Gifu, Japan.

Well, I haven't really spent that much time down south, so I guess this is a great chance.

Having woken up to a whole heap of negativity, all of which has come from abroad, might I add, we have, against our better judgement, decided to leave Saitama.

We are sure of things being fine, if not now, then, in the long run, but there is so much worry, fear and stress that it is starting to spread to us.

As soon as we left the house, we could see the normality around us; trains were delayed, but were running, people were still going about their daily business.

The more normality we saw, the more annoyed we were with what we were doing. If no one else seems to be bothered, then why should we?

We still aren't, but, I will be glad to reach Nagoya and then we can decide where to head from there.

Hitting Tokyo station was disturbing, mind. As we got off the yamanote train, some stupid lady decided to tell me that my dog bag was inappropriate for travel on public transport. You see, usually, the dog's face must be covered, but Elbi hates that and so do we.

Her timing was inconsiderately impeccable. I could have got so angry with her, but I felt the urgency in the air as more people with suitcases emerged. It seems that there many people heeding the rash advice of scaremongers. Either way, it put me on edge, especially with what the lady said.

I checked with the guard that I could buy a dog ticket on the train, but he misunderstood me-!: He told me the tickets were sold out and I lost it. Thankfully, he was talking about the people tickets! Having just forked out 30 000 for comfy seats, you don't want to hear that you can't have them!

We are almost in Nagoya. I can't wait to just relax and get my head into gear. We were supposed to be on holiday at this time anyway, which at least affords us this time of contemplation.


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Location:On the train to Nagoya

Tuesday 15th March - 1515

Suddenly, it is rather late in the day. We haven't been up that long, to be honest and soon it will be dark.

News of power outages are changing regularly, so we have no idea if there will

be a switch off tonight at 6pm or not.

The PM of Japan, has advised people to stay indoors. So, we went out to quickly walk Elbi and then to stock up on necessities.

We wore masks, out, which probably didn't do anything for us anyway apart from make us look silly and steam up our glasses.

I might look scared, but it was just because there were very few people out and I freaked, thinking we should hurry back.

We emptied the conbeeny of water, and some of the vending machines too and stocked up with extra nori (seaweed) so that we would have iodine. We also happen to have multi vits here with extra iodine, so , for now, we will be fine.

There is no point panicking and running our as that will only put us in the thick of it. The levels that are here are minimal and 200km from the plant means that we are safer than a lot of people realise.

My mother is stupidly hysterical, thinking I am in the most dangerous zone. It is a shame people cannot get their facts straight.

We have two fridges packed with food, drinks, not to mention the cupboards as well. The convenience store was empty in terms of breads etc...

But we got liquids, so we were all good.

We have bottles filled with water and we are heeding all the advice coming our way.

More later....xxx

Oh, and we have locked the doors, windows, even the shutters on the windows...