Evacuation

OK, maybe not quite evacuation but I'm leaving Japan. Judging by the number of other people in Narita airport as I'm writing this I'm not the only one either. The queues for the chinese airline check-in desks stretches most of the way down the side of the departure lobby. That's a long way. And just for extra fun the police are here. Not just normal police either, this appeared to be the Japanese equivalent of a SWAT team. I couldn't quite make out what they were up to but they'd roped off part of the lobby and had what appeared to be a suspicious package under investigation.

I made the decision to leave early after the Foreign Office began advising British Nationals in Tokyo to consider leaving. There's still no real danger but the fact that the transport system had been affected and that there are now regular blackouts convinced me that it was probably best to try and leave sooner rather than later. It's completely fine if you don't need to go anywhere, but since I am flying on to Hong Kong I didn't really want to end up stranded (especially with the HK7s next week) and if something else happens it is perfectly possible that some people will start to panic and leaving the country could become significantly harder.

Speaking of panic, I really haven't been a fan of some of the media reporting on the situation in Japan both by the press here and at home. There has been a lot of sensationalist reporting which just makes life even harder for people. For instance, a number of times it has been reported that the radiation level detected in Tokyo is higher than normal. What the reports have failed to point out is the fact that the level is still nowhere near the level where it could affect human health. Then there was also a picture on the Daily Mail website (yes it is poor journalism at the best of times, but still) depicting a small child wearing a facemask as part of an article on how people are being affected. As soon as you visit Japan you notice that a large number of Japanese people where facemasks in public, it's simply a courtesy if you have a cold and don't want to be spreading germs. Yet there was no mention of this in the Mail article which could give worldwide readers (there must be at least 1 person who can bear it) a completely inaccurate impression of what it's really like. Yes the devastation in the North-East is huge, but in Tokyo and it's surrounding areas the majority of the Japanese are just going about their days normally. It annoys me that the press find the most tragic story they can and report it in a way that implies the apocalypse has come, just to attract more readers. If panic starts to spread then the situation here could get a whole lot worse.

In the end I haven't really managed to see that much of Japan. The only place I really managed to get to was Yokohama (which was lovely) and the rest of the time was just spent in the suburbs. I didn't even manage to see any more of Tokyo than what is visible from within trains and buses. Having said that, I have had a great time, so much so that I am probably going to try and come back at some point and spend a few weeks properly visiting the whole country. I may not have seen as much as I would have liked but the main reason for coming was to spend time with Marthe and I definitely managed to do that. It was an experience of Japanese suburban life really, we took some nice walks, had some nice food, met some nice people. I even managed to get the true Japanese experience of being on a rush-hour train so crammed that you can't even fall over.

Anyway, onwards to Hong Kong!