6 months and counting

It's true. I've been living in Tokyo for 6 months now, crazy but loving EVERY second of it!! God is doing amazing things in my life and in this nation, and it's such a cool blessing to be a part of it. Spring is slowly creeping in, and I still feel jealous when I hear people in the US tell me it's 60-70 degree weather >__>; But no worries, since it's SAKURA (cherry blossom) season here!! I noticed the first buds when I went to Tokyo Disney Sea 2 weeks ago, here's a photo I took :D

The official sakura viewing season starts at the end of this month - lots of picnics for viewing at larger parks, so I'm super excited!!

And then last Friday was when the huge earthquake hit the Sendai area ><;; I don't think people realize, but Japan has minor earthquakes everday. Of course level 3-4 is nothing compared to the 8.9 that hit, but they're common in general. I've had SO many people writing/emailing/texting me if I'm ok, and the answer is 100% FINE!! Tokyo doesn't have any major damage (actually any that I've seen...), and all the precautions being taken here are to help those further north, NOT because something is wrong here. For now, the government is trying to reduce the usage of electricity because of the explosions at the plant in Fukushima, so the influence here is that everyone's electricty is getting cut for 3 hours a day for a week. That and the trains are running less. Local businesses are helping too by using only half the lights, closing earlier, etc. I've also seen reports from overseas that Tokyo is having food shortages. WE ARE NOT HAVING SHORTAGES. The only reason stores don't have enough in stock is because locals are freaking out and buying too much at a time. The Tokyo government actually released a warning earlier this week asking people to STOP buying so much, because there was no need.

If you'd like to keep up with the current situation of the earthquakes/tsunami/factory, please do NOT go to major media sources. Half of what they say is just to get more views. I'd recommend reading up at MIT's blog about what's happening: http://mitnse.com/

And if you'd like to see the current levels of radiation in Tokyo, you can see a chart that's updated every 10 minutes here: http://park18.wakwak.com/~weather/geiger_index.html

The top graph is today's levels, and the second graph is the level in December 2010. The comparison is very interesting, at least in my opinion, since there's virtually no change. But don't get me wrong, there IS major radiation north of here in Fukushima because of the plant explosion. However the molecules being released there have a half-life of 10 seconds or less, so by the time you finish this sentence...they're already gone. But the major precaution being taken in that area is to evacuate everyone lviing within 18 miles of the plant.

Anyway, yes just felt I needed to give a basic rundown. It just seems that more people overseas are freaking out than those in Japan, which I think is largely due to the misinformed media sources, and just a different purpose for reporting (Japan = to inform/calm, overseas = to make the situation seem worse, freak people out). But I've seen the Japanese people come together in an AMAZING way to deal with this tragedy, and I've come to respect them in a new way. You'd never even know there was a problem if you didn't watch the news. I suppose this post has become long enough for now, but shall be posting more here to keep you all updated ;)