Spring is HERE!!

As of this week, Tokyo has FINALLY realized that it's spring!! I'm so glad it's time for light jacket weather, aka 60s-70s ^^ Really enjoying the amazing sunshine and of course sakura that're in full bloom now. I was going to go to hanami last weekend, but it was overcast so the event got cancelled ><;; But hopefully shall be able reschedule something soon, since the hanami season only lasts for about a month. In the meantime, I've just been enjoying the sakura trees around my office, there are SO many!! It makes my walk to/from work every day that much more awesome. Here's a photo I took last week~

And besides the flowers, I'm also enjoying all the seasonal FOODS that are out now!! Everything is cherry or peach flavored, so in the past 2 weeks I've gotten cherry juice, sakura mochi, peach gum, and peach toothpaste. Must find more specialties before they're gone next month haha.

Besides that, life this past week has been exciting and crazy! On Thursday night, got to help record a charity song for Japan by Ayako Ikeda called 数え歌 (Kazoe uta) or "counting song." She's an amazing artist and a SUPER fun person to work with, and I'm looking forward to the release of the song (and music video) on amazon.jp's website this week!! We recorded an English version of the song, but here's the original Japanese version for reference while you wait heehee:

On Friday FINALLYYYYY got to go to a w-inds. concert again. Went with Aliyah and had a BLAST!! Getting to see them live again after 2 years just made me extra happy >w< Met up with Natsuki after the show and we spazzed for a bit, then went to dinner together in Kabukicho. Ironically we just went to Matsuya ROFL, but was a good night~

Since I last updated, we've still been having a lot of aftershocks...at least 1 every day that's noticable. Yesterday there was a big one right before I left for work, and I actually didn't feel it, but when I got to the station my line was stopped. But only for 4 minutes, so no big delay thankfully!! Tokyo (and Japan in general) are getting so used to these aftershocks, it's like they've always been a part of the daily routine. I don't even see people get phased anymore when one hits.

I think the only big update in relation to recent events is the change of the Daiichi plant radiation happenings from a level 5 to level 7 accident (same as Chernobyl) on the international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Though I'm still not quite sure WHY it's been changed. From all the research I've done, the amount of radiation released so far by iodine-131 is about 500,000 terabecquerels while the radiation released from Chernobyl was  5.2 million terabecquerels, so 10 times more than the Fukushima plant. I believe they've raised the rating though not only because of actual radiation released, but also based on plant damage and health risks for the workers there. But actually, most of the iodine released happened with the initial plant explosions, and the actual amount of radiation currently in the air is decreasing daily. And thankfully it's only rained 2 days since all of these events, so radiation is staying relatively low countrywide.

And just as a comparison for radiation levels, I thought I'd do some research on the average levels of radiation found in the US. I'm not sure if this will make people in America feel better or worse about the situation, but just goes to show you that just because the media says there are "high" levels of radiation doesn't mean it's higher than other places NORMALLY are.

CURRENT BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS (per year)

• Tokyo: 1,753 microsieverts
  
• USA: 3,000 microsieverts
  

So after learning that little fact...I feel pretty safe haha. But yes have to be careful with what's going on here to keep the level from going any further up.