The Show Must Go On: Spring

The house is still standing. We are safe and healthy though a bit stressed. These past 10 days have been a mixture of fear, grief, worry and hope. I’m not going to rehash what’s already been written in the media (nor comment on it).

What I will write is that according to what I’ve experienced these past few days in Kichijoji, is that things are going back to normal. There is bread, bottled water, toilet paper in the stores. And I managed to get a full tank of gasoline for the car today. So it appears that a certain amount of calm has taken hold.

Photos below are from yesterday at a popular park near our that is popular with young families with toddlers. A beautiful day to take your first steps or play ball with Dad.

The usual clients at Starbucks were happy to soak in the sun, not appearing to worry about all the nuclear radiation reports.

These are good signs. Hopefully there will be better signs to come from the government and nuclear agencies in the coming days. I think people are starting to process the barrage of information and situations (earthquake, tremors, tsunami, power outages, daily supply shortages, etc.) and begin to adjust to the point where it’s become their “new normal”.

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Lara and the kids went on early spring break on Wednesday to Fukuoka in Southern Japan, as the level of radiation increased in Tokyo and various incidents were happening simultaneously at the Fukushima nuclear plant. I have decided to stay for work as,according to government, levels are considered very low and do not pose a health risk.

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The more I think about the past week, the more I think this is a lot about Faith. Faith in the government, faith in the media, faith in your family, faith in nuclear experts, faith in your employer, faith in your community. Who do you believe? Who is right? What happens if any is wrong? On Tuesday, Lara and I decided to take the kids out of the event risk equation until we knew more. Thus Fukuoka.

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The initial plan are the family to come back this Wednesday. Better rested and better informed. After that, the next step is figuring out how we can help. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Nuclear reactors. We are undeterred. Kichijoji is our home. The show must go on.