Back in Japan

On the 18th, Tom and I decided to take a little break and spend a week in Seoul.  There were a multitude of factors that brought us to purchase tickets including concerns from family, a deteriorating Fukushima power plant, and a great opportunity to travel to South Korea.  It turned out to be a wonderful trip, including cathartic time with family members (we stayed with Tom's cousin and his family).

Tom and I with our wonderful hosts in Seoul

We're midway through the week back in Japan, still keeping a close eye on the nuclear plant down south. Even though we keep a close eye on the radiation levels, my concerns for personal safety are decreasing at a rapid rate.  I'll occasionally check U.S. news sources to see what they've been saying, and every time becomes a frustrating experience.  If I turn on the news in Japan, a majority of stories are dedicated to those who were hardest hit, the people of Miyagi prefecture and surrounding areas.  Rarely do I see CNN covering a story on the people of the disaster.  What about the death toll that has skyrocketed to over 10,000? What about those still missing?  How are those remaining surviving?  What conditions are they living in?

The 24-hour news networks in the States need to discuss more than alarmist, generalized stories on radiation.  

How about the conditions in the rest of Japan?  Hokkaido, to my knowledge, is doing fine. Other than supermarkets being short on canned items because they've been shipped to shelters in Honshu, I haven't seen or felt any affects post-earthquake.  Fox, MSNBC, and CNN can make all of Japan out to be a disaster zone, while in fact, people have been back to work for weeks.  That's not to say that Japan is fine.  Thousands of people need help, and will be getting help.  As I mentioned, canned goods and some fresh food from supermarkets in Hokkaido have been shipped to affected areas.   Same with the Tokyo area.  Many people are helping in their own way, by persevering.  Japan has been hit by disasters, man-made and natural, so many times in the past century that if they were unable to pick themselves up and return to work, the country would not exist today.

As for donations, aid organizations are going crazy over Japan.  Japan is a developed country and has the resources to help its people, unlike Haiti, who experienced a horrible earthquake only three years ago.  Education prior to donating is key here.  There's a variety of websites out there dedicated to making a wise decision when deciding where to put your money.  I've listed a few below that concern Japan:

Aid Watchers
Reuters
Stratosphere International

For now, Tom and I will keep updated with radiation levels, but our thoughts will stay with those in and around Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures.  We hope Japan can do what it does best: focus on the community, pick itself up, and persevere.