Life Moves On

This will be the last daily update of this blog, as I'm confident that life has returned to normal, as normal as it could following such a disaster. I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be hearing sad stories of relatives and friends who were affected by the earthquake, but I'm happy the crisis is over.

I just wanted to leave you all with some notes about the media and clarify some truths:

-There is no radiation 'plume' that has reached Tokyo, though radiation levels are marginally higher than normal, totally nothing dangerous. 

-Some food including spinach has been found to be contaminated, but even if you ate nothing but that spinach every day for a year, it would still be harmless.

-People have been advised to wear masks outside in the rain and to use an umbrella as it may contain a smidgen of radiation. As a side note, pollen allergy is *very* common in March (I once taught a class of 5 students where everyone was sniffing from hayfever), so media pictures of the multitudes of mask-wearers in Tokyo is not a sign of radiation panic.

-The streets are not like 'ghost towns', life is pretty much back to normal. I am able to get orange juice, sandwiches and rice again!

-The British Embassy has been giving out iodine tablets to British citizens. Wheras I'm grateful that they are doing something to help, I feel it's uneccessary and just adds to fear-mongering.

Here is a link to the Journalist Wall of Shame, a publically updated list of news articles from around the world which are often exaggerated to epic proportions. The UK's the Sun features heavily. Here is my favourite *insane* article, written by a British woman living in the same area as myself: "My Nightmare Trapped in City of Ghosts"

Life Moves On

A full car and posing in masks

I've moved out of my apartment!! My boyfriend, as a belated birthday present, hired a car for the day and helped me move out. I was extremely grateful for that, as it turned out I had hoarded more stuff than I had realised! I've now moved to an area in South-West central Tokyo.

 My new place!

So as I said I won't be updating daily anymore, so this is me "signing out". 
Thank you for reading and for thinking of me through what was the longest and craziest week-and-a-half of my life!!