busy with exams and other things I still have had not time to bring you any updates on pictures and reports. I’m also keen on doing a complete redesign and rebuild of the page since the whole navigation is a mess and doesn’t really fit the content…

As soon as the exams (09/22 09/27) are over I’m going to start with that… until then… v(^.^)

I’m back on safe grounds. For the moment I’m glad about that, since you can’t actually say that it is safe in Japan. The main problem is the media blackout. They are holding back important information about air and food radiation levels so that you can’t actually tell if you are safe or not. With a normal Geiger counter you can’t measure small amounts of radiation in food. So even if the food is not contaminated to a degree that will kill you within a short period of time, it could be contaminated with small amounts that will present you with cancer in 20 or 30 years…

If you are wondering were all those posts about radiation levels and the radioactive soil went:

I decided to take the posts about radiation offline since the Japanese government has decided to advance the media blackout and check the internet for “false information” (probably every information thats not been filtered and whitewashed is false information for the japanese government). I guess that they are creating black lists and since I am keen on getting a visa next year,  I’m probably better off not doing anything to upset them…

For anyone who is curious about what I’m talking about: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201108116035

Since me and my wife took the opportunity to get a Japan Rail Pass (Yes even Japanese can get one when married to a foreigner), we decided to use it as much as we can. So before actually going up to Miyagi to visit my parents-in-law, we decided stay in Osaka and pay Hiroshima, Kyoto and Nara a visit (again).

Japan Rail Pass

When visiting Japan, foreigners have the opportunity to get a Japan Rail Pass that allows them to travel on JR trains (including Shinkansen) for a set amount and period. You can choose between a 7, 14 and 21 day pass, which cost 28300yen, 45100yen and 57700yen. The only downside is that every day you that you don’t use it, you have the feeling that you are losing valuable time. But even if you only travel to Osaka and back to Narita you come of cheaper using the Rail Pass.

There are also other types of rail passes available for each region. For example if you get an JR EAST PASS you can travel on all JR Lines from Tokyo up to Aomori (but for example not to Osaka) Those region limited Rail Passes are cheaper, and there are sometimes also other options like the flexible 4 day pass that allows you to choose 4 days within one month on which you would like to travel.

There are view limitations on these rail passes. For example you can’t use the Nozomi Shinkansen. Just check before starting your journey, so that you aren’t surprised.

Links:

Japan Rail Pass – http://www.japanrailpass.net/

JR EAST PASS – http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/

It’s been a long time since the last update on this page. A lot of things have happened, but not much has changed. Except that I am now married to the fiancé I meet in Japan 2 years ago J Now that things have settled down a bit in Japan we decided to pay her parents a visit and are currently staying in Furukawa again. Well if I say settled down you might jump to conclusions. What I mean is that there is no immediate thread either from big earthquakes, tsunamis or the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Earthquake March 2011

Here in Furukawa you can still see the results of the big earthquake on the 11^th of march everywhere. Electricity masts are still a bit crooked, places where old buildings collapsed are empty, streets are still quite messy and have been only patched up and you can tell that the whole city has subsided about 20cm because most of the manhole covers are poking out of the ground. But nevertheless I’m impressed how everything returned back to a level that you can call normal. From now own everything will get better bit by bit.

Radiation in Furukawa

What is left are the worries about the troubled power plant in Fukushima. As far as I can tell Furukawa was not directly affected by the 3 hydrogen explosions (or at least that is what the government tells the Japanese it was), but the background radiation level has risen a bit. Normally the radiation level in Japan was lower than in Europe and about 0,05 to 0,1 mcSv/h, now the air radiation level is about the European level 0,1 to 0,2 mcSv/h, but varies from place to place. Measuring the radiation close to water drains my Geiger counter showed little but no significant difference, so either Furukawa has been spared from “black rain” or it has already been washed away.

Radiation in other places

What is more or less sure is that Fukushima city has been greatly affected by the accidents. Just by measuring the radiation from inside the Shinkansen (Bullet train) I can tell that the background radiation went up to 0,5 – 0,6 mcSv/h. Starting in Koriyama the radiation level went up to 0,4 mcSv/h rose further approaching Fukushima city and then went down as soon as leaving Fukushima prefecture.

Even though 0,6mcSv/h does not mean an immediate health thread (the background radiation on a plane is about 2,2mcSv/h) but being exposed to it for a few years in a row could raise the risk of cancer. Especially children are at risk. As told on television there are quite a view hotspots in Fukushima where the radiation level is up to 50 mcSv/h.

What is more frightening though is the fact that rice is grown in these regions as if everything is normal and that there are no compulsory radiation tests for food in Japan at the moment. The fact that radioactive meat nearly had made it to the market just recently proves that food and water can be a thread and will continue to be for the next years until compulsory test will prevent contaminated food to spread on the market.

Now, enough of these gloomy thoughts. Starting of today I will feed you with new photos again and keep you informed about the situation in Japan.