Facebooking from Tokyo [Essay]

Here is a collection of the updates I posted on Facebook in the 11 days following the March 11th earthquake. Never was a big fan of Facebook but the power it gave us living here in Tokyo to relay our experiences to friends and loved ones has proven itself to be revolutionary in terms of how news is gathered and disseminated.

1st entry: March 12th 2011 – 11:39
Just thought I’d post a bit of an update while I’m still able to – talk of a blackout this evening. There have been a lot of aftershocks throughout the night, maybe 3 or 4 an hour. I’d normally sleep through them but not last night. They are still going on at the moment but their intensity seems to be dying down. No major structural damage in my area but, as I’m sure you’ve seen on TV, the North-east of the country and the area around Sendai in particular about 350 km north of here, is in real trouble.

Anyway, seems like the worst of it is over now, fingers crossed. Hopefully the death toll will remain relatively low.
Thanks again for all your messages, much appreciated.

2nd entry: March 14th 2011 – 1:34
Another day, another update. Life in Tokyo is pretty much the same as before Friday’s quake but there have been a few subtle changes: the streets are quieter and a lot of shops are closed. Impossible to get any bread or milk but to be fair, relatively speaking, I don’t feel that’s a major issue.

A lot of people are deciding to stay at home and stock up on food. Power cuts are going to start tomorrow in order to save electricity for essential services.

We are still experiencing some minor aftershocks from time to time and we have been told to expect a level 7 (Richter scale) or above aftershock over the next few days.

The real problems are in the north of the country, those areas that were destroyed by the tsunami. I’m sure you have all seen the images on TV. The devastation has been unbelievable and the rescue services are busy trying to get people to safety.

A lot of people here in Tokyo are concerned about the potential meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the subsequent fallout. At the moment we are getting conflicting information about the situation so it’s almost impossible to give an accurate assessment of it.
I will keep you updated on any changes.

3rd entry: March 14th 2011 – 21:18
For friends and family outside Japan (I’m guessing that those of you in Japan are up to speed on what’s happening over here):
There was no power cut after all, not in my area anyway.
Went shopping today and the supermarket was absolutely full of people and the panic buying has meant that that there isn’t as much food as usual. That is not to say there is a food shortage as such, rather a decrease in the usual abundance.
I had to queue up for around 30 minutes to get a few tinned and dry goods, given that the local smaller shops have very little in terms of food.

New images of the damage inflicted by the tsunami and the ongoing rescue efforts are continuing to come in.
It has recently been announced that the cooling system at reactor number 2 in the Fukushima nuclear facility has failed. This means that the nuclear fuel rods were partially exposed, began to partially melt and have therefore given off some radiation in the area surrounding the facility. News just in however suggests that the cooling system has recently resumed working. It’s all very much a developing situation and I will keep you informed as news comes in.

4th entry: March 15th 2011 – 17:20
The situation at the nuclear power plant is uncertain. I am awaiting news from a friend who is attending a meeting here in Tokyo with a top British scientific advisor on nuclear accidents. As a precaution I have packed a suitcase ready to head to the west of Japan in order to put some distance between myself and the plant. Not a time to panic but at the same time, not a time to be complacent. As always, I will keep you updated.

5th entry: March 15th 2011 – 21:29
Today has probably been the most stressful day since the earthquake struck on Friday. Was woken up this morning by quite a large aftershock but then managed to doze off again. An hour or so later and my phone rang: it was a friend telling me that there had been another explosion at the nuclear plant. Got up and checked the news and soon realised that the situation was at its most critical since Friday.

There were reports of increased radiation levels in the Tokyo area and surrounding prefectures. I have received a few messages and phone calls from friends who were either living Tokyo, preparing to do so or at least considering it. Some were heading to the West of the country, whilst others were leaving the country completely. I decided to pack a suitcase, follow the developments on the news and prepare to leave at a moment’s notice.

A friend who works for the British Chamber of Commerce announced here on FB that at 5 pm (local time) she was attending a meeting with the British Government’s chief scientific advisor about the unfolding events at the nuclear plant in Fukushima. I decided to wait until I heard news about the outcome of that meeting.

As you may have seen from previous posts, the news was good: Tokyo is SAFE, even if things were to deteriorate at the plant, a Chernobyl-like disaster is impossible.

In addition, I have read a number of up-to-date scientific reports on the situation undistorted by the sensationalist lens of the media. After carefully reading these reports and hearing the assessment of the chief scientific advisor I have decide to stay here in the metropolis.

I respect the decision that some of my friends have taken to leave the city. It is something that everyone has to decide for themselves after taking into account the information available.

Striking the balance between panic, caution and complacency is not easy when you follow the output of the media, especially the foreign media: panic is where the balance is encouraged to lie. This brings me to my final point: the foreign media has shown a real lack of respect to anyone who is living here in Japan, and their friends and relatives, who are continuously relying on their output to keep themselves informed on the unfolding events. Some of the headlines have been sensationalistic, to say the least, especially in relation to the nuclear plant incident. The vast majority of foreign media seems to have chosen style over substance, apocalyptic rhetoric over fact and sensationalism over accuracy.

Don’t get me wrong, the situation in the north-east of the country, the part devastated by the tsunami, is awful and we have all been repeatedly exposed to the terrifying images of the tsunami. Right now however, the focus should also begin to shift to the resilience of the people in that part of Japan, the heroic efforts of the people still working at the nuclear plant to contain the leak as well as the rescue workers working around the clock to find survivors and the unbelievable feat of engineering which has meant that the vast majority of buildings in Japan have withstood the incredible force of the earthquake that those of us living in the East of the country experienced 4 days ago.
Apologies for the length of the entry but it’s been an eventful day and I believe that my sentiments are shared by non-Japanese and Japanese alike.

6th entry: March 16th 2011 – 22:26
First of all, a big thank you to all of you who have been reading my updates, commenting and messaging, much appreciated.

The day began with another problem at the Fukushima nuclear plant. I’m sure you have all seen the news so there is no point in going over that. Needless to say, I noticed the usual apocalyptic language being used by the foreign media, who once again have shown a complete lack of respect for those people who either live here or have relatives and/or friends living here. I noticed how the BBC was reporting on foreigners leaving Tokyo and actually using those people’s comments in their live text feed taken from twitter or from people commenting directly to the BBC. What an interesting example of the news creating the news: the media’s own sensationalistic rhetoric and selective reporting is playing a primary role in people’s decision to panic and flee the capital, and what do they do? They report on it. (I guess this where I should insert a lol-fknwnks)

I decided to send in a comment to the BBC in order to politely and succinctly put this point to them; but guess what…my comment wasn’t published. Oh well, there must have been too many spelling mistakes or maybe my comment did not fit in with the picture they are trying to paint: I guess we’ll never know…

Let me add that the BBC, of all the foreign media, is probably one of the less sensationalistic. I shudder to think what FOX, ITV etc. are up to. I don’t even want to know. As for the print media, I’m sure the tabloids are lowering the standards of journalism with each and every single printed word published on their toilet paper.

Anyway, this is how my day, here on the outskirts of Tokyo, panned out. Around 12:52 my apartment began shaking, again. As you know, there have been around 200 aftershocks over the last five days but this one actually made me head for the door, but after 30 seconds or so it subsided. As I posted earlier, it turned out to be a magnitude 6 earthquake and its epicentre was off the coast of Eastern Chiba, perhaps 100 km from my house, hence its intensity.

At around 3 pm I decided to head out and catch a bite to eat. I got on my bicycle (an actual antique I believe) and headed for the train station area, where some of the city’s major shopping outlets, restaurants, cafes and bars are located. As I parked my bike I noticed that though some of the shops were open they seemed to be in complete darkness: the rolling power cuts had finally come to Ichikawa. A text message from a friend’s girlfriend confirmed that the power cut would last for 3 hours and 20 minutes and be in place until 18:20. Not a single restaurant or cafe was open and those shops that were had very little to sell, in terms of food. I decided to head back home.

On my way back I found a bakery with a lot of people inside it: bread?! After queuing for around 20 minutes I managed to get 2 freshly baked baguettes. I inexplicably began to hear the Russian national anthem playing in my head and imagined myself wearing an ushanka… though to be fair, I’m guessing that in Communist Russia they had to queue for much longer than 20 minutes and I’m pretty sure that baguettes were off the menu.

Buoyed by my recent acquisition of bread – quite a rare find since Friday – I decided to try and capture the moment the electricity came back on from the nearby river, that separates Tokyo (unaffected at the time by the rolling power cuts) from Chiba. Once dusk had given way to the evening I thought the contrast between Tokyo’s bright lights and Chiba’s eerie and,　for me, unprecedented plunge into complete darkness would be quite striking. It may not sound too exciting to you but you’d be surprised at the things you find exciting when there is no electricity. I have attached some pictures and let me just say this: you had to be there.

On a more serious note, the magnitude and extent of the devastation in the north-east of the country continues to unfold, and that is what our concerns should centre on at the moment; they are the people who need help; that is the area of Japan that the foreign press should be focused on: they are the real victims of Friday’s events. As you can see by the tone of this note, I, as well millions of others living here in Tokyo, who do not have family and friends affected directly by the tsunami, are fine. We may find it hard to buy milk or bread for a few days, we feel the aftershocks and we are inconvenienced by the occasional power cut, but that’s the whole point: we are INCONVENIENCED, nothing more. Oh and yes, almost forgot: thanks to some of the media’s coverage of the situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant some of us were also scared shitless.

Just because the media has run out of adjectives to describe the situation there, just because they have no new footage to shock us with and just because they did not have the foresight to enlist the help of individuals fluent in both Japanese and English – and there plenty of them – in order to help their reporters do their job, does not give them carte blanche to exaggerate the news, to make people panic and to ultimately deflect attention from the real tragedy of the past few days, a tragedy still unfolding that has affected thousands of people in that part of the country.

Hopefully this will be the last of my diatribes I subject you to. As panic begins to hopefully subside then so will my desire to bore you with my thoughts and experiences. Despite what you hear and see on the news, or read in the newspapers, things are OK here in the Tokyo area. If anything changes I will let you know, minus all the sensationalism.

However, up there in the north-east they are not: rescue workers from Japan and all over the globe are working round the clock to try and help those affected; survivors of the tsunami are sheltering together and demonstrating to the world their strength, resilience and courage; nuclear plant workers are exposing themselves to dangerous levels of radiation in order to keep as safe as possible those people living in the area. That is what’s happening. What MAKES the news and what IS the news are two different things.

Thank you for reading and apologies for the length.
Take care and look forward to reading your comments.

7th entry: March 17th 2011 – 16:19
I know that a lot of you back home in England are worried about the unfolding events here and I honestly appreciate your concern. I, as well as everyone else here, am also following the situation closely. As of the time of writing this is what the FCO is advising:

‘We advise against all non essential travel to Tokyo and north eastern Japan given the damage caused by the 11 March earthquake and resulting aftershocks and tsunami. Due to the evolving situation at the Fukushima nuclear facility and potential disruptions to the supply of goods, transport, communications, power and other infrastructure, British nationals currently in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should consider leaving the area.’

Note the last sentence of the paragraph ‘…British nationals currently in Tokyo and to the north of Tokyo should CONSIDER leaving the area.’

Believe me, all of us here have considered leaving the area since Friday and after considering it, I have personally decided to stay for now. Should the advice from the FCO change, then my plans will change accordingly, as I’m sure will those of all the other Brits.

There are a lot of us still here in Tokyo. I cannot speak for everyone so I will try to explain MY own reasons for staying put, for the time being. My own decision to stay does not stem from complacency, stubbornness or misinformation. It stems from my determination to remain level-headed, to not be guided by panic, and ultimately, to make an informed decision based on the advice given by the FCO and the facts that we are all continuously having to distill from the constant stream of hyperbolic news.

I hope this clarifies my decision to stay here in Tokyo for now.
I will post further updates later on in the day.
Thank you.

8th entry: March 17 2011 – 22:52
Hello everyone. I wrote yesterday that I probably would not be writing anymore updates, I lied.
What a bizarre few days we have had; today has been no exception. There was an unexpected power cut which began at around 12:40 and lasted until around 15:30. With very little to do at home I decided to head out to see what was happening here in Ichikawa. I started off by going to the park near my house: the sun was shining down and a lot of children were playing as their parents looked on: if they felt a sense of imminent danger it wasn’t visible at all.

There is no doubt that the streets are quieter than they normally are, but people are going about their daily business as normally as they possibly can. There were a few cafes open near the station so I decide to go into one to get a drink. As the power was still out there were only cold drinks available. I decided to get an ice coffee and find a seat in what turned out to be quite a crowded place. My Japanese language ability is limited but listening to the conversations of the people around me I noticed that they all centred on the Fukushima nuclear plant, their fears but also their desire for things to get back to normal. As we all sat there in semi-darkness it was clear that things were far from normal.

After nursing my coffee for around 20 minutes I decided to head back home and wait for the electricity to come back on. At 3:30 power was restored to the area. As some of you may have seen, I decided to update everyone on the recent developments in relation to the FCO’s advice to British nationals living in the area. I underestimated the emotional response that the update would elicit from my family. Perhaps I was unable to convey the relatively low importance of the FCO’s statement in the context of what has been happening over the last few days; perhaps the news was the proverbial ‘straw that broke the camel’s back. Either way, the psychological toll that the events of the last few days has had on loved ones became very clear and poignant through the wall posts, messages and　in particular the phone calls that I have received over the last couple of hours; though they have been coming in for days now.

It has become clear to me that the events that have unfolded in Japan since Friday have been felt far beyond the confines of this part of the world. The pain, hardship and grief that the people living in the north-east of the country have been experiencing is beyond imagination and I will not pretend to even begin to understand what it must be like.  Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do to help them and the powerlessness I, and I’m sure, many residents of Tokyo feel is extremely frustrating. It seems to me that in all of this I have a very small part to play: all I can do is to help alleviate the anxiety of my loved ones by doing what they believe is in my best interests right now. Given the focus of the media in recent days on the potential ‘nuclear catastrophe’, it is not surprising that most of you in England and Italy have been suggesting that I should leave the country and return to England, but I can’t bring myself to do that. What I can do however is to leave the metropolis and head to Osaka, in order to join some friends who went there a couple of days ago. I am sorry to leave you Tokyo-ites but my family and my loved ones` well-being, being physical or mental, will always come first.

You might be wondering why I am reticent to leave Japan completely, even if for a short time. It’s a difficult question to answer but I will try. From the point of view of someone who has never lived here, I can imagine that you see the country as a distant, foreign land; thousands of miles away both in terms of geographical distance and culture. And you’re right, it is. What you have to remember however, is that I have lived here for 4 and a half years; I have spent some very important and formative years of my life here; I have built relationships and friendships here that still endure and will do so for a long time to come; I have both loved and hated this country in equal measure; I have gotten to know its people and culture, both their good points and their bad points; I have memories that will stay with me forever. Ultimately, I can’t bring myself to abandon – and that’s what it feels like to me – Japan in this dark hour in the name of the misplaced fear that the sensationalism of the foreign media has helped to cultivate since Friday. This may seem a little sentimental to you, then again it may not, I don’t know, and frankly I don’t care. This is the way I feel.

My family is happy that I am moving from Tokyo to Osaka: it will put their minds at ease and that’s what matters to me the most right now. If the threat were real and imminent I would probably be writing these words from the distant safety of England but I am writing to you from – what I believe to be – the safety of Tokyo, and it is with regret that tomorrow morning I will temporarily leave this great city. Take care.
がんばろ　日本

9th entry: March 22nd 2011-1:50
It really does seem as though this will be the last update I write about the events triggered by the earthquake here in Japan on March the 11th. Before leaving Tokyo for Osaka last Friday, the events unfolding at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima were being dissected in every possible way. As I checked the news at around 5 am local time, just before leaving to catch a bus from the centre of Tokyo, there was a steady stream of coverage flowing from every major news channel.
As soon as I arrived home this morning, I checked those very same news channels and found that the focus of their attentions had primarily shifted to Libya. I’m sure that in relation to Japan, the phrase `no news is good news` must have come to mind for all of you not living here. Another way to put it is that `relatively good news is no news`.

Anyway, as expected, things do seem to be settling down here, at least as far as the ‘nuclear apocalypse’ is concerned, and that is good news for everyone concerned. Of course, the death toll continues to rise in the north-east of the country as the rescue teams continue to uncover bodies from the rubble left in the wake of the tsunami, hundreds of thousands of people continue to live in temporary shelters and hope fades rapidly for the survivors still unable to contact or locate family and friends. There isn’t a great deal of good news coming form that part of Japan but I guess that the opportunity to create hyperbolic, eye-catching headlines by means of sensationalistic language does not present itself so readily in these kind of tragic, yet sadly familiar situations. It seems to me as though there is a great deal of journalistic work still to be done in that part of Japan, though perhaps it isn’t the kind of work that would yield the immediate results needed to sell the news.

A friend and colleague of mine living over here in Tokyo, showed me the following article, which appeared today in The Sun: I know it’s The Sun, but even by their standards it’s pretty shambolic. For me it’s quite a funny read but, I know what’s happening here; a lot of people back home however, don’t. Well, anyway, another reason to hate The Sun. You know, it’s been a bit hard to get hold of toilet paper out here recently so if anyone fancies buying a copy and sending it over to me I’d be much obliged.

On a separate note, the trip to Osaka was quite interesting. First of all, it was the first time that I have really spent any time there. It’s a great city, full of friendly, warm and fascinating people. It is quite different to Tokyo and it’s definitely a place I would like to spend more time in, should the opportunity arise. Secondly, it turned out to be quite a Tokyo escapee’s reunion, though I know that some of you Tokyoites will resent the term ‘escapee’…

Never before – and hopefully never again – have I had so many drunken conversations about nuclear radiation, contaminated food and water, or reasons for packing a bag and leaving because of emails and phone calls from people back home worried about a ‘nuclear meltdown’. People’s opinions ranged considerably from those concerned about radioactive spinach – you know who you are – to those who wanted to get back as soon as possible to get on with normal everyday life. Anyway, it turned out to be quite an impromptu piss-up in a great city, which I must admit, took the edge off the initial annoyance at having to leave Tokyo. Though now, given the amount of alcohol consumed, I’m not sure if did my long-term well-being any favours by going to Osaka rather than staying here in the capital…

As I said, barring any highly improbable developments, life should gradually get back to normal here in Tokyo and my need to write these updates is over and done with. It’s been quite interesting for me to document what has been happening here in Tokyo over the last 10 days or so.

For those of you who have been reading, thank you for reading and thanks again for the concern expressed through your messages, wall posts, emails and phone calls.
From Tokyo with love.

Submitted by: Maximillian Guarini