Partygirl reporting from Tokyo Japan

reply to post by Unity_99

Anyone savvy on this?

She is measuring in *tenths* of microsieverts. (millionths)

en.wikipedia.org...

The normal background dose for a person is approximately 0.42 microsieverts per hour. (0.42u/Svh)

And that's naturally occurring.

So, it looks like Tokyo isn't actually ending, doesn't it?

On a side note could you please send me piece by piece a Nissan Skyline GT-R34.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

I admire your courage for going back there. I have a strong affinity for Japan and there long standing culture. The country holds a beautiful spirit...allbiet misguided at times, but beutiful non the less. I've been a Nichren Shoshu Buddhist for a number of decades now and have a good deal of concern for the residents there including yourself.

It is my dearest hope you find a florishing nation and not one stricken by hardship and detriment. I wish you the safeist of journeys and look forward to your future posts.

Originally posted by nougiehauserMD
If this thread by "Mr Thunder" is the one I'm thinking of, he brought on the "negative experience" himself. The poster I'm thinking of went too great pains to let each and every one of us know just how financially well off he was- something along the lines of "sitting in my penthouse hotel room sipping a glass of chauteau homeaux '79".

Zero sympathy.

Yep... that's him. Don't forget to add that this was immediately following the tsunami and horror so many native Japanese were going through. "Silent Thunder" was posting very happy, bragging. I figured his "business" must have been in the Japan tourism or something.


Anyone can search his threads and read it first hand. The ATS Members reactions were not as he is describing.

Congrats on the job! Must be nice and beautiful to see Tokyo!

Ok I got a lot of sleep and feel great now. Thank you for the well-wishes. I will be walking through Shibuya soon and I will take some pictures for you and upload them this morning.

On the surface things look the same to me as they did last year. There are no obvious signs of change. I feel like there are fewer foreigners around but that is hard to say for sure. Maybe I am projecting.

There was a pretty big rattling quake that came through here a few hours ago maybe. It woke me up, must have been around 6:00 am.

I thought about how to use this thread and I figure the best way is simply to keep it open for specific questions and to use if there is a specific emergency or major change of some sort. So I won't be updating it every day or posting tons of pics. Unless something is unusual or you guys have specific questions. I will post a few pics today though.

reply to post by Partygirl

First thank you for the reporting
So how do the people feel about the current situation? Is panic in the air yet? Is there a discrepancy between what the officials are saying verses actual damage/danger? Is there any talk of major evacuations? With as many earthquakes in that area, almost on a daily basis, are there a lot of tremors?
Hope you stay safe and I hope the Japanese are able to make some kind of progress over there.

spec

If I were you, I would try and find out were the workers residence complex is and see if you can interview some of them about their version of events.

reply to post by tamusan


You have to be kidding, does your gut instinct tell you anything? I am so sorry and so saddened by these stories.

OK, I'm going to answer some questions and comments in this thread a little later but I wanted to get these pics up. All these are from Shibuya station., These three are, from top to bottm: A) a pic of a newsstand with today's newspapers (note date) for some proof I am here, B) the crowds of Shibuya station, and C) a pic of Shibuya crossing from the station overpass. I took them all less than a half an hour ago.

reply to post by Partygirl


Can you try posting a photo of the sky in the place your staying at? That will be helpful.

Next pics are of this HIDEOUS mural that is facing shibuya crossing inside the station. I can't believe they have this thing up, it creeps me out, especially given what has happened! It's called "myth of tomorrow" and it appears to be about death and destriction,

Nice trip for how long you stay there ?
i would love to go there even now after the 3 meltdown
did you had to take iodine pills or any medication before going there ?
and do you speak japanese ? its a hard language to learn

Can you post pictures of the beautiful japan
and the interesting sites you have visited
people you have spoken with and before eating your meal
take a pic of your plate mmmmm

Thank you and take care

I don't envy you in Japan, after fukushima i'd never go there. Next big quake that sucker could finish melting down.

reply to post by Partygirl


I think it's great what you're trying to do over there. I feel very bad for the people of Japan. Multiple generations will now have to endure radiation sickness and disease. I won't even eat any short fin ahi tuna (which I love) nor any rice products from Japan. I live on The West coast, so I am sure some has reached us by now.

On another note, I have wanted to learn Japanese. Correct me if I am wrong, but I was told that the pay for a translator in regards to business is very good? I know you're actually there in Japan teaching English. However, Translating from America by pc conference or phone I heard has very good pay? I also heard knowing Mandarin (Chinese) is even more profitable these days. Are you fluent in Japanese, or do you just teach English?~$heopleNation

Originally posted by Wertdagf
reply to post by Partygirl

 

could this in any way be seen by the japanese government as a threat to national security?

If they are hiding anything... sticking your neck out is probobly not the best idea.

I don't know, I never thought of that. Its a creepy idea. I think wandering around Tokyo as an English teacher taking pics and posting them on a semi-anon message board could not be construed as national security threat. If I get closer to Fukushima sometime, maybe that is another story. But I'm not going to break any laws, everything I do here will be legal and open, so I don't think they have too much to be concerned about from me.

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
reply to post by Partygirl

 

First thank you for the reporting

So how do the people feel about the current situation? Is panic in the air yet? Is there a discrepancy between what the officials are saying verses actual damage/danger? Is there any talk of major evacuations? With as many earthquakes in that area, almost on a daily basis, are there a lot of tremors?
Hope you stay safe and I hope the Japanese are able to make some kind of progress over there.

spec

To be honest I don't sense any panic at all, not even a little. People seem to be behaving about the same to me as they did before the quake (I was here beforehand for a short while). There is no talk of major evacuations that I have heard but I know a number of people have left or want to leave, still I think its a small portion compared to the total population. Maybe people are in denial, or resigned to their fate. There was an earthquake this morning but so far there don't seem to be as many tremors as there were after the quake. I spoke with somebody who has been here longer and they say the same.

Originally posted by hotbread
If I were you, I would try and find out were the workers residence complex is and see if you can interview some of them about their version of events.

Very good idea, I will put it on my to-do list.


reply to post by SheopleNation


I don't know anything about that line of work, couldn't say. I am here for about a year and then I go home. I speak enough Japanese to get by, its not my intention to become fluent in this langugae or make it my life's work.

Originally posted by FreedomCommander
reply to post by Partygirl

 

Can you try posting a photo of the sky in the place your staying at? That will be helpful.

Why? It looks like a normal slightly overcast sky to me, is there something particular you want to see?

Originally posted by Ben81
Nice trip

for how long you stay there ?
i would love to go there even now after the 3 meltdown
did you had to take iodine pills or any medication before going there ?
and do you speak japanese ? its a hard language to learn

Can you post pictures of the beautiful japan
and the interesting sites you have visited
people you have spoken with and before eating your meal
take a pic of your plate

mmmmm

Thank you and take care

edit on 4/24/2012 by Ben81 because: (no reason given)

I'm here for a year. I have iodine pills just in case but I haven't taken them. I speak a little Japanese but not so much, it is a VERY hard language to learn, at least for me, so alien from the English way of thinking. I think if you wanted to master it you'd have to study for years and years, its not like French or Spanish where half the words sound the same. The writing system is difficult too. Thanks for your interest but I doubt I'll be posting all that many pics to be honest unless I see something really unusual. The food is very good, yes!


*******

OK guys, have to go run around and do practical things. My computer access is limited so I can't check this thread until late tonight or tomorrow, probably. Thanks again for the interest!

Tomorrow I'm going to be in the Ginza area so maybe I will take pictures of The famous clock tower.

Originally posted by Partygirl
Hello ATS, I don't know how many of you remember that I was here in Tokyo during the earthquake and subsequent events last year. To provide a brief rundown, I was doing missionary work in Tokyo at the time and stayed for a few weeks after, but being rather badly "rattled" (ha-ha) I had a kind of nervous collapse plus became worried about the radiation and other things, so I returned back to the USA, my home, and worked as a clothing salesperson in a mall for most of the year since then.

Now I have returned to Tokyo after being very fortunate to get a job teaching English in Japan (a common job for foreigners here). I am very happy to be back! I will be here for at least a year if all goes well!

Last night I had dinner with Mr. Silent Thunder, an ATS member whose business takes him back and forth between Tokyo and Vladivostok, Russia pretty frequently. Mr. Thunder was a real generous gentleman to take me out to a fancy kaiseki ryori welcome dinner in Ginza, for which I thank him!!! It was just about the best meal I've had in months, yearrs, maybe ever. Very tasty! Thanks Silent!

Mr. Thunder and I had a long talk in which he stated that he had a more or less negative experience last year "reporting from Tokyo" for ATS during the events of 2011, and he wants no part of doing that anymore, but I have a slightly different feeling about things, so I will be happy to answer questions, put up photos when I can, and generally make myself available to do legwork checking things out around Tokyo for ATS, if you guys want. I have a small dosimeter geiger counter so I can take readings from the air and will be doing so while I'm here. Thus far, my readings have been normal. I will tell you if it gets dangerous! Of course I cant measure the food and water this way, which makes me nervous. But it is a risk I decided to take!

So, this thread will be about my experiences here. Like I said, I'll be answering questions and checking things out for anyone who is interested, but I have come up with a few ground-rules, so here they are:

• I'm kind of busy so if I don't get to your questions or can't answer them, please have some understanding.
  
• I'm poor, I don't have the money to be running all over the place checking things out. It's a pretty spartan gig I have for myself, I can barely feed myself on the cheap salary they offfer but I'm not complaining! At least I have a job in a place I want to be, right? But my mobility is limited.
  
• I'm not going to try to prove I'm here, because its impossible. This is the key lesson Mr. Thunder taught me. You either believe it or you don't. And I don't want to give out info that could compromise my privacy. I will, however, be putting up some photos, probably starting tomorrow. I hope you guys like them!

I really want to try to get as close to Fukushima as possible by taking a train-trip up there but it will probably be a while before I can do that, so I'm basically stuck in Tokyo now (not a bad place to be stuck!

)

OK, that's all for now. My job starts real soon and I'm excited! See you guys later, love, gaijin-house-living partygirl.

edit on 4/24/2012 by Partygirl because: (no reason given)

Hey, I am also in Japan at the moment. But in Yokohama. I will move to Osaka on Saturday.
It is nice to hear, that your Geiger counter behaves normal. This is what I know and this is what I try to tell the people here.
A lot of people on here are fearmongering, without this first hand experience. Just Yesterday, I was told that I should stop spreading disinformation... but I have the firsthand experience. And I can assure you, that the food which you can buy is save too since I am working for a big company which certifies things like this (Ok I work in the mobility department for electronic vehicles, totally different... but one of my colleagues takes care of food radiation).

I will be in Shibuya on Friday after work, just for a last drink in Tokio and then on Saturday morning take the Shinkansen... will be pretty tough.
Stay save Partygirl

reply to post by grey580


In truth I didn't blame you a bit for the suggestion you made and knew my faith in this member would be vindicated at the same time. ATS is all about exactly what you suggested and I'm sure she knows that.

Partygirl

Some excellent and interesting pics to be sure.

REMOVED FOR REASONS OUT OF MY CONTROL;