Dear Reader,
I apologize for the radio silence. I have been writing furiously these past three weeks, but I'm just beginning the process of consolidating my hastily scribbled notes into coherent entries.
As some of you know, I've been bounced around a bit lately. Right after I wrote my last entry, my roommate and I grabbed a good friend of ours and beat feet to Kyoto. We spent four days of watching the Fukushima reactors in suspense, throwing together scenarios and escape plans, and awaiting concrete news from our university. Then our program was officially canceled.
Our classes would continue as usual over at the Tokyo campus, and students seeking four-year degrees from that campus could attend. However, Study Abroad students essentially had their visas revoked and were told they would no longer 'have access to TUJ's campus.' It's a liability/insurance thing I guess. They have a policy that they don't do study abroad programs in countries with [US] government-issued travel advisories. So study abroad students like myself are allowed to finish our classes through 'distanced learning,' which is basically online classes.
All but two of my American friends had already left the country. The French and German governments had given their citizens evacuation orders. Eventually the British followed suit. With the cancellation announcement in my inbox and a free plane ticket up my sleeve, I decided a couple weeks in LA would be prudent. So I got on that plane.
My uncle Dave generously offered to put me up at his apartment in the Castro for a few days, giving me a kind of "decompression chamber." Exhausted, confused, and fraying around the edges, I couldn't have had a bigger stroke of luck. After four days of Dave-therapy, I was on that plane again, more or less ready to face LA. I think I've already spent about two weeks here. I had a lot of things to contemplate and sort, but I just couldn't stamp out an intense urge to return to my life in Tokyo. Which brings me to my buried lead: I'm getting on a plane tomorrow afternoon, and I'll be in my Tokyo apartment late Tuesday night. Where I'll be and what I'll do after that, I cannot be sure. But I have several plans and I promise everyone that I will take all of the necessary precautions where radiation is concerned. It is quite likely I will move on to Kyoto within a week or two of arrival. It's hard to say.
So. Back to the blog: I am beginning the process of compiling my notes and posting them, but the entries may be a bit erratic or out of sequence. I scribbled down a lot of details about the weekend after the quake, and I think I'll create a separate page for all of my remaining Tohoku Quake entries. I might even make a separate page about my brief repatriation. Many of my readers might be interested in more detailed anecdotes about the quake and musings about my 'inner life' [the emotional clamor I try to keep safely locked inside my skull]. But I think these matters are tangential, a mere interruption. They have changed me as a person, and my life in Tokyo will now be drastically different. But I think more relevant entries will reflect these changes, without including my overwrought soliloquies.
Certain readers have requested that I not change the quake entries I posted weeks ago ("not a word!"). So I'll direct my readers to my Tohoku Quake page, which I reserve the right to polish continuously. I might also post links to reliable news articles on that page, just to keep people in the loop about my safety in Tokyo.
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