Radiate

We appreciate your kind thoughts and concern. Japan has been hit by a real blow (the best laid plans of mice and men…) and all the redundant systems to keep the waves at bay and the nuclear cobra in its jar have proved insufficient. Now we wait and wonder what will evolve and how it will affect Japan, our lives, the greater world community.

The first thing is that I have such great respect for the Japanese as a people. They are proud, stoic and behave like civilized people even during a crisis. Going into to those nuclear plants to try to diffuse this nightmare might be as brave a thing as someone could do. The Japanese carry on but you can see the apprehension about these melting, exploding nuclear plants. I talked to a friend in Tokyo (Matsumoto Akihiko) and he said, “準備します。Meaning: “We are getting ready.” Supplies are in short supply in Tokyo and there are the rolling black outs.

That Japan has not moved toward a more sustainable path is only understandable if one realizes that the same people are calling the shots here as are calling them in much of the developed and undeveloped world—large energy corporations. Maybe the change will come in the form of nuclear energy becoming too expensive (isn’t it already???) and the business sector will abandon it. I don’t feel it will come from consensus seeking leaders or the easily mislead peoples. The Japanese have great solar gain and wind all the time. A town like Nagoya could have solar panels on every flat roof and turbines spinning to boot. In a country that is always eager to embrace the future and high tech development it’s more than a little puzzling that they headed down not only such a dangerous road but one that has already left a painfully searing mark in there history.

We feel safe but insecure—here, at the moment—we are about 600 some kilometers from Fukushima and luckily we’re south west of them so the prevailing winds usually blow all the unknowns out to sea with out affecting us here. Or so we believe at the moment.

On the way into work today while walking down “Sun Road” (which most ironically is an underground mall (very nice smells of cakes and roasting teas etc.) from the Nagoya train station (which is huge) I walked past a store I had never noticed before. A clothing store. Usually a store like this would be full of folk browsing but it was surprisingly empty. I, then, in my hurried pace, I happened to catch the name on the sign board above the wide open doors “Radiate.”

peace and love and payers for the best out come. . .