ScribbleLive

@Nancy this is bld 4 at the east side, top of were steps would have been and accoriding to the phf post may sit under the SFP...

@fitter and @Nancy, I am on during the days and evenings Japan time, almost bedtime here now. Many folks where I work are very concerned and would be happy to help in any way. You can also email links to me @ canopusjoe (at) gmail.com. I can also access people with some nuclear technical knowledge for highly technical stuff. @fitter, thanks for your concern, we are fine here in Hiroshima, only slight contamination, nothing like what people are facing up North. The main local concern is the food supply, although many people I know with small children are very worried.

@fitter, using kanji leads to some crazy translations, especially when using a translation program. I'm sure you know, but there are books of the odd things that result

@fitter, right now I am just glad my kids are grown and living on other continents

@bo Do you think the resignation of Kan's Radiation Advisor is having "traction" over there in Japan? I would think the idea that kids in Fukushima can be exposed to same levels as European nuclear workers might be very concerning -- is the story getting bigger or smaller?

@fitter will do. @General Armstrong since I don't speak or read Japanese, I am not really in a position to tell. I mostly communicate with the expat community here in Hiroshima. My sense in general is that people really really want to believe the GOJ but that is getting more difficult. I am not sure how the press here is treating it, and how they will treat Ishikawa's press conference, but I am sure that people with children are taking it more seriously. The press here seems to be happy to repeat what it is told until conditions force it otherwise. I will say that it was amazing how virulent the attacks on foreigners who left were during the first weeks, and that I have heard a lot of people speak very critically of the foreign press

Fukushima Residents Seek Answers Amid Mixed Signals From Media, TEPCO and Government. Report from the Radiation Exclusion Zone japanfocus.org

@fitter, never heard of it. But a lot of traditional garments are folded in specific patterns. Sorry to be unable to speak with authority!

@fitter that is so very true. I have been surprised both by the lack of criticism of the government in general here, and then just as much by the fact that most people seem to know that the press is carrying water for the powers that be and don't expect much more from them

@bo working with these guys was so cool... spent alot of time off work with them... could tell you some stories, but not over the net.... I just had a computor crash six months ago and lost thier numbers.... we used to commuacate about once a year..... hope they are ok great people and learned a lot about how different thier culture is

@bo when the big bosses would be over form japan.... we would all go out ... and every thing was by rank and age... includig who talked... not questing those above you (age and rank) when the big guys were ready to leave (even if in the middle of something) they just got up and left...

@elainekirk are these schools that are also being used as shelters??? so you know and HELLO

@elainekirk people are talking about it, but my experience is with the expat community, so I don't know how much it is stirring up the Japanese community. I hope that with Children's Day this week, there will be more of a focus on the issue. I'll ask some Japanese friends at work in the morning and post about it then.

@All. Elaine has done a ton of research over the last week and a half. We have been busy gathering photos and documents together. I have put some of the results of that research online in the form of a photo tour of Fukushima pre-quake. There are tons of images not seen before and of areas and equipment not seen yet. Please check it out! www.houseoffoust.com

Fukushima city removing schools' topsoil search.japantimes.co.jp

@fitter I mean foreigners who speak English

@Ralph Unger sounds like they need some "green goo sprayed"

@Nancy what is the photo tour

@fitter A huge page of pictures from inside fukushima from before the quake. PRobably lots of pictures you would be interested in. Also a few floor plans and schematics on that page

@Nancy were do i find them or could you e-mail.... (if not to much work)

@elainekirk I can open it fine, and can copy it too, it is a jpeg

@elainekirk after talking with my wife (also American) she has talked to several of her Japanese friends about the raising of the levels for schoolchildren and says that her friends say that everyone knows about it, and a lot of people are talking about it, but that it seems that people feel that they don't have a sense that anything can be done about it so they have expressed a kind of sorrowful resignation