Thank you all for your kind words

On Friday I was having a regular weaving indigo open house workshop at my house. The lights dimmed and flashed and went out. I immediately sensed the worse as I know our town's power is supplied by a nuclear power plant in Fukushima. The house then started to roll more than actually shake. I've been through many earthquakes here and this one felt different. Not in size as the epicenter was far north but in quality. I quickly got my three students outside and away from the house. (Thank you Takeshima san for having the presence of mind to switch off the kerosene heater.) Outside the ground rolled and my tea field across the valley actually warped before my eyes.

The power was off for 12 hours. The trains were down and my students stranded in my town. Thank you Ogata san for cheerfully cooking and keeping us as light hearted as possible as news filtered in. We all have friend's and family in the area of the epicenter and in true Japanese form they remained polite and calm.

Now we have the specter of nuclear meltdown only several hundred km away. Not the lightest hearted weekend I've spent. The unmeasurable misery and pain happening only several hours north keeps my own inconvenience in perspective. Just in case, I decided to take a short trip south last night on a late local train. The wind would blow the radioactive cloud out to sea but there is the chance that it could come over my place. I am open to most new experiences but i will pass on this. So I am holed up in a crummy hotel in the Japanese Alps trying to keep up on the unfolding events taking place at the nuclear facilities. This particular facility has had it's management replaced before for faking documents on safety reports. This coupled with a 40 year old 15 cm metal casing holding in all that radiation...as my good friend Luc would say, "Shaitza Pooch"