It seems, at the moment, that we just have one disaster after another. First it was the Christchurch earthquake and now it’s the enormous one north of Tokyo in Japan.
Our new daughter in law, Yuki is still in Tokyo and many of our friends have called, or contacted, us to enquire about her safety. We very much appreciate their concern’s and thoughts.
Tokyo is over 300km from the epicentre of this earthquake and while there seems to be significant shaking, there is minimal damage. David was able to contact one of Yuki’s colleagues yesterday afternoon to find that she was well and that there was no damage to her work building. Later, he was able to make contact with her by phone and email to find thT she was having to walk to her home across to the other side of Tokyo.
As soon as an earthquake occurs in Japan, transport is automatically closed down and utilities (power and gas) are shut off to reduce the risk of fire. I guess that power is also reduced for the train system as much of Japan’s power generation is nuclear and when these power plants are shut down for safety reasons, it reduces the amount of power in the system anyway.
As an update, David is now expecting Yuki to be with him in Melbourne in mid April. We are looking forward to having her with us.
Once again, thanks to all our good friends for their concern. Our thoughts are with all our friends in Japan.
This video shows skyscrapers swaying in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo – where we have stayed on many of our previous visits. We are glad not to have been there at the time of this earthquake!
