March 14 update

Today I was back to work. Everything was pretty quiet again. One of my co-workers was extremely concerned about the nuclear reactors yesterday, so today another colleague with a personal contact inside the U.S. embassy called to see if there was any reason for us to be concerned as far as the US knew. The embassy friend said there was no cause for concern in Kobe right now, but she scolded us for not having registered with the embassy for emergency updates yet. We both did so right away. No updates so far, which is how I like it.

In Tokyo, the power company has started imposing rolling black outs to help conserve energy. I haven't heard of any plans like that down here, yet.

It sounds like rescuers are getting into the most isolated and devastated areas of the coast in the north. The next week will likely be a very sad one. I certainly don't want to downplay in any way the tragedy that took place along the coast in Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima provinces.

I do have some good updates. My co-worker who hadn't contacted his family yet was finally able to do so yesterday. His brother is a firefighter and was one of the first responders that worked in (if I remember correctly) Fukushima over the weekend. He is back home with his family now, resting. Everyone else is okay, too. I didn't realize my co-worker had gone the weekend without hearing from his family. It must have been a very long weekend. I'm glad everyone is okay.

I also spoke with my Hokkaido host family. They moved down to Tokyo a year or two before Russell and I moved to Japan. We visited them once last year. They are fine. They said they have been experiencing regular earthquakes and there were plenty more today. They are proud of their rock-solid apartment, though. They chose it because it shares their family name.

Aside from these updates my life is mostly re-establishing its orbit around next semester's textbooks. This is our last week to get them finished, so the pressure is on. I was planning to work Saturday to try and get ahead, but friends and family discouraged me. Frankly, after being evacuated on Friday I wasn't in too much of a rush to go work alone in the office on a tiny island. Today was okay, though. We kept an eye on the news, but everyone was back in the office. After Friday I am looking forward to sleeping, our university's first graduation and then a vacation to Nevada to visit my grandmother. It can't come soon enough.