Drama

The past few days have been crazy.  First, TEPCO (too reminiscent of PEPCO, if you ask me) freaked everyone out by saying there would be a giant power outage in Tokyo.  Thursday afternoon's announcement caused huge backups at train stations all over the city, and the power outage never came.  That's right, no Ikea candle lighting for me!  Then, I discovered this little memo on the US embassy's page.  What the?  I couldn't believe that after all these days of constant reassurance, the US was now recommending Americans leave the country.  Not just the afflicted area, but the entire country.  What was I missing here?  Did they know something they weren't saying?  It drove me crazy.  After many hours of frantic calls to the embassy, flight searching on Kayak, and crazed text messages to other Americans, we decided to chill for the next day or two and wait it out.

Can you imagine just packing a bag and running off to the airport to look for some dudes in orange vests that say "US Embassy"?  No thanks.  Too much chaos if you ask me.  And what is with the wording, anyway?  They recommend that "those in Japan should consider departing."  You recommend we consider departing?  Of course we have already considered departing- who hasn't?!  Outrageous.  If you are going to tell us we should leave the entire country, at least tell us why.  

Then, I get an email from my work that we will be closed from Saturday-Tuesday.  Did they know something I didn't?  Isn't the situation only getting better?  Turns out this was due to all the English teachers who have fled or asked for leaves of absences- not for safety reasons.  Drama!  Too much drama.  All these new developments left me feeling helpless.  I started this blog about feeling lost, and I had never felt more lost in my life.  What to do?

Things could change at any moment.  But for now, we are staying.  This report from the World Health Organization is good news.  And honestly, I get the feeling that the US (and the UK for that matter) just want to take some action.  They are probably not pleased with the way the Japanese government is handling things, and this is their way of commenting on that.  Until I see some solid evidence that things are getting worse, I think we are staying put.  

Please don't worry though.  Should things get worse, we have several options.  Trains are still running to Kyoto, Osaka, and other places south.  We have family in both Taiwan and the Philippines should we actually need to leave the country.  I know this is difficult for many of you back home.  We have lives here.  We came here for a reason, and we want to do what we came for.  We don't think we are being stupid.  I hope you can understand!