Dear All,
Many, many thanks for all your wishes and concerns. We’re fine, though tired, and grieving for the thousands, not so far from here, who are cold and hungry, and have lost everything they loved. We arrived back in Tokyo Saturday 26th March, a fortnight after the great quake, by somewhat circuitous routes.

As it so happened, I was in Italy filming a comedy about time travel between ancient Rome and Edo Tokyo with a Japanese heart-throb called Hiroshi Abe. How bizarre. We took off as the earthquake hit, and I and the film crew flew on in blissful ignorance until we reached Rome, where the horror was all over large TVs in the terminal. I don’t think anyone in the film crew realized the scale of the catastrophe until a few days later; as it was, we suppressed our feelings and got on with the job of filming. There isn’t much else to laugh about.

Linda was on her own in our shaky apartment, and, on day 5, fled down to Nagoya to stay with our nephew’s family, as much for company as anything else. Tokyo by then was shaking every few hours, Fukushima becoming ever more threatening, and it’s not much fun being on your own in a climate of fear. Half of Linda’s colleagues, including the principal and the deputy principal, packed bags and flew out on Day 3 when Fukushima leaked, school closed early, food, water and electricity were under threat – although in truth, reports of the demise of Tokyo in the media are greatly exaggerated.


It is pretty weird. The neon and the escalators are turned off, it is dark and quiet, and it is hard not to feel to depressed. Even were this our country, there is not a great deal we could do. The people who need help are sleeping on cardboard in school halls 200 miles to the north. Getting rice, kerosene, sympathy into those tiny communities is for the national community, not expatriates who can’t even speak the language.

As for our situation, the nuclear threat is greatly exaggerated. I received a bigger dose of radiation flying to Europe than I will get in the next year from the leaks in Fukushima. But that is a scientific rationalist argument that won’t assuage the fear of unknown for most people, who don’t understand risk, who don’t understand radiation and who don’t (rightly) trust the glib assurances of a company and government which hasn’t done a great deal to earn peoples trust.

Our initial impression is that there is plenty of food, and the transportation system is working. So the best thing for us is to return and contribute to rebuilding and reassurance by doing what we do normally; if everyone pulls out, how will the economy and community confidence rebuild? So Linda starts school again on Monday, and I have a stack of science papers to edit and rewrite; lets get on with it, keeping a weather eye open for any more developments and treating the authorities bland pronouncements with skepticism.
Of course, it might all turn to worms. If none of the TIS children return (and many of the embassies are recommending their nationals stay away), then we won’t have jobs.

We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, we’re safe and well, though glum.

Love to you all, and thank you once again for your thoughts, wishes and love.
Nigel and Linda