I’m fine, and all my Japanese family and friends are fine too, so I feel very lucky. Friends up in Tokyo suffered some shaking (in older houses particularly), and power cuts, but they are mostly fine. Getting home from Tokyo on Friday night was apparently a nightmare, with many people buying bicycles to make the journey. Even high-end bikes sold like hot cakes.
I was back in Britain when the earthquake struck; I was actually due to fly back to Fukuoka via Tokyo Narita, and was at the airport when my wife mailed me to say there had been a big earthquake. I ended up flying back through Korea (from Amsterdam), and arrived back not much later than my original plan. Fukuoka, and Kyushu generally, is too far away to have suffered any damage from the earthquake and tsunami, so I feel very lucky. It’s the poor sods up north we’re all worried about, and now the nuclear power plants seem to be the major concern. Well, that and cleaning up, assessing the damage, and counting the losses.
