Fear of Food

The things up north promise to be a lot of trouble and heart ache for a long while, but will get better day by day.  Japanese are type A  people and will peck away at it and make it right.  Thought they have not seemed to be able to do the same politically yet.

Ginza sans neon

Ironically, things in Tokyo for me have been better than usual, probably because I have been mostly on vacation.  But in reality many changes are good changes.  People wasting less electricity, less cars on the roads, shorter lines at the movies.  Ginza all dark, but the pizza ovens are still gas fired and the pizza is better than 90% of the stuff you get in NY, thought my kids prefer a big slab of tomato cheese and dough and that's it.

For me it is mostly good.  It is a little like my feeling of the US housing crisis.  I would feel differently if my life savings were tied up in a house that went to shit.  But I like cheaper houses.  I think houses are for people to live in and not to pay the bank 1/3 of your income over 20 years - the cheaper the better.  I know there are a lot of economic shocks involved.  But they were too damned expensive and prices should fall.

One bad thing in Tokyo now is fear of food.  People hoard and people fear.  People are afraid of the water, of spinach, all greens really, soon it will be the meat and fish.  And not unreasonable fear.  Real answers about food safety are hard to get.  The government will sometimes talk about iodine, but cesium is not mentioned.  We know it is there but where and how much?

No one trusts the government to protect or even monitor the food supply, so we run on rumor and fear.  This is the country that came up with Minamata Disease, the poisoning of a whole population of people with mercury to protect the industries involved.

Tokyo announced the levels of Iodine in the water when it went over the legal limit, since then no numbers released, "Safe"  safe by 1% point, safe by a mile?

And again, when they announced iodine levels Cesium was not mentioned.  Cesium imitates potassium, your body takes it in and it never leaves.  It stays radioactive for 200 years, as opposed to iodine which is gone in a month.

I did notice at the National Ministry yesterday they had a cop out front on the sidewalk with that scary big stick they hold while on guard, and inside a cop with a gun, both firsts in my 20 years working in the ministry.  This Ministry is in charge of Nuclear safety and information.  I guess they think some one may have cause to be unhappy with them now.

Life goes on.  We will watch the vegetables, milk, fish and water, though how one does that I do not yet know.