in summary: its not another chernobyl. nuclear reactor damage not as bad as it looks.

hope u guys dont live/work close to the nuclear sites. my wife is telling me that the officials are totally not saying the whole story on the danger levels. try to stay indoors as much as possible. hopefully u dont have to go out and breath the air. stay safe guys.

Can we get a revised roll call to see how you guys are doing??

Hope everyone is still ok, not suffering from nuclear radiation shit that is in the air. God bless you all poor J fellas.

Duxy xo

The family's still good. We've gone out & gotten some more supplies & whatnot, but who knows what will be enough? It's all pretty crazy.

CNN

Sit tight buddies, & continue to give us updates whenever possible.
:/

Kuzu: My work is trying to send me to Osaka as an 'escape', if I'm freaking out. I AM freaking out. This shit is not cool. We just don't know the truth. If I knew the truth, I would be better able to make a decision. The government is fucking me over here.

Here's the options I've got right now. Let me know what you think:

1. Somehow move back to Tokyo, so the wife can keep her job for a bit longer as we wait stuff out for a week or two.
-This puts greater distance between us and the reactor in Fukushima. As it is, we are roughly 230-250km southeast of it.

2. Move to Yokohama where her sister lives & can house us.
-This puts an even greater distance the reactor & ourselves, but not much. Again allowing the wife to keep her job, as she's at least a full-time employee, whereas I am not.

3. Move to Osaka for at least 15 days. The company will pay for my Shinkansen ticket & 1-room's hotel fee.
-Wife quits her job, but we would gain a much greater distance.

4. Move to Osaka. If it gets REALLY bad, take the first plane to the States from Osaka.

5. Cut the money & run. Take the first plane back to America.

I hope this doesnt change your life drastically in any way to what ever choice you decide to take. And as much as it upsets me to see the visions and reports from the media. I hope people who do live in the radious of a nuclear explosion gets out of there ASAP.

In terms of your options they are all very thought out and frank, but hope it doesn't cause to much of a lifestyle change for you and your family. Best of luck pal, and please keep us posted whenever you can to your situation. Just remember we are all worried about our J friends and the crises you guys are in. That also goes to kuz, ban, mj, mokkori, and anyone else I havent mention living in Japan.

Might I add another option for you red, live with me in melbourne

anyways, let me just get to your options.
1. tokyo is not the place to be now, as im sure u know. u still have to deal with power outages, insufficient transit, and lack of supplies. then again, if it gives u peace of mind, and u can put up with the setbacks, it might be a smart choice at least for a little bit.
2. so u would quit ur job? can u sustain expenses on 1 salary? are u not working now anyway? might not be a bad idea, stay near family as well.
3. they pay for hotel expenses for 1room for how many nights? so u dont work but they pay u to stay there?? if so, u could do that, and have wife take all of her holidays or make some excuse like " we dont want radiation poisoning so im visiting my (.....) in osaka."
4. not joking, u could live in our apartment bulding. (family owns the building) there is almost always a vacant room (and if not there is a room used only for storing junk that could be used). could probably convince mother-in-law to let u guys stay for very low rent.
5. this is not a bad plan either, tbh.. i dont know how much u love japan, but leaving for home has been on my mind alot in the last year or so. even if the radiation is not a problem, japan is a vulnerable place. there is bound to be another big earthquake, and we do live on a fucking island! though, i know its scary moving especially if u dont have secure jobs and stuff. still, its much easier to make that decision before u have kids!

Kuzu: I'll get at you if we decide to relocate to Osaka.

So far, the plan is that my wife and I are packing up to head into Tokyo for a night or two (staying with a friend). Might end up going even more south, depending on how it goes. I'm also bringing my laptop.

EDIT: i have ABSOLUTELY no right talking about this subject, since i know absolutely nothing about financial trading or, well, anything else in life! please do your own research, but just use this as a springboard for ideas.

buying US$.

the JP yen is the strongest it has been for 16yrs, since right after the Kobe earthquake. currently, it is 76yen to the dollar. (when i came to japan on holiday in 1998, it was ~140). if u are even planning on returning to the US, or even if not, this might be a way to save/make alot of money.

my 1minute review of why the yen is strong now, is due to the fact we had a horrible event(s) in japan. because we are so vulnerable, there is a guaranteed need to put money back into japan in order to clean up, rebuild, strengthen, etc. alot of buildings after KOBE had to be rebuilt from scratch, so it was literally like making a new city. (on a side note, this is why Kobe is so nice, because alot of $ was put in to ensure safe, nice buildings). a lot of investment and capital is needed for that, which is my take on why the yen is strong.

not a fun thing to think about perhaps, but again it might serve very useful or even help alleviate financial worries. u could always trade back into yen once the yen weakens again, and make a profit.

some good Q&A.

It is insane about what happened in Japan. I pray for the full recovery of the country.