On the road again...

We have temporarily landed in Hong Kong after a very long travel. We had a layover in Korea yesterday and then arrived here today.

A funny thing. Some of you will remember the original Japan post about Sam and the toto at the airport. We have a Korea follow up.  Graham went to the bathroom and pushed the wrong button on the Korea toto at the hotel. It started spraying water everywhere--like twelve feet to the bed!!! So, we quickly shut the glass door and thought about what to do. Finally we sent in the Pash family security forces. Sid stripped naked and went in to try and shut off the water cannon. I am happy to report that he was successful and the only casualty was his pride. :)

On a more serious note, we have kept up with the story at Fukashima. We are so touched by those workers who have voluntarily stayed at the plant, risking their own lives. We have friends still out of touch as the evacuation area increases.  I have read much about Tokyo. We were there yesterday.  It was nice to be "home," even if only for a little while. While in Kyoto we were all homesick for our city.  When we first got to Tokyo, it was almost like nothing had happened. Tokyo Station was crowded like always, cabs were running, people were eating at the little restaurants and we could smell them as we exited the station (the food, not the people).  Not too much was shaken up at our apartment--I think that Abe-san has so much stuff that it's really tough for any of it to actually move!  But, about 6:45 (18:45) there was a pretty strong aftershock that shook the bed and apartment.  Our landlady came to check on us. It was scary. But, it is so touching.  Our friends that we met up with while we were there looked haggard and exhausted. Even after only a couple days of the aftershocks we were tired and worn out. They had a week of them.  But, nobody showed concern for themselves. Instead they wished us to be safe and tried to make us feel good about our decision to leave Tokyo for the time being.  (I want to point out that we weren't really fleeing. We had the China trip planned for March 24th but just moved it up a bit. The boys' school is canceled and we couldn't see sitting through the aftershocks for no reason). 

On the train from Kyoto to Tokyo we met an Italian married to a Japanese woman. He talked about how strong and hard working the Japanese are and how the country will be okay. I hope he is right. 

Being in China now I have to say I miss the nice manners and friendliness of Japan.