Damage report - All OK

Another natural disaster and another flood of phone calls and emails. Once again we have been fortunate in that everybody we know is OK although the ones in Tokyo have had to deal with some discomfort. Shizuka's brother was on a train at the time which stopped and he had to walk a long way. The rest of the family are in Aichi and report that there are no problems there. Friends in Osaka didn't feel anything so we are assuming our house is OK. I will probably go up there in about 6 weeks time. Interestingly, the only way to contact the family on friday night was by Skype. Seems the internet is more durable than the phone system.
The NZ rescue team has already left for Japan so we will get to repay the favor for assistance in Christchurch. Although this is a small country without great resources NZ always does what it can. Hopefully they can achieve some good results there.

What will be interesting is the effect on the Japanese and world economies. Before this event the Japanese government looked like their days were numbered but this is a great opportunity to regain some much needed momentum and popularity if they handle this emergency well. More worrying is the situation with the Nuclear power plants. I do wonder whether the world is being told all thats going on there.

Once again, thanks to all who contacted us.