HI everyone who has contacted us (you know who you are, Anna! Josh! Erik! Others!)
My in-laws are all OK. They live in Yokodai, a neighborhood of Yokohama, which is about 60 miles South of Tokyo, which is some X miles South (and a little West) of Sendai. So they were not too effected by the earthquake. And there was no effect from the Tsunami. And as they are not within 500 meters of any nuclear power plant, they are probably exposed to less radiation than myself in China (where, most likely, radioactive materials get recycled into children’s furniture).
On the downside, there is no food in the stores, and there is no gas. But my Japan family is used to using public transport and they have plenty of supplies at home. They went on a sushi diet for a few days when the stores had a half-off sale on sushi during the blackouts.
In Suzhou, we are fine. Chinese went on a buying spree to get iodized salt. Because there was a rumor that eating more salt would protect people from the radiation cloud…which was heading east towards America. I was thinking about importing salt to make some quick ducats, but I decided that taking advantage of the stupidity of others is not entirely ethical. Big question in my mind is… how were they thinking of using the salt? How much more salt could they put in their food? And is there such a thing as salt poisoning?
Anyway, to everyone, thanks for your concern.
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