Back to work... sort of

Today was my first full day back at work. "Work" is probably too strong a word, though, as no one touched the phone today. (For those of you who don't know, my job is phone-based executive search.) Got a lot of administrative tasks finished but I didn't actually get to work on business stuff. I think I've really got a good company as the management there has put a stop on their only revenue-generating activity for the sake of decency.

Radiation and possible meltdown of the Fukushima power plants tops the concerns of my coworkers. It seemed that everyone had a slightly different opinion as to how dangerous the radiation is. I'm quite confused myself. Those who were able to understand Japanese seemed to have a much better grasp of the situation, though, as they could get both information from Japanese and foreign sources. We were all able to agree that most English language media has hyped and over-speculated the situation. (It would surprise me if they didn't.)

If you're interested to know more about radiation levels and such, www.mext.go.jp/english/topics/1303717.htm is a good "official" source of information.

Do I think I'm in danger? Well, it's hard to say. I felt no fewer than seven tremours today, one of which lasted a good half a minute. The power plants are, of course, a more immediate but controllable danger. I'm lead to believe that a complete meltdown is not likely. If it comes down to it, though, I have all my essential stuff in one bag ready to go and it's only half an hour to the bullet train.