In high school, I visited Japan for a month, and the whole time I stayed with Japanese families. For the first half, I was there as an intern for the Japanese National Geographic. A few days ago there was a notice sent out about the people in the office there. It's not much more than you hear elsewhere, but it was good to know they were all okay. Here's the notice that went around, in case you're interested:
Editor’s Note: Tatsuo Ito, president of National Geographic Japan, has been e-mailing updates about how he and his colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami:
On Friday, Tatsuo reported that many of the NG partners who live close to the office or had relatives nearby left work after the quake struck at 2:46 p.m. But with the transportation system shut down, 10 staff members remained overnight in the office. They, too, returned to their homes on Saturday.
On Sunday, Tatsuo e-mailed, “So sad, so bad, so serious, and it still continues.”
He added that many NG Japan colleagues have relatives in the worst-hit areas, and they “are concentrating on ways to support them.”
Referring to the damaged nuclear power plants and the threat of a meltdown, he said, “We also are confronting a possible world tragedy. This is absolutely serious. What shall we do?"
Tatsuo said he was weighing how to approach the tragedy journalistically.
On Friday, when the quake hit, Tatsuo said he was not surprised by the quake itself, but he was surprised by the duration of the tremor. Tatsuo said that, in the weeks leading up to the huge quake, the area had experienced pre-quakes.
“When we felt the quake at 14:46, I imagined a relationship with this series of quakes. Usually, the quakes would stop after around 30 seconds or so,” he wrote. “But this one was different. It took 3 to 5 minutes."
“The gliding, rolling movement was dynamic,” Tatsuo continued. “Everyone felt that the power of the quake must be huge.”
Tatsuo said the walls cracked in some places and paint fell from the ceiling.
“We could see the dark smoke of fire in front of our office (outside),” he said.
Because Japan is earthquake-prone, Tatsuo has felt many tremors in his lifetime.
“This was absolutely the largest one in my life,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tatsuo said the government has announced rolling power blackouts nationwide for three hours at a time. As a result, many trains had been cancelled Monday morning. Despite the transportation problems, Tatsuo said many NG Japan staff would be at work.
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