Where is Derek?

Hello everyone;

Things are getting better in Tokyo. Everything is almost at 80% capacity. My neighborhood has not been hit with the rolling blackouts and the supermarkets are stocked with everything except instant noodles, natto, sliced bread and milk. Today there is some radiation found in the ground water in the area, but the level of radiation is not harmful for human health. Despite what the authorities say, I am sticking to bottled water, pretending it’s Vietnam. They restored electricity to the reactors but were scared for a bit when black smoke was emitting from the reactor but that subsided and repairs have resumed. They are monitoring the situation constantly and as long as the temperature doesn’t increase, I am confident the Japanese can handle the situation.

On another note: my new business cards came in last week and I have been networking a lot but since Tokyo’s foreign community basically deserted the area, my networking opportunities have been slim but despite this, I received two requests for spec work in less than a week! Also since I have a month off until I resume work, I have been concentrating on creating more new work for my website. I am a long way from where I want to be but if I don’t start, I will never get there.

Last note: if you have an iPad, I have added a plugin to optimize this blog for the iPad, I want to see how the design works so I can migrate design elements to my portfolio site.

All is well. Carpe Diem.

Current Status of Tokyo:

The sky isn’t falling and zombies have not overrun the city. It’s pretty much business as usual with some exceptions: Reduced train service, rolling blackouts and people unnecessarily hoarding food and other durable goods, every morning trucks pull in to fill the stores to 80% and then in the evening the whole stock is gone. Besides all of that, you still see people shopping, drinking, running in the park, though there are a lot less people in town, it is eerily refreshing.

My evacuation plans:

As for the national emergency, I have been monitoring the British and US embassy reports, japanese media as well as foreign media outlets. The differing accounts are incredible. The Japanese media makes it seem like the situation is under control and the foreign press makes it seem like a doomsday scenario. The major information sources that I am relying on are the British and US embassies assessment. There is a voluntary evacuation advisement being circulated where US citizens can evacuate on US government chartered flights from Narita and Haneda to Taiwan and Korea but I believe this is unnecessary. I believe in Japan’s ability to control the situation and I also believe the US embassy will make a mandatory evacuation order if a disaster is imminent. My backup plans are to travel south as far as fukuoka if need be, which is the farthest south you can get via ground transport. If I cannot make it there I will head to Yokosuka navy base and seek emergency evacuation there.

Nuclear situation:

The nuclear situation is as follows: the nuclear plant has a danger zone of 30 km according to Japanese experts and the US embassy assessed a 80 km danger zone. The center of Tokyo from the nuclear power plant is about 220 kms away. The radiation emitted into the atmosphere has been going down but worst case scenario, several days of exposure to such levels of radiation will equal to an x-ray and is well below any acceptable level before adverse health effects would occur. There are US nuclear experts on standby if Japan needs the help. As of this morning, the temperature of the reactors are not near meltdown levels.

Earthquakes:

There have been numerous earthquakes in rapid succession and varying intensities but nothing ridiculous. The people up north are facing gas, kerosine, food and clothing shortages and what makes it worse is the weather has been very cold as late. I really worry about Mina’s family up there because there is no way out of Fukushima. Resources are being pooled to help with the reactor problems so there is no gasoline for her family to drive down to her to Tokyo. I am really worried about Mina’s grandmother who as of late, fell ill and went to the hospital, probably because of the cold and minimal food provisions. What makes it more scary is Mina’s family is 60 km away from the danger and if it gets worse, they have no way of escaping. a 30 km buffer in case of a nuclear explosion is freaking Mina and I out. But we have a plan, I made reservations for a van and I guess if we have to, we are going to hoard all the gas we can and head up to Fukushima and getting Mina’s family out of danger. Hopefully it doesn’t come to this because the news said fuel trucks are on their way to the area.

Conclusion:

I think it’s a bit too soon to get crazy and leave. Mina can’t go and I can’t leave her so it’s simple for me but others who are truly scared, they should go. I just wanted to post that I am constantly being informed and I do have backup plans but I believe waiting a bit longer to see how things pan out would be beneficial.

Keep yall posted,

D

I am trying to revive this blog from death but a long over due post. It’s been 4 years since I left home to come to Japan and I couldn’t be happier. I visited home for the first time last November for my brother’s wedding and NYC hasn’t changed much since I left but I sure have. Also, I received another 3 year extension on my visa and I plan on staying the duration. Japan has been very good to me. My plans for this year will be moving into a new place in an even cooler neighborhood and transitioning out of English teaching back into design. I have been networking a lot lately, trying to get my name and business cards out there. Instead of doing web based work, I decided to focus on illustration and identity. Also I have new business cards which should be coming in any day now. Here is a preview:

Currently, I have been obsessing on patterns, so I designed my new cards with diagonal stripes on the front and a plaid pattern on the back. I really like chevrons but couldn’t figure out how to make them work for what I was going for. The colors are all bw and I am going to color the edges, my signature orange.

As for my skills, I plan on networking the design scene and will start this by going to the Tokyo Type Directors Club and network there. All my efforts will not be for naught but I am wondering how long it will take. I realize I need a project manager to get on my ass about cranking out new work because I have a bunch of unfinished work but no new completed projects as of late, this all changing because of my business cards. I started my fire up again. We will see how long it will last.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I did it! I hold in my hand a Japanese drivers license. And I passed my test on the first try. A perfect drive. No problems and no important criticism. I am one of the lucky ones because a lot of people take the test two, three or four times. What made things even better was that I drove on the right side and never driven on that side before. The S curve and Crank went without any incident and the whole test was smooth and calculated. From what you read online, you do not have to “pump” the brakes and signal on the outside corners of the rectangle. The things that are correct from the web is that most criticism about the peoples driving was to: stay close to the left side, emergency brake is always last when leaving and parking, stop well before the line and make perfect turns to the left sidebof the road, in other words, do not pull to the left first before executig and tight right turn, just crank the wheel all the way and go slowly. It feels good to pas a driving test in Japanese even though the instructions were simple. Next up, rent a Porsche! And get the motorcycle license.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I have had enough of teaching English. I am making it my mission to get out of this field and back into designing. I am thankful for the long vacations but there has to be more than this. I am currently browsing my pictures of my summer and I am so pleased with how things went. I will double my efforts to learn Japanese because that is my only obstacle. I think I need to go to language school intensively because I do not have the will power to study on my own. I have to work and save and then I can concentrate on studying only. It is good to be back though. Tokyo feels like home, especially after I got off the plane. Weird.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I arrived just before the Typhoon hit and I have so much laundry to do. Getting back into the grind is tough after having such an amazing adventure. I needed time to reorganize my life and now I have much better focus. I realized that I need more balance in my life and I am going to work hard on achieving it. The hard part will be how long this new drive will last. I need to keep motivated, in order to move on.

On a sidenote: Its freaking expensive here in Tokyo compared to Thailand, I wish I ate more good Thai food when I had the chance. Oh well, next time and believe me there will definitely be a next time.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]