I just got out of Tokyo this morning after getting thoroughly rattled, as much by the constant earthquakes since Friday as by the growing confusion in transportation, information and basic logistics. I was lucky--I had a previously scheduled flight out of Narita, and all I had to do was find a way to get there. For many people who are trying to follow, there is already a hefty supply of blankets and sleeping bags waiting for them at the terminal.
Right now, I'm trying to get my sister and her two young daughters out. Her husband is on a business trip out of the country. I'm looking up flights, checking Twitter for train outages, looking up bus information and locations, and keeping tabs on the news--all in an effort to feed my sister up to date information so she can make the smartest moves to keep safe. I know there are many more like my sister, and many people on Kos trying to help. How can we combine forces? Is there something that could be done like Anonymous? Does something already exist you can point me to?
In the less than 24 hours since I caught my flight, the situation in Japan has deteriorated. Increasing reports of radiation being measured in Tokyo, and the dire outlook at Fukishima are starting to stoke the fires of panic, which isn't hard to do--the country is seriously on edge after non-stop earthquakes since Friday.
Yesterday morning it took me 6 hours to make the typically 90 minute trip to Narita. When I got to Tokyo Station, the Narita Express was down, even though it had been running earlier, and the N'Ex website had no current information about status. I was directed to a bus station, but told there were only a few buses for hundreds of passengers. When I got to the station, the line was down the block. I collected three other travelers and we grabbed a cab and split the 25000 yen and made our flights.
As more people try to move out of Tokyo, this scenario is going to be harder to pull off. I don't know if anything can be put together in real time, but we need some kind of bulletin board to collect and supply real time information that the government is not supplying. It needs to be fact-based logistics and coordination to help people get where they want to go, not diatribes on whether Fukishima is the new Chernobyl and whether we should be stock-piling kelp. It could also be used to collectively round up buses that can be rented to move more people.
There is a vacuum in Japan and it needs to be filled--in a similar if more tactical way than the revolution in the middle east. Right now, I'm focused on getting my sister out. But if anyone has time to help, it would be hugely useful to set up some kind of post where we can assign logistical questions to be run down by anyone who has time and a computer/phone and definitively answered: Is the Chuo line running right now? What's the best current route to Osaka from Tokyo? Where's can we rent a bus to make the run to Kobe airport?
If something like this already exists, please tell me where it is. Twitter is useful, but it's hard to scan and still turns out lots of conflicting information.
Thanks.