Really. He wanted to get away from the crushing free-lance grind for a while, so he bought a ticket to Japan. And then, the day before he left for a fun vacation with Pokemon or whatever -- Jack grew up with Pokemon, he says -- the worst-ever earthquake/nuclear disaster hit Japan. But, it turns out, you can still go to places even when something terrible happened. Maybe you wouldn't have gone if youknew... but we knew a lot less on Friday.
Tokyo is still there, according to Stuef's "twitter photo." But good god, the horror in the north does seem to accelerate by the hour. If you feel like it, ask Jack stuff in these comments.
Some current <a href="http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/03\/16\/world\/asia\/16nuclear.html\?hp" target="_blank">info</a> on radiation levels. <i>... Even if a full meltdown is averted, Japanese officials have been facing unpalatable options. One was to continue flooding the reactors and venting the resulting steam, while hoping that the prevailing winds did not turn south toward Tokyo or west, across northern Japan to the Korean Peninsula. The other was to hope that the worst of the overheating was over, and that with the passage of a few more days the nuclear cores would cool enough to essentially entomb the radioactivity inside the plants, which clearly will never be used again. Both approaches carried huge risks. ... </i> Stay safe, Jack.
Wait...You went anyways???
Boy, airlines sure are strict about their no cancelling tickets policy.