My wife’s mom, her husband, and his mother are in Tamura, about 40 km from the disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the yellow pin on the map. The yellow circle shows the 20-km evacuation zone; the larger circle indicates the 30-km zone in which people are advised to stay indoors and keep windows closed. Their house is about half way between the Daiichi and Daini power plants. (The latter, indicated by the pink pin, also had problems earlier but the situation there now seems to be under control.) The house is near the town of Tomioka, whose train station, which has often served as our starting point for trips around Japan, has been completely washed away by the tsunami.

My wife’s mom, her husband, and his mother are in Tamura, about 40 km from the disaster-struck Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the yellow pin on the map. The yellow circle shows the 20-km evacuation zone; the larger circle indicates the 30-km zone in which people are advised to stay indoors and keep windows closed. Their house is about half way between the Daiichi and Daini power plants. (The latter, indicated by the pink pin, also had problems earlier but the situation there now seems to be under control.) The house is near the town of Tomioka, whose train station, which has often served as our starting point for trips around Japan, has been completely washed away by the tsunami.