Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tokyo. Show all posts

Monday, 16 April 2012

"Japanese Plan to Evacuate 40 Million People including TOKYO"

Kind of a breaking news I received on my way for a family exertion and I couldn't elaborate and sort out enough, but by instinct and knowledge acquired so far, even without rigidly assessing the issues, most of my FB mates and I would say, "These things are definitely possible." We strongly believe that Tokyo is heavily radioactively contaminated (let alone Fukushima or Koriyama cities), and the soil cannot be good enough to endanger youngest and weakest .


So, I clip this article anyway.  The sources include the speech by Kohei Matsuda who recently appeared the Upper House Budget Committee, about which I quoted in my blog, and have put great emphasis on his action to build a network not just to save Japan, but the Earth.

The Eropean Union Times
From EU Times online paper
Posted by  on Apr 15th, 2012 // 38 Comments 


A new report circulating in the Kremlin today prepared by theForeign Ministry on the planned re-opening of talks with Japan over the disputed Kuril Islands during the next fortnight states that Russian diplomats were “stunned” after being told by their Japanese counterparts that upwards of 40 million of their peoples were in “extreme danger” of life threatening radiation poisoning and could very well likely be faced with forced evacuations away from their countries eastern most located cities… including the world’s largest one, Tokyo.
The Kuril Islands are located in Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast region and stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 miles) northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater Kuril Ridge and Lesser Kuril Ridge, all of which were captured by Soviet Forces in the closing days of World War II from the Japanese.
The “extreme danger” facing tens of millions of the Japanese peoples is the result of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster that was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.
According to this report, Japanese diplomats have signaled to their Russian counterparts that the returning of the Kuril Islands to Japan is “critical” as they have no other place to resettle so many people that would, in essence, become the largest migration of human beings since the 1930’s when Soviet leader Stalin forced tens of millions to resettle Russia’s far eastern regions.
Important to note, this report continues, are that Japanese diplomats told their Russian counterparts that they were, also, “seriously considering” an offer by China to relocate tens of millions of their citizens to the Chinese mainland to inhabit what are called the “ghost cities,” built for reasons still unknown and described, in part, by London’s Daily Mail News Service in their 18 December 2010 article titled: “The Ghost Towns Of China: Amazing Satellite Images Show Cities Meant To Be Home To Millions Lying Deserted” that says:
“These amazing satellite images show sprawling cities built in remote parts of China that have been left completely abandoned, sometimes years after their construction. Elaborate public buildings and open spaces are completely unused, with the exception of a few government vehicles near communist authority offices. Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country’s vast swathes of free land.”
Foreign Ministry experts in this report note that should Japan accept China’s offer, the combined power of these two Asian peoples would make them the largest super-power in human history with an economy larger than that of the United States and European Union combined and able to field a combined military force of over 200 million.
To how dire the situation is in Japan was recently articulated by Japanese diplomat Akio Matsumura who warned that the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant may ultimately turn into an event capable of extinguishing all life on Earth.
According to the Prison Planet News Service:
“Matsumura posted [this] startling entry on his blog following a statement made by Japan’s former ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, on the situation at Fukushima.
Speaking at a public hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on 22 March 2012, Murata warned that “if the crippled building of reactor unit 4 – with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground – collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4,” writes Matsumura.
In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced. He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries. Ambassador Murata informed us that the total numbers of the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure vessel is 11,421.”
Disturbingly, the desperate situation facing Japan is, also, facing the United States as Russian military observersoverflying the US this week as part of the Open Skies Treaty are reporting “unprecedented” amounts of radiation in the Western regions of that country, a finding that was further confirmed by scientists with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who have confirmed that a wave of highly radioactive waste is headed directly for the US west coast.
Important to note is that this new wave of Fukushima radiation headed towards the US is in addition to earlier radiation events that American scientists are now blaming for radioactive particles from Japan being detected in California kelp.
Though the news of this ongoing global catastrophe is still being heavily censored in the US, the same cannot be said about Japan, and as recently reported by the leading Japanese newspaper The Mainichi Daily News that reports:
“One of the biggest issues that we face is the possibility that the spent nuclear fuel pool of the No. 4 reactor at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant will collapse. This is something that experts from both within and outside Japan have pointed out since the massive quake struck. TEPCO, meanwhile, says that the situation is under control. However, not only independent experts, but also sources within the government say that it’s a grave concern.
The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it. The 7-story building itself has suffered great damage, with the storage pool barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. The roof has been blown away. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread over a wide area. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and French nuclear energy company Areva have warned about this risk.
A report released in February by the Independent Investigation Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident stated that the storage pool of the plant’s No. 4 reactor has clearly been shown to be “the weakest link” in the parallel, chain-reaction crises of the nuclear disaster. The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to evacuate.
Even though this crisis in Japan has been described as “a nuclear war without a war” and the US Military is being reported is now stocking up on massive amounts of anti-radiation pills in preparation for nuclear fallout, there remains no evidence at all the ordinary peoples are being warned about this danger in any way whatsoever.

Saturday, 7 April 2012

We'll Never Give Up! No Debris! No Restart of Ohi Nuke Plant!!

This Friday was a busy day - I couldn't complete this post before the date changed.

Till late in the morning, I was still struggling to send out a few messages with source links to Kobe, Akashi, Kakogawa mayers and Hyogo Pref. Governor, to request them to stop accepting radioactive contaminated debris that they plan to reach the conclusion on Monday.

The evidences of deaths or hospitalizations obviously from breathing in the fume of burnt debris are increasing, even though the mass media neglect reporting on these facts.  (We get information from quite reliable independent sources including real insider friends.)

After some sleep, in the evening, I prepared for watching live videos/tweets/photos of the people gathering in Tokyo (Prime Minister's Official House), Osaka (Kansai Electric's Main Building) and Kyoto to protest against the Noda administration's crazy instant decision to resume Ohi Nuclear Plant operation.  They even decided to neglect local prefectures' opinions such as Kyoto and Shiga (if Lake Biwa is contaminated, at least 12 million people will be immediately affected).  Well, I would welcome neglecting local opinions if for not building or operating any nuclear power stations that can affect anyone not just in this country but all over the world, indeed.


Video streaming by Ustream
Video streaming by Ustream
We must stop Ohi Power Plants by all means to prove that Fukushima Disaster gave us enough lesson of how much risks we had for almost no benefits.  The pro-nukes are even more desperate to re-operate Ohi as the starting point to make other nuke plants such as Ikata and Genkai plants follow it.

The notification of gatherings was distributed quite late in the evening/night after we saw the 4/5 ridiculous news that the four crazy men in the Government with no radiation expertise decided (obviously under pressure from the Electric vested-interest groups) the newly introduced safety rules were going to be applied to Ohi Plant for reopening.

Silly, huh? The new safety measures were fixed (with lots of loopholes) in two days by non-experts who have never taken any responsibility for Fukushima catastrophe yet.  Not even one victim has been rescued yet.  Kids in Fukushima are still exposed to incredibly high radiation.  School children all over Japan have been subject to unchecked school lunches (except a few as some school began monitoring albeit with quite a loose benchmark - as the budget and time are limited).

The Goverment's referees were Nuclear Safety Commission that proved its inability to prevent, or rather caused the Fukushima explosions, but haven't been arrested yet.  Neither arrested yet are TEPCO's management who historically neglected countless essential safety measures.  Both the management and the permanent employees are enjoying reduced-but-still-much-higher-than-average income levels including "BONUS" in June and December.  On the other hand, many residents in (or evacuees from)  Fukushima are suffering for e.g., double loans for lands and houses where they won't be able to live forever.  Some committed suicide already.  Though the media ignores, we know of quite a few Fukushima radiation-related deaths in the past year.

Embedded above are the videos of Tokyo Actions against the four men in Prime Minister Office (wish there were English subtitles as every speech was worthwhile while our initiatives are slowly growing the way it never happened in the modern history - people from every level/generation/class/industry stood together in the cold wind without much preparation but by very short notice.

The rest of us in Twitter/Facebook/Ustream members sent our spirit there by commenting/communicating to realize we are together indeed.

We take this opportunity to change this rotten country for the first time that began last year without knowing till when we will have to fight the nuclear mafia.  Certainly the civil war between money-seekers and life-protectors are going on.  Some have been already killed and reported as sudden deaths or unconvincing "suicide".  The court is on the pro-nukes side just as most other countries which operate nuclear power plants.

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Fukushima - Truth behind the Worst Nuclear Acceident

This video is produced by ARTE, the French and German cooperative national broadcast station, but collective information that should be closest to the true pieces of the whole picture which many of us in Twitter and Facebook try to gather and share over the past year.


仏独共同の国営放送局ARTE 「フクシマ-最悪事故の陰に潜む真実」


For those who have only seen English mainstream media about Fukushima, the content should include lots of surprises.  It would be even more surprising that the majority living in Japan do not know 99% of what's told here.

Unfortunately, this is available only in German and Japanese subtitles (transcripts) now,  but it should still be worth uploading for further spreading the truth which the world should be aware of.

I hope to add English translation later.  (This inconvenience is part of what the global nuclear industry is successfully achieving i.e., making things local.)

Some of the speakers (interviewees) do speak English, and I hope it'll help your understanding.



Monday, 14 March 2011

Leaging Tokyo for Kobe without knowing what was going on in Fukushima Daiichi Reactor #3


Cindy was killing time to visit Ueno and Ginza while I was still asleep - not just for Twitter, I was tired of checking travelling options.  Since it turned out that Cindy forgot to buy Japan Rail Pass in Singapore, and I didn't think buses (coaches) were good idea, I thought of buying seasonal coupon tickets called "Seishun Juhachi (i.e.18) Kippu".  However, it requires several transits taking some 10 hours of the route which Shinkansen, the bullet train would take only three hours, though the cost was about 15-20% (or 80-85% saving).

Because the tuner of FTTH line for the TV was still broken, I couldn't see any news other than Japanese channels.  And probably, I hardly switched on the TV, as I don't even remember the TV - all the free domestic channels kept broadcasting the chaos in Tokyo for the malicious rolling blackouts to deliberately trouble passengers of the subway and other private railroads.

I didn't know what was going on after 11am of this day.  Anyway, we left my flat around 3pm to get the train coupon tickets in Monzen-Nakacho, but for some reasons, we decided to make the final decision after arriving at Tokyo Station, which turned out to be good.  Local trains up to Atami were closed due to "blackout" with no forecast of resuming.

So, we decided to buy Shinkansen tickets and left Tokyo about 16 minutes before 4pm to get to Kobe early enough to have dinner my mother cooked right in time.

Cindy stayed with us for two nights and then continued travelling to Kyushu with the coupon + night buses.  She posted the final piece of the 5-series coupon and the Suica prepaid card from Narita.  The stamps with place names and dates, I learned she spent the final three nights in the night buses, spending just half day in Tokyo and depart from Narita in the 20th afternoon.

I had not decided yet how long to stay with my parents.  I wanted to go back to Tokyo as early as possible, but at the same time, I was tired and more scared of non-stop earthquakes.  In any event, I could do my job with my mother's pc as long as the Internet was available.

I eventually left Kobe back to Tokyo on 24th.

Till later, I didn't know how lucky I was for not being able to stay in Tokyo during these days.

 

Saturday, 12 March 2011

Emails exchanges with Cindy taken to Seoul

[backdated post written in April 2012 out of my digital logs]


I sent my email early in the morning and noticed Cindy's reply a few hours later.  I also noticed later that she had attempted to reach me by phone with all the numbers I gave (IP landphone, mobile, and a Skype Call number which I used to own).  Our email exchanges continued a lot after it was clear that Cindy had to stay another night in Seoul.  We didn't even know which Japanese Airport her flight would get to.


12-03-2012 06:25
Hi Cindy,

Hope you are okay.

I'm going to bed now - the aftershock was so long and many of us after all stuck to Twitter, etc.  Even Niigata and Nagano experienced Level 6 shaking.

I'm gonna clean my room and try to join you (I'm still thinking of Monday travelling).

Good night.  Enjoy your day in Nagoya.  It's worth spending your time too.
Keep my home phone number.

If any more disaster occurs, and the landline is cut off, my Skype number is 050-XXXX-XXXX. 
Chiho



12-03-2012 10:17
Hi Chiho,

So glad you are ok. Am actually in South Korea now. The plane got
diverted to Nagoya but they didn't let anyone off so we ended p in
Seoul's airport Incheon. United put us up in a hotel and will let us
know when we get to the airport again at noon what's going on.

Was waching the news and things look so chaotic even in Tokyo. I'm
just wondering if it is convenient to come to Japan at this time with
all the devastation. Just let me know otherwise ok.

I'll go look for a phone now as my phone doesn't seem to work.

ok talk to you soon :)

c


12-03-2012 12:56
Hi Cindy,

If you arrive at any Kansai airport, my mother is ready to have you stay (she dashed to clean up). 

In that case, I will give a direction from the nearest JR station.

If near Fukuoka, Kyushu, my twitter friend (used to be a hotel clerk) can give you lodging information.  She keeps Twitter on (works for a Yakitori shop from lunch time till late at night). 

I will take a nap again, but feel free to call (Sorry, I notice Skype call only when sitting at the pc).

Take care.
Chiho



PS  Sorry you called so many times in all the numbers.  I will take a nap now (was awake after all for replying, etc.) but keep the mobile near (instead of the bag!).  If you ever use Skype (not sure if you had acc), calling 050 is the unusually expensive unlike calling from normal landphone which treats 050 #s as friends.




12-03-2012 16:33

Hi Chiho,
 
Please thank your mom for making so much effort. Im actually still stuck in Seoul, will head out to look for food and a lookaround after this.
 
Seems like fllights to Tokyo Narita will resume tomorrow and I have a flight at noon, should get in about 2pm.Was thinking of making my way straight to Kyoto so maybe I will come by Mozen Nakachio to drop off your present from Cathy and pineapple tarts and head off...will you be joining me? Actually was thinking of asking you to come along as I don't think there is much difference in price for one or two persons right where accomodations are concerned. Let me know....
 
Ok am heading out to get some grub and have a short look around the city.
c
P.S. sorry I didn't manage to get sambal chilli in time but will send some over once I get back. 





12-03-2012 17:27
Hi Cindy,

Hope you enjoy Seoul - many Japanese women travel there for foods and beauty :).  Esp. since the Yon-sama boom.

So, you got JR Pass?  If so, you don't have to come to Monzen-Nakacho but can go straight to Tokyo Station by JR instead of Keisei Line.  If your luggage is as small as usual, there's a JR station called Ecchujima (only for local stops) between Maihama (for Disney Land) and Tokyo Station, which is 10min from my flat.

But because the land is still moving, if you head for the west, the early the better.  I still wonder how to catch up.   Unless you have a big plan there, you can stay in Kyoto.

I will think of joining you on Sunday instead of later... there are a few things to clear what to do here (the mess in the room with remaining danger & fresh prowns alive delivered suddenly yesterday :( :( :(... scared...) and what I can do in Kobe (tax return due on 16th - wondering if I really have to keep the deadline this time).

The other things are, if I go home, people I want to see are available only on Wed and Thu (eve).

But I think both you and I should get back to Tokyo by Friday (given it'll be already safer) or Saturday if you fly from Narita on 20th (Mon).

It's getting warmer, but still cold here.  Without gas, I'm thinking of going to the public bath nearby now... and get some more disposable heaters.   Some electric stations seem to have been hit, and energy supply by Tokyo Electric will be reduced tonight.

Will think of my schedule shift.

Btw, I just got a call from my parents.  Not much hassle other than making a space for our sleep.  They are ready if we (or even you alone) stay tomorrow night.

Bye for now.

ch



12-03-2012 17:27
Chiho,
 
Why don't you come with me and get away from the danger zone. I will be in Tokyo Sunday which is tomorrow. I will stop over at Monzen Nakachio and drop off Cathy's present as it is quite heavy, about one third the weight of my bag, you are right, my bag  is still quite small which helps with all the moving around. Do you need help with paying for the tax? How much would that be? Anyway, we will plan once I get there.
 
OK see you then, am finally coming to Japan after all, can't believe it after all that's happened.
c



We communicated like chat (not sure why we didn't use Skype this time).


12-03-2012 22:28
Anyways, I have been already preparing to join you no matter what.  I was going to go home this month anyway.  

Depending on the time of your arrival, it'll be better I carry Cathy's present (my  bag will be smaller than yours) and have it in Kobe or Kyoto.

If you give me your flight number once fixed, I can tell which is the better option for you (e.g., if it's late afternoon, I should be definitely ready, and maybe you should save every minute to get to JR Tokyo Station by Narita Express).  We can find e.o. either at Tokyo Station or anywhere in Kansai area.

Since you have the JR pass, you can visit Kyoto any time as excursion from my parents' place.  We can go straight there and take a rest first.  They are ready to have us any time. 

The construction of this building seems quite good compared to some others (steel wires in the wall in addition to steel pillars).  But only my flat out of the whole building seems to fail to get gas back.  I went to the public bath, which was on weekly holiday, and ended up taking a how nice shower at Jun's place.

See you tomorrow wherever it will be :)

ch


12-03-2012 22:33
Oh good, glad to hear you are coming along. My flight UA890 is suppose to arrive at 14:25 Terminal 1 Narita if all goes well. ok will take the Narita Express ;))) I haven't bought any of my tickets yet, which JR pass should I be getting? I can buy it from the airport right?
c


12-03-2012 22:59
Wow... I thought you already got the JR Pass in Singapore...  At least in the past, it was available only outside Japan (like Europass was), and we know very little about it.  I'm checking time tables on the web now.  You might be quicker to do it (JR Pass part for foreigners) unless you are too tired.

Other than JR Pass, people get tickets at the stations in the basement of Narita.  I think they gradually became accommodating for credit card users as well - you might be able to handle everything just with machines instead of going into the counter.

Make sure you buy the ticket just for two-way riding (乗車券 jousha-ken) and for Super Express (特急券 tockyu-ken).  The return (riding) tickets should be sold with a long-distant discount (at least 10%) for the return part to expire in one week or longer.

I try to pick you up in Tokyo Station.  We'll have to go up like climbing by 8 floors of one building to get to Shinkansen Platform :).

In any event, our arrival in Kansai is going to be too late to enjoy Kyoto.  Let's take a rest in Kobe tomorrow night.

Later.

chiho


Our communications went on, but anyway, Cindy was arriving in Monzen-Nakacho, Tokyo next day.

Friday, 11 March 2011

Cindy could not arrive in Narita due to earthquake

[backdated post written in April 2012 out of my digital logs]


I was vacuuming the floor under my pc desk when the earthquake hit Japan at about a quarter to 3pm on 11 March 2011.  My friend Cindy from Singapore was supposed to arrive in Narita at 3:25pm.  My tiny flat was still full of mess, and I was hurrying up to make it clean enough to have Cindy sleep in my bed.


Then the horrifying shaking reached my place.  My flat is on the 8th floor (7th if by the UK standard) out of 9 floors, which meant the structure was weak in the SRC building as the loosened regulation.  (During the 1.17 Kobe Earthquake, 7th-floor spaces were crashed without enduring the weight of the upper floors).


I had no idea what to protect first or where was the safest in the room, but decided to hold two tall steel bookshelves backing each other in front of and behind thin-glass sliding doors with wooden grids so that they could work as pillars if anything would fall from the upper floor.   (Normally the warning goes like "Keep from any heavy furniture and stay under a table to protect yourself", but I noticed in most of the small flats mainly for "bachelors", most furniture is not heavy enough to kill us, and tables are often too low or small to hide beneath them.)

The shaking was so intense and lasted long as I have never experienced even at the time of 1.17 Kobe Earthquake in 1995.  While the bookshelves kept moving making a V-shape from where I gripped, most books and things fell on the floor including my phone-fax machine.  The thin flat TV near the window also fell, and the printer on the top shelf of the pc desk fell on the bed.  


The kitchen and the bathroom were also in a complete mess.  The microwave fell on my dear antique English table then onto the floor.  The fridge was walking off the wall.  I had no idea of the magnitude of the earthquake, but briefly thought my life might end today.  My flat was exceptionally weak against east-west trembling unlike most other buildings.


After the quake calmed down in five minutes or so, I checked the land phone and TV to learn they were okay except that the tuner of the WiFi TV was broken, and I lost access to BBC and CNN.  I didn't know what this loss of the access to overseas media would mean yet.


I phoned my parents and told my father what was going on.  My landphone, btw, was not NTT, but FTTH IP Phone, starting with the 050 number instead of Tokyo's 03.  When many people couldn't use the phone (most by mobile), I had no problem.


Anyway, I thought Cindy's arrival was going to be very late if the flight will still land in Narita.  Cindy on the other hand was initially taken away to Nagoya Airport, and sent me a brief message at 18:25 borrowing some other passenger's notebook pc, saying she will keep me posted, but I haven't heard from her again this day.


Though I knew Tsunami hit the Tohoku region, because the information was limited, I stuck to Twitter, trying to help people in the central Tokyo who lost all the public transport and had to either stay or walk back home throughout the night.


Though the gas stopped temporarily (and the bulb couldn't be opened as I didn't remember the procedure whereas Tokyo Gas was closed for the weekend), I was lucky enough not to lose any other utility; electricity, water, the Internet access.


On Twitter, I was mainly distributing information to the commuters in the central Tokyo who had to walk home because almost all the public transportation was suspended due to the earthquake.


I still didn't know the whole picture of the 311 disaster yet, and had no idea how Fukushima Daiichi was going to affect my life.


The Japanese Twitter log is here.
http://q66p.blogspot.jp/2011/03/2011-03-11.html













Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Cindy wanting to head "NORTH" this time!!


[backdated post written in April 2012 out of my digital logs]
Everything began here when it comes to my escape from the 3/15 Tokyo Fallout (without knowing).


Though not written clearly, Cindy was planning to head for Tohoku at first.


08-Mar-2011 10:09
Hi Chiho,

Would love to see the cherry blossoms unfortunately my work schedule
doesn't allow me to be there during the cherry blossom time, and I got
a free ticket from going to Canada.... guess I could chase it down
south but this trip... was thinking of heading north by bus... to see
how far I can go. [added by ch: Later, this "north" turned out to be Tohoku region!!!]

Haven't planned anything though but I do have a few ideas. Hope you
are able to keep Friday free so that you could take me to that cheap
sashimi joint where a big plate of sashimi costs USD20-30. And would
like to go to the Fish Market on Sat morning... missed that the last
two occasions I was there.

After that, I would like to head out from Tokyo ;))) would love to
visit your mom and say hello to the one who has been making those
wonderful fish ;))) but don't want to inconvenience her.

My doctor actually recommended Gifu, Nagoya and Kamakura but think
these are places in the south right?

Anyways, so looking forward to my trip and seeing you again :)))
By the way, could you please give me directions to Monzhen Nakachio
from the airport again... sorry I keep forgetting.
Should arrive about 5pm I guess ;)))
see you soon!

c

08-Mar-2011 18:45
Hi Cindy,

Okay, understood you have to miss the season this time :).

Give me your flight details.  Now we have to make sure which airport you'll be using,
and how much time you have here.

You are talking about "buses"... does that mean you can't get a JR Pass?? 
Using several buses could be even more costly.

I don't understand what your "south" and "north" mean (coz the archipelago runs from west to east!).

If precisely going to North, it's Nikko where Carmen and I found the antique kimono shop.  
It takes about 3hours by train (some 3000yen two ways).

Gifu, Nagoya, and Kamakura are all between my hometown and Tokyo.

Kamakura is where Eugene's family enjoyed as a one-day trip from here.

Gifu is where Carmen wanted to enjoy more, but had to give up (due to sickness of her hus) here's their gorgeous lodging place -> http://www.ryokancollection.com/eng/wanosato/ryokan_story.htm?ryokan=wanosato
It's up north from either Nagoya or Osaka.  (If with JR Pass, it's also one-day trip area.)

Nagoya is between Tokyo and Osaka (the main stop if by Shinkansen)
it's Toyota's base and has Nagoya Castle, an interesting new airport, etc.
 
If you have a JR ticket (even if not with the super express extra), you can get off and back on
as often as possible during the same day if the direction is consistent between the departing station and the arriving station area.

(That said, it takes some 10 hours from Tokyo to Kobe :) by local trains.... though prices are almost the same as buses.  Buses would take longer but that is why usually only night coaches are available for long distances.

When I use Shinkansen, I usually buy a 10% discount return ticket. 

The greatest problem to me now is, I really have to try hard to sleep in the night and wake up in the morning!  (I have two more days to practice... to correct this terrible 12h-lagged unusual life... ).  When Tsukiji is likely too hard for me (I hope not), I can still give you directions as both Carmen and David easily found their ways.   There are more foreign visitors, and Carmen got good suggestion for her breakfast from one of such tourists.

Have fun with Cathy.  Send my best regards.
Waiting for your flight details (both ways) and answer about JR Pass.

chiho

************************************
08-Mar-2011 18:56
About the airport question, now Haneda Airport is open for major overseas airlines (from major airports including Changi and Toronto).

If you still use Narita, ignore JR entrance and go to Keisei Narita Station Airport.
Change at Katsutadai Station (to take a train at Toyo Katsutadai Station)

Here's the simulation:

http://world.jorudan.co.jp/norikae/cgi-bin/engkeyin.cgi



Norikae-Annai
Air line available:03/01/2011 To 04/30/2011
Jorudan co.,Ltd
Keisei-Narita To Monzennakacho Departure 7:10am Mar/11/2011
No.1 FastEasyAkeirono2 Low priceAkeirono3 EasyAkeirono4
On board for 68 minutes (Traveling for 76 minutes)
One-way fare:1,200 yen Distance:54.1 km

Train Info.Departs
Arrives
DistanceFareSeatExpress
Surcharge
Keisei-NaritaMap Hotel
Private RailroadKeisei Line
Rapid-Limited Express
03/11/2011
07:10am
07:31am
[21min.]
20.9km360yen
Katsutadai/Toyo-Katsutadai
Private RailroadToyokosoku
Commuter Rapid
07:37am
07:59am
[22min.]
16.2km610yen
Nishi-FunabashiDirect
SubwayTokyo-Metro Tozai Line
Commuter Rapid
08:01am
08:26am
[25min.]
17.0km230yen
MonzennakachoMap Hotel
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