I am busy catching up on the overnight news about the earthquake that hit the Tohoku region overnight (US time). It sounds like the numbers are bad for what people can even count in a crisis situation.
[Update 11:48am Ephrata time: Here is what Lisa Twaronite (Japan business reporter for Marketwatch had to say about how the quake has even disturbed things in bustling Tokyo.
If you have seen the epicenter on the map, it’s far north of Tokyo, and out into the Pacific someways. I think the major city that has been affected is Sendai; the pictures of the most dramatic damage are a town called Natori. Hachinohe–where I was stuck overnight in the train station back in 2005 for other reasons–also was impacted by the wave.
The figures have maybe 300 dead throughout Japan.]
[Update 11:53 am Ephrata time: the Six Mats blog, run by Sendai Ben, [someone in Sendai, but not Sendai Ben], is probably going to have some pictures up of the devastation around the Sendai coastline. I know the airport there got hit pretty bad. Sendai is a city of about 1,000,000 people, but spread out.]
Hoofin 