We were having dinner at Sushi Ota in San Diego when the earthquake occurred – although no one at the restaurant was aware of the news. We only found out about the news after turning on the TV at home.

We’ve visited Sendai, Hachinohe, and Matsushima in the past, but don’t know anyone living in that area. Sendai is quite a large city. Fortunately the most populous area is a few more kilometers inland than the area devastated by the tsunami. I’ve not heard about the impacts to Matsushima, which is a coastal town near Sendai.

Passing along what we’ve heard from around Tokyo…

First time I’ve felt a real danger to my life

I can see the Yurikagome elavated train tracks swaying like a swing from my office

Stuck at the office since all the trains and subways are stopped, might as well drink.

Subways are running again and will run through the night until there are no passengers, but the JR trains are not running – why?  (the reason is that if a subway derails due to rail damage, the damage is contained.  However for elevated trains overground, a derailment could cause larger damage such as falling to the ground below – so more care has to be taken to inspect all the tracks)

Cell and land line service is useless (Twitter seems to be the most reliable method)

Live streaming from TBS news and video library here http://www.youtube.com/user/tbsnewsi#p/u/3/-xOzYRdEPBE

Live streaming of NHK news (Japan’s BBC) here http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-gtv