No Large Exodus Outta Tokyo

Posted by Kyle Yates on March 17th, 2011

Reports from foreign news media tend to exaggerate the situation here in Japan. Reports of a mass exodus of people leaving the Tokyo area is far from the truth.

Sure there are people leaving. But on any given day people are leaving Tokyo. There are also people heading there to take aid and assistance.

As a matter of fact, two friends of mine and their two small children left Tokyo yesterday afternoon and made it down to Kyoto two hours faster than it took them to drive back to Tokyo this past January after the new year.

Pictures of snarled traffic jams and gas rationing tell horrific tales of an exodus. But in all reality, traffic jams are all over the place at any given time because of sudden fender-benders.

We have more friends still up in Tokyo than the number of those who have fled. Most people are staying put but keeping an eye on things in case of anything unimaginable happening.