Tokyo sees steady exodus amid nuclear crisis

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-quake-foreign-exodus-20110320,0,3477960.story?page=2

Many Japanese are joining the move south, driven either by worry or a desire to get away from the discomforts in the capital. One woman standing at a railway station in Tokyo, waiting for a train to her parents' home in Kobe, 265 miles to the west, said the last straw was a 3 1/2- hour-long blackout Friday night that left her 4-year-old son screaming, "Turn on the light, turn on the light!"

Giving only her first name, Hiromi, the 36-year-old said electric power was restored within a week of the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, where she lived at the time. "This is worse," she said, because there's so much uncertainty.

Namiko Bando, 33, was bound for Kobe too — and also leaving behind her husband. Holding her 5-year-old girl's hand, Bando gently stroked the head of her infant son, wrapped around her body. "If it wasn't for the children, we'd stay," Bando said as her husband, who would remain in Tokyo for his job, saw them off.

Foreigners also worried about their families' health. At Haneda's domestic terminal, Urs Roesch said he'd seen enough for his instincts to urge him to get his family out of Tokyo. A few days ago, his wife and small child left for Kobe, and on Saturday, the 39-year-old was headed to stay with them for a few days.

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[Aerows]

1. I'd leave, too n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Yep.

Esp. if I had small children.