Will you temporarily stop purchasing Japanese Greens?

[Xell]

I really don´t know but if the core breach I think is credible. I only hope they aren´t going to hide information know. Last update on IAEA say the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains very serious.

That's my biggest concern here, Japanese government already was hiding a lot in the past or tried to hide things related to nature/food pollution. Only hope it's a lot more difficult to do it with this problem, since it's already public and difficult to hide anything.

[olivierco]

Today news say 10.000.000 times the permissible level.

TEPCO retracts radioactivity test result

Tokyo Electric Power Company has retracted its announcement that 10 million times the normal density of radioactive materials had been detected in water at the Number 2 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The utility says it will conduct another test of the leaked water at the reactor's turbine building.

The company said on Sunday evening that the data for iodine-134 announced earlier in the day was actually for another substance that has a longer half-life.

The plant operator said earlier on Sunday that 2.9 billion becquerels per cubic centimeter had been detected in the leaked water.

It said although the initial figure was wrong, the water still has a high level of radioactivity of 1,000 millisieverts per hour.

Sunday, March 27, 2011 22:02 +0900 (JST)

Source: NHK http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/27_24.html

[JBaymore]

.........IAEA say the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi plant remains very serious.

Well....... DUH! Of course it is very serious. This will be a "serious" situation for years to come. The seriousness of this event will never go away. But that does not mean that anything has significantly changed about it in a heavliy negative manner.

The news media is filling air (and print) time. Such "of course" statements quoted in the press do nothing to further accurate and important public information. When quoted in certain manners... they serve simply to inflame and scare.

best,

...........john

[JBaymore]

.......Japanese government already was hiding a lot in the past or tried to hide things........

I think it is pretty safe to say that every government everywhere tries to "hide things". Comes with the territory. Governments are run by polititians, and polititians are mostly focused on getting re-elected .

best,

............john

[Chip]

Kevin just posted on his forum (and facebook) ... interesting information. There are around 12 prefectures who have restrictions on shipping tea, etc. to the EU. Since he moved to Uji, no restrictions there.

http://www.o-cha.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.p ... 207#p10207

[Xell]

Kevin just posted on his forum (and facebook) ... interesting information. There are around 12 prefectures who have restrictions on shipping tea, etc. to the EU. Since he moved to Uji, no restrictions there.

http://www.o-cha.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.p ... 207#p10207

This getting worse and worse, i also got many questions about "radioactive tea" and then answers, how you can be sure etc Also i don't see this ending anytime soon.

[Chip]

Oh, forgot to mention, Kevin is open for business now in Uji.

[Chasm]

Oh, forgot to mention, Kevin is open for business now in Uji.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

[Kevangogh]

I wouldn't say there are "no" restrictions. Austria, Italy, and Thailand have been taken off of our list of countries we can sell to for the time being. A few countries here and there are making is too much of a pain to sell to, so we won't bother. Those two countries are insisting that any food item from Japan, no matter where it comes from, have a certificate from some Japanese authority (who?), etc, etc. Not going to deal with that. I think Thailand is outright banning Japanese food for the time being.

It's going to take some time for all of this to settle down...

[lkj23]

oh my god, very bad news. Possible partial fusion of the core number 2 (plus old fusion core 3). They are asking help to France.

Recomendation of exclusion area above 30km. In 40km levels of radioactivity are bad for health but government of Japan doesn´t say nothing Reconmendation exclusion area for 80km

[Xell]

oh my god, very bad news. Possible partial fusion of the core number 2 (plus old fusion core 3). They are asking help to France.

Recomendation of exclusion area above 30km. In 40km levels of radioactivity are bad for health but government of Japan doesn´t say nothing Reconmendation exclusion area for 80km

Saw same news from russian resources too, now everything is moving by worst case scenario. Possibility of high local contamination and need of concrete enclosure of nuclear power plant like in Chernobyl. Seems quite possible that quite big piece of land will be lost almost forever. But what they say, it's still not hopeless and maybe they can collect and properly store radioactive wastes.

[Chip]

But still in the context of the topic, I believe tea is safe to buy. I have heard nothing contrary.

Obviously it is not advisable to buy from vendors north of Tokyo, especially as you get closer to Fukushima. Uji is well south and west. Other regions are even further south.

This is not to say that you can buy blindly, but with reasonable precautions I think you can do so safely.

Life is a risk, we often take bigger health risks at the drive through of McD's, hopping in our cars, etc.

[lkj23]

I´m very pissed because much to my regret I don´t going to buy japasse tea now because I´m very concerned ( I didn´t know this online shops before discover this forum so I have never buy a very good quality tea) but we don´t know the origin of the tea in the markets in the next years so I don´t know if it´s better buy with precautions.

I´m going to keep waiting to see what happens.

[Chip]

I´m very pissed because much to my regret I don´t going to buy japasse tea now because I´m very concerned ( I didn´t know this online shops before discover this forum so I have never buy a very good quality tea) but we don´t know the origin of the tea in the markets in the next years so I don´t know if it´s better buy with precautions.

I´m going to keep waiting to see what happens.

Generally speaking, I think there will be greater risk to buy from tea shops than to buy online as online vendors know so much more about the origins, etc. of their teas than shop owners do.

Shop owners often deal with middlemen who may also deal with distridutors, etc. Til it gets to the tea shop, who knows where it has been or what it is made from. This has almost always been the case with tea shops in the west when it comes to Japanese teas.

A good nline vendor is tapped right into the sources of the teas they offer and are better able to assure safety, generally speaking. A very important factor is to know the reputation of who you are dealing with. I have a short list of vendors I am very confident in ... but the list is shorter now than it was a month ago!

[Chip]

I am about to buy some sencha from 1-2 online vendors. This is hedging my bets a bit since I would normally hold off buying til Shincha 2011 at this point.

But I am virtually out of sencha, and we really do not know what the future will hold. If the situation remains stable, great ... but it could get much worse somewhere down the road. Thus a purchase now seems prudent.

I am going to buy from O-Cha who has had a rough road and needs support! Basically they have had to pick up and leave their home/business in Fukushima, virtually refugees.

It is no secret that I have enjoyed their teas for years, and they were the first to offer Japanese teas online to the West ... and I have had so many enjoyable teas from them.

It is time to show support ... IMHO.