Just got a quick email from my friend who left Japan. She says Narita airport (the main international airport for Tokyo) was swamped but orderly and she got out without much trouble.

In one news report from one of the shelters in the disaster zone, the reporter made a brief mention that they are still meticulously sorting all the garbage at the shelter. In Japan, the lack of landfill space means that they must try to recycle as much as they can.

Municipalities differ in their recycling programs, and in some places, there is a boggling number of different kinds of categories you must separate your garbage into. The thought of these cold, hungry, scared, bewildered folks having the fortitude to carry on something like separating their garbage brings a little tear to my eye.