Welcome to the UK. Thanks for your intro post. I shall read avidly all you get up to and write about over the next year. --Julian

If news is "if it bleeds, it leads," then these uninteresting times are the ones I want to live in. --Julian

In your latest comprehensive, informative, entertaining post (as always, thanks for this), you mention an alleged consequence of the rise in value of the yen versus the euro: reduced prices in Japan for imported European cars. But in the Japan Times Yen for Living blog, Brasor and Tsubuku note that, counter to common sense, this hasn't happened. http://blog.japantimes.co.jp/yen-for-living/foreign-carmakers-dont-need-a-strong-yen-but-theyre-happy-to-have-it/ --Julian

Great to have you back and digesting the news for us. In the last paragraph, rather than this year's earthquake/tsunami, perhaps the Aum Shinrikyo subway attack is a closer psychological parallel for Japan. --Julian

Did you see this letter (http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/may/24/letters) to the Guardian Weekly by Martin Hawes? The last sentence gives me pause: people who hold a polarized position (in this case, absolute opposition to nuclear power) tend to exaggerate to bolster their position. For all my own negative ideas about nuclear, I believe that truth is better than half-truth in helping us decide how to best satisfy our future greed for energy. On the other hand, the picture Hawes paints of the situation at Fukushima is dire, and we should be aware of any truth in it. He says, rightly, that the media have lost interest. As one of the few people who continue to show an interest, I wondered if you had any comment on his reportage (e.g., "Clouds of radioactive iodine, caesium, xenon and other elements are streaming across the Pacific and raining down on... the entire northern hemisphere.") Would you say he's an anti-nuclear loony, or a voice of sanity in a sea of inertia? Or somewhere in the middle? --Julian