Friday - Saturday April 29 - 30 A long day in transit but flights were on time, the San Francisco – Narita flight half empty (the flight attendants say a relatively common aftereffect of 3-11) and an easy train trip to Ueno where I’m staying tonight. In the first few weeks after the earthquake, there were major power disruptions and train schedules were chaotic. That seems to be over for the time being. I saw almost no signs of an earthquake en route from Narita to Tokyo. In Ueno, the main sign is numerous tables soliciting donations for relief efforts and lots of anti-nuclear paraphernalia (T-shirts, signs, buttons, satchels, etc.). Tomorrow I take the Shinkansen to Sendai to begin filed work in earnest. Normally I would have flown, but the tsunami caused major damage to Sendai’s airport and access is still limited.