Hello JCN friends and followers! I am skyping with Susan Roberts and Selena Hoy as they enter the 20 km zone with two other volunteers and 3 cars and will be liveblogging as the day progresses. Please visit this page for updates on what is going on!!!
9:41 am JST: JCN received permission to enter the 20 km zone on a one day pass for today, December 27th. They are only allowed 5 hours inside the zone (10 am - 3 pm). They have three addresses of natives who have been desperately hoping for months for their animals to be saved. In addition to visiting these locations, the JCN volunteers will be stopping to attempt to catch any animals that they see within the zone.
9:44 am JST: Right now 3 cars with 4 JCN volunteers are on their way to the check-in station. They will be arriving shortly before 10 am so that they can maximize their time within the zone. The cars are filled with food, traps, carriers, geiger counters, Tyvek suits and gumption! Please wish them luck here or at the Japan Cat Network facebook page
9:52 am JST: As the rescuers make their way to the entrance point please feel free to comment with words of encouragement on this post or at the Japan Cat Network facebook page. These will be passed on to them.
10:06 am JST: Follower Jim asks what the conditions of the roads are into the 20 km zone. Susan reports there is no ice or snow on the roads where they are but there is some snow on the sides of the road.
10:16 am JST: We are now also tweeting the events in the 20 km. Please check out our twitter here.
10:24 am JST: JCN team is now inside the 20 km zone!!!
10:38 am JST: 
10:43 am JST: 
11:11 am JST: They have been asked to report any ostrich sightings.
11:27 am JST: Awaiting updates from in the field, but as we wait I would like to pay a tribute to Selena. She is a radiation veteran having volunteered full time in Fukushima with Japan Cat Network since April of this year.
12:05 pm JST: One house has been checked in an unscheduled stop at the request of one of the JCN volunteers who had previously visited the house. The animals seem to have been removed by the owners!
12:29 pm JST: Currently the mission is stalled. Authorities have forced all JCN vehicles to return to the entrance at which they entered. Will post when we know more.
12:38 pm JST: They are now being forced to go all the way to hokenjo outside of the 20km. As always, our angel, Yuuko, the owner of Club LOHAS is working on getting this fixed. Not sure exactly what they want from JCN.
1:22 pm JST: News is that JCN was supposed to register with hokenjo before going into the 20km. However, were never told this by Namie town office even though JCN asked several times if there was anything further they needed to know. Seems there is little possibility of getting in again. They will focus on the animals that they see on the border. Have so far seen a corgie and a pack of dogs.
1:39 pm JST: Yuuko managed to convince the prefecture to let them in, but hokenjo still won’t give the go ahead. Not sure why animal control gets to dictate who goes into the 20 km, but we are feeling quite sick about the whole situation. Dozens of hours have been spent preparing for this mission. And now the time wasted sitting around trying to get them to listen to reason.
1:54 pm JST: Here’s the last word, they are heading back. From Susan “I had no idea that they [hokenjo] were in charge. Again…we went over the detailed plan at Namie, not at the prefecture, since we picked up the pass from Namie. We had to talk with them about what time we would leave Inawashiro, when we would arrive at the gate, when we would leave through the gate. This is when we asked if we had to go to Hokenjo first. They said no, only after. We said are you sure. They said yes. only after.”
The Japanese government has made it incredibly difficult for rescue groups to enter the 20 km. Our best hope is that they may reconsider and allow groups to enter at a later date. Hopefully other groups were able to rescue as many animals as possible.
