Japan earthquake: English teacher 'finding life hard'

Workers at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have briefly had to leave the area to escape a sudden rise in radiation.

They've been trying to keep the power station cool to stop another explosion after white smoke was seen pouring out of one of the reactors.

They are now back on the site damaged by last week's earthquake but officials have warned people within 20-30km (12-19 miles) of the site to either leave the area or stay indoors.

Overnight buildings rocked in Tokyo as there was yet another strong aftershock.

Laura is 25 and teaches English in Yamagata, about 50 miles away from the power station.

She says it's been difficult keeping up with what's going on because of the language barrier and power cuts.

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"We're checking a lot of the foreign press. We're always checking the BBC website.

"The Japanese news, it's difficult for us because we don't speak fluent Japanese, so we can only follow so much.

"A lot of our friends are giving us as much information as they can but it keeps changing.

"At the moment, we feel relatively safe. We have information today that the wind is blowing to the east, so we're OK so far in Yamagata.

"A lot of people are starting to wear masks. The English school where I work, some students have cancelled [classes] because they're worried about going outside.

"Some younger people have been told, when they come back from school, to take showers.

'Quite scary'

"Our families are really worried. They want us to come home as soon as we can, which in a way we really want to but at the same time we've got all our friends, our jobs and apartment. Everything is here.

"We don't really just want to up and leave without any plan. But we're in constant contact with them to try and reassure them that we're OK.

"When it hit I was in work. I was on the third floor in my English school where I work.

"When it first came we thought it was just one of the small earthquakes that we've been having recently. But it kept getting bigger and bigger.

"It really started shaking. Everything came off the shelves.

"Then we decided to evacuate the building, so me and my co-workers all ran down to the main street and everyone had to evacuate all the buildings on that street as well.

'Huge queues'

"Right after it happened the power was off. The area that we live in, we lost power for two days.

"So we didn't have water or power or gas, so that was quite difficult.

"That also meant we couldn't get on to the internet to check any news, so that was quite scary.

"Since then, food's been OK in Yamagata but it's limited and also there's up to an hour wait at most supermarkets and what you can buy is limited. Also convenience stores are limiting to five items each.

"The main problem though in Yamagata is the petrol situation.

"Most people can't get petrol and the only way to get it is to sit in a queue.

"There are huge queues at every gas station and a lot of them are shutting down now. A lot of people are running out of petrol. That's the main problem at the moment."