The Coming Surge of Japanese Junk

The Harper's Index also has this item:

Estimated tons of debris from the Japanese earthquake headed for the West Coast of the United States: 5,000,000
Date by which the debris is expected to begin reaching shore: 10/1/2013

That came from this story from the University of Hawaii, which includes this nice animation of the expected debris track.

Another story gives a report from a Russian ship near the Midway Islands: “On September 22, in position 31042,21 N and 174045,21 E, we picked up on board the Japanese fishing boat. Radioactivity level – normal, we’ve measured it with the Geiger counter,” wrote Natalia Borodina, information and education mate of the Pallada. “At the approaches to the mentioned position (maybe 10 – 15 minutes before) we also sighted a TV set, fridge and a couple of other home appliances.”

A few days later they added, "we keep sighting everyday things like wooden boards, plastic bottles, buoys from fishing nets (small and big ones), an object resembling wash basin, drums, boots, other wastes. All these objects are floating by the ship.”

Free stuff! If a bit waterlogged.