With the civil war in Syria reaching the northern city of Aleppo, her home for more than 20 years, archaeologist Yayoi Yamazaki has been devoting her energy to creating a blog to convey the reality of the conflict based on the firsthand accounts of her friends still there.
"I want to write what I saw and what I have heard," Yamazaki, 54, said of her efforts to keep in contact with the friends she left behind.
Yamazaki, whose Syrian husband died in February, returned to Japan this year. In her Japanese blog, she writes that a friend persuaded her to leave, saying, "We are now in a state of emergency." She has since been unable to return to Aleppo.