Japan Three Weeks On

The 9.0 Miyagi earthquake struck just over three weeks ago now. It's been a fairly uppy and downy three weeks, for want of a better expression. The death toll continues to rise and the situation is still dire for many people in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.

The atmosphere where I live has been tense but calm. Generally, people have done their best to carry on with life as normally as possible. I admit to being a little bit freaked out by radiation reports every now and again, mainly because I know nothing about radiation and quite literally wouldn't know a gamma ray if it hit me. I'm not glowing in the dark yet though, so I won't be using the iodine tablets the UK embassy has distributed to us "just in case of the worst case scenario" for the time being.

A friend of mine was supposed to be visiting me here over the last two weeks, but, unfortunately had to cancel, as much due to practicality of travelling at the moment as due to health concerns. I used some of the holiday and transport that we'd already booked to take long weekend trips/evacuations to Osaka and Kanazawa. A certain amount of panic stirred up by various media sources has led to quite a few foreigners leaving Japan, at least temporarily, but I am happy with my decision to stay. In Gunma, it's been a few weeks of empty petrol pumps, pretty bare supermarket shelves, scheduled power cuts, fairly hefty aftershocks and elevated (but perfectly safe) radiation levels (except for in our spinach and かき菜 kakina, a Japanese leafy vegetable thing to the left there whose existance I was not aware of, until its radiation became dangerous, so that has affected my life precisely 0%). How it gets into spinach and kakina but nothing else, I have no idea, but, I have asked and been told and failed to understand...I have learnt not to ask again. I do not care. End of.

Over the last week, however, radiation levels have dropped (maybe I will be able to try some kakina soon), aftershocks have significantally decreased, petrol is available if you are willing to queue and pay a month's wages for a tank, supermarket shelves are back to normal unless you want yoghurt, milk, or pot noodles (don't ask me why) and power cuts have been cancelled almost every day for the entire week and are also off tomorrow. People have been told to save power...some people and companies seem to be taking this advice much more seriously than others, (ie some of the train stations have their escalators off, others don't, some of the massive screens in Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo are off, but some aren't, some department stores seem to have one lift operating, whereas some seem to just have one token one shut), but, whatever we are doing, must be working, because there has been no need to carry out the scheduled cuts! The area of central Tokyo (the central 23 "wards," it's not a hospital, but for some reason the translation is "ward") is not having power cuts. To be honest, I think all the escalators and lifts except for one should be off in all department stores, because unless you have bad legs or something, if you really want something on the 8th floor enough, you can bloody well walk up and get it!! Especially if it will save some poor person in the countryside of Gunma having to go without lighting for 3 hours, but still, at least some effort is being made everywhere.

We are starting to get refugees arrive in my town. I will be teaching some of them next year I imagine (the school year starts in April in Japan, so, by next year, I mean next week). Some have moved into houses here and some are in one of the community centres. I will also be working the desk where people can drop off donations of clothing, blankets and dry/tinned food as the Board of Education representative one day next week. I've sent some other bits and bobs and have given some money to charity (there are people collecting EVERYWHERE and most shops, restaurants and schools seem to have collection boxes, which is lovely). I suppose I should think about doing more but I'm not allowed any time off in April and I'm a bit wary of going up there and just being a nuisance. I think they will need help for a long time, so maybe I can go later. It's nice that my town has taken some refugees though and from a selfish point of view, it certainly reassures me that where I am is safe from radiation!

In the mean time, I am getting through by treating myself to an obscene amount of chocolate and watching the NHK evening news reports with my new favourite person 青山祐子 あおやま ゆうこ Aoyama Yuko. She is so calm and trustworthy, and FAR braver than the wusses in the helmets, who just make me feel more scared.

The best newscaster ever.

The most chicken hard-hat newscaster ever.

Bottom line is, things here are safe, and touch wood, returning to normal. Things up north are still bad, so please give to charity or send things if you can! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!