Life Moves On

This will be the last daily update of this blog, as I'm confident that life has returned to normal, as normal as it could following such a disaster. I'm going back to work tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll be hearing sad stories of relatives and friends who were affected by the earthquake, but I'm happy the crisis is over.

I just wanted to leave you all with some notes about the media and clarify some truths:

-There is no radiation 'plume' that has reached Tokyo, though radiation levels are marginally higher than normal, totally nothing dangerous. 

-Some food including spinach has been found to be contaminated, but even if you ate nothing but that spinach every day for a year, it would still be harmless.

-People have been advised to wear masks outside in the rain and to use an umbrella as it may contain a smidgen of radiation. As a side note, pollen allergy is *very* common in March (I once taught a class of 5 students where everyone was sniffing from hayfever), so media pictures of the multitudes of mask-wearers in Tokyo is not a sign of radiation panic.

-The streets are not like 'ghost towns', life is pretty much back to normal. I am able to get orange juice, sandwiches and rice again!

-The British Embassy has been giving out iodine tablets to British citizens. Wheras I'm grateful that they are doing something to help, I feel it's uneccessary and just adds to fear-mongering.

Here is a link to the Journalist Wall of Shame, a publically updated list of news articles from around the world which are often exaggerated to epic proportions. The UK's the Sun features heavily. Here is my favourite *insane* article, written by a British woman living in the same area as myself: "My Nightmare Trapped in City of Ghosts"

Life Moves On

A full car and posing in masks

I've moved out of my apartment!! My boyfriend, as a belated birthday present, hired a car for the day and helped me move out. I was extremely grateful for that, as it turned out I had hoarded more stuff than I had realised! I've now moved to an area in South-West central Tokyo.

 My new place!

So as I said I won't be updating daily anymore, so this is me "signing out". 
Thank you for reading and for thinking of me through what was the longest and craziest week-and-a-half of my life!!

Day 10

I'm back in Tokyo, everything's fine. Started moving into my apartment. No time to update sorry!

Days 7 & 8 - Osaka

News: I've confirmed my apartment, I'll be moving in on Sunday March 20th!

Osaka's freezing, but without the paranoia of aftershocks, lack of food, power outages and power-conserving life is calm and sleep has been lovely and restful!!

 Famous landmarks in Osaka (the Glico man being a mini-version to pose with. The real one is 'off' to conserve electricity.)

 

 Fugu (blowfish) and a very serious-looking capybara

 

 

 

Touching a mini shark and posing with scary spider crabs

The Aftermath - Day 6

Edit: I've safely made it to a snowy Osaka as of Thurs 17th 1am GMT. The British Embassy is apparently warning british nationals to consider leaving Tokyo, but personally I think this is an overreaction. But food shortages weren't a great prospect, and it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

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 I don't have much time to update, as I have been packing up my apartment, but I had a lovely day today at Yoko's house, where we had a movie-fest.

Petrol seems to be in very short supply, but the supermarkets got a big restock last night. No essentials left, but I saw fruit, veggies, frozen stuff, snacks etc..!

Jen and I have decided to go to Osaka for 3 days. Osaka is about 500 km west of Tokyo, and I've never been there, so time for a little sightseeing while Tokyo calms down! As soon as I get back from Osaka, I'll be moving apartment. Unfortunately due to the disruptions, I haven't been able to confirm my room booking, but hopefully that'll sort out in the next few days!!

The Aftermath- Day 5

I worked today to finish a lot of the paperwork that had been left behind, but I've been given the rest of the week off until the 22nd. The media is telling me two things- the radiation will affect Tokyo and the radiation will not affect Tokyo. The power plant will 'melt down', or it won't.

So do I stay in Tokyo or do I go West?

The earthquake has come at a bad time, because I'm about to move out of my apartment (in 5 days), so I was already short on food when it hit.. I'm doing my best to ration what I have in the freezer and have a good supply of water in the fridge. The chocolates I was sent for my birthday are coming in handy now! I'd do anything for a bowl of cereal right now though..

Still got some frozen pizzas left.

Tokyo is trying to conserve electricity, so the stations were on dim lights, some stores are only half-lit and Aeon today was mostly dark except for the office where we worked all day.

This is my emergency bag, which I leave near the door in my apartment in case another big one hits. It has some clothes, train pass, DS, phone etc in it so I can just leave.

The Aftermath - Day 4

Spent most of the day napping and enduring more quakes today. In the evening I had dinner with my friend in Ikebukuro (the first time I'd taken a train since the earthquake), and here are some scenes:

People getting information at Nerima (left), and stranded by the closed Seibu express lines in Ikebukuro (right)

People watching the live news at Ikebukuro station (left), super-crowded local trains;
no express to get these commuters home in comfort (right)

Seiyu, my local and Wallmart-owned supermarket is my local source of food, and is always so reliable. I was *shocked* when I saw the state of it today compared to yesterday.

This is a long video as I take you around the empty aisles.

Seiyu has become an ice cream and liquor store!

Alcohol aplenty!! (left) Not going to get my 5-a-day in this condition (right)

I've never seen so many cars queueing for this petrol station near my apartment, there were tens of them waiting!

I'm back to work tomorrow but there will be no classes, just a day of catching up with the mounds of paperwork and class preppage. Let's hope my train is running!
Re: the scheduled rolling electricity blackouts, my city, Nerima is not scheduled for any, and luckily neither is Aeon. However, some students are affected, and a city my subway travels through is affected, so I don't know what impact they will have on me.
But my gas is back on, and I have running water, so I'm fine!

The Aftermath- Days 2 and 3

I spent the first 24 hours after the 'big one' alone in my apartment, I was relieved when I finally got in contact with everyone I knew, and the phone lines became less clogged.

It was so hard to relax, the paranoia coming from the news, the aftershocks coming every 5 minutes or so, but I was very greatful for the contact and support everyone gave through facebook and other means.

Here's a demonstration of a little aftershock, smaller than the one I experienced in Nottingham in 2008:

 

 No, I haven't put away my christmas tree yet

People have been mass-buying food and as a result, the supermarket and convenience store shelves are empty, like a scene from an apocalyptic movie!

No bread, meat or rice.

A novel shower method; no hot water.

Today I finally got out of the house, and had a picnic with some friends under plum blossom trees.

Aeon was closed Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but I will be going to my Japanese school on Monday for my classes.  Looks like Tokyo's starting to get back to normal.

Just to make sure my family have some perspective, Sendai (the closest city to the epicentre) and the nuclear plants are far north of Tokyo, so the tsunami pictures you're seeing were taken far from Tokyo.

Source: BBC

The next issue over the coming days will be the 3-hour scheduled power outages in Tokyo to conserve electricity. I have two torches, and I'll make sure it's a productive time. Let's hope it doesn't affect Aeon.

All Shaken Up..

I'm sure the word has successfully been passed around, but I'm safe and sound in Tokyo. Although the trains and phones and text messaging services are down, the internet is thankfully still going so I can contact everyone.

I was at Aeon (work) at the time, it was 2.45pm when I felt an earthquake. Not particularly crazy, and I'd already felt one 2 days earlier, so not shocking.
Actually before today, I liked earthquakes, they seemed 'novel' and 'exotic' and it's interesting to be reminded that the Earth is still moving and developing.

Unfortunately this particular earthquake was no normal one and quickly began to increase in intensity until we realised it was a 'big one' and at the same time instinctively ran outside, where other staff and customers had also piled out of nearby shops and restaurants.

I don't want to describe it in detail as not to scare you, but let me say it was very scary and the earthquake lasted several minutes.

Here is a video I took during the first after-shock, which would have been about 5 in magnitude.

By the way 'yabai' means 'oh crap'

Some photos:

 A little damage to Aeon, and we were forced to close.

 People strive to find our more information

We're okay but a little 'shaken up'!

It took me an hour to walk home from work, where I studied and contacted friends on facebook. Fortunately nothing in my apartment was broken, and my dishes survived!

If ever there was a way to cure me of my love of earthquakes, it would be the terror of the initial big one, followed by 'normal-sized ones' coming about every 5-10 minutes for the last 10 hours. These aftershocks are going to ensure that I get little sleep tonight. Nothing to do but 'ride it out', and hope people I haven't been able to contact, and students, are okay. With the trains down, I heard that my former coworker, Simon, walked home for 5 hours today, and my school friend Branwen is staying at her office tonight. I should count myself lucky to have been able to even get home!!

Love to all,

Clare