Poseidon's Projects

Right now I’m in Ibaraki. I’m looking forward to Friday. This has become my last day of school. After Friday I will return to Tokyo and be home for a couple weeks for spring vacation. That way at least I will be in the same area as Kana. Also since I’ll have so much free time, I’ll be plenty bored and can wait in line for things like milk, eggs, and bread. FUN!

I’m sure the big news right now is the Nuclear Reactor Daiichi plant in Fukushima. Well there is bigger news than that. There are literally thousands of people without power, food, and water in the areas devastated by the tsunami. The temperatures have dropped substantially and basically it is like winter up there right now. They have been having snow and lots of really bad weather.

If you can, please talk about THAT instead of the reactors. We all know what is going to happen with the reactors. We still don’t know what will become of the thousands of people without homes stuck in abysmal conditions. I spent a night in their shoes and believe me, it is not pleasant. Once I get back home and have steady internet access I’ll start updating more regularly and I’ll be able to give reports about what it is like in Tokyo right now.

Woke up to sirens this morning. Not sure what is going on but off in the distance something is happening. It is 4:30 and I’m getting ready for work as usual. Going to be a crazy commute this morning I bet.

I checked the train schedules this morning and none of the trains I use are running. Which means that it is impossible to get to work. Contacted my company and was told to stay at home. This was around 5:30 am. I tried to get back to sleep but then I had a thought. The previous day people were lining up to buy gasoline so I thought maybe it might be a good idea to get in line and try to get some gasoline. Kana also wanted to try getting some gasoline so we went on a hunt. Unfortunately all the gas stands in the area were sold out or closed. We went back home. I started doing some preparations. I filled out bathtub with water. Did a couple loads of laundry. Prepared some instant oatmeal. Washed dishes. Then I got a phone call from Kana saying that the gasoline stands might be open because she saw one was starting to open up when she went to work. I walked down to the gasoline stand and there was already a huge line. There was an attendant at the end of the line and I asked him if they were open. He said yes. I hurried back to the apartment, grab a piggy bank filled with 500 yen coins, and then went to the car. When I got in line the attendant asked me “You want gasoline? Okay. You’re last.” I made it just in time. I filled up and then went home.

I was feeling tired so I took a nap.

Woken up by a call from Kana. Decided to do some grocery shopping. I wanted to bake something so Kana and I had something for breakfast. Went out and got some ingredients and came back home. Forgot to get heavy cream so I went back out and went to the local supermarket. There were lines going from the front of the store to the back and then wrapping around the sides of the store back to the front. There was no way I was going to wait in line so I left. As I was leaving they started a line just to get into the store. Apparently the building had reached maximum capacity as I was semi waiting in line.

I went back to the place where I got my cake ingredients and they had the heavy creme. There was a small line to wait. Got the creme and went home. Made the cake. Decided to go back out to try and find a polyurethane gas tank. No place had any. Then I talked to Kana on the phone and apparently how I wanted to use the gas tank is illegal. But instead I went back to that same supermarket and waited in line. They were letting fifty people in at a time. Went to the hardware section of the store and no gas tanks. Oh well. I did remember though I wanted to get some plastic water bottles. Bought two. Now I have 500ml of water on my at all times. Kana too.

It was getting late, around 5:30pm, and the schedule black out was supposed to happen in an hour. I hurried home to make some preparations for dinner. Kana came home. Then over the city loud speakers they announced they would not be doing the black out. All that preparation for nothing. Oh well.

We ate dinner and then went to bed early. I kept waking up all night worrying about getting in to work tomorrow or if I could even get into work. Kept checking the train company’s website for information. Around 3 in the morning I found out I might be able to make it into work. The train was only going to be running in the morning. Got up at 4:30, left at 5. Got to work at 8:30. Abut a half hour late. Oh well.

However, coming into work today means that I won’t be able to make it back home tonight. I’m going to be staying at my friend’s Kazuo’s place. He doesn’t have internet and the area tonight is scheduled for a blackout. Whether or not the power company actually decides to go through with the plan is unknown. Yesterday only a couple areas went into blackout in the evening. There were supposed to be blackouts all day. We shall see. I will have my phone with me and that should be able to get internet.

With the loss of the Nuclear Power Plants in Fukushima Prefecture, Tepco, the power company in charge of Eastern Japan’s power, and the government have decided to do area wide rolling black outs for three hours at a time. This is because they can’t meet the electricity demand.

I’m not sure I’ll be able to go to work tomorrow and I’m not sure if I will be able to come home. Neither is Kana.

The government is going to have to do this probably until the end of April. This is not just affecting people in Miyagi and Iwate Prefecture. This is now affecting pretty much everyone in Eastern Japan. We just heard over loud speakers in the city about the details of the black out for Choufu. I can now hear speakers out in the distance relaying the same kind of information for different cities and areas.

These are crazy times we live in.

On Friday the 11 around 2:30 I went to the post office to send money home. At 2:45 is when the quake hit Miyagi Prefecture. I was in Ibaraki Prefecture at the time. My distance from the epicenter of the Earthquake was 323 km (200 miles). Some time after that those of us in the post office started to feel the tremor.
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