Earthquake Diary 06

Thursday, March 17
Got up at 5:00 (about my usual time) and found it extremely cold with snow flurries. Had a breakfast of oatmeal with what will probably be the next to last serving of milk for a while, apple juice, a dried fruit bread from Bagel Bagel that was in the freezer, a plain donut, also from the freezer, plus a pot of coffee. While eating I watched the Situation Room on CNN.

After the rest of the family got up, we had a telephone call from Sayaka saying that her family was safe and that she was not coming to Sendai as planned but staying home with her husband and baby Gina in Yokohama. Her sister, who is in Sendai and in charge of a store, has been trying to get the store open again and has been sleeping there because her apartment is a wreck. We told Sayaka to tell her to come to our apartment and we could give her a good meal and a place to sleep.

Still worried about the nuclear reactors. My daughter does not want to go back to Tokyo in case there is an explosion while she is passing through the area, so she will stay with us until things are settled.

We are settling into our new lives. We have a bucket of river water and many bottles of drinking water in case the water goes out again. We have gas cartridges and candles in case the electricity goes out again.

I took a short trip outside to check on what the local stores were doing. They were all closed with no indication that they might open. One Japanese-style bar was apparently sell food because there was a line of about 20 people outside it. Also Kabo, the restaurant we ate at on Friday, had a sign saying that they would have box lunches starting at 1 p.m.  The three gas stations were closed, but there were lines of cars waiting for them to open. However, most of the cars did not have drivers and looked like they might have run out of gas while waiting.

My wife had some bank business that needed to be done (getting some money, for one thing) so she decided to see if it was open. After a short discussion, we decided that we would go to Kabo together and I would waiting in line, while she went to the bank and then come back to the line with me.

She was gone about half an hour and, when she returned, she reported that the bank had been open with almost no other customers, so she finished quickly. On the way back she had passed a cake shop, the one that I had been to a couple of days ago, so she stopped and bought some cakes.

While we were waiting in line I could see the Japanese-style bar that I mentioned above. As many of you know, most bars in Japan also serve food because the Japanese custom is to eat while you are drinking. For many business, this food becomes their evening meal when they stop at a bar with colleagues after work. There were still some people lined up but they soon went in and came out with plastic bags that were obviously full of food. After a while, two men came out from around back. They were each carrying a large box. The set them down and opened them, piling the content on the sidewalk. Then they used one of the boxes to make a hand-lettered sign. It said "bi-ru" in kana. This, of course, translates to English as 'beer'. While I stood there, they sold quite a few six packs. I could not see any price from where I was but I would bet that it was either normally priced or on sale.

At 1 p.m. Kabo opened and they were selling three different kinds of lunches: curry flavored fried chicken, scrambled eggs and shrimp, and some sort of fried noodles. All had a layer of rice on the bottom and had a spring roll in a separate package. The price was 500 yen each, much lower than you would normally expect to pay. They were rationing, two lunches for one person, so we bought four of them.

At home we felt like we were dining in style. Good, delicious Chinese food followed by cake and coffee. All this while outside the snow fell on the freezing ground. I really feel sorry for the people in the evacuation shelters along the coast. Most of them have no heat, little water, and less food.  Conditions are improving rapidly but some places are still really bad off, especial non-official shelters. Many people have stayed at temples and shrines or other public buildings and no one knows that they are there.

Today's newspaper had before and after aerial photographs of the town of Kessennuma. I was comparing them with my military trained eye and discovered a building in the after picture that was not in the before photo. It was at least two kilometers from the sea. All of a sudden I realized what it was - a large freighter that had been carried up from the port by the tsunami and deposited in what used to be a housing area.

It had started snowing while I was waiting in line at Kabo and a heavy-at-times snowfall continued until about 7 p.m. Also it is very cold tonight with the low expected to be around -5 degrees C. We spent the afternoon and evening watching TV and reading. I am almost finished with Northanger Abbey and will probably start on Tom Jones tomorrow or the next day. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of only 6 degrees C, so we will probably stay home again. Maybe we will find time and energy to get at the closet.

We are still having many aftershocks. There were two or three that were quite large by last month's standard. Today we just ignored them and went on with what we were doing.