Earthquake Diary 22

Tuesday, March 22 continued again
My wife and I started out for Izumi Chuo. We planned to stop at a supermarket and to see what else was open. However, at about half way we saw a sign on the Lawson 100 store, where everything costs 100 yen plus 5% tax. It was going to open in about 30 minutes and the line was short so got in it. When they opened, we entered to find most of the shelves empty, but there were a few things we wanted and there was no rationing.

After paying, we left and continued to Izumi Chuo, where we found that both supermarkets were open with medium length lines. We (another fairly big aftershock!) waited in line and eventually bought fresh vegetables and fruit, including a box of strawberries. We decided not to wait in the other line but to go back tomorrow. A store representative said that tomorrow they expected to sell meat. We think that it will be sausages and processed meat, but in any case it will be meat.

Conditions are rapidly improving. There are groups of workers all over, stopping to patch things up and then quickly moving on. When we left home, we walked by a high tension transmission tower and there were a group of workmen swarming over the base. When we came back they were gone, but all the cracks in the foundation had been repaired.

The trash is being collected. A man from the gas company came to our building and checked each apartment to be sure that there were no leaks. According to the paper, this is the first step in getting it flowing again. We saw taxis, more than before. We also saw a truck delivering gasoline.

Our newspaper is still only half size but it shows up every morning and has a lot of useful information in addition to some news. TV programs returned to more or less regular programming today and the public service announcements have been mostly replaced by the regular ads.

I have noticed one interesting thing. Except for the day when we first went to the supermarket in Izumi Chuo, I have not seen any foreigners. On that first day, we saw a young couple who were probably teachers at the local commercial language school, at least they looked like the kind of people that the school hires. Otherwise, it has been me and lots of Japanese.

People are still cooperating and being generally pleasant, although today I ran into the first ill-mannered person. We were in the supermarket looking at what was for sale and almost at the checkout. An elderly man and his wife were pushing and shoving so that they would not have to wait to see the few products line up just before the cash register. Once they had made a clear area, they just stood there looking at stuff and forcing everyone behind them to wait while they decided not to buy anything.