Earthquake Diary 51

 Still walking through an area I have never visited before, I found this apartment building. I just love the name and wanted to show it to you - Walkers Hill Place. Isn't that a great name. It is on a narrow road on a steep hill, too.

 This picture shows why I and my colleagues will have jobs for the foreseeable future. Look at the red sign over the door. I can not figure out why people do not check a dictionary before they make signs - in the classroom it is difficult to get the students' noses out of their dictionary, but in real life, when they are needed, they never appear.

 I love this name, too, It is a barbershop named Hair's T. That name does strange things inside my brain.

 This is at Dainohara subway station. The buses are the free shuttle buses that are replacing the part of the subway line that is inoperable.

 This is the actual exit from the station. Some people who are usually in the bus depot on the upper level are here, selling fruit and vegetables.

 This is the Lawson's where Ian and I used to stop to get a sports drink during our Wednesday morning walks when we were preparing for the Ohenro Pilgrimage. It was closed and the windows covered with sheets of newspaper.

 I went in the convenience store on the opposite corner. I really wanted a drink, but this was the drinks section, completely empty.

The shelves were pretty empty too.

This morning after entering post number 50, my wife and I walked to Izumi Chuo to go shopping. We had a fairly long list and found every thing we wanted. In Ito Yokado the delicatessen section was still closed and the Macdonalds but all the other shops and the supermarket itself were open and well stocked. We also stopped at Selva and that was the same, well stocked.

The gasoline lines have just about disappeared and they will allow you to completely fill your tank, rather than limiting the purchase to six to ten liters.

Mail is being delivered but I do not think it is regular. Of course, it may just be that no one is sending up letters. However, I see few mail carriers around so I think that deliveries are being held up, particularly long distance mail.

I received a letter today. It announced that the Culture Center where I have been taking art lessons for the last five years is not going to reopen. There is too much damage and they apparently do not have the funds to make the repairs. One of the other students called and suggested that we find a location and hire the teacher on our own, so that we can continue the classes. I hope that it works out.

After returning from shopping and having lunch, I went out for a walk, trying to verify something that was in the newspaper and to see what the gas company was doing. Well, the gas company had holes all over the place. The next neighborhood looked like swiss cheese. At least that explains why it is taking so long for us to get gas again. From the looks it will be quite a bit long.

An article in the newspaper said that the sewerage plant that purified our sewerage was destroyed in the tsunami and they are worried about liquids backing up and coming out from under manhole covers. So they have decided to set up a temporary chemical cleansing facility and then, once the water is safe, to dump it in the Nanakita River. The facility was said to be under construction at the place where Nanakita and Yugai Rivers come together. Now, that place is within 500 meters of my apartment, so I went to see what they were doing. I could find no evidence of work or even of the surveying that was supposedly done. I started walking north along the bank of Yugai River and at the bridge over the main road I saw two men with a long tape measure checking the distance from a manhole to the river. That may be the surveying and construction that the newspaper mentioned.

As I was walking along the top of the levee, I passed a woman who was walking her dog. As I passed, she looked at me and said in Japanese, "Are you a fan of the Vegalta Soccer team?" I stopped and acknowledge that I was. She said that she thought she had seen me at the stadium many times.

One last thing for today. I mentioned the public services announcements on TV that say "Gambare! Nihon" Today I notice that they had changed. Now they say "Gambarou! Nihon". The difference is the original one is a command form, whereas the new one is a Let's .... form.