Earthquake Diary 56

 Thursday, April 7
 This morning my daughter's husband Hiro arrived from Kawasaki. He is going to stay for two days and then take my daughter and Tomo-chan back home. When he arrived his car was full of boxes of things that his family bought for us.  Large quantities of food, paper goods, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, and other stuff. It was very welcome, especially in such large quantities.

The return to normal is progressing rapidly. The subway is going to be repaired a month earlier that originally predicted. A large bookstore near here has a sign that they will reopen on Sunday morning. By this time next week, I think all the stores that are going to reopen will be back in business. Some are closing permanently because they do not have the funds to make the necessary repairs. The guide for our cable TV arrived yesterday, only a week late. Repairs are progressing rapidly, and the areas hit by the tsunami are being worked on but this will take much longer.

However, there are still few commercial ads on TV, lots of public service ads telling people that Japan is strong and can recover if everyone works together. Also the newspaper is still 12 pages rather than the usual 20+. Business is slow. For example new car sales have fallen by about 50%. Also fishing and farming is being badly damage by restrictions due to the nuclear problem.

The morning newspaper said that the seafloor near Sendai moved east. It moved 24 meters, the largest displacement on record. Also on land a bit north of Sendai there was a 5 meter eastward movement.

Returning to the pictures, the first is a look at the inside of the nikuman.

 This is a takubin truck, delivery service like UPS. Although service is not as extensive as it was before the quake, some things are now being delivered.

 This is Yaotome station from the west side. The road under the tracks is completely blocked off. However, there are no signs so cars start down the road and then have to stop and turn around. The interesting thing is that no one seems to get angry about it.

 This is one of the free shuttle buses that are replacing the ruined section of the subway.

 A little further toward Izumi Chuo, I crossed under the tracks. They were working on the place where the tracks enter the station building, the place with the scaffolding.

 This is a group of people waiting for the subway shuttle bus. An interesting cultural point; Japanese people tend to stand back out of the way when waiting like this. People from other countries would be concerned about protecting their position in line, but the Japanese are much less so. One reason is that the other people will automatically note your position and allow you you proper place. The are surprisingly few people who do not do this.




Thursday, April 7