scheduled blackouts

Radiation has been leaked

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About two months have passed since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan. Finally, aftershocks have dwindled. Those atrocious scheduled blackouts have stopped being carried out so far. Food shortages were resolved.

Nevertheless, life is totally different from the one before the earthquake. Radiation has been leaked from the crippled nuclear power plants everyday and I can’t go outside as much as I like. At nighttime, stores and restaurants hold their signboard lights off and the streets have become dim. I don’t understand why they turn the lights off since the electricity consumption is low at night and electricity can’t be stored up for later use. As there’s no rational reason for that, I suspect they’re just promoting their gestures of trying to save on electricity. Their baseless savings of electricity make the whole town stale and depressed.

In Japan, people have consecutive holidays from the end of April to the first week of May, which is usually the lively, noisy and annoying time of year for me. But this year, the holidays were gone quietly. When I decided to move to the countryside, my biggest concern was if I adapt to living in a small town with sparse shops. But after the earthquake, ironically, the city I currently live in is as dark as the small town I’m moving to, and because my going out is limited due to radiation, the shopping experience here is nothing less than in a small town…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

Did our risk-taking pay off?

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I’ve written a note about how disturbing the loud noise that a neighbor kid made by shooting hoops on the street was, and dropped the note to the kid’s crazy family for four times. Nevertheless, he started it again and this time I consulted my partner as to what to do. He said he would visit the family to complain face to face and went out in the evening.

I began to be worried when he hadn’t come back after a while. I went out to see what happened but a hush fell over the crazy family’s house and there was no sign of my partner. An ominous feeling seized me. Did they come to blows and was he killed? Is he lying dead inside the house? Or, is he being carried away by the family’s car to be buried? I came back to my apartment after searching for him in the neighborhood and thought I could save him if I called the police right now. When I was about to make the call, he returned, safe and sound. According to him, the crazy family told him that they didn’t care that they let their kid play on a public road as if in their own yard, or that the noise annoyed the neighborhood. Because they had no concept of morality or legality, he left. Then, the kid’s father followed him cursing out loud. As the man acted like a crazy animal, my partner ignored him and detoured back after losing him. My partner could have been killed or imprisoned for assault by countering, for such a frivolous matter like this.

The noise of a bouncing ball stopped the next day, the day after and the day following. Did our risk-taking pay off? I have the feeling that the noise will return sooner or later…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

move out of this inconvenient life

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Since radiation leaked from the nuclear power plant and I refrained from going out, I’ve been consequently able to speed up my packing for a move to my new apartment. My strong wish to move out of this inconvenient life impelled me to pack eagerly without lingering.

But as the temperature has risen, the scheduled blackout hasn’t been carried out these days. Also, the amount of radioactive materials in water supply has declined drastically. I was beginning to feel that I could slow down packing when a kid of the crazy neighbor family resumed shooting hoops on the street. The family set up the basket facing the street so that the kid plays on the busy street between crammed houses. That’s why I call them crazy. The noise he makes by bouncing a ball is loud and extremely annoying. I’ve complained about the noise by a note several times. He stops playing each time, but starts again a couple of weeks later.

I was about to regain a comfortable life here and the noise began to disrupt my life. This must be another sign to move out quickly…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

the exploded nuclear power plant

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The contaminated water by radiation has been drained into the ocean from the exploded nuclear power plant. I consider that means I’d better not eat my favorite sushi. Even if seafood from waters there is safe, I don’t feel like eating it. Since the heat doesn’t dissipate radiation, I suspect safety of cooked seafood as well.

I usually get prepared foods at a supermarket for my meals and they often contain grilled salmon or fried fish. The labels describe the ingredients but not the detailed areas of the sources. Should I get prepared foods that don’t include seafood generally? But what about cooked vegetables, then? Their sources aren’t available for prepared foods. That leads me to get produce and seafood which source is clearly labeled and cook it by myself. It would be a new burden for me who doesn’t cook so much. I might as well eat prepared foods that may have ingredients with radioactive materials in them as cook safe food.

Either way, I’ve lost a worry-free, convenient life I had enjoyed until the earthquake…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

A dark and quiet floor of the supermarket with empty shelves

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After I had stayed inside my apartment for days to avoid radiation since the accident of the nuclear power plant, I had a need for shopping and went outside.

As the TV said, there were many empty shelves at the supermarket. Merchandise has been scarce everywhere around Tokyo since the earthquake because people bought up groceries, some of the vegetables got contaminated by radiation, some factories stopped operations and distribution was disrupted. On top of that, a shortage of electricity made the store turn off the signboard, about half of its lights inside and the music.

A dark and quiet floor of the supermarket with empty shelves was such a bleak sight. Shopping used to be great fun for me but now it just depressed me. Other shoppers also looked down. They walked somewhat unsteadily and bumped me probably because they were worn out from aftershocks, scheduled blackouts and a nuclear scare. Most of all, lack of discounted or sale goods deprived me of fun to shop. The store hours have been shortened that is so inconvenient.

It seems like a long time ago when the store shelves overflowed with merchandise and I often picked up and put back to the shelf what had literally tumbled down from it. I wonder how long it will take the shopping to return to what it used to be. Or, will it never be the same again forever…?

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

a new fear has arisen day after day

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The water supply got contaminated by a radioactive material which amount was above the intake limit for babies. A few days earlier, a dangerous level of radiation for overall intake had been detected on spinach from the areas near the exploded nuclear power plant.

Since the earthquake hit Japan, a new fear has arisen day after day. This time, the TV news showed a long line of people at stores, who came to buy bottled waters. The water in my town was also contaminated over the intake limit for babies temporarily, but now the amount of a radioactive material has dropped and the water is drinkable. I look up the readings of radiation for the area I live in on the Internet everyday and fluctuate between hope and despair.　Aftershocks and scheduled blackouts still continue. Worries and fuss that I had regularly had about a move to my new place seem so trivial now. Just surviving is fortunate enough. Being able to use electricity and water supply is fully grateful. For the first time, I found myself longing for cherry blossoms to bloom soon…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

the whole neighborhood falls silent as if people held their breath

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Because the earthquake damaged nuclear and thermal power plants alike and caused a serious power shortage, the scheduled blackout has been carried out in the suburbs of Tokyo.

 　　The place where I currently live is among the targets. The area is divided into groups and the electricity goes out in turn for three hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays. Depending on the turn, there are two three-hour blackouts a day. The other day, the power shortage became critical despite of the scheduled blackouts, and the government announced there might be an extensive sudden blackout around Tokyo anytime soon in the evening.

 　　The announcement came in the middle of speculation that the exploded nuclear power plant got out of control and that doubled my fear. To me, that night was the most frightening time since the earthquake. Fortunately, a sudden blackout didn’t happen. But the days of scheduled blackouts have been beyond my imagination enough. I had thought I lived in a civilized country until the earthquake and had taken electricity for granted. Hours without the power are horrible. Especially at nighttime, I experience total darkness. Houses, traffic lights and neon signs are all blacked out and the whole town is nothing but darkness. It’s much darker than I imagined.

 　　And somehow, the whole neighborhood falls silent as if people held their breath waiting for the electricity back on. I had never thought I would experience this living in Japan. And when the blackout is over and the light comes back on, I feel like I revived, jumping and shouting for joy each time. That’s been a kind of extreme happiness I had never felt before, but just temporary one. Tomorrow is another day for blackouts…

 

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total

The earthquake in Japan : next day

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Aftershocks continued throughout the next day of the earthquake. Because of lack of sleep, I spent the whole day with muddy-headed and of course, with fear. The situation developed on the third day when the power company abruptly began to talk about scheduled blackouts. They said they would make a formal announcement later. As they did so late at night, it was the next morning that I heard about it. They had also announced that the first blackout would start early in the morning and the water supply might stop as well.

 　　That sent me in a panic mode. To me, the news and the blackout came almost simultaneously. I rushed to prepare for it in a great hurry, shutting down my computers, securing water in plastic bottles and bundling up to stay in the cold room. I had never imagined a power outage was such a frightening thing. On top of that, the scheduled blackout will be carried out everyday from now on, with each of it three hours long, day and night.

 　　The TV news showed empty shelves of food and batteries at stores because people had hoarded them to stock up. Out of the window, I see a lengthy line of cars toward the gas station all day long. The worst time wasn’t in the shaking of the earthquake. Things are getting worse and worse afterward…

Episode From Surviving in Japan / Hidemi Woods

Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps. Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks,  43 available distributors in total