Bottles

The recycling truck must have been late that morning. LOL!

Downtown Utsunomiya

Stopped trains

during blackout

Something new

Some things fell down last week, and some things are being built.

Scheduled power outage

And it begins...

Please don't worry, we are very careful with the candles!


Also, I went to the store today, still pretty empty. They don't know when normal deliveries will resume.

Daily life after the quake

Closed gas stations, a monster line to a gas station that is open (gasoline is being rationed now), closed train station (still no train service here), closed restaurants and empty store shelves.

Two days after the Tohoku earthquake

For folks who got here via the Homsteading forum - this is NOT in Tokyo. I repeat - this is NOT in Tokyo. 
This is in a town called Utsunomiya, located 108 km NORTH of Tokyo.
The situation here has nothing to do with Tokyo, or people working in Tokyo, or being stuck in Tokyo and buying food in Tokyo.
(And that sort of mass misinformation is precisely why foreign media idiot reporters should stop interviewing people in Tokyo).

We went to the store today.

Mister commented "So this is what the Soviet Union must have been like, huh?"

There were some items left, but most of the essential were all gone.

Our rolling blackout schedule has been announced and not a candle or a battery can be found for purchase in Tochigi.

And here is what happened in Tochigi on March 11, 2011 - link.

And here is what my husband wrote on his blog - link.

After the quake

What you see on TV looks tragic, but the majority of the area where the Tohoku earthquake was felt, but where the tsunami didn't reach, did not sustain serious damage. And I really don't understand why foreign media outlets are so focused on interviewing people in Tokyo. It's quiet in Tokyo, nothing happens in Tokyo. It seems to me that Tokyo is the only place in Japan that some foreign reporters are familiar with.

We're not in Tokyo, we are about 110 km north of Tokyo, closer to the epicenter in Sendai. And this is what the average damage looked like here:

This one was taken during my commute home. Took me three bloody hours to drive about 19 kilometers, because most traffic lights were not working. And of course, as soon as I took that photo, my battery died.

Inside the house, there was broken glass:

and things were thrown all over the place:

There were also cracked walls and ceilings, but nothing major.

The real problem is that the highways are still closed and that there is no gasoline:

and the store shelves are pretty bare:

and the trains are still not running:

And that's the situation in Utsunomiya.


This is my Show Me Japan entry for this week.

Jizo statues

at Taiyoji Temple (台陽寺) in Utsunomiya city

This morning

snowing again...

If you need to leave in a hurry

from a multi-storey building, just follow the instructions below:

There are even English instructions for your convenience.

And the final step:

And out the window you go!


This is my entry for the weekly Show Me Japan meme.

Spring

It's here.

Hina Matsuri

celebrated on March 3rd.

Stormy sky

There was no storm, just the sky looking very fierce.