One of my friends asked about the gas/food shortages here--if they're as bad as the American media has been making them out to be. I don't know about gas shortages since neither Koko nor I drive here, but it's very likely.
People are leaving because they are freaked out by the earthquake, tsunami, or possible nuclear meltdown, or all of the above. I know two people in Tokyo who have have already left the country. Koko's American colleague (they're the only two non-Japanese here on this project) is talking about flying to Thailand to wait things out. It's a little scary. We are going to wait and see a bit before we make a decision. I think a rashly-made decision could be worse than no decision at all.
But what should be our measuring stick for "things are really bad; we need to leave NOW'? I am reminded of--I'm sorry that I am making this comparison, but--the hundreds of thousands of Jews and other people who stayed in Germany and other parts of Europe as the Nazis rose to power and started enacting laws against them. They stayed because they didn't think things were that bad, or that they weren't very bad yet. But when they wanted to leave, they had an enormously difficult time. Or, worse yet, they couldn't leave at all.
I am also reminded of the miles and miles of cars lined up at gas stations and on the highways as people were trying to leave the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. If everyone waits until the last minute to evacuate, how could we possibly all get out in time?
The government says it's going to give out potassium iodine pills to protect the thyroid glands in the event of radiation exposure. I know what had leaked out of the first nuclear reactor at Fukushima in one day was the equivalent amount of the safe levels for a person for an entire year. But that's if you're standing next to it. What if you're 20 miles away, or 100? And what effect would it have on you on those distances? How fast can it travel? There's a lot to read about.
I don't know how much of the media to believe. I hear people say that the Japanese media has been downplaying everything too much, perhaps not to cause panic. But on the flip side, their portrayal of the situation can leave a lot of people less prepared than they should be.
The food shortage rumors are true. Even down here, 200 miles from the epicenter of the quake and 150 miles from the nuclear reactors, food has been emptying from the shelves. Part of it is the survivalist mentality; the other part is preparation for scheduled blackouts, I think.
We noticed this the night of the quake at the convenience stores and thought maybe people were just getting ready-to-eat foods to eat on their long journey home. This was the Lawson near us on Saturday morning (the morning after the quake):
But when we went to two different supermarkets yesterday, we saw the same thing--empty shelves. The essential, readily-eaten or easily-cooked foods (bread, egg and non-perishable foods) were all sold out. What's left were junk food, bags of uncooked rice and noodles, sauce packets, pet food and the like. If things get bad and/or if people panic, I'm sure those will be gone too. Thank goodness we bought a bunch of food the other day. I'm not sure whether the stores are either continually getting emptied and/or they haven't been restocked because the delivery trucks haven't been able to come due to affected infrastructure.
I'm going to go out later and see if we can get more food and juice (it has more nutrients than water). The stores are also out of batteries (for flashlights, etc), so we're going to use my old cell phone for now. It has a pretty bright flashlight.
There are scheduled power outages for Tokyo, since some of the power generators were destroyed during the quake, although my ward (Minato-ku) is not on the list for today. We will be filling up the tub and pots with water to have water to drink and to flush the toilet. We won't be able to heat up anything because we have electric burners (it's times like this that I wish everything were running on solar and other forms of energy. It's also times like this that I want to give whoever thought extensive use of nuclear energy was a good idea a good swift kick in the pants. I'm sure no one feels that way more strongly than those people who live near those reactors.) The trains are on limited service. I'm not sure what that means for Tokyo, since they usually run something like every 1-5 minutes from 5 AM to midnight.
But I know it will mean that the trains will be *really* packed, especially around rush hour, which starts at 3 PM at some stations. And "packed" here means there is literally no space on the trains. Unlike in NY, where there is oftentimes still some space in the middle of the trains because people don't want to move, here in Japan, people move *all* the way in, and you end up being a lot closer to people than you'd like.
It's a good thing the trains announce in advance which side of the train's doors (left or right) will be opening for the upcoming stop, because you have to start making your way through, or you'll never be able to get off the train in time. And this is despite the fact that people on the ridiculously crowded train will step out to let you off (again, unlike in NY).
We have been advised by the SGI leaders here to have candles ready for the power outages, to keep our passports and other important documents by the door and ready to go in case we ever need to run out. We have already prepared a backpack with an extra set of clothes and some food and drink, but I think we'll need to get another backpack and split up the clothes, etc. That way, if we ever get separated, we can each still have food to eat and clean clothes to wear. Adopting this survivalist/bunker mentality is really strange for me. I almost feel like I'm a participant on that survival reality show "The Colony." Maybe I should find reruns and watch for tips.
We live close to a fire department (which also houses the ambulances), and usually, it's been...I don't know, slightly disturbing when they go by because in addition to the sirens, they also make announcements over their vehicles' speakers, which makes me think of air raids. But now, we hear them more often than before.
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