Posted by Jess
28 March 2011
I arrived back in Japan yesterday. Things so far do not seem much different than when we left two weeks ago. I spoke to one of the front desk staff at our apartment and she told me that our complex is pretty empty yet but that people are starting to come back very slowly. The common areas of our building is still dimly lit in order to conserve electricity, which reminds me to lean over and turn off the kitchen light while I write this. The front desk informed of two very important things - 1st, power outages/rolling blackouts have not impacted our ward yet, but they are not sure when/if it could so we should be ready and 2nd, there is bottled water available for sale from them.
After unpacking some things and starting to put the apartment back together (we had new carpet installed while we were away), I checked the news for the latest on food and water situations and headed to the grocery store. Many of you saw Jason's pictures from 2 weeks ago when he went to buy bottled water. I can say that it doesn't look much better now and the other shelves are pretty empty as well. Produce was readily available though. However since I can't read any of the signs, I don't know where its coming from so I'm not sure I want to buy it. I don't think the store would sell anything from the Fukushima area and I've never really worried about where it came from before, but when the government says "don't eat these 11 types of vegetables" I guess I'm just not going to buy it.
In the beverage section there were signs on the water shelves. I believe the signs said that there was a limit of how much you could buy (2 x 2L bottles at a time?) but I think that's a little funny because there were no bottles to be had. The 2L tea and soda section was empty as well, which as a diet pepsi/coke addict makes me a little nervous. But hey, there's millions of vending machines in this town so I'm sure I can find some. I took a few pictures with the iPhone - sorry for the quality, but it was also a little strange to stand in the store and take pictures of empty shelves! I bought a 2L of water from the front desk when I returned home.
The dairy section was also very empty as you can see here. I was able to get some milk and eggs, but there were signs on the milk and yogurt as well which again I think limited you to two per customer.
The meat and fish sections I didn't look at too closely, but you could see that there were some empty spots on the shelves. I'm not sure if this is a supply shortage issue since they are not bringing in food from 2 prefectures or if there is a supply route issue as trucks work to get into the city. I think its the first reason, but I'm not sure. I also took a look at the ramen/instant noodle section. People are definitely storing these up at home in case of emergency and I believe I can buy them at the front desk as well. It doesn't seem that prices are much more expensive than they were before, but its hard to tell as Jason did most of our grocery shopping before. I had heard in the past that there are laws about price gouging in Japan as well so I wonder if that's helping to keep prices down as well.
Our apartment building also has a board in the front that they've put up to tell the status of various forms of transportation every day.
On our entrance doors is also a sign saying that Japan is in a State of Emergency and that the building will be doing their part and they ask us to do the same.
The signs says a few different things.
Kanpai!
Jess
28 March 2011
I arrived back in Japan yesterday. Things so far do not seem much different than when we left two weeks ago. I spoke to one of the front desk staff at our apartment and she told me that our complex is pretty empty yet but that people are starting to come back very slowly. The common areas of our building is still dimly lit in order to conserve electricity, which reminds me to lean over and turn off the kitchen light while I write this. The front desk informed of two very important things - 1st, power outages/rolling blackouts have not impacted our ward yet, but they are not sure when/if it could so we should be ready and 2nd, there is bottled water available for sale from them.
After unpacking some things and starting to put the apartment back together (we had new carpet installed while we were away), I checked the news for the latest on food and water situations and headed to the grocery store. Many of you saw Jason's pictures from 2 weeks ago when he went to buy bottled water. I can say that it doesn't look much better now and the other shelves are pretty empty as well. Produce was readily available though. However since I can't read any of the signs, I don't know where its coming from so I'm not sure I want to buy it. I don't think the store would sell anything from the Fukushima area and I've never really worried about where it came from before, but when the government says "don't eat these 11 types of vegetables" I guess I'm just not going to buy it.
In the beverage section there were signs on the water shelves. I believe the signs said that there was a limit of how much you could buy (2 x 2L bottles at a time?) but I think that's a little funny because there were no bottles to be had. The 2L tea and soda section was empty as well, which as a diet pepsi/coke addict makes me a little nervous. But hey, there's millions of vending machines in this town so I'm sure I can find some. I took a few pictures with the iPhone - sorry for the quality, but it was also a little strange to stand in the store and take pictures of empty shelves! I bought a 2L of water from the front desk when I returned home.
The dairy section was also very empty as you can see here. I was able to get some milk and eggs, but there were signs on the milk and yogurt as well which again I think limited you to two per customer.
The meat and fish sections I didn't look at too closely, but you could see that there were some empty spots on the shelves. I'm not sure if this is a supply shortage issue since they are not bringing in food from 2 prefectures or if there is a supply route issue as trucks work to get into the city. I think its the first reason, but I'm not sure. I also took a look at the ramen/instant noodle section. People are definitely storing these up at home in case of emergency and I believe I can buy them at the front desk as well. It doesn't seem that prices are much more expensive than they were before, but its hard to tell as Jason did most of our grocery shopping before. I had heard in the past that there are laws about price gouging in Japan as well so I wonder if that's helping to keep prices down as well.
Our apartment building also has a board in the front that they've put up to tell the status of various forms of transportation every day.
On our entrance doors is also a sign saying that Japan is in a State of Emergency and that the building will be doing their part and they ask us to do the same.
The signs says a few different things.
- If we have blackouts, the water will not work (electricity works the pump) so keep the bathtub filled so that you can manually flush toilets and have water for washing if you need it.
- Save electricity - limit washer/dryer use, heat/air conditioning, dishwashers, lights
- Keep batteries handy for radios so that you can keep informed during power outages and keep a flashlight handy too.
- Don't lock security latches on outside doors or bathroom/bedroom doors inside the apartment
- Guest services will be at a reduced service level for a bit (house keeping, garbage pick-up, dry cleaning, etc)
- Don't monopolize internet bandwidth by streaming tv/radio
- No candles. Candles are great for no electricity, not so great for aftershocks since candles sliding off the tables starts fires.
Kanpai!
Jess
10:14 PM |
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1 comments
Comments (1)
It is so crazy to see the shelves so empty! Were you able to get what you needed?