Blackout for Real!

March 18, 2011

It is almost 9:00 in the morning here.

Yesterday was quiet and uneventful here. Except I kept hearing the local announcements over the loud speakers. All Japanese small towns and villages have loud speakers to contact people. This comes from the days when people did not have phones like they do today, I suppose. We even have them in Kashiwa in my neighborhood. Mostly, it rings at 4:30 in the afternoon when all children have to go home. And believe me, they go home! Or I have heard them with announcements like this: "Have you seen a man about 80, dressed such and such, walking in your area? If you have seen him, please call the city office. He needs help and is lost."

Well, Hakone, being an mountainous area, the announcements overlap with echos. They were talking all day. I tried to listen, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it. In the past, when I could hear what they were saying, they were announcing the yearly wild boar hunt to reduce the numbers of these pests. I wondered if they MIGHT be talking about a blackout.... hmmmm....

In the morning, I made an old fashioned Japanese stew-like dish of chicken, konyaku, gobo (burdock), potatoes stir fried in a bit of sesame oil, then I added a konbu (kelp) stock, some soy sauce and miso and let it simmer slowly on the wood burning stove. I busied myself with some cleaning and washing and, of course, some beading. At 6:30, I made the final preparation for the stew. I didn't want rice, so I made some bifun noodles (which are rice noodles) and sat down to eat. The little wild cat that I befriended came and wanted something to eat, so I gave her some tuna. She catches mice too. I have seen her play with them. I then took my food to the sofa and I was about to put a spoonful in my mouth, when the whole house went black, BANG. I looked outside and the street lights were off. My eyes were not adjusted, but slowly they did adjust.

I took my two bowls into the kitchen and sat by the security lights. We use Alsok for our security and their system runs on batteries as well as electricity. The panel lit up the kitchen with their red and green lights - cheerful, like Christmas. I ate my dinner, thinking, "what in the heck am I going to do?" After gulping down the meal, I sat by the fire for a while with its soft red glow. Then I went to the sofa and looked outside. The moon was out and it was clear. Outside was actually brighter than inside.

Twenty minutes later, ........ ....... ...... and ...... ..... bored, bored. :-) boring, boring! And then I thought, oh, email, lets see if email works. .... and it did. I started sending emails to Ken, Sawada san, Igarashi san, my friends in Kashiwa. It was fun getting answers back. Ken was in a bar in downtown Tokyo and he sent me photos of what he was eating and drinking. Ah, the time is flying, this is fun......about an hour had passed. I was about the answer another round of email, when my PHONE WENT DEAD. The battery ran down. Oh, I thought walking to kitchen, I'll just plug it in,.... no wait, I can't do that. Isolated again.

Oh well, I sat on the sofa and put a couple of blankets around me and lay down, looking outside. It was spooky. I didn't really want to look at the windows because I might see a boogie man....--not that I believe in the boogie man -- but it was spooky feeling. Do any of you remember that Twilight Zone show where a man on an airplane sees a gremlin trying to break the wings of the plane. He closes his window, but then he takes a quick peak out, and when he opens the window, the gremlin has his face pressed to the glass - with an ugly grin. It is a real shocker. I kept half thinking I might see him..... .....But, I dozed off and suddenly, the room was light and the TV came back on. Three hours hand passed - in total. I got some tea and just went on with my life.... I watched the news for a while and then "Damages" - gosh, that is a mean show.

This morning, I heard them talking outside, again. So I called the city office and explained that I could not hear what was being announced. They apologized and told me that the next blackout will be from 4:00 to 7:00 this time. I don't really feel like going out to look for candles because of the panic buying that has been going on. I am sure there are none.... but I may take a quick drive to our local "home center" as they are called and see if there are any candles. I bet there are none to be hand....

The US Embassy has been offering flights to other Asian countries. Many language teachers in Tohoku have been told to leave by their Embassies. Some countries are sending airplanes. One Japanese man married to a woman from the UK, in my group, told his wife that he could not get her tickets to the UK. This was the first time she had heard about it. She did not know he was so worried. Since he could not get tickets, he urged her to pack some bags, take the kids, and to get on a train, go to Kyushu, which is near to Taiwan, get a ferry out and go to Singapore!!!! She was shocked! One young American mother left Thursday and said later via email that the flight was filled with families with young children......

For right now, I will be staying in Hakone. I wouldn't want to leave Ken, although he is old enough to take care of himself. Next week, Takao has a business trip and will be away. I'll just stay here.

Saitama Pref, which acts as a bed town for Tokyo commuters, as opened up its soccer stadium to people from Fukushima, who live near the nuclear plants. It is filling up. They are providing food, sleeping blankets, counseling, communication etc. etc.

Yesterday morning, there was an interesting news story:
Japan has not accepted any flights or help from any US ships at sea as of yet. But, one lone helicopter landed in one village filled to the brim with food. The mayor of the town was so happy because they had little food. The pilot and crew said, "hey, this is food for ya'll" and when unloaded they flew off. The story made all the news shows in the evening. There happened to be a camera crew there to document it all.

Also, they know about the bad press that the nuclear plant and its aftermath is getting. They showed the US official saying that Americans should be more than 50 miles from the plants. They showed the newspaper headlines from around the world.

Right now, the big story is, "why is there no looting in Japan". I can't imagine looting in Japan. Especially in Tohoku. Small towns, everybody knows everybody. And anyway, store owners are bringing all their food to the rescue centers and giving it to people anyway. Japanese believe strongly that you share the good times, but more importantly, you share the bad times, too. That is why people in Tokyo are not mad about the blackouts, because the people in Tohoku need help. (They, of course, expect Tokyo Electric to be punished for its incompetency. That is not allowed.)