A Fish Out of Water

How to Help

Here is a handy list of ways to help out. Thanks to The Tokyo Post (which also has an excellent collection of general information about the quake) for compiling it.

Quakocalypse

**Update: OK, maybe I am a teeny tiny bit worried. And also just plain tired of the aftershocks. I booked a ticket to Osaka, leave in 25 minutes. Stay safe everyone!

Updated Tuesday March 15th, 11:20**

 

It's now three days since the first quake struck. I'm fine and spending most of my time in front of the computer trying to make sense of all the information coming my way. I am now completely avoiding foreign media, except for the odd peek at the BBC, as it is just way too sensationalist. Fears of a nuclear apocalypse have been greatly exaggerated, and while I am a bit worried, I'm not even close to panicking. Nobody is, not in Tokyo anyway.

Yesterday, Sunday, we walked through the park on the way to shopping. It was full of people enjoying the beautiful weather. Families having picnics, kids practicing on their bikes and rollerskates, participants in a fun run cooling down. It was so weirdly normal. I kind of got the impression that people were going out of their way to be happy and normal, so as not to worry the kids. Which is exactly what's supposed to happen when kids are involved. Babies are a different story. Shuma has no clue what's going on, and if were to actually notice the tremors he'd probably love them. He's very happy with all the extra cuddling he's getting, and if things don't get back to normal he's going to be (even more) spoiled.

At Akachan Hompo (baby goods store) diapers were fully stocked. We bought one pack (all we could carry) and then headed to the supermarket to stock up on basics. Everything looked fairly normal, except that water and toilet paper were in low supply.

Hideaki left for work early this morning. He's supposed to be on evening shift this week but was asked to come in four and a half hours early. Hey, what's a little (gratis) overtime when thousands are dead? I've spent most of the day trying to figure out the rolling blackout schedule. I can only imagine how hard something like this is to plan, but the information has been confusing and constantly changing. It seems like my area has been spared for today though. I asked my landlady (who lives next door and came to check on me right after the first quake) if she knew anything and she seemed to not know what I was talking about. So obviously not everyone is worried about losing power.

And when I went out this morning it at first seemed to be business as usual. The usual oldies were in their places on the park benches. This lady was weeding and raking up leaves at the park. Construction workers on a few area sites were working as usual.

Flowers were announcing the arrival of spring, including this magnolia. Beyond it is a communications tower inside the local Jietai (Self Defence Forces, Japan's de-facto army) Base. The base itself seemed deserted- perhaps troops were mobilizing to head up north, or already there?

Then I got to the first stop on my shopping route, the 100 Yen Store. A line about 50 people deep snaked around the store, peoples baskets full of toilet paper, water, first aid supplies and other stuff. It was fun checking out peoples' baskets. Some folks had totally random stuff, like the girl with school supplies and a birthday card. Others had sensible things, like paper plates and cups (perfect for when the power and water is out) and chocolate wafers (just the kind of non-perishable, calorie-rich foodstuff I should have in my emergency kit) that made me wish I had them in my basket, but once I was in that line I wasn't giving up my spot.

They were using a third of their lights, and most other shops I saw were doing similarly conserving energy, but I didn't see any open shops that were completely dark and a few convenience stores were at full power. There are no pachinko parlours in my immediate neighborhood, so I couldn't do what one of my favourite tweets from yesterday instructed: "If you see a pachinko parlour open, throw a rock through their window".

All regular batteries were sold out. Just a few of the tiny ones, two of those rectangular ones, and a handful of AAA's (that were snatched up just after I took this).

At the drugstore, toilet paper was sold out.

So was water, although other drinks were well stocked. They were out of gas canisters for portable gas burners, which was what I most wanted to buy, but still had a few supplies so I joined the long line up. Amazingly they still had a few batteries, including the rechargeables I bought.

The next supermarket didn't have anything I wanted, and the lines were insane. At the next shop, a greengrocers, everyone was cheerful and extremely apologetic about not being fully stocked. A clerk brought out a flat of bread and didn't even bother displaying it, instead handing it out to people in line. The bread was gone in 15 seconds.

I like this greengrocers because it's cheap and the people are nice. They were always nice to me, and now they are nice to my baby. They were nice to my dad when he was here last year. They thanked him for coming to their little country. Here is more proof that they are nice: face masks going for 98 yen for a box of 50. This is incredibly cheap, and for an item that was in high demand (earthquakes can kick up a lot of dust, and power outages can create quite a stink). The opposite of price gouging.

My favourite supermarket was just as crowded as the other stores, but amazingly the lines were only two or three people deep. Every cash register was going, each manned by two cashiers- probably most of their workforce. Everything was neat and orderly, and except for the crowds and a few empty shelves (that's the bread section above) it seemed totally normal.

Today I bought: latex gloves, ginger cough drops, several packs of kombu (kelp) in crunchy snack form, a few packs of wakame seaweed in sour snack form, two bottles of green tea, paper cups, small plastic garbage bags, rechargable betteries, one large daikon, a bunch of bananas, a sports drink (I was thirsty and realized I hadn't eaten), a box of Ritz crackers, four bottles of nori no tsukudani (a paste made of nori seaweed simmered in soy sauce), a can of sardines, a tub of yogurt, two cartons of soy milk (they were sold out of real milk), a yummy lookong dip/paste made of miso, chili peppers and buckwheat, shiokombu (salted kelp), and tororo kombu (yet another form of kelp).

All the seaweed was for its iodine, to protect against radiation poisoning. Surprisingly all seaweed products were very well stocked, so it doesn't look like anyone's worried by the nuclear reactor troubles.

I didn't buy rice or bread, partly because I bought five kilograms of rice at Costco recently and a breadmaker just one day before the quake. And partly because if we lose power and stores close I want to eat as few nutritionless carbs as possible. But people were snatching up bread like crazy. And toilet paper. There's nothing that scares the Japanese more than the thought of going without toilet paper.

Here was my lunch today: sliced apple, buntan (a great big citrus fruit, this one given to me a few weeks ago by a student) segments, and toasted whole wheat bread (baked in my awesome new breadmaker) with butter and nori no tsukudani. That stuff is usually eaten with rice, but it's also really nice spread on toast. Kind of like Vegemite or Marmite, only with anti-radiation properties.

Earthquake

**Update: Just thought I'd check in and let you know we're still OK. Aftershocks are still coming but here in Tokyo they're very mild. We're well-stocked in anticipation of rolling blackouts, and happen to have a very good number of emergency evacuation shelters nearby if it comes to that. Somewhat concerned by the problems with the Fukushima nuclear reactors. We were planning to visit the in-laws in Osaka in about a week, and it's tempting to head there earlier to put a little extra distance between us and any possible radiation leaks.

Good English information can be found on the new blog The Tokyo Post.

Earthquake info in 27 languages: Multingual Twitter Feed.

(Updated on 9:15am Sunday, March 13th, Japan time)**

 

Just in case you were wondering, Shuma and I are OK. Have heard from Hideaki and in-laws and they're OK too, but with the trains in Tokyo down it looks like Hideaki will be spending the night at work. Which I'm sure his company will be delighted with.

The aftershocks are endless and terrifying, and I'm so tired of grabbing Shuma and heading to the door. But we're very lucky to have no damage and still have all utilities, I've heard lots of folks in Japan are without electricity.

Phone lines are jammed. It looks like Facebook, Twitter, and Skype are the way to go if you're trying to contact someone in Japan. People in Japan can get news here: Live News Feed for Japan Earthquake Updates via Al-Jazeera. Also, BBC has a live news feed.

Update: more good English info here: http://www.timeout.jp/en/tokyo/feature/2530/Japan-earthquake-live-report and really good updates here: http://gakuranman.com/great-tohoku-earthquake/

Happy Pancake Day/International Women's Day/Birthday!

On the phone with my parents this weekend, my Dad asked if I knew what was coming up this week. "Pancake Day?" I asked, enjoying the few seconds of silence as they tried to figure out if I was joking or not. I was, of course, because yesterday was my Mom's birthday.

But I'm rather proud of myself for remembering Shrove Tuesday, a holiday that isn't celebrated here in Japan so I tend to forget about. We did Breakfast For Dinner (actually Breakfast For Breakfast for Hideaki, who's on night shift), with pancakes and lazy strawberry compote (strawberries + sugar, mixed in the morning and left to sit all day). There was also bacon, and would have been eggs if I hadn't been overwhelmed by the amount of pancake batter I wound up with by following this recipe. I mean, just looking at the ingredient amounts I knew I was in for a big batch, but I was totally unprepared for the ridiculous amount of pancake batter I got. We ate until we were stuffed and then I filled the freezer with pancakes and there's still a bowl of the damned batter in the fridge to use in the next few days.

And what happens to old pancake batter? Will I end up with crepes? Won't be much different from these pancakes, which were much less fluffy than promised (not complaining- I like thin pancakes too, and these were very soft and light). I don't know what went wrong- did something get lost in translation when converting those ridiculous Imperial measurements into metric? Should I just admit that the homemade substitute is a pale imitation and stop using recipes that call for buttermilk?

Anyway. Happy Pancake Day, and Happy Birthday Mom, and also Happy Birthday Cuzzin Jen, Nephew Aaron, Friend Emi, and (oh shit who am I forgetting?) everyone else who has a birthday around now.

Also, speaking of holidays not celebrated in Japan, Happy International Women's Day!

 

Yuzawa

Last weekend was spent in Yuzawa, a town in Niigata known for its snow and onsens. It was a fun trip, but travelling with a baby is even harder than I thought it would be. And this is even taking into account the fact that Shuma was extremely well behaved- it's all the extra stuff you have to carry, all the careful planning, the lack of freedom and the effort involved in keeping a baby amused that made it hard. (And I know you experienced parents are all snorting and thinking 'yeah, wait until he's a toddler', but please let me wallow in self-pity for a while.)

We started by meeting my sister-in-law, her husband and daughter Marya, 5, and son Yuuki, 2 1/2 months, and taking the shinkansen (bullet train) together. This was the easiest part of the trip, since Shuma and I are already experienced shinkansen riders, having taken the bullet train to Osaka for new years. This time the ride was shorter and Hideaki was with us, so I got to relax and have an ekiben (train station lunchbox). In this case it was a special chirashizushi (sushi rice topped with decorative morsels) box for Hinamatsuri (Girls' Day), and it was so nice to eat something that didn't need to quickly be scarfed down with one hand. Snacks were chips, nitamago (boiled egg simmered in soy sauce) and (a sip of) beer.

Shuma behaved beautifully, and the ride went by quickly. The only downside was that we were in the bottom of a double-decker car so didn't get much of a view. But when we arrived at Echigo Yuzawa station it was hard to believe we'd been in the centre of Tokyo just an hour and fifteen minuted earlier. We were surrounded by mountains and everything was covered in about a metre of snow. If you could block out the town's ugly buildings, it was beautiful.

I'm not a skier, and Shuma probably isn't so good either, so we helped Hideaki get geared up (and when we saw how much his rental equipment and lift pass cost, we were glad we weren't joining him).

We spent the afternoon relaxing with hot chocolate, playing with the babies, watching kids pound mochi (sticky rice), and then of course eating the results.

During the trip Shuma had more naps than he'd had since he was a newborn. He always naps better when Hideaki is around (which drives me nuts- why can't he nap when it's just me and I have stuff to do?) but this was impressive. Here is Shuma during dinner- we were each able to take turns holding him while we took many, many trips to the hotel buffet.

We slept on futons and tatami, which was very nice and made me wish we had a tatami room at home- it's very baby friendly.

The next morning Hideaki skied some more and we went out to watch.

Can you guess which one's him?

The bottom of the hill was full of kids learning to ski, and there was a kid's play area that you had to pay to get in but it didn't look much fun for babies. So we watched Marya ski (her first time!) and played in the snow.

 

Of course Shuma fell asleep while we played. He was a bit underwhelmed by the snow- he loved looking at it but didn't have much of a reaction to grabbing it and eating it. And I guess his snowsuit was just too comfy for him to resist a nap.

And then it was time to go. And even though it all went smoothly and Shuma was mostly an angel, we were exhausted. Does travelling with a baby get easier with practice?

A few more pictures here.