7.4 Aftershock

Last night, as we were falling asleep, the room began to vibrate.  Then it juttered.  We followed our new emergency plan: rolling off the bed and pulling the mattress over us.  After several seconds of juttering, the swaying began.  The room--actually the whole northeastern region of Japan--swayed for about a minute.

When we got off the floor, the power was out.  Kelli and our neighbor went to check on some friends.  I filled our tub with water, filled water bottles, and turned off the gas.

We lost power for about 19 hours.  We didn't lose water, but parts of our town did.  This aftershock damaged our area much more than the main quake.  The bridges that suddenly had large bumps on either side after the big earthquake now had broken pavement on either end.  Part of the main highway collapsed with the hillside a few miles from our home.  The roads in some neighborhoods cracked open.  Some bridges are closed.

This aftershock worried us more too.  Will there be a tsunami?  Will Fukushima Daiichi get swamped or cracked?  If it did, how long will it take for the radiation to blow our direction?  There was no way of knowing without electricity.

After unwinding, we flopped our mattress back onto the bed and then we flopped onto the mattress.  Today we carried on as if everything was normal, except the power outage.  We taught classes and went to meetings.

When the power came on, we watched the news.

over 4 million homes are without power.  In Sendai, many homes got their gas reconnected two days ago, only to lose it again.  Many homes got water back yesterday, only to lose it again when the pumps lost power last night.  Just as things were coming back for many people, they were stolen away again.

Hokkaido, the large northern island was supplying a lot of electricity to our region via an undersea cable.  The cable lost power and they still don't know why.

Fishermen in Ishinomaki were discussing what to do with the thousands of pounds of fish that had been ready to vacuum package before the quake a month ago.  The fishermen will be payed to take the rotten fish 90km off the coast and dump it into the sea.

One woman in here 70s died from the aftershock yesterday when the blackout shut off her ventilator.  There was an oxygen bottle for emergency use in her room, but there was no sign that anyone had tried to use it.

The most shocking news was that many hospitals have few or no full time doctors.  Many doctors abandoned their posts and their patients after the quake. 

Some doctors are trying to help those hospitals by visiting on a rotating basis from their home hospitals.  One badly damaged hospital in Kesennuma is being run by the nurses, who refused to leave the patients.  The number cards for patients waiting for help are hand-written on cardboard.  The first floor was flooded by the tsunami, destroying CAT scanners, x-ray machines, and the computers with patient files.  The old paper files were caked with mud.  The hospital still doesn't have water.  Each day a delivery truck fills lined trash cans with water and the nurses carry them upstairs.  They are exhausted, physically and mentally, but they haven't quit.  And more patients keep coming.

And that was the news.

Things aren't good.  Sure, our area seems fine, but people all around us are suffering.  I've met people who lost neighbors and houses.  People are working hard and getting tired.

Just as you begin to feel comfortable again, the aftershocks start back up.  The USGS summary of aftershocks isn't very encouraging.  There are statistical patterns to aftershocks, but each quake and it's aftershocks are random.  All you can do is stay prepared and wait.

One preparation we can tackle is to get all the required tools and clothing to volunteer.  We'll get steel lined boots and water-proof gear and get ready to go.  We want to help.

Gas

I've waited in line for gas for three days, and I still haven't gotten any gas.  The main supply route--both trains and trucks--ran through Sendai.  All shipments to our area have been re-routed up the west coast through Akita and over the mountains.  The best mountain roads run into Morioka.  South of Morioka all of the mountain roads running to the west coast are narrow, often only one lane.  I would NOT want to drive a semi over one of those puppies.

Everyday some grocery stores are opened.  Everyday maybe one or two gas stations get fuel.  People wait in lines for hours for ten or twenty liters.  I've waited in line for three days.  The first day I was unprepared.  I didn't take water or a book.  The line was over a mile and a half long.  I waited an hour and moved less than 100 yards.  I gave up.

On day two, I took coffee, a snack, and a book.  I was about a quarter mile from the station when I pulled up at 6:40am, well before the station should open.  The line crept forward...far too slowly.  Then  a man walked by with his arms in an "X."  No gas. 

Today, I got in the wrong line.  No gas.

We are so lucky.  Some people I know only got power back yesterday.  Many people still don't have power or water.  Many people don't have homes.  Many people lost their families.  We're some of the fortunate ones.  We have food, gas to cook with, and water to drink.  Kerosene for heaters is harder to come by, but we have coats and wool socks.

Many people are panicked.  Several foreigners I know have broken contract and left with less than a day's notice.  People in the the US are getting information filtered through the media.  All you see is a burning nuclear reactor and the devastated coastal towns.  A few miles inland and the damage isn't so bad.  A nearby town was hit fairly hard.  A lot of the older buildings were damaged, but I haven't heard of anyone being hurt or killed.  If you have family in the area, please don't panic.  Ask them for an honest assessment of their situation.  As little as ten miles can make a huge impact on the situation someone is in here.  Keep calm, encourage your family and don't listen to CNN.  Go to BBC or NHK World or Japan Today.  Japan Today is up and down (I think their servers might be getting hit by rolling blackouts in Tokyo).


Our town had a few broken windows, but I didn't hear any reports of fires or collapsed buildings.  Now we just have to ride out the shortages and keep an eye on Fukushima.

With so little gas, there is very little traffic.  It begins to feel eerie.  Many students don't come to school because their parents don't have gas.  Pretty soon, a whole bunch of Toyotas and Mazdas are going to be very fancy pieces of sculpture.

It's hard to believe how much our modern world relies on gas.  Without gas for trucks, grocery stores are closed.  Without gas, workers can't get to work, so stores don't open.  Gas really is a corner stone of our economy.

Please don't worry about us.  Our area is relatively okay.  We're far enough away from Fukushima that a meltdown isn't really an imminent threat. 

I'm going to write a post soon about what I think is important for preparation before this sort of thing happens.  Stay tuned and thanks for keeping us in our thoughts and prayers.  So far, we're doing fine.

The Earthquake

Hey, everyone.  We're okay. It's 3:15 now, so don't consider this a news update.

Our area wasn't as hard hit as places as little as 20km south.  As soon as the quake hit, the power was out, so we didn't even know how bad things were.  Late Saturday night we saw newspaper pictures from the coast...

I'm sure to many of you, the names of Ofunato, Hachinohe, and others are just images or news videos of places with names that are hard to pronounce.  To us, those are places we've been, the homes of teachers' families.  I've fished in Ofunato.  The videos you see of a harbor surrounded by rubble are places I've driven through.

The video of Sendai airport's runway being flooded by a tsunami might seem terrible to see, but we landed on that runway.

In the time it has taken to write these few sentences, we've felt two more aftershocks, 48 hours after the first quake.  We have power and internet.  We never lost water.  Meanwhile, entire towns were being swept away.

Nuclear power plants are damaged and in danger of melting down.  Another strong aftershock could hit any time.  Right now life is a strange balance of routine and troubling potential.  We went to the grocery store to stock up on food in case we need it.  Part of me was interested to see what people had bought (there was no instant ramen or soup mix, but lots of cookies and chips were still on the shelves).  Iin the grocery store, ceiling tiles and a few lights had fallen.  The lady asked us if we had our point card.

I'm not sure what to write right now, and I'm pretty distracted, so I won't ramble.

If you are wondering how you can help, I would ask you to think of all the major disasters in the past decade.  This level of disaster doesn't get better with a one time donation or visit.  As you see what is happening in Japan, don't forget Haiti and Indonesia, where the government wasn't as well prepared.  There economies--and much more importantly--their people still need help.  Don't forget them.

As far as helping Japan, I have no idea.  I've seen Red Cross vehicles on the roads, so if you contact the American Red Cross, maybe they can help direct you.

Thank you for the concern and the prayers.

Kyoto: Heian Shrine

Heian Shrine was one of the most impressive temple complexes that we visited and we almost missed it!  It wasn't even on our radar, but there was a martial arts supply store that I wanted to visit, and the nearest landmark to tell to the taxi driver was Heian.  Boy, did we luck out. 

 

Notice the wire to keep birds out.

 

 

This large courtyard is completely surrounded by buildings.

 This lion fountain was to the left after entering the main gate.

 And the dragon was to the right.

 

Look at the embroidery on the banner.  The banner was about 18 inches wide by 30 yards long.

This giant torii gate stood outside the main gate.  About a quarter of a mile on the other side is where we celebrated New Year's Eve.

The temple also had a very large and famous garden, but we didn't go in because it was fairly expensive, we were cold, and we wanted to see (ok, maybe just I did) the samurai stuff.

I didn't take pictures but the swords were awesome.  There is a martial art called Iaido which uses swords as part of a physical exercise.  Those swords were made out of aluminum because real swords have to be registered as deadly weapons.  The store had some old, historical blades that were amazing to see.  

The store had a video about how Japanese samurai swords are made.  We sat down and watched the whole thing.  The process is long and intricate.  No wonder a real sword costs a few thousand dollars!  I'm sure my inlaws were bored way before I was, but I guess that just goes to show they aren't huge nerds.

Kyoto: The Imperial Palace Grounds

The Imperial Palace was closed when we visited.  You have to book tours in advance and they palace was going to be closed while we were there.  Bummer.  We still walked around the grounds.  Today they are a large park, but when the palace was still in use, the area was a wealthy district in the city.

All we really saw was the wall around the palace and the gates.  Thankfully, Japanese gates are worth stopping to look at.

The policeman below guarded this gate.  If you zoom in you can probably find some security cameras.  No, the cameras are not original, although I'm sure they would've helped some emperors sleep better.

 

 

The roof thatching is made of bark.  The time it must have taken to cut and shape all those strips of bark is amazing.  The woodwork, ceramic roof tiles, and gold leaf are amazing.  And this is just a side entrance!  We didn't even get to see the palace.

 This was the front gate.  Many of the old thatched roofs were covered in mold.  I wonder how long those roofs last before they have to be replaced.  You can see the tiny slats on the bottom of the roof.  Each one has to shaped to make those corners and to get the angle.  It is very detailed and precise work.

I'll post more pictures soon.  I'll try to make the posts build in interest.  I can't make any promises, but one of them might even have some video.

Back from Break

I just got back from Kyoto.  As a taste of pictures to come....

I've been looking for one of those...